Varieties of English

Accents vs dialect

Languages have different accents, they are pronounced differently by people from different
geographical places, different social classes, from different ages and different educational
backgrounds. The word accent is often confused with dialect, a variety of a language that is
different from others not just in pronunciation but also in vocabulary, grammar and word order
(Roach, 2009). That is to say, differences of accents are pronunciation differences only as stated
by Fasold et. al. (2006, p.313), accent refers only to the phonological level of language.
According to Fasold et. al. (2006, p. 312) the term dialect is used to refer to an entire language
variety at the level of language patterns for example, phonology, grammar and lexicon. We have
to know the vocabularies, the grammatical structures and the meanings of a language to use it
properly. We also have to know what forms of language are appropriate for given situations. It
means that we will find in many dictionaries examples such as AmE for American English, BrE
for British English, RP for Receive Pronunciation, GA for General American, formal, informal,
polite and familiar. In other words, English language is, somehow, not a single language, it is
rather many languages each of which belongs to a particular geographical area or to a particular
kind of situation.

Received Pronunciation (RP)

According to Roach (2009) Received Pronunciation (RP) is the pronunciation we concentrate on

and use as our model because it is very recommended for foreign learners studying British
English (BrE). It is the accent used by most announcers and newsreaders on BBC
pronunciation. However, the meaning of the word ``received`` to mean ``accepted`` or
``approved`` is nowadays very rare because it makes feel like other accents would not be
acceptable or approved, that is why a preferable name is BBC pronunciation. It does not mean
that the BBC itself imposes an ``official`` accent because individual broadcasters all have their
own personal characteristics, Scottish, Welsh, Irish etc. That is to say, the English used in United
States is in a sense different from that used in Great Britain. The pronunciation of English is
North America is different from most accents found is Britain, the English used in formal written
communication is somehow different from that used in informal conversation.
General American (GA)

In many parts of the world, learners deal with English choice whether to learn American or
British English, American or a British Pronunciation. It is said that the majority of American
speakers of English have an accent that is often referred to as General American (GA), which is
the American accent most often heard on international radio and television networks, it is also
known as Network English. Accents in America different from GA are mainly found in New
England and in the deep south of the country. It means that, you can find accents in parts of
Britain that sound American, and accents in North America that sound British. But isolated rural
communities everywhere tend to preserve different accents. There is also a growing section of
American society whose native language is Spanish or who are children of Spanish speakers and
they speak English with a pronunciation influenced by Spanish (Roach 2009, p. 163).

American English (AmE) and British English (BrE) variations

One of the central facts about human language that strikes us right away is its immense
variability (Fasold at. al. 2006). English is spoken as a native language by nearly three hundred
million people, in the United States of America, Canada, Britain, Ireland, Australia, the
Caribbean, and many other places. According to Fasold at. al. (2006), if two varieties are very
similar linguistically and are mutually intelligible that is, if the speaker of one variety can
understand the speaker of the other and vice versa then they should count as dialects of a single
language. On the other hand, variety that are linguistically quite distinct and are not mutually
intelligible should be classified as separate languages. However, since the varieties of English
used in the Unites States and in Britain are the most important in terms of the population and
influence, they are the ones we shall distinguish in this assignment. There are several ways in
which the BrE and AmE are different: Lexical or vocabulary, accents, spelling and grammar
(Language Focus, 2018).

Lexical variation

Native speakers of either British or American English generally have little trouble to understand
each other´s speech, especially standard formal speech (Language Focus, 2018). But perhaps the
most noticeable differences between these two dialects are that of lexical one, that is, the many
different lexical items used in these varieties. For example,
BrE AmE

A lift An elevator

Lorry Truck

Rubbish Trash or garbage

Apartment Flat

Soccer Football

College University

Sweets Candy

Mad Angry

Film Movie

Pavement Sidewalk

Underground Subway

Trousers Pants
Phonological variation

According to Peter Roach (2009; p. 161), differences between accents are of two main sorts:
phonetics and phonology. Phonetics deal with speech sounds as physical objects that is, how are
speech sounds made, how many different speech sounds language use, how sound travel through
the air, how it is registered to the ears and how can we measure speech, in other words, phonetics
studies how speech sounds are made and perceived (Fasold et. al. 2006). Conversely, phonology
studies how languages organize sounds into different patterns, how language organize sounds to
distinguish different sounds, how sounds are organized into larger constituents such as syllables,
words and phrases, in other words, phonology studies how language organizes speech sounds into
a meaningful unit (Roach, 2009). Dialects differ from one another not only in terms of lexical
items but also in terms of their pronunciation systems.

One of the distinguished accent differences between BrE and AmE focus on BBC Pronunciation
and General American English. For example, r-sounds. In AmE r-sound is rhotic, which means
that a r-sounds are always pronounced clearly. Whereas, in BrE it is non-rhotic, which means
that the r-sound is not pronounced unless it is followed by a vowel sound (Language Focus,
2018). In addition, Peter Roach (2009; p.163) states that the most important difference between
GA and BBC is the distribution of the /r/ phoneme, GA being rhotic occurring in all position
including before consonants and at the end of utterance. Examples, in BBC car is pronounced
/ka:/ and cart as /ka:t/, more is pronounced as /mo:/ but, in GA it is pronounced has /ka:r/,
/ka:rt/ and more as /mo:r/.

The pronunciation of t-sound is also very different in BrE and in AmE. In American English
when the t-sound occurs at the end of a stressed syllable and in front of an unstressed one we
usually have what is called flapped /r/ in which the tip of the tongue makes very brief contact
with the alveolar ridge a sound similar to /r/ sound is produced. For example, in GA the words
butter, fighting, beautiful and water sound quite different in BBC because the t sound is
pronounced as a hard /t/ in other words, voiceless /t/ or flapped /r/ (Roach 2009).
Spelling variation

Varieties can also be differentiated from one another in terms of spelling. AmE and BrE spellings
are largely the same but there are a few notable differences. This in part because Noah Webster,
whom the Webster dictionary is named after. He tried to reform English spelling in the 1700s in
order to make the words spelled the way they sounded which resulted in some changes in AmE
(Language Focus, 2018). Most words that end in -re in BrE end in er in AmE, for instance, in
BrE words such as centre, theatre, metre, sombre are spelled center, theater, meter, somber in
AmE. Moreover, some words ending in –nce in BrE are spelled with –nse in AmE, for example,
in BrE words such as licence, defence, offence are spelled license, defense and offense.
Furthermore, words spelled with ou in BrE are spelled with o in AmE. For example, in BrE the
words colour, favour, honour and labour are spelled color, favor, honor and labor in AmE. The
ending –ise becomes –ize in the AmE. For example, BrE organise, apologise, specialise, become
organize, apologize, specialize in AmE. Further, words spelled with -ll in BrE is spelled with -l in
AmE, for example, BrE travell, travelling, travelled, cancell, cancelling and cancelled become
travel, traveling, traveled, cancel, canceling and canceled (Murphy, 2012).

Grammatical or Morphosyntactic variation

Varieties can also be differentiated from one another in terms of morphosyntactic variation or
grammar, how words are put together into sentences (Fasold et. al. 2006; p. 323). According to
Raymond Murphy (2012), there are a few grammatical differences between BrE and AmE.

BrE. The present perfect or past simple can be used for new or recent happenings. However, the
present perfect is more common in BrE.

E.g.: I´ve lost my key. Have you seen it?

NB. The past participle of get is got in BrE. E.g.: Your English has got much better.

AmE. The present perfect or past simple can be used for new or recent happenings. However, the
past simple is more common in AmE.

E.g.: I lost my key. Did you see it?

NB. The past participle of get is gotten in AmE. E.g.: Your English has gotten much better.

BrE. The present perfect or past simple can be used with just, already and yet. However, the
present perfect is more common in BrE.

E.g.: I´m not hungry. I´ve just had lunch.

What time is Selly leaving? She´s already left.

Have you finished your work yet?

AmE. The present perfect or past simple can be used with just, already and yet. However, the
past simple is more common in AmE.

E.g.: I´m not hungry. I just had lunch.

What time is Selly leaving? She already left.

Did you finish your work yet?

British speakers usually say:

Have a bath, have a shower, have a break, have a holiday.

Americans usually say:

Take a bath, take a shower, take a break, take a holiday.

In BrE, accommodation is usually uncountable.

E.g.: There isn´t enough accommodation.

In AmE, accommodation can be countable.

E.g.: There aren´t enough accommodations.

In BrE, nouns like government/team/family etc. can have a singular or plural verb.

E.g.: The team is/are playing well.

In AmE, nouns like government/team/family etc. take a singular verb.

E.g.: The team is playing well.

British speakers usually say:

At the weekend / at weekends

E.g.: Will you be here at the weekend?

Americans usually say:

On the weekend / on weekends

E.g.: Will you be here on the weekend?

References

Fasold, Ralph W. et. al. 2006. An Introduction to Language and Linguistics. First Edition.
Cambridge University Press.

Language Focus. (2018, September 15). How are British English and American English
Different? (video) https://youtu.be/NdJQdt3xkFQ?si=KwrE6Mle2bXG0Jla.
www.youtube.com/@langfocus

Murphy, R. 2012. English Grammar in Use. A self-study reference and practice book for
intermediate learners of English. Fourth Edition. Cambridge University Press.

Roach, P. 2009. English Phonetics and Phonology. A practical course. Fourth Edition.
Cambridge University Press.