MAJOR ACCENTS OF ENGLISH

English is a nationally heterogeneous language (національно-негомогенна мова) – the entity of related national variants and dialects (different morphological, syntactic, lexical and semantic inventories and patterns) and their associated accents/pronunciation patterns.

It is common knowledge that between 375 and 400 million people speak English as their first language/mother tongue (Ll/MT). British dialectologists P.Trudgill, J.Hannah, A.Hughes divide all variants of English into two major groups:

1) the English-based group comprising English-English, Welsh English, Scottish English, Northern Ireland English, Australian English, New Zealand English;

2)the American-based group with American English and Canadian Englishю

English English comprises two major accents: Southern English and Northern English.

Thus there are five major accents (literary/cultivated) on the British Isles:

1. Southern English or Received Pronunciation (RP)/BBC English. 2. Northern English. 3. Welsh English. 4. Scottish English. 5. Northern Ireland English.

RP/BBC English implicitly enjoys the status of the national standard of pronunciation in the United Kingdom.

In American English, three main types of literary/cultivated pronunciation are distinguished:

1. General American (GenAm, GA)/Network English which is also known as Western American and comprises majority of American accents; 2. Eastern American; 3. Southern American.

The GenAm/Network English enjoys the status of the national standard of pronunciation in the USA.

In New Zealand, RP is used as pronunciation model for educated speakers.

In Australia, there is no or little geographical variation in pronunciation. Three groups of accents are distinguished with no sharp boundary between them:

1) Cultivated Australian;

2) Broad Australian;

3) General Australian, which is treated as Australian pronunciation standard.

The type of educated English pronunciation used in Canada has many similar features with GenAm alongside with specific Canadian traits.

New varieties of English or New Englishes have emerged as the result of the colonial experience: Indian English, Hong Kong English, Singaporean English, West African English, etc.

The following two accents of English have been under extensive investigation due to their importance, prestige and social advantage in certain geographical areas:

1) Southern English or RP/BBC English;

2) General American/GenAm or Network English.