浅析英式英语与美式英语的语音差异
毕业论文关键词：英式英语；美式英语；语音差异
Abstract
Bernard Shaw said that there is a common chasm between British English and American English. So we can know that there are many differences between them. This paper aims at helping English learners to distinguish the pronunciation differences between British English and American English. The author of this paper uses literature research method and experienced summarization method to analyze the pronunciation differences mainly from the aspects of the following: vowels, consonants and intonation. Meanwhile, the author of this paper also introduces the origin and development of British English and American English, analyzes the reasons for the differences from politics, economy and culture.
Key words: British English; American English; pronunciation differences
Brief Analysis of Pronunciation Differences between British English and American English
Contents
摘 要.ⅰ
Abstractⅱ
I. Introduction.1
II.The Origin and Development of British English.2
2.1 The Origin of British English..2
2.2 The Development of British English..3
III.The Origin and Development of American English...4
3.1 The Origin of American English...4
3.2 The Development of American English5
IV.The Reasons for the Differences between British English and American English.5
4.1 Political Reason6
4.2 Historical Reason..6
4.3 Cultural Reason.7
V.The Differences on Pronunciation..7
5.1 The Change of Vowels..7
5.2 Differences in Consonant pronunciation.13
5.3 R-Colored Accent ...14
5.4 Differences in Stress15
5.5 Differences of Intonation18
VI Conclusion19
Bibliography20
Acknowledgements..21
I. Introduction
With the development of society, English becomes the most important language in the world. And a large number of people use English as their second language. There are many varieties of English: Scottish English, New Zealand English, Canadian English, Irish English, Welsh English, South African English, Australian English, and so on. British English and American English are the two major varieties of English. There are also many pronunciation differences between them because they developed independently with the different political, historical and cultural backgrounds.
There is a misunderstanding about the differences between British English and American English. Many people think that American English is more popular than British English, and the American English is the representative of vogue. As a matter of fact, the American English they use is the English of Shakespeare, also called Old English, which came from the United Kingdom. It brought to America by the Protestants, they boated May Flower from Britain and brought new culture to America. And these early colonists keep the accent which brought by the Protestants, and passed it on from generation to generation. Less changes had been taken place in American English, but there were many changes had been taken place in British English in hundreds years. So we can know that American English is a relative conservative language, and British English is the real representative of fashion through this paper.
We use British English as the common one in our daily life, and we always think that the pronunciation we use in our daily communication is the native British pronunciation. Actually, it’s not strange that we can hear some students both use British English and American English in a sentence but they don’t realize. In my opinion, students, especially whose majors are English, have ability to distinguish the pronunciation differences between British English and American English clearly is really important. So the purpose of this article is to discriminate the pronunciation differences between British English and American English. This study can help us to correct our pronunciation and keep us away from making mistakes.
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