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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HOCffiMINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

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SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

GRADUATION

PAPER

A STUDY OF DIFFERENCES

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*"** IN PRONUNCIATION BETWEEN
** AMERICAN AND BRITISH ENGLISH
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*'* AND SOME PRONUNCIATION TEACHING '**
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IMPLICATIONS
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Advisor: Mr. PH4M TAN QUYEN. M.A.
Student: TRUdNG THUAN VI

Student's number: 0071070

Class: SAQnl)' . Ai

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Ho Chi Minh City, JUly 2004

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ABSTRACT
CHAPTER

ONE

CHAPTER TWO

INTRODUCTION.........................................

1

CONTENTS

2.1 Causes of the Differences between American
and British English

4

2.2 Standard American English and Received Pronunciation:......

14

2.2.1 Standard American English:


14

2.2.2 Received Pronunciation:

15

2.3 American vs. British English Pronunciation
2.3.1 Differences in Symbols of Transcription:

18

2.3.2 Differences in Consonant Production
a. Difference between /hw / and /w /:

23

b. Difference in pronunciation of /r /:

23

c. Difference in pronunciation of /1I:

27

d. Difference in pronunciation of /t/:

28

2.3.3 Differences in Vowel Production:
a. Difference between /0/ in AE and In/in RP:


31

b. Difference in /'J/:

31

c. Difference in /~/ , /~/

and

/A/:

d. Differences in foul and /eu/:

32
33

2.3.4 Different Pronunciation of Common Words:
a. Word Spelled with a:

35

b. Words with Syllable-Initial Alveolar Consonants:

36

c. Words with u Spelling Following Alveolar Consonants: 37
d. Words Spelled with er:


38


e. Words Ending in -ile:

38

f. Other Words:

39

2.3.5 Differences in Word Stress:
a. Verbs Ending in -ate:

41

b. Words of French Origin:

42

c. Stress in Three-or-Four-Syllable Words:

42

d. Secondary Stress DifIerences in Words Ending in -ily:43
e. Words Ending in -ary,-ery,-ory, and -many:

44

f. Place names ending in -aster/-ester:


45

g. Other Words Stress Differences:

46

2.3.6 Differences in Sentence Stress:

47

2.3.7 DifJerences in Intonation:

48

2.3.8 Differences in Overall Sound and Voice Quality:

50

CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH FINDINGS AND PEDAGOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
METHOD
3.1 Description of the subjects:

52

3.2 Material:

53


3.3 Procedure s:

54

RESULTS/DISCUSSION
3.4 Students' attitude towards knowing the differences in
pronunciation between American and British English

55

3.5 Students' knowledge on the difIerences in pronunciation
between American and British English

60

CONCLUSION
/ IMPLICATIONS

62

APPENDIX
Questionnaire
Tapescri pts
REFERENCES

65
'"

68



Fit'st of all} J WOL\ldlike to expt'ess
QL\y.in} my advisot'}

Mt'. Phq.m Tdn

my acknowledgement to

fot' his valL\able

instt'L\ctions}

ct'iticism} comments and cot't'ections on this t'eseat'ch. Thanks to his
gL\idance} J COL\ldaccomplish

J

my gt'adL\ation papet'.

owe a gt'eat debt to Ms. BLti Thi Thanh Tt'Ctc fot' het'

SL\Pp0t't}valL\able matet'ials} and kind assistance.

J also wish to thank the tht'ee classes S;A0201}
and B;A0202

B;A0202}

of t-ILAFLJT fot' theit' enthL\siastic help in filling the


9 L\estionnait'e.

Finally}

J

wish to expt'ess my

heat'tfelt gt'atitL\de to my

pat'ents} my two sistet's} my pL\pils at £Aia r>inh t-ligh School} my
ft'iends

at

college}

Thanh}

Tt'I}

my

Vi> and

close ft'iends:

my

fiance


Thu}

;At'on

LAyen} QL\cjc} r>q.t}

Caton

fot' theit'

gt'eat

encoL\t'agement and SL\Pp0t'ttht'oL\ghoL\tthe wt'iting of this t'eseat'ch.

THANK yOU!
Tt'uong ThL\dn Vi
3L\ly 2004


This

research

aimed

at

(1) presenting


the

differences

in

pronunciation between American and British English, focusing on
differences in phonetic transcription symbols, production of consonants,
production of vowels, word-stress and description of other possible
differences in pronunciation; (2) finding out students' attitude towards
and knowledge on the differences in pronunciation between American
and British English. A questionnaire was designed and used in this
research. It was completed by 79 ESL students from 3 classes SA0201,
I'

BA0201, and BA0202 of Huflit. It was found that students are aware of

the benefits of knowing the differences on their learning. However,
most of them cannot distinguish the differences. The findings suggested
that the differences in pronunciation between American and British
English should be designed and incorporated into English course
syllabi. Also. further research is needed, focusing on differences in
vocabulary, spelling, and grammar, ect.


GRADUATION PAPER

1

"England and America are two countries separated by

the same language."
George Bernard Shaw.

People speak English in Britain, so do people in the
United States

but yet they don't speak the same language.

Mencken supports Shaw's comment:
"Every Englishman visiting the States for the fIrst
time." said an English dramatist

some time ago, "has a

diffIculty in making himself understood.

He often has to

repeat a remark or a request two or three times to make his
meaning clear, especially on railroads, in hotels and at bars.
The American visiting England for the first time has the same
trouble."... When he presented one of his own plays with an
English company, he said, many American acquaintances,
after witnessing the performance, asked him to lend them
the manuscript, "that they might visit it again with some
understanding of the dialogue." American speech is just as
diffIcultfor Englishmen.

Advisor: Mr. Ph~m Ta'n Quy~n


Student: Trliong Thua'n Vi


GRADUATION PAPER

2

They, Americans and Britons, find each other's speech just
as difficult, not to mention foreign learners of English. American
and British English are the two varieties of English which are
taught in most ESL/EFL programs. Knowing the differences
between these two varieties, more narrowly in pronunciation, is
a vital area which seems to be inappropriately considered in
any language teaching and learning process. Therefore, this
research

paper

aimed at

(1) presenting

the

differences in

pronunciation between American and British English; (2) finding
out students' attitude towards and knowledge on the differences
in pronunciation between American and British English.


There
British

are

English

many
such

differences

as

differences

between
in

American

and

spelling, grammar,

pronunciation, and vocabulary, ect. This paper is confined to
identifYing the

differences


in

pronunciation,

focusing on:

transcription symbols, production of consonants, production of
vowels, word-stress and description of other possible differences
in pronunciation.

Advisor: Mr. Ph~m Ta'n Quy~n

Student: Trtidng Thua'n Vi


GRADUATION PAPER

3

The report begins with an introduction. It is expanded in
the following chapter

by a - I hope - detailed analysis of

differences in pronunciation

between American and British

English. In Chapter 3, the information about the subjects, the
materials used in this study and the procedure in which the

study was carried out are described. The data collected from the
questionnaires will be subsequently analyzed and discussed. At
the

end

of this

research

paper,

a

conclusion and

some

suggestions on pronunciation teaching will be mentioned.

Advisor: Mr. Ph~m Ta'n Quy~n

Student: Truong Thua'n Vi


4

GRADUATION PAPER

" The reasons for American English being different from

British English are simple: As an independent nation, our honor
requires us to have a system of our own, in language as well as
government. "
Noah Webster (1758-1843)

The American history dated back to September of 1620,
when a ship called the Mayflower left England with 102 men,
women, and children onboard. Mter 65 days at sea, it landed in
what is now Provinceton Harbor, inside the tip of Cape Cod,
Massachusetts,

USA (Tiersky 1990,118).

When these

brave

puritans left England for the "New World", the language they

Advisor: Mr. Ph~m Tiln Quy~n

Student: Truong Thuiln Vi


GRADUATION PAPER

5

spoke on the Mayflower and also in their new homeland was
the English language which was at that


time employed in

England. That

English is similar to what we can find in

Shakespeare's

texts

(also

called

Elizabethan

English)

(Marckwardt 1958,8). Naturally, the language did not sound the
same as its present counterpart; many of the phonemes had
different qualities and the spelling of many words has changed
dramatically. This language, Elizabethan English, was what both
the people who left England and those who stayed used in their
everyday life. Therefore, both present day American and British
English have a common starting point.

However, today, there are a great number of differences
between American and British English which have developed
over those past centuries. The main reason for the differences

is the geographical distance

between these

Akmajian (1995,319) explained,

two countries.

"If one group of speakers

becomes isolated or sufficiently separated from another group of
speakers of the same language, they may each undergo their
own changes."

Advisor: Mr. Ph~m Ta'n Quy~n

Student: Trtidng Thua'n Vi


GRADUATION PAPER

6

The English used in American developed a character of
its own, reflecting the growth of the American nation. While
living in a new nation, the first task for the settlers was to find
names for concepts that did not exist in Britain; also, placenames had to be invented. The most fruitful source for these
words was the native languages of the American continent;
American Indian languages. Most of these borrowings somehow
deal with nature and Indian concepts as totem. There were no

words for most of the Indian concepts in English, and so the
most convenient way to "invent" words for English was to
borrow them from the Indians themselves, who were, so to say,
experts

in their field. Another source of impact was the

colonists'

cultural contact with the French. France was a

great empire at the time and therefore it is not surprising that
French should have some influence on English. While some of
the words were borrowed from French by the Indians and then
adopted to English, some other words were straight borrowings
from French into English: bureau. prairie, pumpkin and rapids,
to mention a few (Strevens 1972, 32). Americans seem to be
very open to borrowings. Mencken (1963) points out that

Advisor: Mr. Ph~m Tc1n Quy~n

Student: Trtidng Thuc1n Vi


GRADUATION PAPER

7

Americans incline "toward a hospitality which often admits
novelties for the mere sake of their novelties". So Americans

tend to borrow the words together with the way of saying
them. For example, while American English tends to mirror the
French syllable-final stress pattern for the word garage, British
English anglicizes this word with stress on the first syllable
(Celce-Murcia 2000). This is because Britons have a "tendency
to conserve what is established".

During all these years, the Indians were incorporated
into the United States, and many French, Spanish, and Dutch
speakers became citizens of the United States. This kind of
incorporation always changes the language. Even though these
people spoke their language at first, their children gradually
started using English and it was these different people that
finally adopted English. In parallel with this adoption, these
different peoples with different mother tongues also added
concepts and words to English, thus enriching it and giving
vividness to its vocabulary.

Advisor: Mr. Ph~m Ta"nQuy~n

Student: Trtidng Thua"n Vi


8

GRADUATION PAPER
The United States has been, over the years, a great
melting pot. Many immigrants from many different cultures
have brought along their personality, their labor, and their
language. One obvious example is that of the Italians who

bought

their

cooking to

America--and

also

their

cooking

vocabulary. The words pizza, pasta and spaghetti are of Italian
origin, but are common words for most Americans today.

Another source of American English still needs to be
mentioned, and that is the rapid growth of new and special
institutions
achieved.

in America after political
New

terms

were

needed


independence
for

election

was
and

administration, as well as for new political procedures. Words
such as assembly, congress, primary, president, representative
and senate all refer to American ideas, offices and practices and

are of pure American origin.

Furthermore, Americans are very innovative and coin
new words easily, as was the case with "burgers": first, you had
hamburger,

then

cheeseburger,

Advisor: Mr. Ph~m Tc1n Quy~n

beefburger,

baconburger,

Student: Trudng Thuc1n Vi



GRADUATION PAPER

9

fishburger and so on. This is a very fruitful way of creating new

words and American English seems to accept these kinds of
innovations more easily than British English. Mencken (1963)
excerpts a statement of an English observer, ''The Americans, in
a kind of artistic exuberance, are not afraid to use words as we
sometimes are in England".

As Americans live in a new independent

democratic

nation and a nation of immigrants, they bring the idea of
liberty and democracy into their daily language. They use the
language in a various, flexible and relaxing way. Consider the
way of pronouncing

the

sound

t

taken


from Ann Cook

(1991,87):
When you say a word like atom, imagine that you've
been to the dentist and you're a little numb, or that you've
had a couple of drinks, or maybe that you're very sleepy.
You won't be wanting to use a lot of energy saying /retom/,
so just relax everything and say / od:lm/, like the masculine
name. It's a very smooth, fluid sound. Rather than saying
BeTTy boughT a biT of beTTer buTTer, which is physically
more demanding, try Beddy bada bidda bedder budder. It's
easy because you really don't need much muscle tension to
say it this. way.

Advisor: Mr. Ph~m Ta'n Quy~n

Student: Trtidng Thua'n Vi


GRADUATION PAPER
From the

10

above remark,

it should be

obvious that


Americans have a tendency to simplifying everything; relaxing in
the way they speak; being

M

lazy"; creating comfort in everything

they are doing; and always wanting to show separation (from
mother country), independence, freedom and individual choice.
These characters

create a system of their own in language,

reflecting the growth of the American.

Besides, British's change as a result of time and social
change in the British Isles is another contribution to the
differences between American and British English. Strevens
(1972) explained that one of the changes in British English
from Elizabethan times onwards was the borrowings from
Latin and Greek. Great quantities

of ideas and therefore

vocabulary were taken into English as scholars became aware of
the classical manuscripts.

Another borrowing was from an


entirely different source, foreign countries that made up the
British Empire. Strevens' examples of this include bungalow,
kangaroo, pyjamas and tea. Traders, administrators,

soldiers

and missionaries who had traveled the world and found that

Advisor: Mr. Ph~m Ta'n Quy~n

Student: Truong Thua'n Vi


GRADUATION PAPER

11

English lacked words for these concepts imported these words
to the English language (Strevens 1972, 30). Recently, British
English has had another source for borrowings: American
English.

Apart

from

Americanisms

that


are

used

with

consciousness for their American origin (for example, talk show
and hot dog), British English has started to use other words and
expressions that have originated in American English. Strevens
(1972, 30) points out some examples of this borrowing: to
enthuse, cafeteria, double-cross, a flop, gangster, highlight, and
popcorn.

During the

passage

of time,

British

English has

borrowed words and expressions from other languages and that
has influenced it greatly. However, it continues to do so and it
seems that the main source for borrowings is the variety once
developed from British English itself, American English.

In spite of the changes, British English" shows no living
change in structure and syntax since the days of Anne, and

very little modification in either pronunciation or vocabulary. Its
tendency is to conserve that which is established; to say the
new thing, as nearly as possible, in the old way; to combat all

Advisor: Mr. Ph~m Ta'n Quy~n

Student: Truong Thua'n Vi


12

GRADUATION PAPER

that expansive gusto which made for its pliancy and resilience
in the days of Shakespeare. In place of the old loose-footedness
there is set up a preciosity which, in one direction, take the
form of unyielding affectations

in

the

spoken

language..."

(Mencken 1963).

At the beginning, American English was "colonial" and
British English was dominant, the standard. During this period

the influence was, of course, from British English to American
English. Then came the time when American English created a
character of its own and became regarded as another important
variety of English. At present American and British English
have an equal status

and value. Naturally, there

is some

interaction going all the time and new ideas and expressions
are changed every day. American English has always been very
open to influence, but British English has stayed a "private
club" until recently, and has just in the past few decades
started accepting new ideas from American English.

Advisor: Mr. Ph~m T~n Quy~n

Student: Tru'dng Thu~n Vi


I

13

GRADUATION PAPER

American and British English have the
•


Elizabethan

English, but

these

two varieties

same origin,
are

relatively

different from each other today. The different social and
political

events

have

greatly

languages, and so has the

influenced

both

these


immigration. Because of the

geographical distance between these two countries both these
languages could have developed in their own directions and
therefore the differences between them are, because of that
distance,

so easily spotted.

However, American and British

English have more in common than they are different from
each other, and that is why they are treated as varieties of one
language, English, rather than two separate languages.

Advisor: Mr. Ph~m Ta'n Quy~n

Student: Truong Thua'n Vi


GRADUATION PAPER

There
Britons,

as

are
they


14

clear

distinctions

may be

in how Americans and

generally

categorized,

use

their

language. However, considering the vast differences in the way
Americans in different parts of the United States, and likewise,
Britons in different parts of Britain, use and pronounce English,
it is important

to consider

only one established

form of

American English and one of British English. As far as this

research

is concemed,

these

two forms will be (Standard)

American English and Received Pronunciation.

(Standard) American English (henceforth referred to as
AE) is defined as .. the English language as used in the United
States"

(Mc Arthur). Developed and

popularized largely by

Hollywood and Madison Avenue, AE is well-known and highly
recognizable

pattem

of

speech.

Advisor: Mr. Ph~m Ta'n Quy~n

The


Accent

is

Northem

Student: Truong Thua'n Vi


GRADUATION PAPER

15

American in style because the Northem States have dominated
the

communications

industry

since

the

Civil War

(Chwat

1994,10). During the last half-century, AE has become the

standard

for "educated" and

"nonregional" speech.

Chwat

(1994,10) also adds that television, radio, and the movies have
taught this accent to every ears of American. It is used by
national broadcasters,

public speakers and members of most

television show families. Moreover, it is also the language of
legal and govemmental functions and used in the schools as
vehicle for education (Akmajian 1995,265). Therefore, AE can be
used to affectively examine the differences between the English
spoken in the United States and that spoken in Britain.

Received Pronunciation (henceforth referred to as RP) is ..
the standard

pronunciation of educated Englishmen (Morris-

Wilson 1992,14). It is associated with the south-east, where
most RP-speakers live or work, but it can be found anywhere in
the country. Crystal (1995) states that RP tells us only about a

Advisor: Mr. Ph~m Ta'n Quy~n


Student: Truong Thua'n Vi


GRADUATION PAPER

16

person's social or educational background. In due course, RP
came to sybolize a person's high position in society. During the
19th century, it became the accent of public schools, such as
Eton and Harrow, and was soon the main sign that a speaker
had received a good education. It spread rapidly throughout the
Civil Service of the British Empire and the armed forces, and
became the voice of authority and power (Crystal 1995). it came
to be adopted by the BBC. When radio broadcasting began in
the 1920s, because it was a regionally 'neutral' accent, and was
thought

to be

more widely understood

than

any regional

accent,. During Second World War, it became linked in many
minds with the voice of freedom, and the notion of a "BBC
pronunciation"


grew.

Early BBC recordings show how much RP has altered
over just a few decades, and they point that no acccent is
immune to change, not even 'the best'. It is still the standard
accent of the Royal Family, Parliament, the Church of England,
the High Courts, and other national institutions; but according
to Hughes and Trudgill (1987,3) only about 3 percent of the

Advisor: Mr. Ph~m Ta'n Quy~n

Student: Truong Thua'n Vi


17

GRADUATION PAPER

English population speak

RP. Nonetheless

RP continues to

retain considerable status. It has long been the chief accent
taught to foreigners who wish to learn a British model, and is
thus widely used abroad (Crystal 1995). Hence RP is chosen to
examine the differences between British English and American
English.


Advisor: Mr. Ph~m Tcin Quy~n

Student: Trtidng Thucin Vi


18

GRADUATION PAPER

As Americans and Britons speak English unidentically,
their own phonetic notation is not alike. The two principal
phonetic transcriptions that will be compared in this paper are
taken from two different dictionaries. The first phonetic symbol
system is from Webster's New World College Dictionary, 3rd ad.
(NewYork: Macmillan, Inc. 1996), which are .. those widely used
by good speaker

of AE". The second system is from Oxford

Advanced Learner's

Dictionary (2000), which represents

the

pronunciation of RP.

Advisor:


Mr. Ph~m Tci'n Quy~n

Student:

Trudng

Thuci'n Vi


19

GRADUATION PAPER

Table 1
A comparison of two systems for transcribing
consonants

and vowels. The system used in Webster's New

World College Dictionary (1996) is appropriate for American
English, and the one used in Oxford Advanced Learner's
Dictionary (2000) represents

Class

Received Pronunciation.

Webster's

Oxford


New World

Advanced

College

Learner's

Dictionary

Dictionary

(1996)

(2000)

a

a

ago, agent

u

A

cup, abut

e


e

ten, berry

I

I

is, sit

a

D

hot, bottom

00

u:

look, pull

a

re

hat, asp

e


i:

even, see

ur

3:

fur, bird

a

m

car, hard

3:

all, horn

Short vowels

Medium vowel

Long vowels

A

0


Advisor: Mr. P~m

T&n Quy~n

Example words

Student: TrUOng Thuiin Vi


20
GRADUATION PAPER

Diphthongs

a

eI

hate, grey

0

au

home, boat

on

au


now, out

oi

JI

boy, noise

1

aI

five, buy

ir

Ia

fear, near

er

ea

hair, care

oor

ua


poor, tour

yoo

ju:

use, cute

yoo

ju

cure, globule

w

w

won, away

y

j

year, onion

r

r


zero, ground

I

I

let, pull

p

p

map, piper

t

t

tap, wet

k

k

kill, cognac

b

b


banana, pub

d

d

dad, drop

9

9

get, bigger

m

m

me, dam

n

n

now, train

g

g


ring, anger

s

s

sit, juice

Glides and liquids

Unvoiced stops

Voiced stops

Nasals

Unvoiced fricatives

Advisor: Mr. Ph~m Ta'n Quy~n

Student: Truong Thua'n Vi