Why Should I go There? – Transcripts

Language Features

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  often drops the /r/, but not always (semi-rhotic)
  
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  Irish melody/intonation
  
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  lack of the weak vowel schwa (/ə/), which results in each syllable being clearly pronounced and equally stressed: glo-bal, moun-tins, de-li-cious
  
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  water is pronounced /wata/, bigger is pronounced /bɪɡa/, over is /ova/, colour is /cola/
  
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  dropping of /h/ at the beginning of words (our athletes ‘ave made us proud)
  
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  diphthongs are reduced in words such as name, neighbours , play, hold, only, grow
  
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  very open vowel sounds are common – examples: spArts, smAll and fAll, All
  
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  /ð/and /θ/ are pronounced /d/ and /t/ in words like the and thin
  
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  -ing is collapsed to –in
  
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  /t/ and /d/ at the end of words like just and blend are often dropped
  

• 
  rhotic (meaning /r/) is clearly pronounced in most positions
  
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  -tt- in a word like better is pronounced with a /d/ after, last, ask
  
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  /ɑ:/ becomes /æ:/ in words like vast
  
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  /ju:/ becomes /u:/ in words like news, student, tune, opportunity
  

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  Canadian pronunciation is almost identical to American pronunciation. The most famous difference is the ou sound, so the word house will sound to American ears like hoose. They tend to pronounce cot the same as caught and collar the same as caller. And some will turn t sounds into d sounds, so the capital (Ottawa) appears to be “Oddawa.” In Atlantic Canada, accents are more influenced by Scottish and Irish sounds.
  
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  the tag ‘eh’ is often identified as a marker of Canadian English
  
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  in Quebec people take the Metro instead of the subway, and you will hear French words such as autoroute for highway, and expressions like shut a light
  
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  some slang words: click (kilometre), loonie (one-dollar coin), toonie (two-dollar coin), breakwich (breakfast sandwich), Canuck (a Canadian), mounties (Royal Canadian Mounted Police)
  

‘The classless accent – not ot posh, not Cockney’. The well-known British linguist David Crystal calls Estuary English “a sort of cross between Cockney and Received Pronunciation” and claims it is one of the fastest moving accents of modern times. The Oxford Dictionary defines it as ‘a type of accent identified as spreading outwards from London and containing features of both received pronunciation and London speech’

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  The glottal stop is sometimes used, but not as often as in Cockney; started is pronounced /stɑː?ɪd/ not /stɑːtɪd/, the final t may be dropped in words such as important and basket
  
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  /l/ vocalisation: pronouncing the l-sound as /w/ in final positions or in a final consonant
  
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  cluster, capital is pronounced almost like /ˈkæpɪtəw/, not /ˈkæpɪtəl/, world is pronounced /wɜːwd/, not /wɜːld/
  
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  some diphthong shift, know is pronounced almost like the word now: /naʊ/, the second a in landscape is almost an /æ/ (ˈlæn.skæɪp/, not /ˈlændskeɪp/)
  
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  ‘yod’-dropping, which means using /tʃ/ instead of /tj/ in words such as tune
  
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  h-dropping may occur, but not as often as in Cockney (‘Ave a nice day!)
  
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  some use of colloquial expressions such as ‘cheers’
  

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  /r/ is clearly pronounced after vowel sounds, like in very, after, sir
  
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  /k/, /t/, /p/ are pronounced without aspiration (=extra breath), like in tiger, taste, people
  
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  /t/ and /d/ are pronounced with the tongue curled towards the back of the mouth: variety
  
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  often use the –ing form where regular present tense is more correct
  
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  ‘actually’ and ‘basically’ are used more frequently than more than British/American speakers
  
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  the use of “Indianisms” such as ‘do one thing’
  

Other typical features that are not prominent in this particular recording:

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  the th sound is pronounced /d/ or /t/ with the tongue curled backwards: thin /tin/
  
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  Indian English often appears to put the stress accents at other syllables than British English, which may create a kind of “machine-gun” rhythm and a clear difference in how words are stressed and pronounced, e.g. develòpment rather than devèlopment