如何区分美音和英音?

求助：如何区分美音和英音？

美音连读和卷舌音较多，挺起来比较柔和婉转；英音给人的感觉是规规矩矩，方方正正，铿锵有力。个人比较喜欢听美音

google 了一下，找到了点东西，共享，最后一行给出链接

实际上，没有单一的英式发音和美式发音。在美国的不同地区，发音区别是比较明显的。在英国，发音差别更是巨大。而且无论是在英国还是在美国，都没有“普通话”。你所说的*** English(RP)的使用者在英国还不到3%，主要集中在牛津－剑桥一带，上流社会和外语教学使用的就是这种语音。*** English(GA)是美国中西部地区的发音，也没有统一的标准，因此***播音员的口音也有不小的差别。

语速的快慢很大程度取决于发音者的习惯，在Standard 版的一篇文章中，作者统计出*** Standard 比*** Standard平均每分钟还要快10-20个单词，但这不是绝对的。至于清晰与否，则取决于听者的习惯和喜好了。习惯哪种口音便觉得哪种口音清晰。

下面是英音(RP)和美音(GA)的大致区别

1、在美音中，长音短音区别不明显甚至不加区分，在美式音标中一般没有[:]符号

2、美国英语中弱读省读比英式英语稍多，而且语气比较平缓，英音的“顿挫”感比较强，轻重音比较突出。

3、美音和英音的语调差别较大。

4、卷舌问题：只要出现r ，美音都要发出来，例如car, source等等。在英音中，只有这个r 接下来有元音的时候才发音。

5、在美音中calm 和lot 元音开口程度一致，在某些地区cot 和caught 的发音是没有区别的。英音中的lot 元音在美音中不存在。

6、美音中at 元音的张口程度大于英音；let 也是如此

7、美音coat 和英音coat 元音发音方式不一样，前者是[kout]，后者是[k倒eut]

8、英音中的[t]许多时候在美音中发[d]

9、美音中的[s]牙齿并不咬紧，而英音中的[s]有点像汉语中的发音

这个链接是来自一个论坛的，此话题还有其他网友的有益发言，建议大家去看看

喜欢美语，那种表达方式让人觉得很轻松。

这么难区别？我还是区别不了怎么办呀？唉，英语底子太差。

应该说比较好区分，简单的讲美音的卷舌、儿化音多，听起来随意些，但听起来相对没有英音清晰。英音基本没什么儿化音，生硬些，但较清晰。一般我们现在学美音的较多，相对熟悉美音。英音比较适合南方的朋友来学习。举个发音的例子：interesting, 美音读作„intristi～英音却读'in-特-resti~

不好意思，音标实在打不出来

American and British Pronunciation Differences

"New Yawkas don‟t have an axent, da rest of da country does."

Three old ladies sitting in a bus shelter:

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!"

This section focuses on specific phonemes. (Dialects and Accents are discussed in the previous section.) The noticeable pronunciation differences between American English and British English are:

pronunciation of o

the „or‟ vowel [ɔ]

pronunciation of „a‟ (US has [æ], [ɑ], not [ɒ]; UK has [æ], [ɑ:], and [ɒ])

American vowels becoming more neutral

vowel shifts

d‟d t‟s in American; glottal stops in British

rhotic „r‟ in American (pronouncing the r in park), non-rhotic „r‟ in British (or not)

„yoo‟ words losing the y in American (tune: tyoon toon)

particular words

stress & reductions

other random anomalies

[If some characters aren't ɛɑʃɪl ʏʃɛɛn, click here.]

The differences discussed really only apply to „General American‟ (most of the west and heartland) and RP („Received Pronunciation‟), which is close to „*** 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 is a brief description of the cardinal vowel system appended to this section, to provide an additional perspective on the vowel sounds during the following discussions. Also, refer to the pronunciation key – this shows the pronunciation symbols as used throughout this dictionary, alongside the equivalent IPA symbols, which are enclosed in square brackets where used (mostly just in this section).

References

The cardinal system for mapping vowels.

American (Western) and British (RP) vowel systems

Pronunciation of o

In Britain, the „o‟ vowel, [ɒ], 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, [ɑ], 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 [ɔ] (or the „aw‟ vowel)

This is the vowel in oar, law, Borg, Bork, pork and so on. If I was American, I would have called it the „aw‟ vowel, but I think American „aw‟ varies more regionally, and English „or‟ is more consistently closer to [ɔ] (as long as you don‟t pronounce the r).

Many „or‟ words in Britain such as paw, saw, talk, all, bought, launch, taught, port are pronounced in America using the „ah‟ vowel, [ɑ]. I‟ve even heard „awesome possum‟ rhyme perfectly [ɑsəm p ɑsəm]. But many words in American 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, [ɔ] rather than

[ɔ:]. In American, „dawg‟, as written in cartoons and such, uses the „or‟ vowel, and the spelling emphasizes the pronunciation as unusual. Oddly enough, quark, correctly pronounced to rhyme with quart 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 [ɑ], as do Americans, but often in different places. Trudgill notes that words with „a‟ followed by [f] [θ] [s] [nt] [ns] [ntʃ] [nd] [mp] (laugh, path, grass, plant, dance, branch, demand, sample) have [æ] in American and [ɑ:] in southern British. Northern British bends a‟s pretty flat in general compared to Southern English, and is generally the same as American, but there are exceptions like banana, can‟t, half, where the a is more like in the south.

In Britain, words like what are pronounced using the same vowel [ɒ] 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 [ɑ:] 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‟ [ɑ:] 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, where nonessentials are more readily dropped, 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.

[æ] in marry [ɛ] in merry [ə]

[ei] in Mary [ɛ] in merry [ə]

[ɪ] in mirror and [i:] in nearer

[ʌ] in hurry [ə] in furry

[ɜ:] in furry [ə] in furry

Trudgill‟s examples give [ei] and [ɛ] merging so that Mary and merry are pronounced identically, and [æ] and [ɛ] merging so that marry and merry sound identical. In cases where these both occur, marry merry Mary sounds like merry merry merry. Since these words are unambiguous in context, it‟s easy for the [ɛ] to approach schwa [ə]. And where speakers have [æ] or [ei] approaching [ɛ] they all might approach schwa [ə].

The [ɜ:] in furry is shorter in the US [ɜ], which is closer to [ə], and in some places the [ʌ] in hurry goes towards [ɜ] (or even [ə]) such that hurry and furry are perfect rhymes.

I overheard a lady saying „hooking up the equipment‟ pronouncing hooking as [hək ən]; the vowels were completely tokens.

V owel Shifts

Long vowels in Middle English were pronounced as they were in Latin but, during the 15th and 16th centuries, they changed to what we have in general today. This change is called the Great V owel Shift. In major cities around the Great Lakes area, linguists have noted since the 1970s what they call the Northern Cities Chain Shift. On the West Coast you hear many vowel shifts, notably in younger people, and sometimes words are spelled to match (sense → since, pen → pin). My daughter growing up pronounced it MickDonalds.

like → lake

cook → kick

pen → pin

petting (pedding) → pədding

thank → think

hot (haht) → hat

jon (jahn) → jen

money → many

racket → rocket (rahket)

D‟d t‟s 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.

Why do Americans pronounce t as d? Perhaps because to pronounce the frequent „r‟s at the end of words ending in „-er‟ it is easier to say „-der‟ than „-ter‟.

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 bracing for a punch in the belly when you make the sound. Words like butter become

[bʌʔə].

As an interesting side note, Americans sometimes replace the „d‟ in a British word with a „t‟, as if hype rcorrecting „d‟ back into the more „correct‟ „t‟. I‟ve heard „Wimbleton‟ on American TV , found that spelling in a major American encyclopedia, and whilst looking, even found cases of „Wimpleton‟. This confusion is borne out by Americans trying to imitate a Cockney accent by putting a glottal stop in place of „d‟ instead of „t‟ (bloody [blʌʔɪ]), which sounds quite odd to an English person.

In Britain, the glottal stop occurs in informal speech in many areas, although with Estuary English, perhaps not informal anymore. The association of the glottal stop with lower classes or Cockneys typically also includes dropping of „h‟s (thus hooter becomes [ooʔə]), and dropping the g in -ing words (/woʔ thi el ə yə dooin/ "what the hell are you doing?").

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 Englanders 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 hears the „r‟ she‟ll correct you.

In contrast, in the North and Scotland, r‟s roll stronger. Even d‟s can be r‟d. I‟ve been called a /bluhreeiree?/ (bloody idiot) a few times.

„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‟. This also applies to words like perpetual and situation.

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.

word US UK

aluminium aluminum aluminium

apricot a-pricot ay-pricot

β bayda beeta

charade char-ay-d char-ah-d

cordial corjul cordee-al

fillet filay filit

herb ‟erb herb

leisure leezhure lezhure

lever l-e-ver leever

privacy pry-vacy priv-acy

route rout root

schedule skedule shedule

semi sem-eye sem-ee

strychnine strich-9 strich-neen

θ thayta theeta

tomato tom-ay-do tom-ah-to

vase vayz vahz

vitamin vie-tamin vit-amin

Stress & reductions

Stress differences, although minor, stand out. Britons stress the first vowel in ballet, cafe (& other borrowed French words), Americans the second, but they often stress the first vowel in cigarette, police, and research. 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 -[əm] -[ɪd ʒ], -[stə], -[məθ] (e.g. Birmingham, Norwich, 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

Occasionally Americans add a „t‟ to cross and across, and this occasionally shows up in spelling

(accrossed, acrost).

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).

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, as reflected in 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 cause Coors. 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 [ɒ] in dog, is not found in America. Perhaps the distinction between schwa [ə] and the „er‟ vowel [ɜ], found in British bird and furry, is lost in America. The British glottal stop is hardly realised in America.

A young man named Chalmondley Colquhoun,

Once kept for a pet a babolquhoun,

His aunt said "Chalmondley!

Do you think it quite Calmondley

To feed a babolquhoun with a spolquhoun?"

A lively young damsel named Menzies