Characteristics of Modern English

Characteristics of Modern English
Phonology
British Received Pronunciation (RP), traditionally defined as the standard speech used in London and
southeastern England, is one of many forms (or accents) of standard speech throughout the English-
speaking world. Other pronunciations, although not standard, are often heard in the public domain. A
very small percentage of the population of England is estimated to use “pure” RP (although the actual
percentage is as unknown as what constitutes “pure” RP). It is considered the prestige accent in such
institutions as the civil service and the BBC and, as such, has fraught associations with wealth and
privilege in Britain.
The chief differences between RP, as defined above, and a variety of American English, such as Inland
Northern (the speech form of western New England and its derivatives, often popularly referred to as
General American), are in the pronunciation of certain individual vowels and diphthongs. Inland
Northern American vowels sometimes have semiconsonantal final glides (i.e., sounds resembling initial
w, for example, or initial y). Aside from the final glides, that American accent shows four divergences
from British English: (1) the words cod, box, dock, hot, and not are pronounced with a short (or half-
long) low front sound as in British bard shortened (the terms front, back, low, and high refer to the
position of the tongue); (2) words such as bud, but, cut, and rung are pronounced with a central vowel
as in the unstressed final syllable of sofa; (3) before the fricative sounds s, f, and θ (the last of these is
the th sound in thin) the long low back vowel a, as in British bath, is pronounced as a short front vowel a,
as in British bad; (4) high back vowels following the alveolar sounds t and d and the nasal sound n in
words such as tulips, dew, and news are pronounced without a glide as in British English; indeed, the
words sound like the British two lips, do, and nooze in snooze. (In several American accents, however,
these glides do occur.)
The 24 consonant sounds comprise six stops (plosives): p, b, t, d, k, g; the fricatives f, v, θ (as in thin), ð
[eth] (as in then), s, z, ∫ [esh] (as in ship), Ʒ (as in pleasure), and h; two affricatives: t∫ (as in church) and
dƷ (as the j in jam); the nasals m, n, ŋ (the sound that occurs at the end of words such as young); the
lateral l; the postalveolar or retroflex r; and the semivowels j (often spelled y) and w. These remain fairly
stable, but Inland Northern American differs from RP in two respects: (1) r following vowels is preserved
in words such as door, flower, and harmony, whereas it is lost in RP; (2) t between vowels is voiced, so
that metal and matter sound very much like British medal and madder, although the pronunciation of
this t is softer and less aspirated, or breathy, than the d of British English.
Like Russian, English is a strongly stressed language. Four degrees of accentuation may be differentiated:
primary, secondary, tertiary, and weak, which may be indicated, respectively, by acute (´), circumflex (ˆ),
and grave (ˋ) accent marks and by the breve (˘). Thus, “Têll mè thĕ trúth” (the whole truth, and nothing
but the truth) may be contrasted with “Têll mé thĕ trûth” (whatever you may tell other people); “bláck
bîrd” (any bird black in colour) may be contrasted with “bláckbìrd” (that particular bird Turdus merula).
The verbs permít and recórd (henceforth only primary stresses are marked) may be contrasted with
their corresponding nouns pérmit and récord. A feeling for antepenultimate (third syllable from the end)
primary stress, revealed in such five-syllable words as equanímity, longitúdinal, notoríety, opportúnity,
parsimónious, pertinácity, and vegetárian, causes stress to shift when extra syllables are added, as in
histórical, a derivative of hístory and theatricálity, a derivative of theátrical. Vowel qualities are also
changed here and in such word groups as périod, periódical, periodícity; phótograph, photógraphy,
photográphable. French stress may be sustained in many borrowed words; e.g., bizárre, critíque, duréss,
hotél, prestíge, and techníque.
Pitch, or musical tone, determined chiefly by the rate of vibration of the vocal cords, may be level,
falling, rising, or falling–rising. In counting one, two, three, four, one naturally gives level pitch to each of
these cardinal numerals. But if people say I want two, not one, they naturally give two a falling tone and
one a falling–rising tone. In the question One? rising pitch is used. Word tone is called accent, and
sentence tone is referred to as intonation. The end-of-sentence cadence is important for expressing
differences in meaning. Several end-of-sentence intonations are possible, but three are especially
common: falling, rising, and falling–rising. Falling intonation is used in completed statements, direct
commands, and sometimes in general questions unanswerable by yes or no (e.g., I have nothing to add;
keep to the right; who told you that?). Rising intonation is frequently used in open-ended statements
made with some reservation, in polite requests, and in particular questions answerable by yes or no
(e.g., I have nothing more to say at the moment; let me know how you get on; are you sure?). The third
type of end-of-sentence intonation, first falling and then rising pitch, is used in sentences that imply
concessions or contrasts (e.g., some people do like them [but others do not]; don’t say I didn’t warn you
[because that is just what I’m now doing]). Intonation is on the whole less singsong in American than in
British English, and there is a narrower range of pitch. Everywhere English is spoken, regional accents
display distinctive patterns of intonation.

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