Английская Википедия:General American English
Шаблон:Short description Шаблон:Redirect Шаблон:Pp-move-indef Шаблон:Pp-pc1 Шаблон:Use mdy dates Шаблон:IPA noticeШаблон:Use American EnglishШаблон:Inline audio Шаблон:Listen Шаблон:Listen Шаблон:Listen General American English, known in linguistics simply as General American (abbreviated GA or GenAm), is the umbrella accent of American English spoken by a majority of Americans, encompassing a continuum rather than a single unified accent.Шаблон:SfnpШаблон:SfnpШаблон:Sfnp It is often perceived by Americans themselves as lacking any distinctly regional, ethnic, or socioeconomic characteristics, though Americans with high education,Шаблон:Sfnp or from the North Midland, Western New England, and Western regions of the country are the most likely to be perceived as using General American speech.Шаблон:Sfnp[1][2] The precise definition and usefulness of the term continue to be debated,Шаблон:SfnpШаблон:SfnpШаблон:Sfnp and the scholars who use it today admittedly do so as a convenient basis for comparison rather than for exactness.Шаблон:SfnpШаблон:Sfnp Other scholars prefer the term Standard American English.Шаблон:SfnpШаблон:Sfnp
Standard Canadian English accents are sometimes considered to fall under General American,Шаблон:Sfnp especially in opposition to the United Kingdom's Received Pronunciation; in fact, typical Canadian English accents align with General American in nearly every situation where British and American accents differ.Шаблон:Sfnp
Terminology
History and modern definition
The term "General American" was first disseminated by American English scholar George Philip Krapp, who in 1925 described it as an American type of speech that was "Western" but "not local in character".Шаблон:Sfnp In 1930, American linguist John Samuel Kenyon, who largely popularized the term, considered it equivalent to the speech of "the North" or "Northern American",Шаблон:Sfnp but, in 1934, "Western and Midwestern".Шаблон:Sfnp Now typically regarded as falling under the General American umbrella are the regional accents of the West,Шаблон:SfnpШаблон:Sfnp Western New England,Шаблон:Sfnp and the North Midland (a band spanning central Ohio, central Indiana, central Illinois, northern Missouri, southern Iowa, and southeastern Nebraska),Шаблон:SfnpШаблон:Sfnp plus the accents of highly educated Americans nationwide.Шаблон:Sfnp Arguably, all Canadian English accents west of Quebec are also General American,Шаблон:Sfnp though Canadian vowel raising and certain newly developing features may serve to increasingly distinguish such accents from American ones.[3] Similarly, William Labov et al.'s 2006 Atlas of North American English identified these three accent regions—the Western U.S., Midland U.S., and Canada—as sharing those pronunciation features whose convergence would form a hypothetical "General American" accent.
Regarded as having General American accents in the earlier 20th century, but not by the middle of the 20th century, are the Mid-Atlantic United States,Шаблон:Sfnp the Inland Northern United States,Шаблон:Sfnp and Western Pennsylvania.Шаблон:Sfnp However, many younger speakers within these regions have reversed away from mid-20th century accent innovations back towards General American features.[4][5][6][7] Accents that have never been labeled "General American", even since the term's popularization in the 1930s, are the regional accents (especially the r-dropping ones) of Eastern New England, New York City, and the American South.Шаблон:Sfnp In 1982, British phonetician John C. Wells wrote that two-thirds of the American population spoke with a General American accent.Шаблон:Sfnp
Disputed usage
English-language scholar William A. Kretzschmar Jr. explains in a 2004 article that the term "General American" came to refer to "a presumed most common or 'default' form of American English, especially to be distinguished from marked regional speech of New England or the South" and referring especially to speech associated with the vaguely-defined "Midwest", despite any historical or present evidence supporting this notion. Kretzschmar argues that a General American accent is simply the result of American speakers suppressing regional and social features that have become widely noticed and stigmatized.[8]
Since calling one variety of American speech the "general" variety can imply privileging and prejudice, Kretzchmar instead promotes the term Standard American English, which he defines as a level of American English pronunciation "employed by educated speakers in formal settings", while still being variable within the U.S. from place to place, and even from speaker to speaker.Шаблон:Sfnp However, the term "standard" may also be interpreted as problematically implying a superior or "best" form of speech.[9] The terms Standard North American English and General North American English, in an effort to incorporate Canadian speakers under the accent continuum, have also been suggested by sociolinguist Charles Boberg.[10][11] Since the 2000s, Mainstream American English has also been occasionally used, particularly in scholarly articles that contrast it with African-American English.[12][13]
Modern language scholars discredit the original notion of General American as a single unified accent, or a standardized form of EnglishШаблон:SfnpШаблон:Sfnp—except perhaps as used by television networks and other mass media.Шаблон:Sfnp[14] Today, the term is understood to refer to a continuum of American speech, with some slight internal variation,Шаблон:Sfnp but otherwise characterized by the absence of "marked" pronunciation features: those perceived by Americans as strongly indicative of a fellow American speaker's regional origin, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status. Despite confusion arising from the evolving definition and vagueness of the term "General American" and its consequent rejection by some linguists,Шаблон:Sfnp the term persists mainly as a reference point to compare a baseline "typical" American English accent with other Englishes around the world (for instance, see Comparison of General American and Received Pronunciation).Шаблон:Sfnp
Origins
Regional origins
Though General American accents are not commonly perceived as associated with any region, their sound system does have traceable regional origins: specifically, the English of the non-coastal Northeastern United States in the very early 20th century, which was relatively stable since that region's original settlement by English speakers in the mid-19th century.Шаблон:Sfnp This includes western New England and the area to its immediate west, settled by members of the same dialect community:Шаблон:Sfnp interior Pennsylvania, Upstate New York, and the adjacent "Midwest" or Great Lakes region. However, since the early to mid-20th century,Шаблон:Sfnp[15] deviance away from General American sounds started occurring, and may be ongoing, in the eastern Great Lakes region due to its Northern Cities Vowel Shift (NCVS) towards a unique Inland Northern accent (often now associated with the region's urban centers, like Chicago and Detroit) and in the western Great Lakes region towards a unique North Central accent (often associated with Minnesota, Wisconsin, and North Dakota).
Theories about prevalence
Linguists have proposed multiple factors contributing to the popularity of a rhotic "General American" class of accents throughout the United States. Most factors focus on the first half of the twentieth century, though a basic General American pronunciation system may have existed even before the twentieth century, since most American English dialects have diverged very little from each other anyway, when compared to dialects of single languages in other countries where there has been more time for language change (such as the English dialects of England or German dialects of Germany).[16]
One factor fueling General American's popularity was the major demographic change of twentieth-century American society: increased suburbanization, leading to less mingling of different social classes and less density and diversity of linguistic interactions. As a result, wealthier and higher-educated Americans' communications became more restricted to their own demographic. This, alongside their new marketplace that transcended regional boundaries (arising from the century's faster transportation methods), reinforced a widespread belief that highly educated Americans should not possess a regional accent.Шаблон:Sfnp A General American sound, then, originated from both suburbanization and suppression of regional accent by highly educated Americans in formal settings. A second factor was a rise in immigration to the Great Lakes area (one native region of supposed "General American" speech) following the region's rapid industrialization period after the American Civil War, when this region's speakers went on to form a successful and highly mobile business elite, who traveled around the country in the mid-twentieth century, spreading the high status of their accents.Шаблон:Sfnp A third factor is that various sociological (often race- and class-based) forces repelled socially-conscious Americans away from accents negatively associated with certain minority groups, such as African Americans and poor white communities in the South and with Southern and Eastern European immigrant groups (for example, Jewish communities) in the coastal Northeast.Шаблон:Sfnp Instead, socially-conscious Americans settled upon accents more prestigiously associated with White Anglo-Saxon Protestant communities in the remainder of the country: namely, the West, the Midwest, and the non-coastal Northeast.Шаблон:Sfnp
Kenyon, author of American Pronunciation (1924) and pronunciation editor for the second edition of Webster's New International Dictionary (1934), was influential in codifying General American pronunciation standards in writing. He used as a basis his native Midwestern (specifically, northern Ohio) pronunciation.Шаблон:Sfnp Kenyon's home state of Ohio, however, far from being an area of "non-regional" accents, has emerged now as a crossroads for at least four distinct regional accents, according to late twentieth-century research.[17] Furthermore, Kenyon himself was vocally opposed to the notion of any superior variety of American speech.[18]
In the media
General American, like the British Received Pronunciation (RP) and prestige accents of many other societies, has never been the accent of the entire nation, and, unlike RP, does not constitute a homogeneous national standard. Starting in the 1930s, nationwide radio networks adopted non-coastal Northern U.S. rhotic pronunciations for their "General American" standard.[19] The entertainment industry similarly shifted from a non-rhotic standard to a rhotic one in the late 1940s, after the triumph of the Second World War, with the patriotic incentive for a more wide-ranging and unpretentious "heartland variety" in television and radio.[20]
General American is thus sometimes associated with the speech of North American radio and television announcers, promoted as prestigious in their industry,[21][22] where it is sometimes called "Broadcast English"[23] "Network English",Шаблон:Sfnp[24][25][26] or "Network Standard".Шаблон:SfnpШаблон:R[27] Instructional classes in the United States that promise "accent reduction", "accent modification", or "accent neutralization" usually attempt to teach General American patterns.Шаблон:Sfnp Television journalist Linda Ellerbee states that "in television you are not supposed to sound like you're from anywhere",[28] and political comedian Stephen Colbert says he consciously avoided developing a Southern American accent in response to media portrayals of Southerners as stupid and uneducated.[21][22]
Phonology
Typical General American accent features (for example, in contrast to British English) include features that concern consonants, such as rhoticity (full pronunciation of all Шаблон:IPA sounds), T-glottalization (with satin pronounced Шаблон:IPA, not Шаблон:IPA), T- and D-flapping (with metal and medal pronounced the same, as Шаблон:IPA), L-velarization (with filling pronounced Шаблон:IPA, not Шаблон:IPA), yod-dropping after alveolar consonants (with new pronounced Шаблон:IPA, not Шаблон:IPA), as well as features that concern vowel sounds, such as various vowel mergers before Шаблон:IPA (so that Mary, marry, and merry are all commonly pronounced the same), raising of pre-voiceless Шаблон:IPA (with price and bright using a higher vowel sound than prize and bride), raising and gliding of pre-nasal Шаблон:IPA (with man having a higher and tenser vowel sound than map), the weak vowel merger (with affecting and effecting often pronounced the same), and at least one of the Шаблон:Sc2 vowel mergers (the [[father–bother merger|Шаблон:Sc2–Шаблон:Sc2 merger]] is complete among most Americans and the [[cot-caught merger|Шаблон:Sc2–Шаблон:Sc2 merger]] among at least half). All of these phenomena are explained in further detail under American English's phonology section. The following provides all the General American consonant and vowel sounds.
Consonants
A table containing the consonant phonemes is given below:
Vowels
- Vowel length is not phonemic in General American, and therefore vowels such as Шаблон:IPA are customarily transcribed without the length mark.Шаблон:Efn Phonetically, the vowels of GA are short Шаблон:IPA when they precede the fortis consonants Шаблон:IPA within the same syllable and long Шаблон:IPA elsewhere. (Listen to the minimal pair of Шаблон:Audio Шаблон:IPA.) This applies to all vowels but the schwa Шаблон:IPA (which is typically very short Шаблон:IPA), so when e.g. Шаблон:IPA is realized as a diphthong Шаблон:IPA, it has the same allophones as the other diphthongs, whereas the sequence Шаблон:IPA (which corresponds to the Шаблон:Sc2 vowel Шаблон:IPA in RP) has the same allophones as phonemic monophthongs: short Шаблон:IPA before fortis consonants and long Шаблон:IPA elsewhere.Шаблон:Huh? The short Шаблон:IPA is also used for the sequence Шаблон:IPA (the Шаблон:Sc2 vowel). All unstressed vowels are also shorter than the stressed ones, and the more unstressed syllables follow a stressed one, the shorter it is, so that Шаблон:IPA in lead is noticeably longer than in leadership.Шаблон:SfnpШаблон:Sfnp (See Stress and vowel reduction in English.)
- Шаблон:IPA are considered to compose a natural class of tense monophthongs in General American, especially for speakers with the cot–caught merger. The class manifests in how GA speakers treat loanwords, as in the majority of cases stressed syllables of foreign words are assigned one of these six vowels, regardless of whether the original pronunciation has a tense or a lax vowel. An example of that is the surname of Thomas Mann, which is pronounced with the tense Шаблон:IPA rather than lax Шаблон:IPA (as in RP, which mirrors the German pronunciation Шаблон:IPA, which also has a lax vowel).Шаблон:Sfnp All of the tense vowels except Шаблон:IPA and Шаблон:IPA can have either monophthongal or diphthongal pronunciations (i.e. Шаблон:IPA vs Шаблон:IPA). The diphthongs are the most usual realizations of Шаблон:IPA and Шаблон:IPA (as in stay Шаблон:Audio-IPA and row Шаблон:Audio-IPA, hereafter transcribed without the diacritics), which is reflected in the way they are transcribed. Monophthongal realizations are also possible, most commonly in unstressed syllables; here are audio examples for potato Шаблон:Audio-IPA and window Шаблон:Audio-IPA. In the case of Шаблон:IPA and Шаблон:IPA, the monophthongal pronunciations are in free variation with diphthongs. Even the diphthongal pronunciations themselves vary between the very narrow (i.e. Шаблон:IPA) and somewhat wider (i.e. Шаблон:IPA), with the former being more common. Шаблон:IPA varies between back Шаблон:IPAblink and central Шаблон:IPAblink.Шаблон:Sfnp As indicated in above phonetic transcriptions, Шаблон:IPA is subject to the same variation (also when monophthongal: Шаблон:IPA),Шаблон:Sfnp but its mean phonetic value is usually somewhat less central than in modern RP.Шаблон:Sfnp
- Raising of short a before nasals: For most speakers, the short a sound, Шаблон:IPA as in Шаблон:Sc2 or Шаблон:Sc2, is pronounced with the tongue raised, followed by a centering glide, whenever occurring before a nasal consonant (that is, before Шаблон:IPA, Шаблон:IPA and, for some speakers, Шаблон:IPA).[29] This sound may be narrowly transcribed as Шаблон:IPA (as in Шаблон:Audio and Шаблон:Audio), or, based on a specific dialect, variously as Шаблон:IPA or Шаблон:IPA. See the chart for comparison to other dialects.
Английская Википедия:General American English/æ/ raising in North American English
- Before dark Шаблон:Serif in a syllable coda, Шаблон:IPA and sometimes also Шаблон:IPA are realized as centering diphthongs Шаблон:IPA. Therefore, words such as peel Шаблон:IPA and fool Шаблон:IPA are often pronounced Шаблон:IPA and Шаблон:IPA.Шаблон:Sfnp
- General American does not have the opposition between Шаблон:IPA and Шаблон:IPA, which are both rendered Шаблон:IPAblink; therefore, the vowels in further Шаблон:IPA are typically realized with the same segmental quality as Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:Pronunciation.Шаблон:Sfnp This also makes homophonous the words forward Шаблон:IPA and foreword Шаблон:IPA as Шаблон:IPA, which are distinguished in Received Pronunciation as Шаблон:IPA and Шаблон:IPA, respectively.Шаблон:Sfnp Therefore, Шаблон:IPA is not a true phoneme in General American but merely a different notation of Шаблон:IPA preserved for when this phoneme precedes Шаблон:IPA and is stressed—a convention adopted in literature to facilitate comparisons with other accents.Шаблон:Sfnp What is historically Шаблон:IPA, as in hurry, is also pronounced Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:Pronunciation, so Шаблон:IPA, Шаблон:IPA and Шаблон:IPA are all neutralized before Шаблон:IPA.Шаблон:Sfnp Furthermore, some analyze Шаблон:IPA as an allophone of Шаблон:IPA that surfaces when stressed, so Шаблон:IPA, Шаблон:IPA and Шаблон:IPA may be considered to be in complementary distribution and thus comprising one phoneme.Шаблон:Sfnp
- The phonetic quality of Шаблон:IPA (Шаблон:Sc2) is an advanced open-mid back unrounded vowel Шаблон:IPAblink.Шаблон:Pronunciation,Шаблон:SfnpШаблон:Sfnp
The 2006 Atlas of North American English surmises that "if one were to recognize a type of North American English to be called 'General American'" according to data measurements of vowel pronunciations, "it would be the configuration formed by these three" dialect regions: Canada, the American West, and the American Midland.[30] The following charts (as well as the one above) present the vowels that these three dialects encompass as a perceived General American sound system.
Pure vowels
Diphthongs
| Wikipedia's IPA diaphoneme |
GenAm realization | Example words |
|---|---|---|
| Шаблон:IPA | Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:Pronunciation[31] | bride, prize, tie |
| Шаблон:IPA[33] | bright, price, tyke (price raising) | |
| Шаблон:IPA | Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:PronunciationШаблон:Sfnp | now, ouch, scout |
| Шаблон:IPA | Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:PronunciationШаблон:Sfnp | boy, choice, moist |
R-colored vowels
| Wikipedia's IPA diaphoneme |
GenAm realization | Example words |
|---|---|---|
| Шаблон:IPA | Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:Pronunciation | barn, car, park |
| Шаблон:IPA | Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:Pronunciation | bare, bear, there |
| Шаблон:IPA | bearing | |
| Шаблон:IPA | Шаблон:IPAblink Шаблон:Pronunciation | burn, first, murder |
| Шаблон:IPA | murder | |
| Шаблон:IPA | Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:Pronunciation | fear, peer, tier |
| Шаблон:IPA | fearing, peering | |
| Шаблон:IPA | Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:PronunciationШаблон:Sfnp | horse, storm, war |
| hoarse, store, wore | ||
| Шаблон:IPA | Шаблон:IPA Шаблон:Pronunciation | moor, poor, tour |
| Шаблон:IPA | poorer |
See also
- List of dialects of the English language
- List of English words from indigenous languages of the Americas
- Accent reduction
- African-American English
- American English
- California English
- Chicano English
- English phonology
- English-language spelling reform
- Hawaiian Pidgin
- Northern Cities Vowel Shift
- Received Pronunciation
- Regional vocabularies of American English
- Standard Written English
- Transatlantic accent
Explanatory notes
References
Citations
Bibliography
- Шаблон:Cite book
- Шаблон:Cite book
- Шаблон:Cite book
- Шаблон:Cite journal
- Шаблон:Cite journal
- Шаблон:Cite book
- Шаблон:Cite journal
- Шаблон:Cite journal
- Шаблон:Cite conference
- Шаблон:Cite book
- Шаблон:Cite journal
- Шаблон:Cite EPD
- Шаблон:Cite book
- Шаблон:Cite book
- Шаблон:Cite journal
- Шаблон:Cite book
- Шаблон:Cite book
- Шаблон:Cite book
- Шаблон:Cite book
- Шаблон:Cite magazine
- Шаблон:Cite journal
- Шаблон:Cite book
- Шаблон:Cite book
- Шаблон:Cite book
- Шаблон:Cite book
- Шаблон:Accents of English
- Шаблон:Cite book
- Шаблон:Cite journal
Further reading
External links
Шаблон:English dialects by continent Шаблон:Language phonologies
- ↑ Labov, William; Ash, Sharon; Boberg, Charles (1997). "A National Map of the Regional Dialects of American English" and "Map 1". Department of Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania. "The North Midland: Approximates the initial position|Absence of any marked features"; "On Map 1, there is no single defining feature of the North Midland given. In fact, the most characteristic sign of North Midland membership on this map is the small black dot that indicates a speaker with none of the defining features given"; "Map 1 shows Western New England as a residual area, surrounded by the marked patterns of Eastern New England, New York City, and the Inland North. [...] No clear pattern of sound change emerges from western New England in the Kurath and McDavid materials or in our present limited data."
- ↑ Шаблон:Cite journal See also: map.
- ↑ Harbeck, James (2015). "Why is Canadian English unique?" BBC. BBC.
- ↑ Шаблон:Cite journal
- ↑ Dinkin, Aaron (2017). "Escaping the TRAP: Losing the Northern Cities Shift in Real Time (with Anja Thiel)". Talk presented at NWAV 46, Madison, Wisc., November 2017.
- ↑ Шаблон:Cite journal
- ↑ Fruehwald, Josef (2013). "The Phonological Influence on Phonetic Change". Publicly Accessible University of Pennsylvania Dissertations. p. 48.
- ↑ Шаблон:Harvp: 'The term "General American" arose as a name for a presumed most common or "default" form of American English, especially to be distinguished from marked regional speech of New England or the South. "General American" has often been considered to be the relatively unmarked speech of "the Midwest", a vague designation for anywhere in the vast midsection of the country from Ohio west to Nebraska, and from the Canadian border as far south as Missouri or Kansas. No historical justification for this term exists, and neither do present circumstances support its use... [I]t implies that there is some exemplary state of American English from which other varieties deviate. On the contrary, [it] can best be characterized as what is left over after speakers suppress the regional and social features that have risen to salience and become noticeable.'
- ↑ Шаблон:Harvnb: "Standard English may be taken to reflect conformance to a set of rules, but its meaning commonly gets bound up with social ideas about how one's character and education are displayed in one's speech".
- ↑ Шаблон:Harvcoltxt
- ↑ Boberg, Charles (2021). Accent in North American film and television. Cambridge University Press.
- ↑ Pearson, B. Z., Velleman, S. L., Bryant, T. J., & Charko, T. (2009). Phonological milestones for African American English-speaking children learning mainstream American English as a second dialect.
- ↑ Blodgett, S. L., Wei, J., & O'Connor, B. (2018, July). Twitter universal dependency parsing for African-American and mainstream American English. In Proceedings of the 56th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (Volume 1: Long Papers) (pp. 1415–1425).
- ↑ Labov, William (2012). Dialect diversity in America: The politics of language change. University of Virginia Press. pp. 1–2.
- ↑ Шаблон:Cite magazine
- ↑ Шаблон:Cite book
- ↑ Hunt, Spencer (2012). "Dissecting Ohio's Dialects". The Columbus Dispatch. GateHouse Media, Inc. Archived from the original on September 28, 2021.
- ↑ Hampton, Marian E. & Barbara Acker (eds.) (1997). The Vocal Vision: Views on Voice. Hal Leonard Corporation. p. 163.
- ↑ Шаблон:Cite web
- ↑ Шаблон:Cite book
- ↑ 21,0 21,1 Шаблон:Cite web
- ↑ 22,0 22,1 Шаблон:Cite web
- ↑ Шаблон:Cite web
- ↑ Шаблон:Cite book
- ↑ Шаблон:Cite book
- ↑ Шаблон:Cite book
- ↑ Шаблон:Cite book
- ↑ Шаблон:Cite web
- ↑ Boberg, Charles (Spring 2001). "Phonological Status of Western New England". American Speech, Volume 76, Number 1. pp. 3–29 (Article). Duke University Press. p. 11: "The vowel Шаблон:IPA is generally tensed and raised [...] only before nasals, a raising environment for most speakers of North American English".
- ↑ Шаблон:Harvp
- ↑ 31,0 31,1 31,2 Шаблон:Cite web See under "Std US + 'up-speak'"
- ↑ Flemming, Edward; Johnson, Stephanie. (2007). "Rosa's roses: Reduced vowels in American English". Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 37(1), 83–96.
- ↑ Шаблон:Cite book
