A History of English Language

A history of the english language 354
States and the West the r is pronounced in all positions. Thus in the received standard of
England lord has the same sound as laud and there is pronounced [ðεə] with the
indeterminate vowel [ə] as a glide at the end. The American r is either a retention of older
English pronunciation or the result of north-of-England influence in our speech. It has
caused more comment than any other distinction in American pronunciation.
A distinction less apparent to the layman is the pronunciation of the o in such words as
not, lot, hot, top. In England this is still an open o pronounced with the lips rounded, but
in America except in parts of New England it has commonly lost its rounding and in most
words has become a sound identical in quality with the a in father, only short.
There are other differences of less moment between English and American
pronunciation, because they concern individual words or small groups of words. Thus in
England been has the same sound as bean but in America is like bin. Leisure often has in
America what is popularly called a long vowel but in England usually rhymes with
pleasure. There, too, the last syllable of words like fertile and sterile rhymes with aisle.
American English has kept the common eighteenth-century pronunciation with a short
vowel or a mere vocalic l. The British pronunciation of either and neither is sometimes
heard in America, as is process with a close o. But Americans do not suppress the final t
in trait or pronounce an f in lieutenant. The pronunciation of figure with [jər] would be
considered pedantic in Britain, according to Fowler, who also confirms the pronunciation
of ate as et, while noting that the American pronunciation has been growing there. In the
United States figger and et would betray a lack of cultivation.
A more important difference is the greater clearness with which Americans pronounce
unaccented syllables. They do not say secret′ry or necess′ry. Bernard Shaw said he once
recognized an American because he accented the third syllable of necessary, and the
disposition to keep a secondary stress on one of the unaccented syllables of a long word
is one of the consequences of our effort to pronounce all the syllables. Conversely, the
suppression of syllables in Britain has been accompanied by a difference at times in the
position of the chief stress. The British commonly say centen′ary and labor′atory, and
adver′tisement is never advertise′ment. There is, of course, more in speech than the
quality of the sounds. There is also the matter of pitch and tempo. Americans speak more
slowly and with less variety of tone. There can be no gain-saying the fact that American
speech is a bit more monotonous, is uttered with less variety in the intonation, than that of
Britain.
The differences between British and American pronunciation are not such as should
cause any alarm for the future, any fear that the British and Americans may become
unintelligible to each other. As already said, the difference in the pronunciation of the o
in lot, top, and so on is one that often escapes the notice of the lay person. The
pronunciation of the r may continue to stir mutual curiosity, but the difference between
the broad a and the flat a affects fewer than 150 words in common use. 26 Other
differences are sporadic and on the whole negligible.
250. The American Dialects.
Certain features of pronunciation characteristic of a part of New England and others
associated with many parts of the South are so easily recognized and so well known that