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http://204.196.54.50/data/dictionaries.htm
Dictionary Sources Robert Beards Dictionary http://www.yourdictionary.com/ http://users.otenet.gr/~vamvakos/multilingual.htm http://www.itu.int/search/wais/Termite/ Telecommunications Terms FOLDOC http://foldoc.doc.ic.ac.uk/foldoc/index.html NET GLOSSARY http://wwli.com/translation/netglos/glossary/glossary.html Miriam Webster with pronunciation guides
Cambridge Dictionary Etymological Dictionary IPA Vowels Pronunciation Guide http://www2.arts.gla.ac.uk/IPA/vowels.html Multi-lingual phonology SAMPA Old Technology
- The Classic Media Project
Eine zwei drei vier fünf sechs sieben acht neun zehn elf zwölf Translators http://www.freetranslation.com/ http://www.babylon.com/online/ BABLEFISH Lojban
Orthography
Merriam Webster Pronunciation Symbols
Search Engines One of the first to pull away from the pack was Ask Jeeves in 1997; a search engine that answers your questions by directing you to a page with the answer. Also launched in 1997, GoTo sells top search engine listings. You can pay to be found higher in the search results (among non-paid listings). Google is a little different because it makes use of link popularity to rank web sites, which can be a good filter on general searches. In 1999, iWon started something very unique: It gives away monthly prizes (as advertised on TV). Now Fact City has a new spin:
A fact-finding engine that gives facts on demand when used on search engine
portals or other high-profile properties like sports and entertainment
sites. It's a whole new dimension of search availability. Not a destination
site, but rather, it's a service integrated into the existing search engines
and portals to enhance the user experience. This fact-finding engine responds
to questions with actual facts and statistics, not hyperlinks. This new
tool can deliver relevant answers, which is fantastic because data can
be imported from remote offline databases. However, as a product or service
search, it may become difficult to distinguish the corporate sponsors pushing
their goods from non-biased consumer search data. phonetic alphabet
Describing English - a scourse by Steve Whitney Overview of English Grammar
English
is a Germanic Language of the Indo-European Family. It is the second most
spoken language in the world.
A history
of English http://www.m-w.com/about/look.htm
þe [dhe]became the. þa /dhah/ - then. wæs -was /w ^ z/ cwæð /suath?/ - said A few of these words will be recognized as identical in spelling with their modern equivalents -- he, of, him, for, and, on -- and the resemblance of a few others to familiar words may be guessed -- nama to name, comon to come, wære to were, wæs to was -- but only those who have made a special study of Old English will be able to read the passage with understanding. Some of the words in the original have survived in altered form, including axode (asked), hu (how), rihtlice (rightly), engla (angels), habbað (have), swilcum (such), heofonum (heaven), and beon (be). Others, however, have vanished from our lexicon, mostly without a trace, including several that were quite common words in Old English: eft "again," ðeode "people, nation," cwæð "said, spoke," gehatene "called, named," wlite "appearance, beauty," and geferan "companions." Recognition of some words is naturally hindered by the presence of two special characters, þ, called "thorn," and ð, called "edh," which served in Old English to represent the sounds now spelled with th. Other points worth noting include the fact that the pronoun system did not yet, in the late tenth century, include the third person plural forms beginning with th-: hi appears where we would use they. Several aspects of word order will also strike the reader as oddly unlike ours. Subject and verb are inverted after an adverb -- þa cwæð he "Then said he" -- a phenomenon not unknown in Modern English but now restricted to a few adverbs such as never and requiring the presence of an auxiliary verb like do or have. In subordinate clauses the main verb must be last, and so an object or a preposition may precede it in a way no longer natural: þe hi of comon "which they from came," for ðan ðe hi engla wlite habbað "because they angels' beauty have." Perhaps the most distinctive difference between Old and Modern English reflected in Aelfric's sentences is the elaborate system of inflections, of which we now have only remnants. Nouns, adjectives, and even the definite article are inflected for gender, case, and number: ðære ðeode "(of) the people" is feminine, genitive, and singular, Angle "Angles" is masculine, accusative, and plural, and swilcum "such" is masculine, dative, and plural. The system of inflections for verbs was also more elaborate than ours: for example, habbað "have" ends with the -að suffix characteristic of plural present indicative verbs. In addition, there were two imperative forms, four subjunctive forms (two for the present tense and two for the preterit, or past, tense), and several others which we no longer have. Even where Modern English retains a particular category of inflection, the form has often changed. Old English present participles ended in -ende not -ing, and past participles bore a prefix ge- (as geandwyrd "answered" above). The period of Middle English extends roughly from the twelfth century through the fifteenth. The influence of French (and Latin, often by way of French) upon the lexicon continued throughout this period, the loss of some inflections and the reduction of others (often to a final unstressed vowel spelled -e) accelerated, and many changes took place within the phonological and grammatical systems of the language. A typical prose passage, especially one from the later part of the period, will not have such a foreign look to us as Aelfric's prose has; but it will not be mistaken for contemporary writing either. The following brief passage is drawn from a work of the late fourteenth century called Mandeville's Travels. It is fiction in the guise of travel literature, and, though it purports to be from the pen of an English knight, it was originally written in French and later translated into Latin and English. In this extract Mandeville describes the land of Bactria, apparently not an altogether inviting place, as it is inhabited by "full yuele [evil] folk and full cruell. " In þat lond ben trees þat beren wolle, as þogh it were of scheep; whereof men maken clothes, and all þing þat may ben made of wolle. In þat contree ben many ipotaynes, þat dwellen som tyme in the water, and somtyme on the lond: and þei ben half man and half hors, as I haue seyd before; and þei eten men, whan þei may take hem. And þere ben ryueres and watres þat ben fulle byttere, þree sithes more þan is the water of the see. In þat contré ben many griffounes, more plentee þan in ony other contree. Sum men seyn þat þei han the body vpward as an egle, and benethe as a lyoun: and treuly þei seyn soth þat þei ben of þat schapp. But o griffoun hath the body more gret, and is more strong, þanne eight lyouns, of suche lyouns as ben o this half; and more gret and strongere þan an hundred egles, suche as we han amonges vs. For o griffoun þere wil bere fleynge to his nest a gret hors, 3if he may fynde him at the poynt, or two oxen 3oked togidere, as þei gon at the plowgh. The spelling is often peculiar by modern standards and even inconsistent within these few sentences (contré and contree, o [griffoun] and a [gret hors], þanne and þan, for example). Moreover, in the original text, there is in addition to thorn another old character 3, called "yogh," to make difficulty. It can represent several sounds but here may be thought of as equivalent to y. Even the older spellings (including those where u stands for v or vice versa) are recognizable, however, and there are only a few words like ipotaynes "hippopotamuses" and sithes "times" that have dropped out of the language altogether. We may notice a few words and phrases that have meanings no longer common such as byttere "salty," o this half "on this side of the world," and at the poynt "to hand," and the effect of the centuries-long dominance of French on the vocabulary is evident in many familiar words which could not have occurred in Aelfric's writing even if his subject had allowed them, words like contree, ryueres, plentee, egle, and lyoun. In general word order is now very close to that of our time, though we notice constructions like hath the body more gret and three sithes more þan is the water of the see. We also notice that present tense verbs still receive a plural inflection as in beren, dwellen, han, and ben and that while nominative þei has replaced Aelfric's hi in the third person plural, the form for objects is still hem. All the same, the number of inflections for nouns, adjectives, and verbs has been greatly reduced, and in most respects Mandeville is closer to Modern than to Old English. The period of Modern English extends from the sixteenth century to our own day. The early part of this period saw the completion of a revolution in the phonology of English that had begun in late Middle English and that effectively redistributed the occurrence of the vowel phonemes to something approximating their present pattern. (Mandeville's English would have sounded even less familiar to us than it looks.) Other important early developments include the stabilizing effect on spelling of the printing press and the beginning of the direct influence of Latin and, to a lesser extent, Greek on the lexicon. Later, as English came into contact with other cultures around the world and distinctive dialects of English developed in the many areas which Britain had colonized, numerous other languages made small but interesting contributions to our word-stock. The historical aspect of English really encompasses more than the three stages of development just under consideration. English has what might be called a prehistory as well. As we have seen, our language did not simply spring into existence; it was brought from the Continent by Germanic tribes who had no form of writing and hence left no records. Philologists know that they must have spoken a dialect of a language that can be called West Germanic and that other dialects of this unknown language must have included the ancestors of such languages as German, Dutch, Low German, and Frisian. They know this because of certain systematic similarities which these languages share with each other but do not share with, say, Danish. However, they have had somehow to reconstruct what that language was like in its lexicon, phonology, grammar, and semantics as best they can through sophisticated techniques of comparison developed chiefly during the last century. Similarly, because ancient and modern languages like Old Norse and Gothic or Icelandic and Norwegian have points in common with Old English and Old High German or Dutch and English that they do not share with French or Russian, it is clear that there was an earlier unrecorded language that can be called simply Germanic and that must be reconstructed in the same way. Still earlier, Germanic was just a dialect (the ancestors of Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit were three other such dialects) of a language conventionally designated Indo-European, and thus English is just one relatively young member of an ancient family of languages whose descendants cover a fair portion of the globe. |
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| Brief History of English
,--Icelandic
450-1150 Old English
Celts dominated southern Germany and the northern Alps in the 1st millennium BC. They began migrating in all directions in the 5th century BC, though it is not known when they reached Britain. They were eventually pushed back to the Scottish Highlands in the north, Wales in the west, and Cornwall in the southwest, by the invading Anglo-Saxons who began arriving in the 5th century AD. In the 6th century a large group from South Wales and Cornwall emigrated to Brittany in northern France where they still speak Breton. In the 7th century Scottish Gaelic was introduced from Ireland. Little is known of the Picts whose language died out in the 10th century as the people merged with the Scots. Languages in Britain In addition to English, Scottish Gaelic is spoken in Scotland, Irish Gaelic is spoken in Ireland, Welsh is spoken in Wales, Romany has been spoken by travelling gypsies for centuries all over Europe including Britain, Manx was spoken in the Isle of Man until the middle part of this century, and Cornish was spoken in Cornwall until about the end of the eighteenth century. English is primarily a Germanic language stemming from invading Angle, Saxon, Jute and Frisian tribes of northern Germany who settled in England in the 5th century, the beginning of the Old English Period. This language derived from Proto-Germanic, which was the mother tongue of German, English, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian. It was the main branch of the prehistoric Indo- European language. The Angel-Seaxans were the English Saxons, as opposed to the Ald-Seaxans. the Old Saxons of the continent. English evolved into a distinct language separate from the original speech of the Angels and Saxons by around the 10th century. Of the 1000 most frequently used words 83% are of Old English origin. Of our remaining vocabulary only about 30% are Anglo- Saxon survivals. Tens of thousands of our current words are of French and Latin origin. Old English 450-1150 (Germanic) Old English is predominantly Anglo-Saxon. It also borrowed from church Latin (~450 words) and from Old Norse. 7th century Christian missions to Britain brought learning and literacy, initially entirely in Latin, but an Old English written language did emerge in the northeast and in the West Saxon kingdom of Alfred the Great in the second half of the 9th century. The first known written English sentence, "This she-wolf is a reward to my kinsman," is an Anglo Saxon runic inscription on a gold medallion (about the size of a 50› piece) found in Suffolk, dated about AD 450-480. From the 8th to the 11th centuries Vikings plundered lands adjacent to the Baltic and North Seas. The Danish King Cnut conquered Norway and England, usurping the English throne, in the early 11th century. Large numbers of Scandinavians settled in England throughout the Old English period, giving the language several thousand common words. Old English characters: ash ‘ /a/, thorn /th/, eth /dh/, and schwa. With his invading Normans, William the Conqueror (1066) established French Domination. They were originally Danes (`Northmen') who settled the northern coast of France (Normandy) in the 8th and 9th centuries. All Old English nobility were wiped out. Norman French became the language of the aristocracy and government (Normanized Latin was used in government, church and learning), and English remained the speech of the masses. So until about 1200 it was bilingual, when many french words were absorbed into English. (English: ox, sheep, swine, calf. French: beef, mutton, pork, veal.) By the mid-1300s English had reasserted itself, with a statute in 1362 enacted in Parliament that all lawsuits be conducted in English. French became a cultivated rather than a native language. The Hundred Years' War (1337-1453) meant French was the language of the enemy country. Black Death (1349-50), which killed off 30% of the people, increased the economic importance of the labouring classes and with it the importance of their language. Middle English 1150-1500 (Germanic + Romance) Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400). Chaucer's English (the variety or dialect spoken in London) established itself as the standard. However, from 1250-1400 English adopted the greatest number of French words (40%), and of the nearly 10,000, 75% are still in use. It also changed in fundamental ways, especially in pronunciation and grammar (simpler), from highly inflected (Germanic) to a very analytical (modern). Some dialects retain some of the early pronunciations for a few words (/doon/ for down in northern England and Scotland). Early Modern English 1500-1800 (Renaissance) In 1476, William Caxton (1422-1491) set up the first printing press in Westminster Abbey. By 1640 there were 20,000 titles printed (mostly in London) in English. This pushed English, written and spoken, towards a standard form. The Dictionary was produced, notably Samuel Johnson's in 1755 (which he did on his own time!). 1650-1800: The Age of Reason (Augustan Age), characterized by a strong sense of order and value of standards and regulations. The language of this time is recognizable today. The `Great Vowel Shift' occurred, and spelling reform. A strong central government used English as the national language for all purposes despite the revival of the classics. Latin and Greek were the most important sources of new words, followed by French, Italian, and Spanish. Most Latin and Greek introductions were deliberate attempts by 16th and early 17th century writers to enrich the language, to elevate `low' English. Words also came in from 50 other languages, largely due to the expansion of the British Empire. 19th Century English 1800-1900 (No change - just expansions) The Industrial Revolution and the Victorian Age. Words began to come to England from America. English dialect terms became standard English. American English The first settled English colony was in Jamestown, Virginia in 1607
who were contemporaries of William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Francis Bacon
(1561-1626), Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) and Donne (1572-1631). By
the 18th century American was recognized as distinct from British English.
The earliest sign is perhaps the absorption of Indian words, almost exclusively
the Algonquian speaking tribes. American
Many words and pronunciations died out in England but survive in American. Words adopted new meanings in the new world. Great changes were wrought in 20th century American, with global economic, political, and technological prominence. Modern English 1900-present Science and Technology, the entertainment industry, the world wars, the car have contributed to the English lexicon. Formations: `self-explaining compounds', Greek and Latin compounds, borrowings from other languages, deliberate coinages, extending meaning of current words, slang, and acronyms; are used ever more frequently. |
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language and the internet...
Anglikaans/Anglicaans, Anglonorsk, Arablish, Benglish, Chinglish, Deutschlish/Gerlish, Dutchlish, Eurolish, Franglais/Frenglish, Hindlish/Hinglish, Indonglish, Inglish, Italglish, Japlish/Janglish, Manglish, Minglish, Punglish, Russlish, Singlish, Spanglish, Swedlish, Taglish, Tamlish, Tinglish, Wenglish, Yinglish |
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Source: http://www.peak.org/~jeremy/dictionary/dict.html
Dialects and accents The differences discussed below really only apply to ‘General American’ (most of the west and heartland) and RP (‘Received Pronunciation’), which is close to ‘BBC English’ - the kind spoken by British newscasters. They are not at all universal. For instance, although American is rhotic and English is non-rhotic, there are non-rhotic areas in America and much of Britain is rhotic. There are many dialects both American and British, briefly... Trudgill (references at end) identifies 16 modern dialect regions in England, based on grammar, vocabulary, and accent (there are more in Wales, Scotland and Ireland), and Carver shows about 26 dialect regions in the United States, based mainly on vocabulary. In both cases there are areas that differ markedly (e.g. North/South in England, Upper North, Lower North, and South in the Eastern United States) and within these areas are discernible subregions. A dialect is grammar plus vocabulary. An accent is pronunciation. Trudgill breaks the US into 8 accent areas, and these coincide well with Carver’s delineations. The pronunciation differences discussed below are all about accent, but generally, accents go along with dialects. An exception would be an immigrant who would speak a good local dialect but in his own accent. A person’s accent is usually the first sign indicating they’re from someplace else. However, although accent is such a strong indicator, differences in accent are difficult to describe, and what accent should we use to describe it? The Benny Hill quote highlights this problem. There is a brief description of the cardinal vowel system appended to this article, to provide an additional perspective on the vowel sounds and symbols during the following discussions. Also, there is the dictionary's general pronunciation guide. The clickable alphabet (sound files) The general pronunciation differences between American English and British English are:
In Britain, the ‘o’ vowel, /A./, in words like dog, hod, pot, is pronounced with rounded lips and the tongue back in the mouth. Americans do not have this vowel, instead pronouncing the same words using the ‘ah’ vowel, /A/, with the lips unrounded and the tongue back but more relaxed. This is the same vowel in card or bard. In some cases in the US the ‘o’ is pronounced using the ‘or’ vowel in words like long (Central East Coast) and horrid (especially in the western US). The ‘plummy’ quality of some RP speakers is probably due to an exaggeration of this ‘o’ vowel, and other vowels, by pushing the tongue as far back as possible, accomplished by speaking whilst imagining a mouth full of plums. The ‘or’ vowel /O/ This is the vowel in Borg, Bork, pork and so on. The reason the ‘or’ vowel is interesting is that many words having it in Britain such as paw, saw, talk, all, bought, launch, taught, port are pronounced in America using the ‘ah’ vowel, /A/. I’ve even heard ‘awesome possum’ rhyme perfectly /As@m pAs@m/. There are many words in American which retain the ‘or’ vowel, such as poor, such that the British homophones poor paw are pronounced differently in American. In the Central US East Coast the ‘or’ vowel occurs in most of the same words as British, but it is slightly shorter, /O/ rather than /O :/. In American, ‘dawg’, as written in cartoons and such, probably uses the ‘or’ vowel, and this spelling emphasizes this pronunciation as unusual. Oddly enough, quark, correctly pronounced to rhyme with stork by most Americans is often pronounced to rhyme with dark by most British people. Pronunciation of a The British have the ‘a’ vowel, /æ/ (cat, hat) and the ‘ah’ vowel /A/, as do Americans, but often in different places. Trudgill notes that words with ‘a’ followed by /f/ /T/ /s/ /nt/ /ns/ /ntS/ /nd/ /mp/ (laugh, path, grass, plant, dance, branch, demand, sample) have /æ/ in American and /A :/ in southern British. Northern British is the same as American for those kinds of words, but doesn’t use it in words like banana, can’t, half, where American has /æ/. In Britain, words like what are pronounced using the same vowel /A./ as in dog, above, and so is phonetically spelled wot rather than wat. Perhaps this is why baloney (nonsense) is so spelled in American dictionaries, but primarily as boloney in some British ones. It should be noted that in America the ‘ah’ vowel (father, bard, calm) is usually shorter and sometimes sounds a little closer to the ‘u’ vowel in cup. So the long, firm /A :/ in Britain really stands out in bath and dance where Americans have the short /æ/ mentioned above. Even this southern English accent, with the long ‘a’ /A :/ in words like father and bath, is not consistent. Only a small group would put a long ‘a’ in a surveyor’s transit, as did Hugh Grant in the movie The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill But Came Down A Mountain. American vowels becoming more neutral Pronunciation can be used to distinguish social class, and social status. In Britain, where class structure is strong, people are more acute to vowel enunciation and, often unconsciously, preserve many pronunciations that would otherwise be unnecessary. Pronunciation of vowels also distinguishes meaning in words, but sometimes the pronunciation is unnecessary. Thus, in American, which seems to have a greater tendency to drop nonessentials, vowels are not always as sharp as in Britain. You get the impression that vowels are closer to neutral (schwa). It might be that in Britain vowels have become sharper (more distinct or enunciated) over the last few hundred years The main example of vowels becoming more neutral in American is in words with some vowel in front of an /r/ that is also followed by another syllable, such as marry or hurry.
/ei/ in Mary --> /E/ in merry --> /@/ /I/ in mirror and /i:/ in nearer /V/ in hurry --> /@/ in furry /V":/ in furry --> /@/ in furry The /V" :/ in furry is shorter in the US /V"/, which is closer to /@/, and in some places the /V/ in hurry goes towards /V"/ (or even /@/) such that hurry and furry are perfect rhymes. I overheard a lady saying ‘hooking up the equipment’ pronouncing hooking as /h@k@n/; the vowels were completely tokens. T moving towards d in American; glottal stops in British In many areas the American ‘t’, when not the initial consonant in a word, is pronounced closer to a ‘d’, and in some cases can disappear altogether. Thus latter and butter sounds more like ladder and budder, and words like twenty and dentist can sound like twenny and Dennis. In Britain, ‘t’ is generally pronounced like a ‘t’, but there are areas the glottal stop is very well known. This is the sound in between the two vowels in uh-oh, or the initial consonant in honest. In these two examples, and others like them, the glottal stop occurs as much in America as in Britain. But the glottal stop that replaces the ‘t’ in the Cockney and Glasgow dialects is much stronger; imagine getting a punch in the belly when you make the sound. Words like butter becomes /bV?@/. This replacement also occurs in informal speech in many areas, and although associated with lower classes, is found in all classes, to varying degrees. As an interesting side note, Americans sometimes replace the ‘d’ in a British word with a ‘t’, as if hypercorrecting ‘d’ back into the more ‘correct’ ‘t’. I’ve heard ‘Wimbleton’ on American TV, found that spelling in a major American encyclopædia, and whilst looking, even found one case of ‘Wimpleton’. This confusion is bourne out by Americans trying to imitate a Cockney accent by putting a glottal stop in place of ‘d’ instead of ‘t’ (bloody /blV?i/). Rhotic r in American, non-rhotic r in British Rhotic speakers will pronounce the r in barn, park, cart, fart, whereas non-rhotic speakers won’t, making no distinction between barn and (auto)bahn. Most of America is rhotic, with the notable exception of the Boston area and New York City. SE Britain is apparently the source of non-rhotic. England is non-rhotic, apart from the SW and some ever-diminishing northern areas. Scotland and Ireland are rhotic. In the movie The Princess Bride, the bishop (Peter Cook) over-emphasized the non-rhotic accent by loudly announcing ‘mawidge’ (marriage), and Americans often joke about eastern New Englander’s who ‘pahk the cah in Hahvahd yahd’. In Britain, the non-rhotic accent gives rise to linking ‘r’s, where an otherwise unpronounced ‘r’, in ‘clear’, is pronounced if followed by a vowel, ‘clear away’. An intrusive ‘r’ is an ‘r’ added in such a situation where none actually exists, so ‘law and order’ becomes ‘law ran order’. In some cases, there is even hypercorrection, such as adding an ‘r’ (Louisa --> Louiser), especially when a non-rhotic person moves to a rhotic area. But if Clair can hear the ‘r’ she’ll correct you. ‘Yoo’ words losing the y in American (tune: tyoon --> toon) There are many less words in American that pronounce a ‘y’ in front of a ‘u’ than in British (as in mule, mute). Most American words don’t: assume, new, nude, tune, student, duke, due. In England most of these words are pronounced with a ‘y’ in front of the ‘u’. Amongst older speakers, this is true for words like suit and lute, and sometimes even in words like Susan and super. I have noticed that my natural (SE English) way of saying tune, tuna, Tuesday, sand dune is ‘choon, choona, choosday, san june’, and that ‘tyoon, tyoona, tyoosday, sand dyoon’ sounds a little formal. I imagine this to be regional. Americans generally say ‘toon, toona, toosday, san doon’. Particular words Although there are relatively few words pronounced completely differently,
many are well known. This list shows some of these, but the examples are
not restrictive – leisure is pronounced both leezhure and
lezhure
in the US, but leezhure is prevalent.
Stress Stress differences, although minor, stand out. Britons stress the first vowel in ballet, Americans the second, but they often stress the first vowel in cigarette. There are many place names in Britain that also occur in the US, especially on the eastern seaboard. British towns ending in –ham, -wich, -cester, -mouth are fully pronounced in America but reduced in Britain to -/@m/ -/IdZ/, -/st@/, -/m@T/ (e.g. Birmingham, Ipswich, Gloucester, Portsmouth). Similar reductions are found in British personal names, for instance Raleigh is raylee in the US but ralee in Britain. Other random anomalies "New Yawkas don’t have an axent, da rest of da country does."
1st lady: "Windy, en’it?" 2nd lady: "No it’s not, it’s Thursday." 3rd lady: "So am I. Let’s go and ’ave a drink!" Some places in the Midwest are famous for pronouncing wash ‘warsh’, as well as fish, dish, as ‘feesh’, ‘deesh’. In Bristol some speakers add ‘l’ to words ending in vowels. Trudgill heard of the three sisters "Evil, Idle, and Normal". When my sister lived there, they asked her about her brother living in a miracle (Americal). In the northern Britain, ‘d’ can informally be pronounced with a rolling ‘r’. I’ve been called a bluhree-iree? (bloody idiot) a few times. There are other differences, such as American, like southern Irish, being more nasally – many speakers push the sounds through the nose, to some extent. But in all, differences between American and British pronunciation of English can be put into three classes: Firstly there are many miscellaneous words where one or more syllables are simply different. For instance: herb - Americans don’t pronounce the h, Britons do; Americans render tomato as tomayto (or tomaydo) rather than the British tomahto; both even spell aluminum/aluminium differently, reflecting pronunciation. The list, above under particular words, is in this class. Then there are classes of words where the vowel used is different. For instance Americans rhyme pa paw caw, whereas Britons rhyme poor paw caw, and even caws causeCoors. In some cases, patterns can be discerned, such as particular vowels following certain kinds of consonants. Most of the differences discussed above fall into this class. And finally there are vowels and perhaps consonants that are peculiar to each. The British ‘o’ vowel /A./ in dog, is not found in America. Perhaps the distinction between schwa /@/ and the ‘er’ vowel /V"/, found in British bird and furry, is lost in America. The British glottal stop is hardly realised in America. References
Peter Trudgill, The Dialects of England, Blackwell, 1990 Craig M. Carver, American Regional Dialects: A Word Geography. The cardinal system for mapping vowels. Vowels are made, during voicing, by changing the shape of the vocal tract with the tongue, lip position, and openness of the mouth. The tongue can be close to the roof of the mouth (tongue is high) or flat against the bottom of the mouth (tongue is low) (say "ahh"), or somewhere in between. Also, the tongue can be forward, or pressed back into the mouth, or somewhere in between. So in the following chart "ahh" would be somewhere in the bottom right corner, as the tongue is low and towards the back. To get a feel for the tongue moving from front to back say ‘cat, cut, cot,’ ‘bed, bird, boat,’ ‘bee, -, boo.’ (Tongue was low, medium, then high). To get a feel for the tongue moving from high to low, say: ‘heed, hid, head, had,’ ‘boot, boat, bot.’ (Tongue was front, then back.) Since we are dealing with only vowels, another way to play with the sounds is to just hum them – instead if ‘bee, boo’, hum ‘ee-oo’. To determine the difference between /e/ and /E/ say bay, eight (/ei/) and bed, ten (/E/) but don’t finish the word – extend the first vowel indefinitely. (I don’t think I distinguish these vowels! but the method works great for the others.) tongue position front center back ____________________ high heed \bee \ | boo| boot hid \ \ | | \_____\____|_____| medium high \ \ | | boat tongue \ bird | height head \bed__\_|_____| medium low \ \| | had \cat cut | \__________| bot low cot ____________________ heed \i \ | (u)| shoe hid \ I \ | U | put American (Western) \_____\____|_____| ------------------ /ei/ bay \e bird| (o)| boat /ou/ \ \ @| | bed \E____\_|___V_| putt \ \| | had \& | /ai/ buy \a_______A_| pot ____________________ heed \i \ | (u)| shoe hid \ I \ | U | put English (RP) \_____\____|_____| ------------ /ei/ bay \e about (o)| boat /ou/ \ \ @| | bed \E____\V"__V(O) putt saw \ bird | had \& | /ai/ buy \a_____A(A.) hod hard
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The Nu Saxon Alfabet I This alfabet has 29 sounds
If you click on an underlined letter (below) you will hear its pronunciation together with its name
source: EL INGLÉS TRANSICIONAL PARA TODO EL MUNDO M.C. Martin |
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Differences between accents, even within one country and even if we
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[A
guide to Latin culture][A
guide to Latin grammar][A
guide to Latin vocabulary][A
second guide to Latin vocabulary][A
guide to a Latin text and its translation]
The
history of English is conventionally, if perhaps too neatly, divided into
three periods usually called Old English (or Anglo-Saxon), Middle
English, and Modern English. The earliest period begins with the migration
of certain Germanic tribes from the continent to Britain in the fifth century
A. D., though no records of their language survive from before the seventh
century, and it continues until the end of the eleventh century or a bit
later. By that time Latin, Old Norse (the language of the Viking invaders),
and especially the Anglo-Norman French of the dominant class after the
Norman Conquest in 1066 had begun to have a substantial impact on
the lexicon, and the well-developed inflectional system that typifies the
grammar of Old English had begun to break down. The following brief sample
of Old English prose illustrates several of the significant ways in which
change has so transformed English that we must look carefully to find points
of resemblance between the language of the tenth century and our own. It
is taken from Aelfric's "Homily on St. Gregory the Great" and concerns
the famous story of how that pope came to send missionaries to convert
the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity after seeing Anglo-Saxon boys for sale
as slaves in Rome:
wave
audio files
