There are many differences between British and American
English. Some of these differences are
have to do with vocabulary, such as the ones that I talk about in this blog
post: http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_9e3327ce010142q2.html. There are also some important differences in
the pronunciation of the two countries’ Englishes. An easy way to understand these differences
is by using a system called “The Wells Lexical Sets,” named after the linguist
John Wells, who created them. Wells’
sets group words based on the vowel sound they contain. For example the words “kit” and “ship” are in
the same lexical set, so people from the same region will usually pronounce
these words with the same vowel sound.
For Americans and Standard British speakers the “i” in these words is
pronounced /I/. Some words, however, will have different
pronunciations in England and America.
The word “lot,” for example, is pronounced /lɑt/ by Americans, whereas
British speakers will pronounce it as /lɒt/.
This link will take you to Wells’ entire list. “Gen Am” stands for “The General American Accent,” and “RP” stands for “Received Pronunciation,” which is a standard British accent: http://www.ic.arizona.edu/~anth383/lexicalsets.html.
For our purposes, it’s important to notice three of the differences on this page, as they are quite different in American and British speech.
1. As mentioned before, “lot” is pronounced /lɑt/ by Americans, whereas British speakers will pronounce it as /lɒt/.
2. The word “bath” is /bæθ/ in GenAm, and /bɑːθ/ in RP.
3. Finally, the word “goat” is pronounced /got/ in America, but is a diphthong, pronounced /gəʊt/ by the British.
There are also two consonantal differences that you should be aware of. In standard British English, many “r” sounds are dropped. Specifically, the “r” sounds at the ends of words and those that come after vowels disappear. Though in America the word “near” is pronounced /nɪɹ/, in England, it is pronounce as /nɪə/. Finally, in American English, “t” sounds often become “d” sounds. The rule for this is as follows:
“T” becomes “D” if BOTH of the following are true:
1. The “t” (or double “t”) is in an unstressed syllable.
2. The “t” (or double “t”) is surrounded by vowels.
So, the word “later” is pronounced /leɪdɚ/ because the stress is on the syllable “la” instead of “ter” and the “t” is surrounded by “a” and “e.”
This link will take you to Wells’ entire list. “Gen Am” stands for “The General American Accent,” and “RP” stands for “Received Pronunciation,” which is a standard British accent: http://www.ic.arizona.edu/~anth383/lexicalsets.html.
For our purposes, it’s important to notice three of the differences on this page, as they are quite different in American and British speech.
1. As mentioned before, “lot” is pronounced /lɑt/ by Americans, whereas British speakers will pronounce it as /lɒt/.
2. The word “bath” is /bæθ/ in GenAm, and /bɑːθ/ in RP.
3. Finally, the word “goat” is pronounced /got/ in America, but is a diphthong, pronounced /gəʊt/ by the British.
There are also two consonantal differences that you should be aware of. In standard British English, many “r” sounds are dropped. Specifically, the “r” sounds at the ends of words and those that come after vowels disappear. Though in America the word “near” is pronounced /nɪɹ/, in England, it is pronounce as /nɪə/. Finally, in American English, “t” sounds often become “d” sounds. The rule for this is as follows:
“T” becomes “D” if BOTH of the following are true:
1. The “t” (or double “t”) is in an unstressed syllable.
2. The “t” (or double “t”) is surrounded by vowels.
So, the word “later” is pronounced /leɪdɚ/ because the stress is on the syllable “la” instead of “ter” and the “t” is surrounded by “a” and “e.”