Comparison of General American and Received Pronunciation


One aspect of the differences between American and British English is that of specific word pronunciations, as described in American and British English pronunciation differences. However, there are also differences in some of the basic pronunciation patterns between the standard dialects of each country. The standard varieties for each are in fact generalizations: for the U.S., a loosely defined spectrum of unmarked varieties called General American and, for Britain, a collection of prestigious varieties most common in southeastern England, ranging from upper- to middle-class Received Pronunciation accents, which together here are abbreviated "RP". However, other regional accents in each country also show differences, for which see regional accents of English speakers.
Received Pronunciation has been the subject of many academic studies, and is frequently used as a model for teaching English to foreign learners. The widely repeated claim that only about two percent of Britons speak RP is no more than a rough estimate and has been questioned by several writers, most notably by the phonetician Jack Windsor Lewis.

Phonological differences

  • Rhoticity - GA is rhotic while RP is non-rhotic; that is, the phoneme is only pronounced in RP when it is immediately followed by a vowel sound. Where GA pronounces before a consonant and at the end of an utterance, RP either has no consonant or has a schwa instead. This leads to several RP mergers characteristic of non-rhotic accents, whereas GA maintains these distinctions. Similarly, where GA has r-colored vowels, RP has plain vowels or. The "intrusive R" of many RP speakers is absent in GA; this is a consequence of the rhotic/non-rhotic distinction.
  • The trap–bath split has resulted in RP having the back unrounded open vowel in many words where GA has a front open unrounded vowel ; this RP vowel occurs typically when followed by:
  • *,,,,, or .
  • is usually tensed before,, and sometimes in GA; in other words, rap is but ram is.
  • Many foreign names and loanwords spelled with use in RP but in GA, such as kebab, pasta, macho, and taco. In a small number of words, these phonemes are exactly reversed in the two dialects, such as banana, khaki, and Pakistan.
  • RP has three open back vowels, where GA has only two or even one. GA speakers use for both the RP and : the father–bother merger.
  • * Nearly half of American speakers additionally use the same vowel for the RP .
  • While the lot–cloth split is no longer found in RP, it is found in those GA speakers who do not have the cot–caught merger. This results in in some words which now have in RP, particularly before voiceless fricatives and sometimes before . This is reflected in the "eye dialect" spelling "dawg" for dog.
  • "Long o" and "short o" before intervocalic /r/ have merged in American English. Thus "moral" and "oral" rhyme in GA, while in RP they do not rhyme, being pronounced and, respectively.
  • RP has a marked degree of contrast of length between "short" and "long" vowels. In GA this contrast is somewhat less evident and non-phonemic, so the IPA length symbol is often omitted.
  • The "long o" is realised differently: GA back first element ; RP central first element. However, there is considerable variation in this vowel on both sides of the Atlantic.
  • The distinction between unstressed and is lost in GA, while in RP it is retained. Thus in RP, edition and addition are not homophones.
  • In GA, flapping is common: when either a or a occurs between a sonorant phoneme and an unstressed vowel phoneme, it is realized as an alveolar-flap allophone. This sounds like a to RP speakers. is an allophone of in conservative RP. The degree of flapping varies considerably among speakers, and is often reduced in more formal settings. It does occur to an extent in nearly all speakers of American English, with better pronounced with a flap almost ubiquitously regardless of background. Pronouncing the t would be considered overly formal. This does not mean it always completely merges with bedder, as in the latter can be somewhat longer than in better.Yod-dropping occurs in GA at the onset of stressed syllables after all alveolar consonants, including ; i.e. historic, is pronounced. In contrast, RP speakers:
  • * always retain after : e.g. new is RP, GA ;
  • * retain or coalesce it after : e.g. due is RP or, GA ;
  • * retain or drop it after : e.g. allude is RP or ;
  • * retain, coalesce in stressed or unstressed syllables, or drop it after : e.g. assume is RP, or .
  • RP speakers also drop the yod especially in coupon and Pulitzer as and respectively, but many GA speakers retain it, becoming and, although Pulitzer with the yod is widely incorrect.
  • Yod-coalescence occur in both GA and RP in unstressed syllables or after a stressed vowel. RP however more often retains the yod, especially in carefully enunciated forms of words. For example, issue is RP or, graduate may be carefully enunciated in RP as, but nature is always coalesced. In both GA and RP, however, the sounds of word-final,,, and can coalesce with the sound of word-initial across word boundaries in casual or rapid speech, becoming,,, and respectively, thus this year can sound like thi shear/sheer. This is also found in other English accents.
  • For some GA speakers from any U.S. region whose accents are derived from, or similar to, those that originate especially in California, other Western states, and even Midwestern areas, including the Upper Midwest, the unstressed I in -ing is tensed and the G is dropped, so that -ing is enunciated to sound like ean, een, or ene, thus coding is similar to codeine, akin to how "in" is typically pronounced by speakers from Australia, where the target for is closer to cardinal, or Romance languages-speaking countries like France and Spain, whether as a standalone word or a syllable, but shorter than the long vowel of bean or the traditional RP pronunciation of been. However, this pronunciation is considered incorrect, but it had already been widespread in American television as early as 1990 and was described in that year's Orlando Sentinel article as a "corruption of the language" so that it has been either unconventional or nonexistent in RP.
  • For some RP speakers, unlike in GA, some or all of tyre , tower, and tar are homophones; this reflects the merger of the relevant vowels.
  • The voiceless stops /t/, /p/, and /k/ have a stronger aspiration in RP.
  • Most General American accents, but not British ones, have undergone vowel mergers before /r/: the nearer–''mirror and hurry–furry mergers, and some variation of the Mary–marry–merry merger, a total three-way merger being the most common throughout North America.
  • GA accents usually have some degree of merging weak vowels.
  • Disyllabic laxing is more common in American than in British English, with a short vowel in GA and a long vowel in RP in such words as era, patent and lever.
  • Trisyllabic laxing however is somewhat less common in GA than in RP, for example in privacy, vitamin and spherical''.