UNIVERSITE CHEIKH ANTA DIOP DE DAKAR

FACULTE DES LETTRES ET SCIENCES HUMAINES

DEPARTEMENT D’ANGLAIS

Mémoire de Master II
Option : Grammaire et Linguistique

Topic: A dialectalstudy of English:

A focus on British and American English

Sous la supervision scientifique deSous la direction de

Souleymane FAYEEl Hadji Mansour MBOUP
Professeur titulaire Assistant
Présenté par
Thierno Mouhamadoul Hassimou WATT

ANNEE ACADEMIQUE: 2016-2017

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 DEDICATION:
I dedicate this work to my beloved parents who endorsed me during every pace of my life,
who gave me the opportunity to embrace knowledge and helped me become the person I
wanted to be, I will never be able to thank you enough. This also goes to my whole family for
always being with me during both bitter and great moments and whom I cannot pay back.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:
I would like to thank the many people who helped me during this challenging and rewarding
time. Thanks are due to my teachers past and present, special thanks to my supervisor Mr.
Mboup who supported me throughout this journey. To Mr. D.Pam who paved me the way to
become a student and whose help made me achieve this level.I am thankful to Mr. Dramane
Dembele who introduced me to this beautiful language and whose support has been priceless.
Thanks go to all my friends for standing by me in every challenge I undertake for your under-
standing when I was busy at work unable to talk or visit.

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 Table of contents:

I –INTRODUTION
1.1. Context and justification of the topic …………………………..…….4
1.2.Statement of the problem ……………………………………………. 5
1.2.1 Conceptual framework of the study ………………………………... 6
1.2.2 Critical literature review …………………………………………... 7
II–Linguistic differences between BrE and AmE……………………….. 9
2.1 Phonological differences………………………………………………10
2.1.1 Rhotic accents ………………………………………………………. 11
2.1.2 Differences in vowel pronunciation ………………………………… 13
2.1.3 Differences in consonant pronunciation …………………………….. 16
2.1.4 Change of stress ……………………………………………………... 17
2.2 Grammatical differences………………………………………………. 20
2.2.1 Verb morphology …………………………………………………… 20
2.2.2 Word formation ……………………………………………………… 21

2.2.3Transitivity……………………………………………………………. 23

2.2.4 Verbal auxiliaries ……………………………………………………24

2.2.5 Prepositions and adverbs ……………………………………………. 25
2.2.6 Nouns …………………………………………………………………..26
2.3 Lexical differences…………………………………………………….. ..27
2.3.1 House vocabulary ……………………………………………………....29
2.3.2 Transport ……………………………………………………………….30
2.3.3 Shopping ……………………………………………………………….30
2.3.4 Food …………………………………………………………………....31
2.3.4 Numbers ………………………………………………………………..31
2.3.6 Education ……………………………………………………………….32

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III– A dialectal survey of UK and USA Englishes
3.1Overview of UK English dialects ……………………………………. 33
3.1.1 Standard English …………………………………………………….33
3.1.2 Cockney English …………………………………………………….34
3.1.3 Welsh English ………………………………………………............37
3.1.4 Geordie English ………………………………………………….......39
3.1.5 Scouse ………………………………………………………………..44
3.1.6 Estuary English ………………………………………………………46
3.1.7 Scottish English ………………………………………………….......47
3.2 overview of American English dialects ………………………………..49
3.2.1 General American ………………………………………………........50
3.2.2 Northern American English ……………………………………….....51
3.2.3 Southern American English ……………………………………….....51
3.2.4 African American Vernacular English …………………………….....52
CONCLUSION ……………………………………………………………. 56
Bibliographical references …………………………………………………..57
Appendix …………………………………………………………………….58

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 1.1Context and justification
The idea of writing about English dialects emerged first from my interest in sociolinguistics
and particularly the English language. Indeed having fallen in love with the language of
Shakespeare since my childhood, the disparity of the way English is spoken has always
amazed me.At the beginning of my studies of this wonderful language, hearing the English of
a native speaker would puzzle me because I would not figure out any word of the speech,
what was odd, for the speech of some native BlackEnglish speakers would sound familiar to
me.
Later on, thanks to sociolinguistics classes, I found out that regions and societies favor the
difference in the way a language is spoken. It immediately turned out to be a need and a wish
for me to explore the diversity of English dialects.
One of the main purposes of this study is to bring an enlightened view on the conception of
dialects in sociolinguistics.Given that, dialect is one of the most confusing terms in sociolin-
guistics and it usually stands for a cause of disagreement even between linguists.Forexample,
it is very hard to delineate the concept of dialect and language for theyare not represented in a
clear-cut way in the sense that one can talk about American English and British English but it
is linguistically difficult to say where people stop speaking American English and where they
start speaking British English.
Besides, I chose to write on this subject in order to bring an answer to the question whether
certain dialects are more valuable than others. Indeed, very often speakers of certain dialects
(especially the standard dialects speakers) are thought to speak in a correct way while speak-
ers of other dialects (generally the non-standard users) are stereotyped as being vulgar and
incorrect. Therefore, it would be interesting to make a scientific survey in order to prove or
refute these common assertions.
The hugeness of English and its adoption by new nations in today’s world has rendered its
varieties more complex. Because the more people are regionally distant and socially different,
the more the language is affected, therefore it is worthwhileto classify the different ways it is
spoken and identify the very dialects, which compose the language.

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 1.2. Statement of the study
NowadaysEnglish is spoken in several countries in the world. Australians can communicate
with British in English no matter how far the distance that separates them is. Even though
they speak the same language, they may notice some differences in the way they use it, hence
the label British English and Australian English. Sois it the fact that they have mutual intelli-
gibility that they are said to speak the same language? Then what about Jamaican English,
whichsounds very different as an English dialect and compared to other dialects ofEnglish,
resembles a particular language andstill, is considered as an English dialect.
Isit based on speech communities? For instance, people native to Pittsburgh (United States)
are known for using you uns (or yinz) to mean ‘plural you’ like in: if yinz wants served, raise
your hand? Of course, the number of conventions that distinguish Pittsburghers from other
English speakers is actually very small, but because there is such a set of convention, we can
consider these people to be a speech community.
Then what about all English speakers? Don’t they represent a speech community as well?
For example, every English speaker makes a question from a sentence he ate the potatoby
inserting the word did and changing the form of the verb ate: did he eat the potato?Ofcourse,
all English speakers share the word potato to refer to a class of tuberous vegetables. Thusin
one sense we could agree that English language is a set of convention shared by a whole
speech community.
However,it is worth wondering how we decide when a collection of dialects is a language and
not just another, more general dialect. What makes English a language and not just another
general dialect? What makes Pittsburgh English a dialect and not a language in its own?
Some English dialects may be singled out for special status. Indeed the dialects spoken by
most people are treated as standard dialects and they are often the only written dialects in a
nation, the one that is taught at school and used in the media.
In addition, the only reason why one can speak of an English speech community is that all
educated speakers in this communities share the standard dialect, sometimes as a second di-
alect.
So what do we mean when we say English? Does it stand for the one set of dialects that is
written in England or in America that is also the basis of written English? Does the power or
the marginalization of English dialects depend on the perception of the society?

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The answer to these questions may be complicated. Nevertheless,basing on the tangible works
made by different linguists and savants on this issue, we will do our best to enlighten these
blurred assumptions.

1.2.1Conceptual framework of the study

There are various definitions of linguistic terms, and very often, these differences may be
source of confusion. So in order not to get into a muddle, I will provide in this section clear
definitions of some terms related to this study.

Dialect:a regionally or socially distinctive variety of a language, identified by a particular set

of words and grammatical structures. Spoken dialects are usually also associated with a dis-
tinctive pronunciation, or accent.
(David Crystal, A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics, sixth edition, 2008)
Sociolect: a termused by some sociolinguists to refer to a linguistic variety or(lect) defined on
social (as opposed to regional) grounds, e.g. correlating with a particular social class or occu-
pational group.
(David Crystal, A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics, sixth edition, 2008)
Variety:a variety is a specific form of language or language cluster. This may include lan -
guages, dialects, registers, styles or other forms of language as well as standard variety.
(Meechan, Majorie and Janie Reese-Miller, Language in Social Context, 2001)
Accent:The cumulative auditory effect of those features of pronunciation, which identify
where a person is from, regionally or socially. It refers to pronunciation only and defers from
dialect, which refers to grammar and vocabulary as well.
(David Crystal, A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics, sixth edition, 2008)
Speech community:it refers to any group of people that shares a set of linguistic convention
differing in some noticeable way from the convention found elsewhere.
Michael Gasser, Dialect and Language, 2013
British English: (BrE) is the form of English used in the United Kingdom. It includes all
English dialects used in the United Kingdom.
American English: (AmE) is the form of English used in the United States. It includes all
English dialects used in the United States.

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Received Pronunciation(RP):The name given to the regionally neutral accent in British
English, historically deriving from the prestige speech of the Court andthe public schools. The
term indicates that its prestige is the result of socialfactors, not linguistic ones.
(David Crystal, A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics, sixth edition)
General American (GA): A term used for the majority accent of American English, which
conveys little or no information about the speaker’s regional background. The accent is used,
for example, by most radio and television presenters, and is not without some internal varia-
tion, but it is thought of as chiefly excluding speakers with eastern (New England) or southern
backgrounds.
(David Crystal, A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics, sixth edition)

1.2.2 Critical literature review

In the critical literature review part, I briefly discuss the various readings I encountered, but
also I critically outline some of the principal findings of the different authors who dealt with
dialects of English.
As previously said on the confusion between language and dialect, many authors consider that
there is no objective differences between the two, in fact some of them claim that ‘any attempt
that you make to impose that kind of order on reality falls apart in the face’ (McWhorter,
2016).
Many linguists assume that everyone speaks a dialect (Preston, 1993), and that ʻa language is
a dialect with an army and a navy (Max Weinreich).
Instead of rendering the difference between these two terms clearer, such assertions make
them more ambiguous. In fact, this entails that there is a sort of similarity between language
and dialect, what is hard to understand because language is something wider than a dialect,
besides a dialect cannot be equaled to language, for it means something more special. For
instance, those who speak two different languagescannot understand one another whereas
those who use two different dialects of the same language have mutual intelligibility. Thus,
dialect does undoubtedly differ from language and one should point out what makes these two
concepts different.
Besides most sociolinguists defended the equality of all English dialects, they generally rec-
ognize the standard variety as a dialect of English (Trudgill, Peter 1999) but not the language
itself. Some even claimed that ‘all dialects and accents are, from a linguistic point of view
created equal’ (Katalin, 2008).

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Nevertheless, from a social point of view English dialects are not considered equal. Indeed
some dialects may be rule-governed but very special regarding the way its speakers use it. For
example very often speakers of ‘minor dialects’ or vernacular dialects,choose to speak differ-
ently in order to show their social belongings so much so that they radically change the lan-
guage itself.
Because of such changes the way they use the language is stigmatized and considered as non-
prestigious thus weakerthanthe ‘major’ consider or standardspoken dialects.
So all English dialects whether ‘minor’ or ‘major’ are linguistically viewed as equal, yet the
way they are socially perceived is dramatically different.

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 II Linguistic differences between BrE and AmE

In linguistics, the term dialect refers to a regionally or socially distinctive variety of language,
identified by a particular set of words and grammatical structures. Dialects are subdivisions of
languages and any language with a reasonably large number of speakers will develop different
dialects, especially if there are geographical barriers separating groups of people from each
other.
The term dialect is a core concept in sociolinguistics that makes possible to differentiate the
varieties of a particular language characterized in terms of Phonology, Morphology, and
Grammar.
Like most languages, English has several dialects, obviously due to its today’s wideness.
Actually, spoken on all the five continents because of colonial expansion, English is nowa-
days the second most spoken language in the world (exceeded by Chinese). Unanimously
renowned as a global language, it is the world’s most common lingua franca, that is to say it is
the most common language used as an auxiliary language to enable communication between
those who speak different native languages.
This study focuses on those dialects of English spoken in the United States and in Britain, in
other words the British English (BrE) and the American English (AmE).
Indeed the spoken forms of British English vary considerably, reflecting a long history of di-
alect development amid isolated population. In the United Kingdom dialects, word use and
accents vary not only between England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales but also within
them. Received Pronunciation (RP) refers to a way of pronouncing Standard English that is
actually used by about two percent of the UK population.It remains the accent upon which
dictionary pronunciation guides are based, and for teaching English as a foreign language. It
is referred to colloquially as "the Queen's English", "Oxford English" and "BBC English",
although by no means do all graduates of the university speak with such an accent and the
BBC no longer requires it or uses it exclusively.
An unofficial standard for spoken American English has also developed, as a result of mass
media and geographic and social mobility, and broadly describes the English typically heard
from network newscasters. Despite this unofficial standard, regional variations of American
English have not only persisted but have actually intensified, according to linguist William
Labov.
Consequently, due to those differences some varieties are privileged to the detriment of oth-
ers, both in the United States and the United Kingdom. In effect the standard ones or the pres-

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tigious dialects spoken at school or in the administration are put upon the non-standard di-
alects which is a dialect that deviate the standard norm and is generally stereotyped as being
‘incorrect’ or not considered as a dialect. Nevertheless for linguists, everyone speaks a dialect
(Preston, 1993), plus dialects are from a linguistic point of view all created equal (Geoffrey
Pullum 1999). Thus no variety is better, more beautiful or more correct than the others, there
is only a sociological process which raises one variety above the others since everyone means
his/her own dialect by "English.
For a relevant analysis of British and American dialects, we will describe the differences of
the main dialects spoken in America and in Britain at the linguistic level (i.e. phonologic,
grammatical and lexical differences). Moreover, cite the most important dialects spoken in
both countries.

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 2.1 Phonological difference
A language cannot be studied without alluding to its sounds and pronunciation, that is to say
the study of Phonology. Indeed this linguistic field is essential to study the different dialects.
Defined as the study of sounds patterning in a language, at one extreme Phonology focuses on
anatomy and physiology or the organs of speech and how we learn to use them and from an -
other extent, it shades into Sociolinguistics as we consider social attitudes to intonation and
accent. This latter refers to the way people pronounce when they speak and it is various be-
cause the way people speak is unique and personal to everyone. It even changes at the individ-
ual level as people adapt to different situation they use sounds consistently to different con-
texts.
Nevertheless, some identifiable groups of people living in the same geographical area or hav-
ing the same social features share a collection of sounds in the language they speak that is
exclusively scattered in their social group or location. In other words, they have a particular
accent (a way of pronouncing) which is unique and different from the varieties of accents in
the given language. In effect, several accents can be noticed as far as British and American
Englishes are concerned, identifying them may be complex due to their diversity besides even
within in a single country different segments of the population may exhibit different behav-
iors.
In what follows, are some phonological features that definitely distinguish speakers from the
United Kingdom and those from the United States.

2.1.1Rhotic accent

Rhoticity concerns the deletion or the pronunciation of the consonant [r] depending on the
English dialect. The presence of rhotic accent is one of the most noticeable differences be -
tween the British and the American English. For American English is rhotic 1 except for New
York City and the area of Boston, while the British English is non-rhotic 2, save for Scotland
and Ireland.
Let us describe now how the prevocalic sound /r/ is produced or dropped depending on ac-
cents.

1
The pronunciation of the orthographic r
2
The deletion of the orthographic r in pronunciation

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As far as rhotic accent is concerned, the tongue approaches the gum and the tip is curled back
towards the roof of the mouth. Thepronunciation of sound /r/ behaves in different ways such
as:
- The alveolar approximant[ɹ]. Sound [ɹ] appears at prevocalic positions in a syllable
or syllable-clusters.
Example 1: as inred[ɹed], camera [ˈkæməɹə], train[tɹeɪn], confrontation[ˈkɑ:nfɹən
ˈteɪʃn], or program[ˈpɹoʊgɹæm].
- Thealveolar flap[ɾ]. In American English, very often in colloquial registers, sound [ɹ]
at intervocalic position with the stress on the first vowel is substituted by [ɾ],
Example 2: in words like parish [ˈpæɾɪʃ], or lurid [ˈlʊɾɪd].
However,camerais pronounced as [ˈkæməɹə] because the vowel before letter r is not
stressed. The alveolar flap [ɾ] only occurs in American English, while the alveolar
approximant [ɹ] is found in both accents.
- Intrusive R:the insertion of an epenthetic r between vowels when the first vowel is
one that can occur before syllable final /r/. An epenthetic /r/ at word boundaries is in-
truded especially where one or both vowels are schwa.
Example3: later on becomes late-r-on;Australia and New Zealand becomes Australia-r-
and New Zealand.
The rhotic accent can be found associated with the following sounds:
 Long vowels [ɑ:], [ɔ:], and [ɜ:]. Example 4: hard [hɑ:rd], borne[bɔ:rn], and
hurt[hɜ:rt].
 After the short sound schwa [ə] in the comparative endings. Example 5: later [ˈleɪtər],
or taller [ˈtɔ:lər].
 Diphthongs ending by sound schwa [ɪə] and [eə]. Example 6: here [hɪər], and
there[∂eər].
 The combination [jʊ]. Example 7: cure [kjʊr], or pure [pjʊr].
 After the short sound [ʊ]: Example 8: poor[pʊr], moor[mʊr], or boor[bʊr].

In non-rhotic accents the sound /r/ is dropped. The r-dropping is characterized by the absence
of the sound /r/ in postvocalic position in the same syllable. Here are some features of non-
rhotic accent.

- R-dissimilation: deletion of sound /r/ in non-final unstressed syllables when another

syllable in the same word also contains /r/.
Example 9: the dropping of the first r in the following words: surprise, governor, cater-
pillar.
- Compensatory lengthening: lengthening that occurs after the elision of a sound. This
feature is ubiquitous in the Received Pronunciation accent.
Example 10: hard pronounced[hA:d]; fern pronounced [fM:n]; born pronounced
[bC:n].

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Towards the end of 18th century, the upper classes of Southern England started to remove the
rhotic accent as a way of marking class distinction. Gradually, the new accent took off and
middle classes adopted it as well. Scotland and Ireland, where the population was mainly
composed of lower working classes, did not take on the change of accent, and at the present
time both remains rhotic. In America, there are two notable exceptions, namely, New York
and New England areas. It has been hypothesized that those areas kept the non-rhotic accent
because of their strong links with the British.

2.1.2 Differences in vowel pronunciation

There are many paradigms showing the differences in vowel pronunciation between British
English and American English.
Change of Diphthong [əʊ] to [oʊ]: The shift from the British diphthong [əʊ] to [oʊ]. The
shift consisted in the change of the mid central unrounded vowel [ə] to the close-mid back
rounded vowel [o] in the first vowel of the diphthong. This shift is considered systematic. In
Table 1,several examples of this shift are shown.

WORD RP GA
No [nəʊ] [noʊ]
Go [ɡəʊ] [ɡoʊ]
Crow [krəʊ] [kroʊ]
Cocoa [kəʊ.kəʊ] [koʊ.koʊ]
Component [kəmˈpəʊ.nənt] [kəmˈpoʊ.nənt]
Promotion [prəˈməʊ.ʃən] [prəˈmoʊ.ʃən]
Romantic [rəʊˈmæn.tɪk] [rəˈmæn.tɪk]
Change of Vowel [ɒ]:the sound /o/ is pronounced in many different ways in English. Exam-
ple 11: Hot[hɒt] in RP, but [hɑ:t] in GA; love[lʌv]; corn[kɔ:n] in RP, but [kɔ:rn] in GA; con-
tinue[kənˈtɪnju:]; moon[mu:n]; coast[kəʊst] in RP, but [koʊst] in GA; house[haʊs]. The so-
called “short o”, which often appears in a stressed syllable with one letter o such as in dog or
model, underwent a change in American English. In British English that sound is pronounced
as an open back rounded short sound [ɒ], as in hot[hɒt], or possible[ˈpɒsəbl]. In American
English it is pronounced either as an open back unrounded long sound [ɑ:], as in hot[hɑ:t], or
as an open-mid back rounded long vowel [ɔ:], as in dog[dɔ:g]. Note that British English
prefers a short sound as opposed to American English, which prefers a long sound in all cases.
Table 2 shows several words in both pronunciations.

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 WORD BRTISH ENGISH AMERICAN ENGLISH
Box [bɒks] [bɑːks]
Chocolate [ˈtʃɒk.lət] [ˈtʃɑːk.lət]
Clock [klɒk] [klɑːk]
Cost [kɒst] [kɑːst]
Dog [dɒɡ] [dɑːɡ]
Gone [ɡɒn] [ɡɑːn]
Got [ɡɒt] [ɡɑːt]
Hot [hɒt] [hɑːt]
Job [dʒɒb] [dʒɑːb]
Lot [lɒt] [lɑːt]
Not [nɒt] [nɑːt]
Off [ɒf] [ɑːf]
Possible [pɒs.ə.bl̩ ] [pɑːs.ə.bl̩ ]
Sorry [ˈsɒr.i] [ˈsɔːr.i]
Stop [stɒp] [stɑːp]
Want [want] [wɑːnt]

In the areas of Eastern New England, such as the Boston accent, and New York City this
change did not take place. This is coherent with the same theory explaining why speakers of
those areas are non-rhotic (C.Wells, 2000).

Changes to [oʊ] and [ʌ]: the most frequent changes are from [ɒ] to [ɑ:] and [ɔ:]. However, in
a very few cases the vowel [ɒ] is changed to [oʊ] and [ʌ].
-Change to [oʊ]: Example 12: compostis [ˈkɒmpɒst] in RP, but in GA it is [ˈkɑ:mpoʊst].-- ---
Change to [ʌ] : Example 13: hovel; hover.
Change of [æ]:Around the American Revolutionary War vowel [æ] started to undergo a
change in Southern English, the future seed of RP. This near-open front unrounded vowel [æ]
is first lengthened to [æ:] and later lowered to the open back unrounded vowel [ɑ:]. However,
the change did not take off in GA, bringing about a new difference between both accents.
The change of vowel occurs under certain conditions, but it is deemed inconsistent, as we will
see in the examples below. Vowel [æ] becomes vowel [ɑ:] in RP when:
 Vowel [æ] is before sounds [s], [f], and [ɵ], as inpass, calf, and path.
 Vowel [æ] is followed by another consonant, especially in the cases such as [ns], [nt],
[nʧ], and [mpl], as in dance,can’t, ranchandsample
NB: The changes are not applied before other consonants, as in cat, pal, cab, anddrag.
Here we give some examples to illustrate the above rules as well as a few exceptions:
 Examples14: words pronounced with [æf] in GA with [ɑ:f] in RP:calf, graph,
giraffe, half, laugh,staff, after, craft, daft, draft, laughter, raft, shaft.

14
  Examples 15: Words pronounced with [æɵ] in GA with [ɑ:ɵ] in RP: bath, lath,
path. Exceptions :hath,maths, athlete, decathlon.
 Examples 16: Words pronounced with [ænt] in GA with [ɑ:nt] in RP: aunt, plant,
can’t, advantage. Exceptions: ant, banter, scant, mantle.
 Examples 17: Words pronounced with [æmp] in GA with [ɑ:mp] in RP: sample,
example. Exceptions: trample, ample.
It has been conjectured that the more common a word is, the more likely the change from [æ]
to [ɑ:] is to occur.
Change from [ju:] to [u:]: Around the beginning of twentieth century several changes took
place in the English vowels. One of them was the so-called yod-dropping, the omission of
sound [j] before [u:]. The change is named after the Hebrew letter yod, which represents the
sound [j]. Both RP and GA embraced the change, although GA extended the cases in which
yod-dropping was applied.
Yod-dropping before [u:] takes place in RP and GA in the following cases.
 After the post-alveolar affricates [ʧ] and [ʤ], Example 18: chew [ʧu:], juice [ʤu:s],
and Jew[ʤu:].
 After [r]. Example 19 rude[ru:d], prude[pru:d], shrewd[ ʃru:d], and extrude[ɪkˈstru:d].
 After clusters formed by a consonant followed by [l]. Example 20blue[blu:], flu[flu:],
and slew[slu:].
Apart from this common corpus of words, in GA as well as in many other varieties of English
we observe yod-dropping in further cases.
 After [s] and [z], as in suit[su:t], Zeus[zu:s], assume[əˈsu:m], and hirsute[ˈhɜ:rsu:t].
 After [l], as in lute[lu:t], and pollute[pəˈlu:t].
 Especially in GA, after [t], [d], and [n], as in tune[tu:n], stew[stu:], student[ˈstu:dənt],
dew[du:], duty[ˈdu:tɪ], produce[prəˈdu:s], and new[nu:].

Notice that spellings eu, ue, ui, ew, and u followed by consonant plus vowel frequently corre-
spond to sounds [ju:], or just [u:] if yod-dropping has taken effect. The examples above pro-
vide instances of this observation.

Change of [ɪ] and [aɪ]: in some cases the pronunciation of lax vowel [ɪ] in RP becomes
other vowels, mainly diphthong [aɪ] and [ə] in the suffix –ization.
 Change to [aɪ]. Examples 21: dynasty, privacy, simultaneously,vitamin.

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  In the suffix -ization, pronounced as [aɪˈzeɪʃn] in RP, the diphthong [aɪ] is trans-
formed into the unstressed and neutral vowel sound [ə], resulting in the pronunciation
[əˈzeɪʃn] in GA.
Examples 22:authorization, centralization, civilization,colonization, dramatization,
fertilization, globalization, hybridization, legalization,localization, mobilization, mod-
ernization, neutralization, normalization, optimization,organization, privatization,
specialization, synchronization, urbanization, visualization.

2.1.3 Differences in Consonant Pronunciation

Pronunciation of sound /t/:In American English letter t is pronounced in six different ways:
 As an aspirated sound[th], when it is the first sound of a word, as in tempt-
ing[ˈthemptɪɳ], or in an inner and stressed position, as in potential[pəˈthenʃl].
 As an de-aspirated sound[t], when the syllable does not carry the stress, as in the
second t in tempting [ˈthemptɪɳ], or after [s] as in stop [stɑ:p], or at the ends of sylla-
bles as in pet[pet], or patsy [ˈpætsi].
 As a flapped sound [ɾ], the most distinguishing allophone, which consists of pro-
nouncing an alveolar flap instead of the plosive dental [t h] or de-aspirated [t]. This
change occurs when t is at an intervocalic position, the first vowel being stressed, as in
water[ˈwɔ:tər]. This phenomenon also applies when words are linked together in a full
prosodic unit, as in the sentence what is this?[ˈwʌɾɪzˈ∂ɪz] when uttered it in colloquial
register.
 As a glottal stop[ʔ]. A glottal stop is a voiceless sound produced by the obstruction of
the airflow in the vocal tract. The glottis is the organ that actually prevents the air from
passing through the vocal tract. The glottal stop substitutes the de-aspirated [t] sound
at the end of words, as in put [puʔ] or report[rɪˈpɔ:rʔ], and also in the presence of a
stressed syllable followed by patterns [t+vowel+n] or [tn], as in button[ˈbʌʔn], or con-
tinent[ˈkɑ:nʔɪnənt].
 As a glottalized stop[tʔ]. In a glottalized [tʔ] the stop [t] and the glottal stop [ʔ] are
produced at the same time. For its production, this allophone follows the same rules as
the glottal stop does. Example where this sound can be found are mutton [ˈmʌtʔn], or
curtain[ˈkɜ:rtʔn].
 The sound [t] could be completely omitted in some circumstances. In the presence of
the pattern formed by a stressed vowel followed by [nt], sound [t] is not pronounced in
some varieties of GA. Thus, we can hear winter[ˈwɪnə] or center[ˈsenər].

16
Both GA and RP have aspirated and de-aspirated [t] sounds, which, in a formal or simply
careful enunciation, are the only two sounds corresponding to stop [t]. In colloquial and other
registers, the other allophones may appear. In the RP, the flap [t] is never used, but instead it
is pronounced as a de-aspirated [t] or as a glottalized [t]. Glottal stops are common in both
varieties of English and follow similar rules in general. The omission of the sound [t] in RP
can also be found.

2.1.4 Change of stress

So far, major differences in pronunciation between British and American English have been
described in terms of change of vowels and consonants. The change of stress, although not
being as marked, also contributes to differentiate both accents. We will examine three areas
where worth mentioning differences are found, namely, the French loanwords, the ending -
ate, and the suffixes -ary, -ory, -berry, and -mony.
French Loanwords: In 1066, William of Normandy invaded England. That would mark the
beginning of Norman rule of the England, which would last for about four hundred years,
until the end of the Hundred Years War. In a first stage, the Norman took over the power and
decided to change the language of government as well as impose new institutions inspired in
the French ones. However, they let low- and middle-classes speak English. In this period,
loanwords come from the domains of political, social and diplomatic activity. In a second
stage, which could be dated at between 1250 and 1400, French started to be used by the popu-
lation. The reason was that many Normans had to permanently settle in England as Normandy
was bought by the French king in 1204, and many Normans migrated to England. The number
of loanwords proliferated as the Normans -which now did include low- and middle-classes-
brought new experiences and ways to name objects. In a third stage, from 1400 on, most of
the loanwords are related to the domain of culture.
In other respects, Loanwords from French were adapted by American English in a different
way than there were by British English. Change of stress is the most noticeable difference. In
GA,French loanwords have a final-syllable stress, while RP stresses an earlier syllable. It
seems that the American English phonology has respected the fixed accent of the French lan-
guage, which in most cases falls on the last syllable. A few examples of this change of stress
are the following.

 First-syllable stress in RP but second-syllable stress in GA. Examples 23 : adult, ba-

ton, beret, bidet,blasé, brochure, buffet, café, chalet, chauffeur, cliché, coupé, debris,

17
 debut, décor, detail,flambé, frappé, garage, parquet, pâté, précis, sachet, salon, vac-
cine. With more than two syllables we have matinée, négligée, nonchalant. (The word
matinéehas a certainly difficult pronunciation [ˈmætnˈeɪ].)
 Second-syllable stress in RP but last-syllable stress in GA. Examples 24attaché,
consommé,décolleté, fiancé(e).
 Common words where GA has a first-syllable stress and RP has last-syllable are ad-
dress, cigarette, and magazine.

Ending –ate: Words ending in -ate, mostly verbs, have a different stress pattern in both ac-
cents depending on the length of the word.
 Most two-syllable verbs ending in -ate have first-syllable stress in GA and second-syl-
lable stress in RP. This includes dictate, donate, locate, migrate, placate, pulsate, and
rotate. There are exceptions where both pronunciations agree, as in abate,
checkmate,duplicate, evacuate, graduate, imitate.
 Longer -ate verbs are pronounced the same in GA and RP. There are a few exceptions
where in RP it has a first-syllable stress and in GA a second-syllable stress, as in elon-
gate, remonstrate, tergiversate.

 Suffixes -ary, -ory, -berry and –mony:There are a few differences in pronuncia-
tion of suffixes -ary, -ory, -berry, and -mony between both accents.
 Suffix -ary: In general, in GA suffixes -ary is pronounced as [eri], whereas in RP the
pronunciation is [əri]. Examples 25: contrary, corollary, honorary,imaginary, seden-
tary. In some cases in RP, the sound schwa [ə] is even elided, as in military [ˈmɪlɪtri]
or momentary [ˈməʊməntri].
 Suffix -ory: We will describe two rules along with some exceptions. If the preceding
syllable is unstressed, then RP still keeps the pronunciation [əri], but GA prefers [ɔ:ri].
Example 26: accusatory, amatory, derogatory, exclamatory, laudatory, mandatory,
migratory,nugatory, premonitory, recriminatory, repudiatory. When the preceding
syllable is stressed in most cases RP drops the sound schwa and GA keeps the sound
[ɔ:], as in conservatory, pronounced [kənˈsɜ:vtri] in British English and [kən
ˈsɜ:rvtɔ:ri] in American English. Other examples are inventory, laboratory, lavatory,
inflammatory,obligatory, oratory, predatory, repository, signatory, suppository, terri-
tory, transitory. Exceptions to this last rule are advisory, contradictory, compulsory,
cursory, illusory,peremptory, rectory, satisfactory, where both accents pronounce
[əri].

18
  Suffix -berry: In general, GA tends to pronounce the full suffix as [beri] and RP tends
to either substitute [e] by schwa, yielding [əri], or even elide the first vowel, yielding
simply [bri], especially in informal or quick speech.
 Suffix -mony: Suffix -mony after a stressed syllable is pronounced [moʊni] in GA and
[məni] in RP.Example 27: testimony RP [ˈtes.tɪ.mən.i], GA [ˈtes.tɪmoʊ.ni].

Some of these suffixes corresponding to adjectives, which in turn can be converted into
adverbs by adding the suffix -ly. This change also implies a shift in stress in GA, which is
not generally found in RP. In GA, the stress in adverbs falls on the antepenultimate sylla-
ble, as in arbitrarily[ˈɑ:rbəˈtrerəli], contrarily[kənˈtrerɪli], momentarily[ˈmoʊmənˈterəli],
or ordinarily[ˈɔ:rdnˈerəli]. When the word is long, a secondary stress normally appears on
the first syllable of the word.

In conclusion, due to the historical, geographical and cultural differences between American
and British people, infinite number of phonological differences can be found in these two di-
alects. Indeed on top of these phonological features, there exist several other distinguishable
factors at this and the other3 linguistic levels.

3
At the Grammatical and Lexical levels

19
 2.2 Grammatical difference

What is referred to as grammatical variation really involves two sub-types: morphology and
syntax. Morphology refers to the structure or form of words, including the morphemes or
minimal units of meaning which comprise words for instance the morphemes {un}"not" and
{kind} "kind" in unkind, or the morphemes {dog}"dog" and {s} "plural" in dogs.
Syntax refers to the structure of larger units like phrases and sentences, including rules for
combining and relating words in sentences, for instance the rule that in English yes/no ques-
tions, auxiliaries must occur at the beginning of sentences, before the subject noun phrase
(e.g. Can Mary go? versus the statement Mary can go).
Actually, one can find examples of variation in both types as far as American and British is
concerned.
First, there are landmark morphologic features showing the differences between these two
dialects.
2.2.1 Verbs morphology:

- One of the difference at this level is the use of past tense and past participle of certain verbs
such as spoil, spell, burn, dream, smell, spill, leap, and others. These verbs that can be regular
or irregular have a various use in the American and in British English. In fact, in BrE both
regular and irregular forms are current except from some verbs (such as smelt and leapt).
There is a strong tendency towards the irregular forms, especially by users of Received Pro-
nunciation. For other words (such as dreamed, leaned and learned),the regular is somewhat
more common. In most accents of AmE, the irregular forms are never or rarely used (except
for burnt).
The t endings may be encountered frequently in older American texts, especially poetry.
There may be a various usage when the past participles are used as adjectives, as in burnt
toast or as in the two-syllable form learned, (an adjective used to mean "educated" or to refer
to academic institutions both in BrE and AmE.) Finally, the past tense and past participle of
dwell and kneel are more commonly dwelt and knelt in both standards, with dwelled and
kneeled as common variants in the US but not in the UK.
- Lit as the past tense of light is more common than lighted in the UK. Americans use lit to
mean ‘set afire’ or ‘to emit light’ but lighted to mean ‘to cast light upon’
Example 28: "The stagehand lighted the set and then lit a cigarette."
Conversely, BrE favors fitted as the past tense of fit generally, whereas the preference of
American English is more complex.

20
-The past tense of spit "expectorate" is spat in BrE, spit or spat in AmE.AmE typically has
spat in figurative contexts, for example, "He spat out the name with a sneer", or in the context
of expectoration of an object that is not saliva. Example 29: "He spat out the foul-tasting fish"
but spit for "expectorated" when it refers only to the expulsion of phlegm or saliva.
-The past participle gotten is never used in modern BrE (apart from in dialects that retain the
older form), which generally uses got, except in old expressions such as ill-gotten gains. Ac-
cording to the Compact Oxford English Dictionary4, "The form gotten is not used in British
English but is very common in North American English." The American dictionary Merriam-
Webster, however, lists "gotten" as a standard past participle of "get." In AmE gotten empha-
sizes the action of acquiring and got tends to indicate simple possession (for example, Have
you gotten it? versus Have you got it?). Gotten is also typically used in AmE as the past par-
ticiple for phrasal verbs using get, such as get off, get on, get into, get up, and get around: If
you hadn't gotten up so late, you might not have gotten into this mess. AmE, but not BrE, has
forgot as a less common alternative to forgotten for the past participle of forget.
- Another special case concerns the AmE usage of the verb slay, which has two past tenses,
the choice depending on the meaning: when slay means ‘to kill violently’ its past tense form
is slew, but in its figurative sense, ‘to delight or to amuse immensely’, the regular form slayed
is usually chosen.
Example 30: He slayed the audience or that slayed me meaning ‘caused me to laugh vigor-
ously’
2.2.2 Word formation

-Certain word formation processes are more productive in American English than in British
English.
Examples 31:
- ify (as in citify ‘urbanize’, uglify).
- ize (as inburglarize ‘break into (a house)’, decimize ‘convert to a decimal system’ ).
- cian (as in mortician ‘undertaker’, beautician ‘hairdresser’)
- ee (as in retiree ‘a person who has retired from working or profession career’,
draftee).
- ery (as in eatery ‘luncheonette, restaurant).
- ster (as in teamster ‘a person who drives a truck as a job)
- wise (as in timewise, weatherwise, ‘as far as time/weather is concerned’

4
The main historical dictionary of the English language, published by the Oxford University Press.

21
- Conversion or zero derivation is more frequently used in AmE than in BrE to derive new
words.
Examples 31: to author ‘be the author of’; to pressure ‘pressurize’; to room ‘occupy or share
a room, especially as lodger’; a cook-out ‘an outdoor barbecue’; a try-out ‘an audition’.
- The distribution of certain directional directions varies somewhat in both dialects. British
forwards, towards, rightwards, are used withoutsin AmE: forward, toward, rightward.
Nevertheless afterwards, towards, and backwards are not unusual in America, plus in Britain
forward is common, and standard in phrasal such as look forward to.
The form with s may be used as adverbs (or preposition towards) but rarely as adjectives: in
Britain as in America, one say ‘an upward motion’.
- The use of the agentive –er suffixis variable: while it is attached to nouns such as football,
cricket or netball in BrE, AmE usually uses football player.
Where the sport’s name is usable as a verb, the suffixation is standard in both dialects.
Examples 32:golfer, bowler and shooter
- The AmE prefers to use bare infinitive in compound nouns of the form <verb><noun>,
whereas BrE favors the use of gerunds.
Examples 33: jump rope/skipping rope ; racecar/racing car
rowboat/rowing boat; sailboat/sailing boat
dial tone/dialling tone; drainboard/draining board.
- American English has generally a tendency to drop inflectional suffixes, thus preferring
clipped forms unlike BrE.
Examples 34: cookbook v. cookery book ; Smith, age 40 v. Smith, aged 40
skim milk v. skimmed milk ;dollhouse v. dolls' house
barbershop v. barber's shop
-Singular attributives in one country may be plural in the other, and vice versa. For example,
the UK has a drugs problem, while the United States has a drug problem (although the singu-
lar usage is also commonly heard in the UK).
Furthermore,Americans read the sports section of a newspaper. British, on the other hand are
more likely to read the sport section. However, BrE maths is singular, just as AmE math is
(both are abbreviations of mathematics.)

22
There are also some variations at syntactic level (differences in various aspects of sentence
structure, including word order and the use of auxiliaries, tenses, etc.) between American and
British English.
2.2.3 Transivity:

Several verbs show differences in transivity5 between AmE and BrE.

- agree it can be transitive or intransitive in BrE, but usually intransitivein AmE (except with
objective clauses). Example 34: BrE: agree a contract agree to or on a contract, but I agree
that this is a good contract in both dialects.
However, in formal AmE and BrE legal writing one often sees constructions such as as may
be agreed between the parties (rather than as may be agreed upon between the parties).
-appeal(as a decision) is usually intransitive in BrE (used with against) and transitive in AmE.
Examples 35: BrE: appeal against the decision to the Court; AmE: appeal the decision to the
Court).
- catch upmeaning ("to reach and overtake") can be either transitive or intransitive in BrE, but
is strictly intransitive in AmE.
Example 36: BrE: to catch somebody up; AmE: to catch up with somebody
A transitive form exists in AmE, with a different meaning: to catch somebody up means that
the subject will help the object catch up, rather the opposite of the BrE transitive meaning.
-cater("to provide food and service"), is intransitive in BrE, but can be transitive or intransi-
tive in AmE. Example 37: to cater for a banquet/to cater a banquet.
- claim: Sometimes intransitive in BrE (used with for), but it is strictly transitive in AmE.
- meet: in AmE, meet is used intransitively followed by with to mean, "to have a meeting
with", as for business purposes. Example 38: Yesterday we met with the CEO.
Transitivemeetis reserved for the meanings ‘to be introduced to’ as in I want you to meet the
CEO; she is such a fine lady, or ‘to come together with (someone, somewhere)' for instance
Meet the CEO at the train station, and ‘to have a casual encounter with’.
BrE uses transitive meet also to mean "to have a meeting with"; the construction meet with,
which actually dates back to Middle English, appears to be coming back into use in Britain,
despite some commentators who preferred to avoid confusion with meet with meaning "re-
ceive, undergo" as in the proposal was met with disapproval.
The construction meet up with (as in to meet up with someone), which originated in the US,
has long been standard in both dialects.
5
Property of verbs that relates to whether a verb can take direct objects and how many such objects a verb can
take.

23
- protest: In sense "oppose", is intransitive in BrE but transitive in AmE.
Example 39: AmE: The workers protested against the decision;BrE: The workers protested
the decision.
The intransitive protest against in AmE means, ‘to hold or participate in a demonstration
against’.
-write: In BrE, the indirect object of this verb usually requires the preposition to.
Example 40: I'll write to my MP or I'll write to her (although it is not required in some situa-
tions, for example when an indirect object pronoun comes before a direct object noun, for
example, I'll write her a letter).
In contrast, write can be used transitively in AmE
Example 41:AmE:I will write my congressman; I will write him.
2.2.4 Verbal auxiliaries
-Certain auxiliaries such as shall or shan’t are more commonly used by British than by Amer-
icans. Even in very formal discourse such as academic discourse or legalistic language, they
are usually replaced by more neutral auxiliaries such will or won’t.
Example 42: BrE: I shall ring you up when I arrive both: I will ring you up when I arrive
- In (conservative) BrE conditional clauses, the auxiliary should is used in first persons rather
than would – this is less and less frequent even in present-day BrE, and totally avoided in
AmE.
Example 43: BrE: I should go to the party if I were invited; both: I would go to the party if I
were invited.
- BrE sometimes uses will and would in a predictive sense:
Example 44: BrE: (doorbell ringing) That will be Zed both: That must be/is Zed
- A number of English verbs can be used as either a lexical verb or an auxiliary. AmE treats
them as lexical verbs, while BrE typically also allows for using them as operators in sen-
tences, that is, it analyses them as auxiliaries.

Examples 45: BrE (the verb is an auxiliary); both (the verb is a lexical verb):
Have you got a problem? Do you have a problem?
He used not to play tennis. He didn’t use to play tennis.
How dare you say that? How do you dare thay?
We needn’t go there. We don’t need to go there.

24
 2.2.5 Prepositions and adverbs
Prepositions and adverbs have nuanced usage between AmE and BrE as well.
-out:In AmE, it is standardto use this function word as a preposition in phrases such as out the
door and out the window to mean "out through". For instance, in AmE, one jumps "out of a
boat" by jumping "out the porthole," and it would be incorrect in standard AmE to "jump out
the boat" or climb "out of the porthole" (although "out of the porthole" is used in certain
Northeastern American dialects.) On the other hand, in BrE, out of is preferred in writing for
both meanings, but out is common in some speech dialects. Several other uses of out of are
peculiarly British (out of all recognition, out of the team…)
- "on line" (two words): In the New York City area, refers to the state of waiting in a line or
queue.For example, standing on a sidewalk waiting for a table at a restaurant. Elsewhere in
AmE, one waits "in line". In BrE and AmE, going "online" (one word) refers to using the In-
ternet. In BrE, queue is the only term used, and no variants of line are used to hint at waiting
in turn. Actually, Britishpeople would rather talk of standing in a queue, queuing up, joining
the queue, sitting in a queue (for example, when driving) and simply queuing. Britons may be
confused by the expression "in line", thinking that a row rather than a column of people is
meant.
-On/in: In AmE, the preposition on is always used to refer to a street on which an address is
located, whereas in BrE in can also be used in some contexts. Indeed, in suggests an address
on a city street, so a service station (or a tourist attraction or a village) would always be on a
major road, but a department store might be inOxford Street.
Furthermore, AmE uses on for BrE in with the nounteam and the preposition can be omitted
in time adverbials with dates (note the difference in the order of the elements!), the days of
the week, and with plural nouns used as time expressions
Example 46: AmE: on the team BrE: in the team
He did it July 4th He did it on July 4th
It happened Thursday It happened on Thursday
He goes there Mondays He goes there on Mondays
- at: British English favors using the prepositionat with words like weekend and Christ-
mas.Other constructions such as over, on and during (the) weekend(s) are found in both vari-
eties but they are more common in AmE than in BrE.
Examples 47: BrE: at (the) weekend(s) both: on/over/during (the) weekend(s)
BrE: at Christmas both: on/over/during Christmas

25
Adding at to the end of a question requesting a location is common in the southern states of
the U.S. and in some British dialects, for example, "where are you at?", but is not considered
correct in standard American English and would be considered superfluous or humorous in
standard BrE. Besides, In BrE, one rings someone on their telephone number; in AmE, one
calls someone at their telephone number.
- from: in both dialects, from is the preposition prescribed for use after the word different: Ex-
ample 48: American English is different from British English
Nonetheless, different than is also commonly heard in the US, and is often considered stan-
dard when followed by a clause: Example 49: American English is different than it used to
be.
In BrE,different to is a common alternative, despite its informality.
In addition, when referring to the constituency of an American legislator, the preposition
‘from’ is usually used ‘Senator from New York,’ whereas British MPs are ‘for’ their con-
stituency: ‘MP for East Cleveland.’
- of/to: It is common in BrE to say opposite to as an alternative opposite of when used as a
noun, the only form normally used in AmE.
Example 50: BrE:what is the opposite to white? AmE: what is the opposite of white?
The noun opportunity can be followed by a verb in two different ways: opportunity plus to-in-
finitive (‘the opportunity to do something’) or opportunity plus of plus gerund (‘the opportu-
nity of doing something’). The first construction is the most common in both dialects but the
second has almost disappeared in AmE and is often regarded as a Briticism.

2.2.6 Nouns:
- Collective nouns like team, faculty, family, government, committee, council, board, the pub-
lic normally require plural verb agreement andpronoun substitution in BrE but are treated as
singular in AmE.
Examples: BrE: The US government are AmE: The US government is discussing the
discussing the issue issue
BrE: The committee were appointed AmE: The committee was appointed

Proper nouns that are plural in form take a plural verb in both AmE and BrE; for example,
The Beatles are a well-known band; The Patriots are the champions, with one major excep-
tion: in American English, the United States is almost universally used with a singular verb.
Although the construction the United States are was more common early in the history of the

26
country, as the singular federal government exercised more authority and a singular national
identity developed, it became standard to treat the United States as a singular noun.
Other grammatical differences
- BrE uses no article with certain count nouns like hospital and university.
Example 51:BrE: He died in hospital AmE: He died in the hospital
- In BrE, pronouns are frequently deleted after prepositions in some sentences.
Example 52:BrE: The cake has flowers on both: The cake has flowers on it
-The so-called mandative subjunctive is normally replaced in BrE by the indicative .
Example 52: BrE: I suggest that you don't do AmE: I suggest that you not do that
that again! again!
- As for word order, there are two differences worthy of mention: first, in BrE a person's at-
tributes often come after the person named.
BrE :Tony Blair, the ex-PM; AmE :ex-PM Tony Blair

In conclusion, despite the remarkable differences one can say that American and British Eng-
lish are mostly in agreement compared to the differences at the lexical level.

2.3 LEXICAL DIFFERENCES

Differences in vocabulary are one aspect of dialect diversity that people notice readily and
comment on quite frequently. They are certainly common enough as markers of the differ-
ences between geographical areas or regions. For instance the fact that "a carbonated soft
drink" might be called pop in the inland North and the West of the United States, soda in the
Northeast, tonic in Eastern New England, and cold drink, drink or dope in various parts of the
South (Carver 1987:268). Accordingly, lexical differences play a significant role in regional
dialectology (the study of regional dialects), and in treatments of English dialects.
Lexical differences are also a factor in stylistic variation (for instance, whether one describe
oneself as being exhausted or pooped), and in the genderlect of men versus women (for in-
stance, it has been claimed that women are more likely to describe an item as lovely or di-
vine).
American English and British English show distinguishable lexical differences. Indeed, when
British and American people meet, not only two distinct accents can be noticed but also a di-
vergence at the level of words.
The emergence of lexical differences is due to several factors. Of course, a number of innova -
tions (new words, or new sense for already existing English words) were brought about by the

27
fact that North American settlers needed names for fauna and flora non-existent in the British
Isles (e.g. corn, robin…). As well as by linguistic contact with other languages (besides
American Indian and African languages, AmE has also been exposed to considerable Spanish
influence). Technological development and cultural differences have also caused some differ-
ences (e.g. technical terms for car parts in sports and education).
Finally, the two dialects undergo independent linguistic change, as a reason of which differ-
ent lexical items enter the system (either via borrowing or internal coinage), and leave the
system (i.e. become old fashioned, archaic or even lost).
The differences arise when either an already existing English word gains a new sense, or a
new word is coined or borrowed in on variety, however, the new sense or word is not adopted,
or only partly adopted by the other. As there is a constant communication between the two
standard dialects, the status of a given difference may be subject to change: words character-
istic of one variety may gradually enter the other and eventually become fully integrated and
understood in both –therefore, they become Standard English in general. That is why the de -
velopment of a regional limited lexical item into a word common to AmE and BrE can be
broken down into four stages. In the first stage, the innovation is totally unknown inthe other
variety, e.g., AmE meld(meaning merge or blend), BrE hive off (meaning break away from the
main group or become separate). A number of slang expressions belong here, e.g., Br bloke
(man),blag (attack and rob), fag (cigarette-,loo (lavatory), quid (one-pound note), ta –(thank
you).
In the second stage, the new word or sense is understood but not used in the other variety,
e.g., AmE cookie, BrE scone, ring road. In the third stage, it is understood and used in both
varieties but retain the original British or American "flavor", e.g., AmE movie, BrE telly. Fi-
nally, the borrower variety fully adopts the new expression, e.g., AmE boost, hi, BrE semi-de-
tached, pissedoff.
The following sections will briefly give a description of lexical differences in the fields of
housing, transport, shopping, food, numerical systems and education as part of everyday lan-
guage that could be quite confusing.

28
 2.3.1 House Vocabulary
As far as house terminology is concerned, there is a direct translation from a dialect to the
other for some terms, such as the American apartment house, condominium, duplex, and row
house, which in British are respectively block of flats, owner-occupied flat, semi-detached
house and terraced house. In other cases, there may be no exact British equivalent for the
American term, as for brownstone used for a house made of red-brown stone, typical of nine-
teenth century cities in eastern US.

As for rooms,AmE and BrE English have many words in common. However, Americans use
the euphemism bathroom as polite synonym for the word toilet, because many Americans
consider the word toilet indelicate. The British sitting room sounds rather old fashioned to
American ears, as they always call it living room. The word cupboard is used with different
meanings in the two varieties: the British cupboard can be used to story all sort of things,
whereas Americans use it only in kitchens. Americans would be very surprised to be told to
put their clothes in cupboard since they use a closet. Many differences concern the kitchen
utensils. American use can openers, electric outlets, dishpans, stoves and wastebasketwhile
British use tin openers, power point, washing bowl, cookers and waste bins.
To wash and dry dishes, American use the expression to do the dishes, while in British it is to
do the washing up.
Most furniture items have the same names in the two varieties; however, the MED Dictio-
nary6reports that:
‘To an American a bureau is a piece of furniture with drawers
for holding things such towels or items or clothing; British use the
expression chest of drawers. To a British a bureau is a piece of
furniture, but with a top part that opens and makes it a writing
table. An American would call this a writing table. In American
English a cot is a light narrow bed that can be folded up, for example
for camping. In fact the British call this type of bed a camp bed
to speakers of British English a cot is a small bed for a baby with tall
sides that have bars, something Americans refer to as a crib.’

6
The Macmillan English Dictionary

29
Moreover, in Great Britain the term first floor is used to indicate the level above the entrance
floor, while the entrance level is designated as the ground floor. American usage labels the
entrance level as the first floor, thus ground floor is not considered.

2.3.2 TRANSPORT

There are many differences between American and British English related to transport.
Whereas in British people take a couch, American say they would take a bus; American
would take subways whereas in Great Britain this means of transport is called an under-
ground.Americans would go by train or railroad, which is the American equivalent of the
British term railway. Baggage car, café car, one-way ticket, round-trip ticket, railway are the
American equivalents of baggage van, buffet car, single ticket, return ticket and railway car-
riage in British English. Other vehicle differences are the American motorcycle, station
wagon and truck against the British motorbike estate (car), and lorry.

As regards other street objects, parking meter, pedestrian, and traffic are shared by the two
varieties. However, Americans use the terms crosswalk, gas station, overpass, sidewalk, and
stoplightand British would saypedestrian crossing/zebra crossing,petrol station, flyover pave-
ment, and traffic lights respectively, only to mention the most evident differences.

2.3.3 Shopping
Going shopping might be quite confusing in the two countries if one does not know some
lexical differences. First of all the words shop and store are used somewhat differently in
American and British English. Generally the American use store the way British use shop.
Most British shop would be called store in the US, whereas the noun shop is more often used
to mean a small retail establishment such as an antique shop or a gift shop.
British go to the chemist’s while American go to a drugstore or a pharmacy, where they buy
medicines and other items, such as body care products, stationery and cigarettes.
As far as clothing is concerned, each difference in one dialect has an equivalent in the other.
Indeed, the American bathrobe, nightgown, sneakers and tuxedo are called dressing gown,
nightdress, trainers and dinner jacket in British English.
Otherwise, the same word has a different meaning: the word jumper exists in both AmE and
BrE English. Nevertheless, in BrE it alludes to a knitted clothing that covers the top half of
the body, whereas for Americans it hints at a sleeveless dress worn over shirt or a blouse.

30
The British vest is an American undershirt, and what Americans mean with vest, is the British
waistcoat.
2.3.4 Food
When reading American and British recipes, one readily finds out that there are differences
regarding the cooking terminology. Actually, a British biscuit is an American cookie and an
American biscuit is a British scone. Additionally, some fruit and vegetable are differently
called, such as the American eggplants and blueberries, which in British are aubergines and
bilberries.
Furthermore, Americans and British use the same word for most categories of meat as beef,
pork, and lamb: the differences are for specific meat dishes, as the MED explains:

‘For example, what the British call a joint (a large piece of meat,
such as the leg of lamb or loin of pork, cooked in an oven and
eaten with potatoes and other vegetables) is known as roast in the
U.S. Most Americans would be shocked to hear that Sunday joint
is a British tradition. To American a joint is not something that
people roast, something that they smoke: a marijuana cigarette’

Some other differences are chop, ground meat and tenderloin steak, which in British are
called cutlet, minced meat and fillet steak.
as for seafood, what Americans called shrimps are prawns in BrE. Other different words are
canned tuna, crawfish and fish sticks that for the British are tinned tuna, crayfish, and fish
fingers.

2.3.5 Numbers
The system of saying and writing numbers has some nuances as well. The British insert and
before the tens and the units, as in two hundred and fifty. Americans are more numbers like
1,446 as fourteen forty-six instead of one thousand four hundred and forty-six unless when
they are referring to years.
In addition, monetary vocabulary is often said differently. For amounts overthe dollars, an
American would say both dollars and cents or drop denomination.
Example 53: $3.20 is read three twenty or three dollars and twenty cents
Whereas in Britain £3.20 is read three pounds twenty.

31
 2.3.6 EDUCATION
Because education in Britain and in the USA is also organized differently, we can come
across lexical differences. The most basic term of this field, school, is used in both of the
countries but the meanings of the term are not a perfect match. While in Britain it would be
children who attend school, the American term encompasses also places of higher education
such as universities. When deciding which type of school to send their children to, American
parents have a choice of either public or private school. As the name suggests, public school
is an establishment open to children from all social classes for the education is paid for by the
government. Private school, on the other hand, is mostly closed for children from poorer
background. The government do not sponsor the education, so the parents have to pay for the
schooling.
In Britain, public school is also a familiar term, but it applies to a school where parents have
to pay for the education of their children (Strevens, 1972: 57) 7.Intoday’s Britain, public schools
are contrasted by state schools, where, just like in American public schools, there is no need to
pay for the tuition because it is paid for by the government.

Unlike the United States, Britain does not have a unified educational system that is why the
term defer depending on what we are talking about. Optional starts with high school in the US
and with college or sixth form in Britain. An American student finishes his high school by
graduating from it. In Britain, teenagers who attend college or sixth form are called pupil;
thestudent is reserved for attendant of a university only (Strevens, 1972: 57). One of the re-
quirements to being accepted to university in Britain is passing the A-levels which conclude
secondary education. In the USA, the term university is also used in the same meaning, al-
though more often this applies to a place where students gain more advanced knowledge after
finishing their first degree at college (OALD, 2010: 293).
In conclusion, American and British English show large differences in words related to com-
mon activities. However, all evidence suggests that the two varieties of the language are mov-
ing closer together as a result of globalization. The movement is mostly eastward. Each year,
more words that were once exclusively American are found in the spoken and written lan-
guage of both Britain and the U.S.

7
While in today’s English, this term might cause much confusion, it has a perfectly understandable reason from
the past. According to Marckwardt and Quirk (1965: 28), public schools were schools built for the money
provided by fund-raising campaigns. At that time these were charitable organization that provided free
schooling. These were contrasted by private schools where the tuition was not free of charge. Over time, public
schools became very prestigious institutions. And with prestige necessarily came the need to pay for education.
So by the time of the arrival of the contemporary educational system, the name public school was too closely
associated with this prestigious schooling to change it.

32
 3.1 Overview of the dialects spoken in the UK
United Kingdom is a country where several dialects are spoken; it is the most dialect-obsessed
nation in the world. Indeed, the English language encompasses diverse range of dialects and
countless accents in Great Britain. Despite the limited space of the isle, a great number of
varieties of the language are spoken in the area. That diversity of accents and dialects implies
a different way of using the language, allowing everyone to use the language in such a way to
highlight their social belongings. That is why a sort of rivalry or other associated prejudices
rises, and very often, some speakers of the major dialects undermine the regional dialects
speakers. However, in linguistics whena group of speakers uses a language in a specific way,
they are considered to speak a valuable dialect as long as there is a rule governed in it.
Therefore, privileged or non-privileged, standard or non-standard all the dialects spoken in the
United Kingdom are worthy to describe.

3.1.1 STANDARD BRITISH ENGLISH

In the United Kingdom most people use the Standard English (SE), it is the dialect normally
used in writing and it is spoken by the most powerful and educated members of the UK popu-
lation. Indeed, it has an accent associated with it in England known as Received Pronuncia-
tion (where Received means accepted) and abbreviated to RP. Because of their origins and
history, SP and RP are closely associated with the language of the middle and upper classes in
the English society, known variously as Queen’s ‘English’ or ‘BBC English’.
RP is about the way of pronouncing the Standard English, and it is a minority accent, used
perhaps by 12-15% of the population (Peter Trudgill) and about 7-12% of RP accent speakers
speak it with a regional accent such as Scouse or Geordie etc. Standard English is rather a
matter of grammar, vocabulary and orthography.
Historically, the dialect, which we now call Standard English, is the result of a long process of
changes, influenced by social, political, cultural and economic factors that started in the Mid-
dle English period. In effect, as the Court of England moved from Winchester to London in
the 15th century, the history of what was to become SE and that of the new capital grew highly
intertwined. The form of language spoken in London and the East Midlands became Standard
English within the Court, and ultimately became the basis for generally accepted use in the
law, government, literature and education in Britain.
The introduction of printing in England in the mid-15 th century by William Caxton also con-
tributed to the rise of SE. Since it was a way to have a constant speech model to look up to

33
(Crystal, 1995:54). However, Speaking the Standard dialect created class distinctions because
those who did not use it would be considered of a lesser class or social status and often dis-
counted or considered of a low intelligence.

There is a great disagreement among linguists on whether SE can be classified as a dialect.

For some, Standard English differs from other dialects in number of ways, especially in the
fact that it has its own writing system. They argue that, dialects and the study of dialect should
concentrate upon speech not on writing system. However, this argument could be doubtful,
for it ignores the fact that many non-standard English dialects in England such as those found
in the Black Country, in the English West Midlands or Geordie, in the North East of England,
have established tradition of writing.
Thus, other linguists such as Trudgill and Chambers (1980) argue that SE is sure a dialect.
Pointing out that, everyone speaks at least one dialect and that Standard English is as much as
a dialect as any other form of English. Consequently, some speakers may have no other vari-
ety than SE, while others have either a regional variety or SE. In addition, if Standard English
is not a dialect then it is difficult to see what else it could be.
Here are some features of the pronunciation of the Standard British dialect:
 Non-rhotic distribution of /r/, historical /r/ having been lost except before a vowel:
work, hour, later, started, earth tremor, utterly [ˈʌtl̩ i].
 LOT has a rounded vowel, [ɒ]: o'clock, stopped, vodka.
 Linking /r/, though, before a vowel: after I'd had, quarter of; also intrusive /r/ between
/ə/ and a following vowel: vodka or.
 Weak suffix in -ary: momentary /ˈməʊməntrɪ/; but not in -ile: hostile /ˈhɒstaɪl/.
 Broad vowel, /ɑː/, in BATH: after, past, vast, ask.
 GOAT is a diphthong with a central starting point, [əʊ]: drove, local, momentary.

3.1.2 COCKNEY ENGLISH

Cockney English is probably the second most famous British dialect. Originating from East
London, it is the peculiar dialect spoken by the working class Londoners.
According to Wells (Wells 2004), the first recorded use of “Cockney” can be found in a mas-
terpiece of William Langland from 1362”, where it literally means ‘cock’s egg’ (misshapen
eggs laid by young hens). The termrefers to both the form of English and the people who
speak it.

34
Actually, cockney English has always been stigmatized in Britain. It has been looked down
and thought of as inferior by many. In 1909, the attitude received an official recognition,
when the report of the conference on the teaching of English in London elementary schools
stated: ‘the Cockney mode of speech, with its unpleasant twang, is a modern corruption with-
out legitimate credentials, and is unworthy of being the speech of any person in the capital
city of the Empire’. Therefore, some champion of the Cockney English began to be heard.
Some said that:
‘The London dialect is really, especially on the South side of the Thames,
a perfectly legitimate and responsible child of the old Kentish tongue […]
the dialect of London North of the Thames has been shown to be one
of the many varieties of the Midland or Mercian dialect,flavored by
the East Anglican variety of the same speech […].’ (McBride, 1910: 8, 9)

Ever since the Cockney dialect has been more accepted as an alternative form of English lan-
guage rather than an inferior one. Nowadays this dialect is more and more spreading, thanks
to the use of South East England accent on television and radio.
-Cockney rhyming slang: One of the major characteristics of Cockney English has been its
Rhyming Slang. It is a kind of slang in which, a word is replaced by another word or phrase
that rhymes with it.“Generally, rhyming slang means taking phrases or expressions which
rhymes with a certain word and then using those expressions instead of the chosen word”. For
example, the word look rhymes with butcher’s hook. (Cockney Rhyming Slang 1998-2011).
Interestingly, the rhyming word is often omitted – so most Londoners (or Cockney users)
say,“having a butcher’s at this work” instead of “having a butcher’s hook at this work.”
Example 60: Adam and Eve to = believe; e.g. “Would you Adam 'n' Eve it?
Sometimes the rhymes do not take place if the words making up the phrase are pronounced in
RP, but only if a Cockney accent is used:
e.g.: Bull and Cow for row (fight) e.g.: “Last night we had a bull and cow” = last night we had
a fight.
Quite often the rhyming element is omitted, thus making the comprehension of the expression
to the layman practically inaccessible like Butcher's Hook for look, e.g. “Let's take a butcher's
at that paper”= let’s take a look at that paper.
-Use of Glottal stop:one particular feature of Cockney English the use of glottal stop; it can
be manifested in different ways such as t-glottalling in final position.

35
Examples: cat = ; up = ; sock =
It can also manifest itself as a bare as the realization of word internal intervocalic /t/

Examples 61: waterloo =Wa’erloo [wo:ʔəlu:]

City = Ci’y [siʔi]
A little bit of bread with a bit of butter on it = A li'le bi' of bread wiv a bi' of bu'er on i'.[bʌʔə]
A drink of water = A drin' of wa'er [wo:ʔə]

TH fronting: “Both voiced /ð/ and voiceless form /ɵ/ of “the” are frequently replaced by v /v/
and f /f/.” (Recknagel 2006).

Example 62:Maths [mæfs] ; Bother [‘bɒvə] ; Thistle [‘fɪs.l]

Misusing of the third-person-singular-s: according to Silja Recknagel in Cockney dialect

the mark of s at third person singular is not omitted, instead, it is added to all the persons and
forms of the verbs. This rule can be applied also for “have”, as long as it is a strong verb.
When used as an auxiliary, all its forms are conjugated correctly. (Recknagel 2006).

Examples 63 :
Standard English Cockney English
Go I go, he goes, we go I goes, you goes, he goes
Drive I drive, we drive, he drives I drives, we drives, he drives
Have I have, we have, he has I has, we has, he has
Have (AUX) I have gone, he has gone I have gone, he has gone
Use of double negative: this feature refers to the occurrence of more than one negative ele-
ment in a negative sentence. While in Standard English, just one negative item is needed to
make a sentence negative in cockney such is not the case. Indeed, “The mathematical axiom
that multiplication of negatives results in positives has never recommended itself to Cock-
neys” (Recknagel 2006, 8)
Example 64: Standard English Cockney English
I haven’t got a dog in my car I haven’t got no dog in my car.

36
Cockney is doubtless the best-known urban variety of English (Katalin 2008). It is a dialect
with an enormous covert prestige that is to say, though a vernacular dialect, cockney is posi-
tively valued and stands as a group of solidarity and local identity to those who speak it.
Standing for someone born within the sound of Bow bells 8 according to classical definition,
cockney has found its way into popular culture and literature such as Pygmalion and My Fair
Lady to becomeone of the most spoken dialect in England.

3.1.3 Welsh English

Welsh English, Anglo-Welsh or Wenglish refers to the dialect spoken in Wales by Welsh peo-
ple. Although Welsh people have had at least some contact with the English language since
the Middle Ages, they have only spoken English as a first language for the past 1-2 centuries.
That means very recently, as English was only thoroughly established in Wales during the 19 th
century. Consequently, most English-speaking areas, e.g., North America have had a longer
tradition of English than Wales. Nowadays the majority of Welsh people are native speakers
of English, and there is a minority (20%) of native speakers of welsh, Celtic languages (who
also speak English). Welsh English dialects are prominently influenced by Welsh grammar
and often include words derived from Welsh affecting the pronunciation of words. In addition
to the distinctive words and grammar, there is a variety of accents found across Wales from
the Cardiff dialect to that of the South Wales Valleys and to West Wales.
The Welsh English variety can be divided into two sub-varieties: Northern and Southern
Welsh English. Northern Welsh English is probably the variety which shows the most Welsh
influence as the North was the area where English spread last. Southern Welsh English again
can be split up into two major dialects, an Eastern and a Western one. The latter one again is a
more rural dialect. The Eastern dialect is a more urban one as it is spoken in and around the
cities of Wales. Therefore, Eastern South Welsh English is the dialect closest to RP and Stan-
dard English. It is also the dialect of Welsh English, which shows the less Welsh substratum.

Particularities in pronunciation
Welsh English has peculiar pronunciation features compared to other dialects in UK.

8
The bells of St Marie-le-Bow church in Cheapside, London.

37
 Vowels:
- The vowel of cat /æ/ is pronounced as a more central near-open front unrounded vowel [æ̈ ].
In Cardiff, bag is pronounced with a long vowel [a:].
-Words like cup or blood /kΛp/ and /blΛd/ become /kəp/ and /bləd/ in Welsh English. The
central open short /Λ/ sound becomes a mid-central /ə/. The /ə/ sound usually appears in RP
only in unstressed syllables. Not so in Welsh English. This change from /Λ/ to /ə/ occurs in
stressed syllables, too. This becomes RP /’bΛtə/ butter Welsh English /’bətə/.
-With words like /fɔ:s/ force or /flɔ:/ floor there is a change, too. These words become /fo:s/
and /flo:/ in Welsh English. So the mid-back /ɔ:/ becomes a more open /o:/ in Welsh English.
- Words written with <a…e>, <ea> or <a> like cake, steak or famous are pronounced /keık/,
/steık/ and /’feımous/ in RP. In Welsh English the diphthong /eı/ is monophthongised to /e:/.
So these words become /ke:k/, /ste:k/ and /fe:mous/. If words containing the /eı/ sound are
written with <ai>, <ay>, <ei> or <ey> like sail or pray, the RP pronunciation is kept.
- The diphthongs /eə/ or /uə/ like in pear or tour are changed to /e/ and /u:/, so the words turn
from /peə/ and /tuə/ to /pe/ and /tu:r/. By the example of tour one can see, that in cases of
words like this the usual non-rhotic Welsh English has a post-vocalic r as a word final.
Consonants
- A strong tendency towards using an alveolar tap [ɾ] (a 'tapped r') in place of an approximant
[ɹ] (the r used in most accents in England).
- Some gemination between vowels is often encountered, e.g. money is pronounced [ˈmɜ.nːiː].
- In northern varieties influenced by Welsh, pens and pence merge into /pɛns/ and chin and
gin into /dʒɪn/.
- In the north-east, under influence of such accents as Scouse9, ng-coalescence does not take
place, so sing is pronounced /sɪŋɡ/.
- Also in northern accents, /l/ is frequently strongly velarized [ɫː]. In much of the south-east,
clear and dark L alternate much like they do in R.P.

Distinctive vocabulary and grammar

As far as vocabulary is concerned, welsh English has many words drawn from welsh (the lan-
guage). These words generally refer to culture and behavior.
Examples 65: carreg = stone; clennig = a gift of money; eisteddfod(plural eisteddfodau) = a
cultural festival; glister = a drink of milk and water.

9
The form of English spoken by a person from Liverpool

38
- Welsh English and the other dialects of England share some words including: askel a newt,
dap to bounce, lumper a young person, pilm dust, sally willow, steam a bread-bin.
- The form boyo, from boy, is common as both a term of address and reference, and is some-
times negative in tone.
Example 66: Listen, boyo, I’ve somethin’ to tell you. That boyo is not to be trusted.
There exist distinctive grammatical conventions in vernacular Welsh English .Indeed the work-
ing class users of English in Wales tend to use the following grammatical constructions.
- Multiple negation or negative concord: the use of more than one negative element in a nega-
tive sentence.
Example 67: l’aven’t done nothin’ to nobody
- The use of them as a demonstrative adjective(them things.)
- The usage of the adverb as as a relative pronoun (the one as who played for Cardiff)
- The pronouns himself and themselves are respectively replaced with ‘iesself and theirselves.
(‘E done it ‘iesself; they saw it for theirselves)
- Theauxiliary do/did are used to indicate a regularly performed action (He do go to the rugby
all the time; He did go to the rugby all the time)
- Unstressed do, employed to express durative aspect as in: the children do be playing in the
yard after school.
- welsh speakers foreground the element of a sentence to express an emphasis.
(Money they are not short of to say they are not short of money).
- The undifferentiated tag questions, which comes to mark tag question with only isn’t it re-
gardless of tenses and personal pronoun changes.
(You have taken my book, isn’t it? You are soon going home, isn’t it?)
3.1.4 GEORDIE ENGLISH

The word Geordie refers to the English spoken in the city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (Northeast
of England), as well as to its native inhabitants. The etymology of this word is equivocal, but
most of theories agree that it derives from local pet name George "a very common name
among the pitmen" (coal miners) in North East England.
In many respects, Geordie speech is a direct continuation and development of the language
spoken by the Anglo-Saxon settlers of this region.Geordie is one the few English dialects in
England in which the original Anglo-Saxon language has survived, owing its origin to ancient
Germanic and Scandinavian languages. Indeed, after the romans left Britain, the country was

39
under the attack of Pictish10, so Britons had to ask the help of Angles, from Angulus (present
Southern Denmark) and the Saxons from Saxony, (present Northern Germany).
Ultimately, the Anglo-Saxons settled in North Britain bringing with them their own language
with mutually intelligible varieties, namely Old English. Features from this version of English
are still conserved in Geordie dialect, reason why it is unsurprising that the poems of the Ven-
erable Bede11 translate more into Geordie than into modern day English.
Later on, Irish and Scottish will influence Geordie, which make it one of the most distinctive
dialect of English with impenetrable features.

Phonological features

The sound system of Geordie dialect

Geordie dialect has special sound system comparing to other dialects of English. Here are the
description of some vowels and consonants in Geordie’s English dialect.
Vowels:
/u/ - This vowel, is used for food, good or put in Standard English as well as for words like
putt, luck and fun. This is what Wells calls (1982) the FOOT STRUT split, and it is what di-
vides the phonetic north and south of England (132). Consequently in the south of England
they are pronounced: [pʌt], [lʌki], [fʌn] like in Standard English. Whereas, in Northern Eng-
land, they are pronounced: [put], [luki], [fun]. Hence, the lack of sound distinction between
some words bearing this vowel in Geordie: put and putt;book and buck etc.
/æ/ - as in other northern accents of Britain, the vowel is used in words such as “dance”,
“daft”. In the pronunciation of this vowel, there are considerable differences. Geordie is, in
this respect, closer to the American pronunciation, because in Standard British English, these
10
Tribal confederation of people who lived today eastern and northern Scotland during the late Iron Age and
early medieval period.
11
Anglo Saxon scholar

40
phoneme is pronounced like [da:ft] or [da:ns] whereas in Geordie like [dæft] or [dæns]
(Hughes & Trudgill 1988: 70).
/ɒː/ - the long open back rounded vowel is present in words such asfather, pronounced [fɑːðə]
in Standard English. Geordies, on the other hand pronounce it like some Americans do, viz,
[fɒːðə] like the vowels in off or cause.
/e:/ - As shown on the chart, Geordie speakers tend use this typical vowel sound where sounds
such as eə and /eɪ/ are represented in Standard English.
Examples 68: Standard English Geordie
Pear [peə] pear [pe:]
Care [keə]care[ke:]
Hair [heə]hair[he:]
Fame[feim]fame [fe:m]
Wait [weit]wait [we:t]
/ɔ:/ - This sound is the replacement of the Standard English vowel sound /ɜː/ in words
likepurse, curl or word. Actually, the vowel /ɜː/ used to be the only one that the Geordie di-
alect lacked (Hughes & Trudgill 1992: 71).
Examples 69: Standard English Geordie
Purse[pɜːs]purse [pɔ:s]
Curl [kɜːl]curl[kɔ:l]
Word [wɜːd] word [w ɔ:d]
/a:/ -In Standard English this sound is pronounced in words like cart, father, car, whereas in
Geordie it is used in words like fall, talk, walk.
Examples 70: Standard English Geordie
Fall [fɔ:l] fall [fa:l]
Talk [tɔ:k] talk [ta:k]
Walk [wɔ:k]walk [wa:k]
NB: When Geordies say, [wɔːk] they do not mean walk but work.
Therefore, such features make Geordie‘s pronunciation sound peculiar to speakers of other
English accents, so much so that jokes about it are commonly made. As the famous joke in
which a local man goes to see the doctor about his hurt knee; the doctor bandages up and asks
him ‘do you think you can walk [wɔːk] now’ and the Geordie replies ‘What do you mean, can
I work? I can hardly walk [wa:k]’ (Wells 1982: 375).

41
 Consonants
Geordie consonants are roughly similar to those of Standard English. The dialect is non-
rhotic, like most Anglo-English12 dialect. This means that the sound /r/ is not pronounced,
unless it is followed by a vowel in the same phrase or prosodic unit 13. Below is a list of the
characteristic of some consonants specific to Geordie.
/p/; /t/; /k/ - these consonants are glottalized in syllable-final position and sometimes syllable-
initially before a weak vowel. It may be purely glottal realization or a combined glottal or oral
plosive (Wells 1982: 374). Indeed as for T-glottalization, which equals to the realization of
the sound /t/ by [ʔ] before a syllabic nasal (e.g., button as [ˈbʊʔn]), in absolute final position
(get as [ɡɛʔ]), and whenever the /t/ is intervocalic so long as the latter vowel is not stressed
(pity as [ˈpɪʔi]).
/l/ - is noticeably pronounced in all positions (Hughes & Trudgill 1988: 71).
/ɪŋ/appearing in an unstressed final syllable of a word (such as in reading) is pronounced /ɪn/
according to (Hughes & Trudgill 1988: 71).
Grammatical differences
Geordie English has specific grammatical features. What follows are the illustration of some.
- Possessive me: this is the Geordie’s equivalent of Standard English my.
Example 71:
Me mum and me dad are very proud, to say my mum and my dad are very proud.
- The use of us: us has an ambiguous use in Geordie. It is used to mean the standardized our
(plural) and me (singular). Consequently, the sentence tell us the secret may mean tell me the
secret or tell us the secret in Standard English, of course depending on the context.
It can additionally be used for Standard English’s our.
Example 72: We love us countrymeaning we love our country in Standard English.
Second person plural “youse”: this term hints at the term you used for both second person
singular and plural in Standard English.
Reflexive pronouns: this also changes. Instead of “myself”, “yourself”, “herself”, “himself”,
“ourselves”, “yourselves” and “themselves” one will hear “mysell”, “yoursell”, “hersell”,
“hissell”, “oursells”, “yoursells” and “themsells”.
Negative concord: Geordie is subject to the use of this feature present in some English di-
alects. Indeed, this phenomenon comes to use more than one negative element to form a nega-
tive sentence.

12
English spoken in the United Kingdom
13
The unit according to the variations in pitch, loudness, tempo and rhythm.

42
Example 73: He isn’t wearing no glasses meaning he isn’t wearing glasses in Standard Eng-
lish.
The use of them: this term usually used as an object of a verb or a preposition, in Geordie it
is used as a demonstrative pronoun equivalent of those in Standard English.
Example 74: them students in the class them seats are free

Vocabulary
There exists a certain similarity between Geordie’s words and those of north England dialects.
In fact, as a remnant of Old English, it contains several Anglo-Saxons words of Scandinavian
origin. Here are some distinctive words of Geordie.
Bairn [bein]– child, a homely word that denotes affection. Its roots can be found in Middle
English “bern”, “barn”, from Old English “bearn” & Old Norse “barn”; akin to Old High Ger-
man barn child. First Known Use : before 12th century (Merriam-Webster dictionary).
Canny [kæni] – one of the most common word in the dialect meaning “pleasant” or “very”.
According to the New Geordie Dictionary (2008), it means “An embodiment of all that is
kindly, good and gentle. The highest compliment that can be paid to any person is to say that
he or she is canny”. It likely originates from Old English word “cunnan” meaning “to know”,
“to be able”.
Lad / laddie – boy, young man. Of Scandinavian origin. “Ladde” was an English occupa-
tional name for a servant, derived from the Middle English word. It first appeared in the 13th
century, and at first meant “servant” or “man of humble birth”.
Lass / lassie – girl, young woman. Common across the whole of Northern England - possibly
derived from Old Norse “lasqar”, meaning “unmarried woman” (Sounds familiar).
Gadgie – an old man, fellow. It is one of the few believed to have been borrowed from Ro -
many. According to Sounds Familiar, there has been a Roma presence for centuries in the
Borders area and “gadgie” is a version of the Romany word used to refer to male non-Roma -
“gadjo”.
Gan– go, from Old English expression “gán” of the same meaning.
Hadaway– “go away” but also used to encourage people in its shortened form howay mean-
ing "Come on!" Its origin is unknown; however, the free online dictionary suggests its con-
nection to “hold away”.
Toon– town, “the toon” refers specifically to the city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Nettymeaning a toilet and place of need and necessity for relief or bathroom, which is consid-
ered by some theorists as coming from roman soldiers, slang –

43
Geordie English is filled with specific phonologic, grammatical and vocabulary features,
which makes it almost unintelligible to speakers of other English dialects. Nevertheless,
thanks to television namely movies and TV shows featuring Geordie speakers, the dialect is
now widely popularized. Actually, many television personalities such as Marcus Bentley the
commentator on the UK edition Big Brother, Cheryl Fernandez-Versini judge on X-Factor
(televised musical competition) and television presenters Ant & Dec all speak Geordie Eng-
lish on TV. Geordie dialect is also used in area of music like Sting (former member of the
Police) who has a Geordie accent, Mark Knopfler’s why Aye Man, which perceived as a
Geordie song. As well as in magazines like Viz, BBC radio programs, in comedy movies and
numerous other media covered performances enough to say that it is a covert prestige dialect.

2.3.5 SCOUSE ENGLISH

Scouse14 refers to the form of English spoken in the area of Liverpool or the county of
Merseyside, North-west of England.The term "Scouse" is frequently used as a term for the
dialect of the city, both by its inhabitants and by outsiders, and Liverpudlians are often known
as Scousers (Sangster, 2002).Scouse or Liverpool English (LE) is said to have developed in
the middle of the 19th century, after a rapid immigration from Ireland during the Irish potato
famine of 1845–1847 (Knowles, 1973). Arguably, as a result of this immigration, there are
some similarities between LE’s phonological system and those of Irish Englishes.
The fishing village, which was Liverpool, developed as a port by trading with Ireland and
soon grew to become an international and trading center. Later on, people from different re-
gions migrated to the city of Liverpool, forming a melting pot of several languages and di-
alects.Actually, the word scouse, originally means a local lamb stew dish introduced by Scan-
dinavian who came in Liverpool. Besides,Some British avoid using the word Scousein fear of
sounding derogatory, because the Liverpool accent is not overtly prestigious. In effect, speak-
ing with a Liverpool accent is not generally considered prestigious and the accent of the city
is regarded by many as coarse and ill-educated (Trudgill 1983:218).
Nevertheless, Liverpool English has nowadays an increasing prestige, certainly due to the
success of the band The Beatlesin the sixties. In addition, recently, Liverpool has turned into
Britain’s favorite location for call centers (cf. Ward, 2000). Thus, the dialect may well still be

14
Inhabitants of Liverpool are also called this name

44
stigmatized, but the voice of its speaker is no longer considered as harsh, but as friendly,
straight and understanding as well as having a covert prestige.
Scouse accent is highly distinctive and has little in common with the other British dialects, for
its peculiar linguistic features.
Focusing on Scouse’ vowel system, there is a series of neutralizations of phonemic opposi-
tions present in RP. A typicalfeature is the pronunciation of the central open-mid vowel /ə:/ as
[e:] or as diphthong [eə], which leads to homophony between words like her and hair.
Examples 75: RP Scouse
Fur[fə:] fur [fe:]
Purse[pə:s] purse [pe:s]
Besides the realization of the close front vowel /i/ as long and tense in all contexts is charac-
teristic of the Liverpool accent.
Like other northern varieties in UK, the open-mid back vowel /ʌ/ s pronounced as /u/, namely
the neutralization pairs such as luck and look.
Examples 76: RP Scouse
Luck [lʌk] luck [luk]
Mutton [mʌtn] mutton [mutn]
The near open front vowel/æ/ is altered in Scouse; it becomes a back vowel [ɑ].

As regards the consonant system, the presence of typical Irish English features shows a possi-
ble Irish origin of Scouse. Actually, one example of a characteristic that Irish shares with
Scouse is the pronunciation of the interdental fricatives /θ/ and /ð/ as dental stops [t] and [d].
Furthermore, it is likely that the realization of the velar nasal [ɳ] as cluster [ɳg] in word-final
context is of Irish English origin.
Even if Irish accents are rhotic, meaning that they pronounce /r/ at the end as well as at the
beginning of a syllable, Scouse is a non-rhotic accent, pronouncing /r/ only at the beginning of
a syllable and between vowels, but not at the end of a syllable.

3.1.6 ESTUARY ENGLISH

Estuary English is another dialect spoken in the United Kingdom. It is associated with the
South East England and especially the area along the Thames and its estuary in the center of
London.It gains its name from the area around the Thames, particularly its estuary.The term
‘Estuary English’ was coined as long ago, as 1984 by David Rosewarne, an EFL teacher.Estu-

45
ary English shares many features with Cockney, and there is some debate among linguists as
to where Cockney speech ends and Estuary English begins.
Several writers have argued that Estuary English is not a discrete accent distinct from accents
of the London area (Cockney). However, according to Peter Trudgill, the term Estuary is not
appropriate, he states that:
"it suggests that we are talking about a new variety, which we are not;
and because it suggests that it is a variety of English confined to the banks
of the Thames estuary, which it is not. The label actually refers to the
lower middle-class accents, as opposed to working-class accents, of the
Home Counties Modern Dialect area" (Trudgill, 1999:80).
Several featurescharacterize Estuary English, the most distinguished are:
-L-vocalization, which is to pronounce the l-sound in certain position almost like [w], so that
so that milk bottle becomes (almost like ‘miwk bottoo’), and football becomes (‘foo’baw’).
-Glottaling, it comes to use a glottal stop [ʔ] (a catch in the throat) instead of a t sound in cer-
tain positions, as in take it off [teik iʔ ɑf], quite nice [kwaiʔ nais].
-Y-coalescence, it is using [tʃ] sounds rather than [tʝ] (a /t/ sound plus a /y/ sound) in words
like Tuesday, tune orattitude. This makes the first part of Tuesday sound identical to choose
[tʃu:z].
-h-dropping which is to omit [h], so that hand or heart become [ænd] or [a:t].
-Th-fronting, this refers to is the pronunciation of the interdental fricatives /θ/ and /ð/ as dental-
stops [t] and [d].Thus, words like think and mother turn into [tiŋk] and [ˈmʌvə] in Estuary English.

Estuary English is widely used throughout the south and southeast of England, especially
among the young. Many consider it a working-class accent, although lower middle classes
often speak it too. Moreover, it is used by many in order to seem to be more working-class or
in attempt to be more ‘a common man’. However, some speakers of RP use associate it with
pejorative connotations, like Sally Gunnel, a former BBC presenter who quitted her job be-
cause of being widely criticized for her "uninspiring interview style" and "awful estuary Eng-
lish"(interviewed on The Mail on Sunday).
3.1.7 SCOTISH ENGLISH

Scots have also a particular way of speaking English, hence the Scottish English. Indeed,
there are varieties of English spoken in Scotland and among them is a main formal variety
called: Scottish Standard English or Standard Scottish English. This latter is the characteristic

46
speech of the professional class and the accepted norm in Scottish schools (McClure (1994:
79-80).
Historically, Scotland is the one with the oldest tradition of English among the Celtic 15 areas left in
present-day Britain. While in Ireland, writing in English only developed at the end of the Middle Eng -
lish period and Welsh began to speak English less than 300 years ago, in Scotland, however, English
began firmly to be established in the early part of the Middle English period.
In addition to distinct pronunciation, grammar and expressions Scottish English has a distinc-
tive vocabulary associated with Scottish institutions such as the Church of Scotland, the local
government and the education and legal systems.
- Some of the phonologic features of the dialects are the pronunciation of the sound /r/ in the
syllable coda (the end of the syllable), which makes the accent rhotic.
- The dialect lacks vowel length contrast that is why full [ful]and fool [fu:l] are homophones.
- The retention of /wh/ sound in words like which or whale…
As far as grammar is concerned, different types of Scottish English show different degrees of
grammatical deviation from southern British English.
- The modal will tends to stand for both shall and may.
- Passive is often formed with get, e.g. I got told off.It is often used for compulsion, e.g.
you’ve got to speak to her.
- must is used in an epistemic sense in positive and negative; e.g. she mustn’t be Scottish
meaningshe can’t be Scottish.
- The pronoun self is used non-reflexively: himself isn’t home yet for the man of the house isn’t home
yet.
- The abbreviation form am+not is amn’t as in Amn’t I right.

- Future negation is formed with independent not rather than the Celtic form of a modal and
not: She’ll not go home for she won’t go home.
As regards Scottish English vocabulary, it is characterized by its richness in borrowing from
both Gaelic and Old Norse and there are some words, which have a particular meaning in the
dialect.
Example 77: gloaming ‘twilight’; greet ‘weep’; outwith ‘outside’; chaft ‘jaw’

15
Of an ancient European language, people or culture related to the Irish, Scots, Welsh, and Bretons.

47
As a conclusion, there is undoubtedly a diversity of English dialects spoken throughout the
British Isles. On top, the ones cited above, other widely spoken dialects could be described.
such as, the Irish English, the English spoken in Ireland which is fraught with phonological,
lexical and grammatical features; Northern England English, the dialect spoken in cities like
Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool, the Brummy dialect part of the group of dialect called the
Midland English which is one of the most stigmatized from of English…

3.2 Overview of the dialects spoken in the USA

It is commonplace to use the term American English to refer to the English spoken in the
United States. This certainly alludes to the differences that are between the English spoken in

48
America and other forms of English. In fact, AmE resulted from British colonization and this
is not without any historical linguistic explanation.
After the discovery of Christopher Columbus, British people began to settle more and more in
America. In 1607,an expedition from England arrived in Chesapeake Bay and formed the first
permanent English settlement called Jamestown, in an area named Virginia after Queen Elisa-
beth I. Thus, several other places were occupied by English people, which will later on be-
come the thirteen colonies that gained independence from England, forming the United States.
At the starting point British and American English were essentially similar in the 17 th century.
However, after this period the major varieties of English drifted apart with American English
remaining more conservative while British English continued to develop quite rapidly losing
syllable final /r/ for example.
Noah Webster was the first author who suggested separating British English from American
English through his book entitled Dissertations on the English Language (1789).
Webster’s major work, An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828), made some
spelling changes, such as –er for –re (ex: theatre) or –or for –our(ex: honor).
Today several dialects of English are retrieved in America. That is why dialectologists have
come up with several classifications of the dialect areas in the US, some chiefly based on pro -
nunciation others on lexical/grammatical differences (Balogné B. Katalin 2008). Neverthe-
less, there are traditionally main dialects areas in the United States, which respectively en-
compass many other subdialects and sociolects.General American English (GenAm) is closest
to be standard. It is common in Midwest, but it is spoken everywhere in the USA.
Regional dialects in the United States reflect the elements of the language of the main immi-
grant groups in any particular region of the country, especially in terms of pronunciation and
vocabulary. There are four main regional variations of spoken American English: Northern
(northeastern), Southern, Midland, and Western (Labov, Ash, & Boberg, 2006).
In what follows we describe some of the main dialects spoken in the United States.

3.2.1 General American

49
General Americanis the continuum of accents16 (Wells 1982) attributed to a majority of Amer-
icans (abbreviated GA or GenAm). GenAm is the dialect spoken by the majority of Ameri-
cans, namely those who do not have a noticeable eastern or southern accent are said to have
General American accent (Wells 1982: 467-473). This dialect lacks any distinctively regional,
ethnic or socioeconomic characteristics (Wells 1983). Indeed, geographically, it is a type of
accent, which is not eastern, not southern, and not coastal.
George Philip Krapp, an American scholar, was the first to disseminate the term "General
American" in 1925. By 1982, two-thirds of the American population spoke with a General
American accent according to British phonetician John C. Wells.
Nowadays this accent is mostly used in the media because of a generalized pronunciation
which gained ground nationally by being used by newscasters, and radio and television an-
nouncers, hence the word Network English or Network Standard.Indeed, this latter not only
reflects the colorless form of the dialect but also it describes it as being relatively homoge-
neous.
What follows is a description of some of the main characteristics of GenAm.
-One of salient phonological features of GA is its rhoticity. Actually, General American
speakers have a firmly rhotic accent. That is to say, they pronounce the sound /r/ in all envi-
ronment including, after vowels such as in curt, farand cart.
- Another feature is the pronunciation of /t/ as a glottal stop before a syllabic [n], as in button
[ˈbʌʔn̩ ], hence t-glottalization.
- Intervocalic flapping: this feature refers to the phonological process by which the consonants
/t/ and /d/ become an alveolar flap. Indeed, this latter is written [ɾ] and it happens between
vowels and liquids as in water [ˈwɔ̞ ɾɚ], party[ˈpɑɹɾi], model[ˈmɑɾɫ̩ ], and what is it?[wʌɾˈɪzɪt].
- Yod-dropping: this one is about the dropping or the deletion of the sound /j/, occurring after
consonants formed with the tongue touching the ridge on the roof of the mouth (alveolar con-
sonants) (Wells, 1982).
Examples 78: new /nju:/ becomes /nu:/
tube /tju:b/ becomes /tu:b/
duke /dju:k/ becomes /du:k/
- L-velarization: in Received Pronunciationclear l, marked[l] and dark l, marked [ɫ] are clearly
distinguished. Conversely, in GA,this distinction is absent, that is to say all l sounds are pro-
nounced dark, which means they all have some degree of velarization (Rogers, 2000:120–121.

16
Accents linked by a chain of mutual intelligibility

50
 3.2.2 Northern American English
Northern American English refers to the variety of English spoken in the North East of Amer -
ica. This dialect predominantly spoken by white people encompasses several subdialects. It is
mainly present in Northern states such as Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, South Dakota etc.
This class of dialects also covers the "East Coast" which comprises three or four major lin-
guistically distinct regions: the New England varieties, New York varieties and the Mid At-
lantic varieties.
Unlike GA, this accent is traditionally non-rhotic and uses a broad BATH vowel(both are in-
novations originating in the south of England), and it shows a tendency to use [i] rather than
schwa in the weak syllables of words like waited, horses, ticket, etc., which also makes it
sound more like RP.

3.2.3Southern American English

Southern American English or Southern U.S. English is a large collection of related American
English dialects spoken throughout the Southern United States. These dialects are mostly
present in rural areas and stretch across the southeastern and south-central United States in-
cluding states such as Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Car-
olina, Louisiana, and Arkansas, as well as most of Texas, Virginia, Kentucky, Oklahoma,
West Virginia, and northern and central Florida. Southern American English dialects can also
be found in extreme southern parts of Missouri, Maryland, Delaware, and Illinois.
Southern dialects originated in large part from a mix of immigrants from the British Isles,
who moved to the American South in the 17th and 18th centuries, and the creole or post-cre-
ole speech of African slaves., Delaware, and Illinois. Moreover, because of upheavals such as
the Great Depression and World War II several migrants speaking various language migrated
to the South of the U.S.
Southern American English as a regional dialect can be divided into various sub-dialects, the
most phonologically advanced (i.e., the most recently shifted) ones being southern varieties of
Appalachian English and certain varieties of Texan English.

3.2.4 African American Vernacular English

African American vernacular English (AAVE) is a particular dialect (as well as a sociolect)
spoken in the US and associated with African Americans. Commonly called Ebonics and for-
merly referred to as ‘Black English’,the speakers of this dialect are currently distributedgeo-

51
graphically across the entire country. The structure of AAVE shows many commonalities
with other varieties of English, namely a number of standard and nonstandard English vari-
eties spoken in the US and the Caribbean. Nevertheless, some of its features are apparently
unique to the variety that is why AAVE is subject of several debates and its analysis sparked
and sustained arguments among sociolinguists.
Indeed, even the history of AAVE and its genetic affiliation is a matter of controversy.
For some, AAVE developed from one or more slave creole languages that arose from the At-
lantic slave trade and the need for African captives, who spoke many different languages, to
communicate among themselves and with their captors(Wolfram, 1998).According to such a
view, these captives first developed what are called pidgins, simplified mixtures of languages,
to communicate between themselves.
Others contend that AAVE did not originate from English-based creole languages that "decre-
olized" back into a dialect of English. Actually, most linguists would rather assert that AAVE
has always been an English dialect.
In any case, this dialect originates from the Southern Americawhere Black people settled kept
as slaves to provide a labor in the plantations. Therefore,there is no doubt that AAVE has a
strong relationship withearlier Southern U.S. dialects.
It is important to note that AAVE has long been stigmatized and considered as grammatically
"simple" or "sloppy" before being recognized as a dialect of English in 1996. However, many
writers such as Pullum advocate that it is not an English with mistakes, it is rather a dialect
like other English dialects which shows consistent internal logic and grammatical complexity,
and which is used naturally by a group of people to express thoughts and ideas (Green 2002,
217).

Sounds of AAVE
- AAVE has special principles of pronunciation. One fairly clear one, concerns consonants
clusters at the ends of words. In fact, speakers of this dialect leave consonants off the ends of
words (Pullum).The sounds of the English, which formed the base for African American Ver-
nacular English, have been reduced; particularly the phonotactics have been affected with
consonant clusters being simplified.For instance, AAVE speakers say res for rest, lef for left,
han for hand and so on.However, this consonant reduction is not always applied for the fre-
quency of reduction depends on the environment in which the sound occurs. In effect, when a
consonant at the end of a word follows a vowel it is always pronounced as in words like out,

52
up, oak, rob, rod and log. The final consonants is also retained when it is followed by a voice-
less in such words raps, rats or racks.
- AAVE speakers may not use the fricatives[θ] (the th in "thin") and [ð] (the th of "th'en") that
are present in standard varieties of English(Green, 2002). In AAVE, the pronunciation of
these sounds depends on the place it occurs in a word.
At the beginning of a word, the voiced sound /ð/ is regularly pronounced as /d/ so the, they
and that are pronounced [dɘ] as,[dey] and [dat]. AAVE shares this feature with many other
nonstandard dialects, including those of the East Coast of United States.
Within a word, the unvoiced sound as in nothing, author or ether is often pronounced as /f/.
Thus AAVE speakers will sometimes say [nʌfin] for'nothing' and [ɔːfə]for author. At the end
of a word, [θ] is also often pronounced /f/ in AAVE. For instance,Ruth is pronounced [ruf];
south is pronounced[saʊf]. When the preceding sound is a nasal (e.g. /n/ or /m/) the[θ] is of-
ten pronounced as/t/ as in [tent] for 'tenth'; [mʌnt]for 'month'.
The voiced sound, within a word, may be pronounced /v/, so 'brother' becomes [brvə], etc.
-Another phonological feature may be the realization of velar nasal sound ng /ŋ/ as an alveolar
nasal one /n/. This feature concerns words with two or more syllable such as tripping pro-
nounced trippin. This change does not occur in one-syllable content morphemes such as sing,
which is [sɪŋ] and not *[sɪn]. However, singing is [sɪŋɪn].
Examples 79: wedding → [wɛɾɪn]
morning → [mɔɹnɪn]
nothing → [ˈnʌfɪn]
The realization of /ŋ/ as [n] in these contexts is commonly found in many other English di-
alects (Green 2002).
- This dialect is a non-rhotic one, which means the rhotic consonant/r/ is typically dropped
when not followed by a vowel. Intervocalic /r/ may also be dropped, e.g. General American
story ([stɔri]) can be pronounced [stɔ.i]. /r/ may also be deleted between a consonant and a
back rounded vowel, especially in words like throw, throat, and through(Labov, 1972: 14).

Grammar and vocabulary of AAVE

- Tense and aspects are expressed in special way in this dialect. Auxiliarydo is used to express
duration, e.g.: He does be in his office in the morning, to say He is in his office every morning
for a certain length of time. Perfective is expressed by done e.g.: I done go to say I have gone
and been to refer to Remote Perfective aspect e.g.; I been gone meaningI had gone.

53
- In Standard English, auxiliarybe (called a copula) is conjugated in a number of different
forms at present tense (this may occur as is, 's, are, 're, etc.) however, this verb is often not
included in AAVE. Indeed, the copula be is dropped in the present tense. Here are some ex-
amples:You crazy ("You're crazy") or She my sister ("She's my sister").
- Another grammatical feature common in working class AAVE in Detroit and elsewhere in
the US is the absence of third person present tense -s, as in "She like Ø liver." (The symbol Ø
marks the point at which an omitted feature might have occurred.)
Example 80: How much he offer her for it? (The Piano Lesson)
- Negative forms are also peculiar in this dialect.
 The use of ain’t as a general negative indicator. As in other dialects, it can be used
where most other dialects would use am not, isn't, aren't, haven't, and hasn't. How-
ever, in marked contrast to other varieties of English in the US, some speakers of
AAVE also use ain't instead of don't, doesn't, or didn't (e.g., I ain't know that) (Labov,
1972: 284).Ain't had its origins in common English but became increasingly stigma-
tized since the 19th century.
 Negative concord is another feature used in AAVE as well as in other dialects of Eng-
lish (including those cited above).popularly called, "double negation" it refers to the
presence of more than one negative element in a sentence expressing negation.
Example 81: I don’t see nobody.
 In a negative construction, an indefinite pronoun such as nobody or nothing can be
inverted with the negative verb particle for emphasis.
Examples 82: don’t nobody know the answer; ain’t nothing going on
-There is also another morphological difference that are special to AAVE, namely the use of
was after the pronouns we and they if the sentence is affirmative example they was talkin’ but
if it is negative we have were at all the persons ex: I weren’t mad.
As far as AAVE vocabulary is concerned, it is not separate from other varieties of English and
it does share most of its lexicons with other English dialects, particularly that of and Southern
American dialects.
-The use of y’all: it is the contraction of you and all found in AAVE. It first appeared in the
Southern United States in the early nineteenth century and may have been introduced to
America by Ulster Scots, immigrants who used the phrase ye aw who was later on copied by
African slaves.Rarely found in Standard English dialects, this feature plays a crucial role if
looked at linguistically, for it fills the gap of the absence of a separate second person plural
pronoun in standard modern English, it satisfies several grammatical functions, namely an

54
associative pronoun and a collective pronoun. Besides, its use expresses familiarity and soli-
darity and it conveys a feeling of warmth towards the addressee.
- Early AAVE contributed a number of African-originated words to the American English
mainstream, including gumbo(meaning a thick soup made with okra (= a small green veg-
etable) and meat or fish), yam, (a potato-like root from a tropical climbing plant that can be
eaten) and banjo(a stringed musical instrument with a long neck and a hollow circular body).
AAVE has also contributed slang expressions such as cool and hip.
AAVE also has words that either are not part of most other American English dialects or have
strikingly different meanings. For example, there are several words in AAVE referring to
white people that are not part of mainstream American English; these include gray as an ad-
jective for whites (as in gray dude).

CONCLUSION
The main goals of dialectology are to describe the component varieties of a language and dis-
cover the different boundaries between dialect regions or social stratifications.

55
It is undeniable that English shows internal variations, like all languages, that is to say it is
made of a number of varieties and is in one sense the sum of those varieties. As English is
more and more gaining ground around the world, its dialects are widely increasing.
Since the United States and the United Kingdom do not exactly share the same cultures re-
gardless of speaking the same language, consequently several versions of English are re-
trieved in both countries. These varieties explains the differences in spelling, pronunciation,
words that differ in terms of stress as well as vocabulary etc.
English, a language originating from England has undoubtedly well spread in the American
continent ever since its discovery. Because ofmassive immigrations of English people who
came and settle in the New World, English has become the dominant language everywhere in
America. However,one could say that, thanks to the media, technology and the power of the
United States in the world, American English has been standardized and emerged to influence
even British English. For this reason many American terms has ousted the British one as in
the case of radio for wireless; the ubiquitous use of okay. As well as the notable use of deriva-
tional suffixes in this respect: -ster: gangster, oldster; -ician: beautician, cosmetician; -ee: es-
capee, returnee; -ette: roomette; drum majorette; -ite: socialite, sub-urbanite; -ize; to winter-
ize, to itemize, to fictionalize.

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56
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Appendix: Maps

57
English dialects in Britain

English dialects in America

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