1 Phonetics as a branch of linguistics

It mostly concerns theatrical activities, screen productions, TV.

Loudness varies according to the type of emotion rendered and the listeners, the rate of speech is deliberately slow, pauses are rather long, emphatic, the rhythm is properly organized the contrast between accented and unaccented segments is not great, the terminal tones contain a lot of categoric low and high falls in final an initial intonation groups.

Conversational style:
This style is very frequent because a lot of English speaking people use it in their everyday speech. It is often called informal, as we use it in family circles, among friends and acquaintances. The speakers are comparatively free, they do not control their linguistic behaviour, they sound natural, use non-standard forms of speech. Much depends on their social background, their social status. This kind of speech greatly depends on the situation and the complex study of conversational style is important from the didactic point of view.

Naturally, the emotional part of conversational style is equally important. The utterances in colloquial speech are incomplete, conversations are not planned. The intonation groups are rather short, tone groups are often broken, the tempo varies greatly. Though the natural speed is very high, pauses make our speech slow . We observe vague rhythmicality, reduction of vowels.

American English pronunciation is characterized by a greater variety of standard forms than British English. In the United States there is no unique standard/ there exist both a national standard (General American)' and 2 major regional standards (Eastern American and Southern American) whose norms do not conflict with each other. The most widespread type of American standard pronunciation is General American.

1)The eastern type (New England, NY) 2) the southern type 3) general American.

Vowels: In such words as “nation”, “temptation”, “decoration” in British English we hear [ʃn] and in American English [ʃan].

In Participle II “be - been” in British English we hear [i:] and in American English – [i].

In “missile”, “hostile”, “docile” in British English - [ai], in American English [i] and zero.

In “tomato”[a:] in British English we oppose [ta'meitou] in American English.

“Neither”, “either” have 2 American English variants: [ai] and [I:].

In some adjectives with -ative. “accumulative”, “communicative”, “remunerative", “significative”,

“naminative” in American English in the last but one syllable [ei] is pronounced. There are 2 exceptions: “affirmative” and “demonstrative” which are pronounced in American English in the British English fashion.

In case of ~ory, -ary, -ery, them are very serious differences connected with secondary stress and primary stress as well; “laboratory", “centenery” ['sent,neri], “capillary” ['kэmpi,leri]

In some positions in American English British [a:] is replaced with [э]. First of all it happens in clusters in which after a vowel in one and the same syllable we have voiceless fricatives [f], [0}, [sj. [as] is also heard in American English in a position before clusters [n]+[s}, [t]+[d]; [gэnt, tfэns, ka’mэnd]

Consonants: According to S. Kenyon, American [r] is marked not only by retroflexion but the so-called gliding articulation. The tongue only for a moment stays in the initial position and immediately passes to the pronunciation of the next vowel. In this respect [r] reminds us of other consonants characterized by gliding articulation (glides w and j). If we keep longer in the initial position and start pronouncing a vowel we shall hear this retroflexion which is observed in: bird, first, burr and corresponds to English [a:]. In British English retroflexive [з:] is met in local dialects in the South West of the country

[t] is vocalized in "better”, “pity”, “battle”, “twenty”. But there is no likeness in “pedal" and “petal”, “latter” and “ladder”. American phoneticians use the following transcription symbol: [t]

British English excurшion VS American English excurжion, The variant [ш] does not contradict American orthoepic norm but is less typical: Perжia, Aжia, averжion

In neglected speech Americans do not pronounce [d] when it is followed by [I]: “cold”, “old”, “sold”. The elision of “d" also takes place in the position after “n”: “land”, “hand”, “candidate”, “individual” [inni'vidjual].

Stress differences: 1) in words of French origin GA tends to have stress on the final syllable (ballet) 2) some words have first-syllable stress in GA whereas in RP the stress may be elsewhere (address, cigarette). 3) some compound words have stress on the first element in GA and RP they retain it on the second element. (ice-cream).

Intonation: 1) in sentences where the most common pre-nuclear contour in RP is a gradualy descending sequence, GA – medium level head. 2) the usual medium or low fall in RP has its rising-falling counterpart in GA. 3) rising terminal tone in RP in GA has a mid-rising contour.