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Latest post Thu, Feb 21 2008 5:30 AM by Anonymous. 11 replies.
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Liveinsea  +  451658 Mon, 10 Dec 07 02:20 PM

Is there a kind of pronunciation of American or British English, which could be described as standard?

If there is not, what kind of pronunciation is taught to the pupils in the U.S. or the U.K.?

If there is, where does it come from? Does it come from the native people in the U.S. or the U.K.? Or in other words, do some native people have the standard pronuciation, just the standard pronuciation?

Or the so-called standard pronunciation of English is invented and prescribed by some authorities (such as the government or some experts) according to the general pronuciation of most native people, with some modificatons? If it is so, who are the authorities? and what are the official documents concerned with the standard pronuciation made by these authorities?

Thanks a lot!

Joined on Tue, Mar 20 2007
New Member 30
Anonymous, 1 yr 333 days ago

Hi Liveinsea,

No authorities control the English language. There are standard varietes of spoken British and American English. The standard accent of British English is often referred to as 'Received Pronunciation' (RP), although this term may be slightly misleading and perhaps a bit outdated. Present day mainstream 'RP' is spoken by many educated English people from all parts of the country i.e. the accent is non-localisable. Within American English, 'General American' is usually considered standard. This variety is spoken by educated people in most parts of the United States with the exception of the South, New York, New England, and Canada.

Clive  +  451773 Mon, 10 Dec 07 09:15 PM

Hi,

This reads as if Canada is a part of the United States, although I'm sure you were not suggesting that. Big Smile [:D]

As you can see,some  Canadians are touchy about such matters.

Best wishes, Clive

Joined on Thu, Oct 28 2004
Canada
Veteran Member 29,298
El tango argentino es un pensamiento triste que se puede bailar (The tango argentino is a sad thought which can be danced) Enrique Santos Discépolo
Anonymous, 1 yr 332 days ago

Hi Clive,

My apologies for expressing myself in such a clumsy and inappropriate way. You probably noticed that I acknowledged your accent as being different from General American, so I guess all is not lost!

Clive  +  452201 Tue, 11 Dec 07 08:55 PM

Hi,

No prob. Big Smile [:D]

Clive

Liveinsea  +  452287 Wed, 12 Dec 07 05:00 AM

Thank you very much!

My another problem is that I have two dictionaries: LONGMAN Dictionary of Contemporary English (2005) and COLLINS COBUILD Essential English Dictionary (1988). The LONGMAN provides the British pronunciation while COLLINS COBUILD declared that it uses the Received Pronunciation, but I have found there some differences between the dictionaries in the pronunciations of the following words (the differences has been blued):

bed:   bed/(LONGMAN);    /bεd/(COLLINS)

actual:  /æktSuəl/(LONGMAN);  /æktS�əl/(COLLINS)

hair:   /heə/(LONGMAN);   /hεə/(COLLINS)

peculiar:  /pIkju:liə/(LONGMAN);    / pIkju:lIə/(COLLINS)

Is the British pronunciation different from the RP? If yes, then the different authorities provide different standards of pronunciation (here it means the ones provided by dictionaries) in U.K.? If not, then where do the differences come from? And why are there different standards? Or the pronunciation has changed over the past years?

Thank you very much!

 

Liveinsea  +  452289 Wed, 12 Dec 07 05:03 AM

Thank you very much!

My another problem is that I have two dictionaries: LONGMAN Dictionary of Contemporary English (2005) and COLLINS COBUILD Essential English Dictionary (1988). The LONGMAN provides the British pronunciation while COLLINS COBUILD declared that it uses the Received Pronunciation, but I have found there some differences between the dictionaries in the pronunciations of the following words (the differences has been blued):

bed:   bed/(LONGMAN);    /bεd/(COLLINS)

actual:  /æktSuəl/(LONGMAN);  /æktS�əl/(COLLINS)

hair:   /heə/(LONGMAN);   /hεə/(COLLINS)

peculiar:  /pIkju:liə/(LONGMAN);    / pIkju:lIə/(COLLINS)

Is the British pronunciation different from the RP? If yes, then the different authorities provide different standards of pronunciation (here it means the ones provided by dictionaries) in U.K.? If not, then where do the differences come from? And why are there different standards? Or the pronunciation has changed over the past years?

Thank you very much!

 

Liveinsea  +  452291 Wed, 12 Dec 07 05:06 AM

Sorry about the entry of IPA symbols which I am not familiar with! Also the attachment does not work.

Privateenglishportal  +  453824 Sun, 16 Dec 07 07:39 PM

Hi,

It has been my experience that students become lost when consulting dictionaries with regard to phonetic symbols as many times each one uses different phonetic symbols. This has caused much grief and I just tell my online students to stay away from it and try to spell the pronunciation out in English.

Example:

worked ( t)

played (d)

motivated (id)

Now this does become more complicated with vowel sounds and vowel sound combinations(dipthongs), but be creative!!!!!!

e.g. 'about' ( the ' ou ' is just the same as saying cow or now)

 If you intend to teach English or linguistics, then by all means please continue with the phonetics. If not, save yourself some time.

Regards,

Steve Ford

Online English Teacher

Private English Portal

Joined on Thu, Dec 6 2007
New Member 04
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