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Regional and national variants of Standard English pronunciation.

Languages, spoken by more than one nation, have several national variants of standard pronunciation. One of such languages is English. As a result of the colonial expansion of British Empire, the English language spread from the British Isles to all the continents of the earth, and as the colonies and dominions gained their independence and attained nationhood English became the national language of several countries, such as the United States of America, Australia, New Zealand and the greater part of Canada. It is native to many who live in India, Israel, Malta, Ceylon, the Republic of South Africa.

All the English-speaking nations have their own standard variants of English pronunciation, which possess many features in common, because they are of common origin. At the same time, they acquire varying number of differences due to the new conditions of their development after separation from the British English and to the degree of their connection with the British English after that separation.

Thus, there are the following national variants of Standard English pronunciation:

1) Australian pronunciation standard;

2) New Zealand pronunciation standard;

3) American pronunciation standard;

4) Canadian pronunciation standard.

New Zealand and Australian types of pronunciation are British-based standards. Canadian pronunciation standard exhibits features common with American English and British English. Like American speakers, most Canadians use the retroflex [r] and dark [l] in all positions and pronounce [æ] in place of [α:]. Some scholars consider Canadian pronunciation American based standard.

Besides the National variant of Standard pronunciation there may be other types of pronunciation considered equally correct or acceptable. They are spread in large regions of the country and used by educated people. Such types of Standard pronunciation are called regional variants of standard (orthoepic, or literary) pronunciation of the language in contradistinction to local dialectal variants, restricted to relatively small localities and used by uneducated people.

Thus in the British Isles the regional types of Standard English Pronunciation are:

1) Southern English pronunciation;

2) Northern English pronunciation;

3) Standard Scottish pronunciation;

4) Welsh English pronunciation;

5) Northern Ireland English pronunciation.

Of all the types of Standard English pronunciation in the British Isles Southern English Pronunciation (RP) is the least regional in character which is why it has the status of the national pronunciation standard.

The number of local (nonstandard) dialects in England is very great. They are classified into following main classes, each class including several groups:

a) the dialects of Scotland (9 groups);

b) the dialects of Ireland (3 groups);

c) the dialects of England and Wales, which includes 5 divisions:

Northern (3 groups);

Midland (10 groups);

Eastern (5 groups);

Western (2 groups);

Southern (10 groups).

There are also social dialects – varieties, spoken by a socially limited number of people.

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