Differences in British and American Pronunciation of Personal Names

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Differences in British and American Pronunciation of Personal Names

Nataliia Bidasiuk, Candidate of Philological Sciences,

Associate Professor

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to find out and analyze differences in the pronunciation of personal names of famous people and expand the existing ideas about the phonetic dichotomy of British and American English.

The study starts with the description of the shift in the articulatory base in American English. The difference between the American pronunciation standard (GA (General American accent) / American Network English) and the British one (RP (Received Pronunciation) / BBC English) include a number of features: the British version is characterized by a strong adjunction of the consonant to the previous vowel, it has a predominance of closed syllables while American English is open-syllabic; in the American standard there is no very clear opposition between monophthongs and diphthongs as in the British version.

The analyzed examples of personal names demonstrate differences in the pronunciation of vowels, a change of a vowel into a diphthong or vice versa. As for the consonants, the presence of the rhotic accent in American English is one of the most noticeable pronunciation differences in personal names.

Introduction

Problem statement... Although it is well known that the English language has a number of variants, its British and American varieties are still more widely used and taught than any other. As for the prevalence and popularity of the British variant of the English language in the modern world, it is caused by the large-scale colonial policy of Great Britain from the 17th to the 19th centuries. However, gradually, in the course of world historical development, the center of economic activity moved from Great Britain to the United States. American English gained international importance after World War II as the United States began to play a significant part in the post-war world reconstruction, and its achievements in politics, economics, culture and modern technology enabled the US to exert a critical influence on the entire world.

The development of different varieties was not isolated, the interaction has continued for four centuries starting with the founding of the first English settlements in North America in 1607 and it is especially active in modern times as we live in the proverbial global village. That could be the reason why these varieties have not turned into different languages with time though prophets predicted such course of events. In 1877 the British philologist Henry Sweet said that within a century «England, America, and Australia will be speaking mutually unintelligible languages owing to their independent changes of pronunciation» [1, p. 196]. The same point had been made a hundred years before by Noah Webster in Dissertations: Webster thought that such a development would be «necessary and unavoidable», and would result in «a language in North America, as different from the future language of England, as the modern Dutch, Danish and Swedish are from the German, or from one another» [2, p. 177]. As we can see it now the predictions did not come true and the language in the UK, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand is still the good old English. At the same time there are numerous differences between these varieties in terms of vocabulary, grammar, or spelling. But the differences in pronunciation are remarkably the most outstanding.

Literature review... Phonetic differences between British and American English have been the object of research for many scientists. A professor from Sofia University, Bulgaria, Snezhina Dimitrova studies the accents of General American English (GA) and Received Pronunciation of Britain (RP) namely the differences between their vowels, diphthongs, consonants, stress and provides a number of exercises teaching to differentiate the two variants [3]. Thomas Pyles and John Alegeo explain the main differences between two national dialects: British and American: pronunciation and spelling [4]. British linguist Laurie Bauer discusses the vocabulary and grammar differences in English spoken in Britain, the U.S.A., Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and the Falkland Islands. The book shows how the major national varieties have developed and in terms of pronunciation also focuses on two accents: RP and GA [5]. British phonetician and Esperantist John Wells has made a significant contribution to the phonological theory offering an elaborate classification of pronunciation differences between English varieties caused by such factors as phonetic realization, phonotactic distribution, phonemic systems, lexical distribution [6]. His original comprehensive research includes 3 volumes that can be read independently. Volume I explains how accents vary not only geographically, but also with social class, formality, sex and age. Volume 2 deals with the accents of the regions of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, and Volume 3 examines English spoken in the USA, Canada, and West Indies, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Africa and the Far East. Paco Gomez sums up the pronunciation differences between British and American English indicating such features as: the presence of rhotic accent, differences in vowel pronunciation, differences in consonant pronunciation, differences in articulation, change of stress [7]. Ukrainian linguists also turn to researching pronunciation peculiarities of the English variants. S. Sharovarova writes of different accents in modern English [8]. Ya. Lavrenchuk's thesis (an experimental phonetic research) investigates the orthoepic and orthophonic variations in the speech of the British, Americans and Canadians. It uses auditory and acoustic analyses of the vowel and consonant segments of the English language with a further linguistic interpretation of the obtained experimental data [9]. But none of the mentioned papers has information on differences in pronouncing proper names in British and American English.

The aim of the article... The aim of the paper is to find out and analyze differences in the pronunciation of personal names of famous people. The more general task is to expand the existing ideas about the phonetic dichotomy of British and American English since it has become obvious that for efficient communication in the modern English-speaking world it is impossible to be limited to only one of them.

The main research method used in the article is the comparison between British and American English phonetic differences together with their phonological representations. We use IPA symbols to show phonetic varieties. The examples were checked using Oxford Dictionary of Pronunciation for Current English and Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English as they include different pronunciation variations with the indication of their regional circulation. We use the symbol /Ј/ for the British variant and /$/ for its American counterpart.

The main body of the article

There are a lot of regional accents of the English language and a number of varieties. Even within the United Kingdom they differentiate Scottish English, Irish English, Welsh English, Cockney, a newly-emerged Estuary English and many more. «But as far as the teaching of English pronunciation to foreign learners is concerned, the choice of a model accent has traditionally been limited to what can be considered the two «standard» accents in Great Britain and the USA» [3, p. 11]. The British «model accent» is traditionally called Received Pronunciation, or RP. It is used in teaching English as a foreign language in those parts of the world that choose to learn or historically speak British English. Sometimes RP is associated with the educated people in the south-east of England but generally it is considered to be regionally «neutral» as it can be found in any part of the UK. However, a new term has become popular recently -- BBC pronunciation. «There are several reasons for its emergence, the most important of which are the existing diversity within RP itself, and the fact that today the term «Received Pronunciation» often evokes negative attitudes in many younger people because of the connotations of high socio-economic status and superiority which RP still has for many people. The term «BBC pronunciation», on the other hand, doesn't carry any such implications of social superiority and prestige» [3, p. 2].

In the US, unlike in the UK, there is no officially approved single accent. Historically, it has been typical of American English to have a number of pronunciation norms relatively equal in their canonicity. Phoneticians identified those norms only in the second half of the twentieth century but there are still difficulties in marking clear areas of regional pronunciation patterns due to a blurred transition from one regional pronunciation to another. The accent that is now accepted as the most representative of American English is called General American, or GA. In fact, it covers a range of accents which do not reveal any Eastern or Southern local colouring. General American accent is used by the maj ority of the population of the United States, by the announcers of most federal media (primarily CNN). It is sometimes called American Network English. It is based on the Midwestern regional accent since it is understandable to all Americans although it is spoken by a small proportion of US residents (states of Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois). It is the model accent in teaching English in such parts of the world as Central and South America, the Philippines, etc.

First of all let us explain features common to many regional pronunciation patterns in the United States most of which are found in the General American accent. It is important to note that there is no such single feature that would be characteristic of all American accents and absent in British English at the same time. Another interesting fact is that there are 17 dialects in the northeastern United States which practically do not differ in their pronunciation from the British standard Received Pronunciation.

Speaking of the difference between the American pronunciation standard and the British one, it should be said that the British version is characterized by a strong adjunction of the consonant to the previous vowel, that is, there is a predominance of closed syllables there. In other words, a syllable in British English is pronounced with heavy reliance on a consonant and is characterized by an off-glide and two phases of articulatory tension at both the beginning and the end of the syllable. In contrast, the American syllable is characterized by a weak off-glide, i.e. the pronunciation is based on the use of open syllables [10, p. 89]. American speakers make the main effort in a syllable on a vowel sound, while they pronounce a consonant sound more weakly. The boundaries between syllables in American English are blurred, which is not typical for the British speech with clearly marked syllables that are more independent of the phonetic environment.

Potapova R. K. [11] emphasizes that the articulatory base of the British variant of the English language is primarily characterized by three main features: the activity of the larynx; stretching and fixing the lips; the tongue is drawn to the back of the mouth. The British in their articulation rely on the larynx which is expressed in the main opposition of vowels on the basis of «tension -- relaxation» of the sound. The articulation analysis of American English shows that the tongue has the leading role while the larynx is relatively passive; at the same time, the lips are more mobile in comparison with the British variant and can be slightly rounded, creating a specific timbre of speech.

So there is a significant shift in the entire articulatory base in American English. The opposition of vowels on the basis of phonetic «tension -- relaxation», which is typical for the British version, turns out to be not significant for American English. There are fewer differences in the pronunciation of vowels before the grapheme «r» in the American variant: the words «merry», «Mary» and «marry» are pronounced the same in Standard American. The length of vowels, denoted in transcription by the sign /:/, is not as important in American English GA as in British RP. In RP long vowels often replace the silent /r/. Another characteristic feature of American English pronunciation is the widespread transition of British vowels /э/ (as in «pot») into /a:/ /pat/. In the American standard pronunciation there is no very clear opposition between monophthongs and diphthongs as in the British version [10, p. 90]. phonetic british english personal name

There are some phonetic varieties between «standard» British and American vowels. Some of them having been investigated in this article include: British /©/ vs. American /А:/, British /А:/ vs. American /{/, British /О:/ vs. American /А:/, British /фи:/ vs. American /и:/. British /А:/ vs. American nasalized vowel /{-/, British /=/ vs. American /А:/.

There are some phonetic varieties between «standard» British and American vowels. Some of them having been investigated in this article include: British /©/ vs. American /А:/, British /А:/ vs. American /{/, British /О:/ vs. American /А:/, British /фи:/ vs. American /и:/. British /А:/ vs. American nasalized vowel /{-/, British /=/ vs. American /А:/.

There are some phonetic varieties between «standard» British and American vowels. Some of them having been investigated in this article include: British /©/ vs. American /А:/, British /А:/ vs. American /{/, British /О:/ vs. American /А:/, British /фи:/ vs. American /и:/. British /А:/ vs. American nasalized vowel /{-/, British /=/ vs. American /А:/.

There are some phonetic varieties between «standard» British and American vowels. Some of them include: British /п/ vs. American /a:/, British /a:/ vs. American /ж/, British /ju:/ vs. American /u:/, British /э/ vs. American /a:/. In proper names this difference also holds true: Bismarck, Otto von /Ј `ntau vnn/ /$ `а^эи va:n/; Doherty, Pete /Ј `dnhэti/ /$ `da^rti/; O'Hara, Scarlett /Ј эu'hа:rэ/ /$ эиЪжга/; Dumas, Alexandre /Ј `dju:ma:/ /$ du:'ma:/; Putin /Ј `pju:tin/ /$ `pu:tin/.

We have found some names that go against the general tendency with common nouns and have British /ж/ change into /a:/ in the American pronunciation: Dante /Ј `drnnti, `drnntei/ /$ `da:ntei/; Boccaccio, Giovanni /Ј bn'kжtJlэu/ /$ bn `ka:tjbu/; Saint-Saёns, Camille /Ј ,smn'snns/ /$ ,smn'sa:ns/; Picasso, Pablo /Ј pI'kжsэu ^жМэи/ /$ pi'ka^u `pa:bbu/; Zidane, Zinedine /Ј zi'drnn/ /$ zi'da:n/; Piaf, Edith /Ј `pi:mf/ /$ pi:'a:f/ (this example also demonstrates the change in stress that we will be discussing later).

Besides the above mentioned vowel alterations some names also include a change of a vowel into a diphthong or vice versa: Hitler, Adolf /Ј `rndnlf/ /$ `eida:lf/; Chirac, Jacques /Ј `Jbrrnk/ /$ Ji'ra:k/ /Ј зжк/ /$ 3a:k/; Berlioz, Hector /Ј `beэliэuz/ /$ `berliouz/ (the last example also involves rhotacism in the American variant that will be explained further on). Linguists mostly speak of five sets of diphthongal varieties between British and American English: British /ю/ vs. American /ir/, British /эи/ vs. American /ou/, British /a:/ vs. American /ei/, British /ei/ vs. American /ж/, British /i/ vs. American /ai/ [12, p. 651], but our examples do not follow any of the pattern.

Concerning British and American consonants, there are some varieties. The presence of the rhotic accent is one of the most noticeable differences between them. Except for New York City and the area of Boston, American English is rhotic, British English is largely non-rhotic, save for Scotland and Ireland. In English, rhotic accent is produced as a retroflex approximant and refers to the manner letter /r/ is pronounced after a vowel within a syllable as in words such as hard, borne, or here. Sometimes, it is also called post-vocalic r or r-coloring [12, p. 652]. So, naturally, in Britain we read Louis Pasteur as /Ј pm'st3:/, Andy Warhol as /Ј `wa:haul/, while their American variants sound as /$ pm'st3:r/ and /$ `wa:r haul/. Sometimes the appearance of rhotacism involves a change of a diphthong into a vowel and a stress shift: Voltaire /Ј vul'tea/ /$ voul'ter/; Camus, Albert /Ј km'mju:, `mlbea/ /$ rnl'ber/.

The change of stress is a common difference in the pronunciation of personal names in the British and American variants. Examples are numerous:

Pele /Ј `pelei/ /$ pe'lei/; Stendhal /Ј `stunda:l/ /$ sten'da:l/; Manet, Edouard /f'mmnei/ /$ mm'nei/; Monet, Claude /Ј `munei/ /$ mau'nei/; Descartes, Rene /Ј'deika:t/ /$ dei'ka:rt/; Rousseau, Jean-Jacques /Ј 3un зжк `ru:sau/ /$ 3a:n за:к ru:'sau/; Gauguin, Paul /Ј `gaugmn/ /$ gau'gmn/; Beauvoir, Simone de /Ј' bauvwa:/ /$ bau'vwa:r/.

Personal names most often do not follow any rule that explains the change in pronouncing common nouns in British and American English. Here are some examples that have various changes: Cezanne, Paul /Ј si'zmn/ /$ sei'za:n/; Balzac, Honore de /Ј `bmlzmk `unarei da/ /$ `ba:lzmk ,a:na'rei da/; Van Gogh, Vincent /Ј vmn `guf/ /$ vmn `gau/; Debussy, Claude /Ј da'bju:si/ /$ ,deibju:'si:/; Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von /Ј `g3:ta/ /$ `gauta/; Velazquez, Diego Rodriguez de Silva y /Ј va'lmskwiz, -wez/ /$ va'la:skeis/. One ridiculous example deals with the name of the famous American actresses Scarlett Johansson whose Scandinavian last name (her father was a Danish citizen) leads many Brits to incorporate a /j/ sound as the initial phoneme of her last name /jo'hmnsan/. However, the Lucy star, as well as the American public-at-large, prefer to pronounce «Johansson» exactly as it is spelled -- /d3ou'hmnsan/ [13]. The both variants can be heard in a youtube video from a TV show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNfj3I_UEc0.

Conclusions

The national orthoepic norm in British English is RP (Received Pronunciation), or BBC English, and in the United States -- GA (General American accent), or American Network English. They are the two models that learners of English choose to follow for their (near) nativelike pronunciation. We have demonstrated that personal names have a lot of different patterns in these variants of English of which students should be aware. The article will make English language learners have a better realization of the varieties between British and American English and will help them use either of the two English varieties more consciously and accurately. This paper will also pave the way for further research concerning other groups of proper names and their pronunciation. No doubt they deserve such attention because there are brand names with different sounding on the both sides of the Atlantic: Adidas /Ј `rndadrns/ /$ a'dfdaz/; jaguar /Ј `d3mgju9/ /$ `d3*gwa:r/; Nissan /Ј `nismn/ /$ `nisa:n/) as well as geographical names such as Nicaragua /Ј .nika'rrngjua/ /$ nik9'ra:gw9/.

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Анотація