General American English realizes what is written as /t/ with the flap of the tongue tip against the alveolar ridge and when it comes between two vowels it turns into /d/. E.g. latter > ladder.
Post nasal /t/
The post-nasal /t/ in words "winter”, “enter" where an unstressed vowel follows, /t/ is not pronounced: winter = winner
Dental and alveolar consonants + / j /
Such combinations of sounds as /nj/ /sj/
/tj/ /zj/
/dj/ / T j/
/lj/
do not occur in the most varieties of General American English. All those words spelt with u, ew, eu, ui, ue usually have simple /u/. The combination /nj/ and /lj/ are possible in General American if there is an intervening syllable boundary: e.g. January, monument, value.
Palatalization
In General American English palatalization is regular when the following syllable is unstressed. There are a few well-known cases of palatalization before the stressed syllable, e.g. sure, sugar, assure. Received Pronunciation agrees in most cases with general American English but it has the additional possibility of unpalatalization /dj/, /tj/, /sj/, /zj/ in those cases where letter “u” follows, e.g.:
education issue
RP / "edjH'keISqn / RP / ISH /
GenAm / "eGq'keISn / GenAm / 'IsjH /
A number of place names are unpalatalized in Received Pronunciation and palatalized in general American English, e.g.:
Tunisia Indonesia
RP / tjH'nIzIq / RP / Indq'nJzIq /
GenAm / tH'nJZq / GenAm / Indo'nJZq /
1.7.4. Divergent Patterns of Phoneme Use in Sets of Words
Intervocalic combination –si- plus unstressed syllable is pronounced as /Z/ in General American English. In Received Pronunciation only the first group has /Z/, the second /Z/ and /S/, the third /S/:
RP AmE
/ Z / vision, confusion,measure / Z /
/ Z /, / S / Asia, impression
/ S / version / Z /
At least some areas of America especially the South have /l/ in words with such combinations of letters as -alm, e.g. Received Pronunciation calm, palm /k R m/, /p R m/, General and South American English /k O lm/, /p O lm/.
There are four important sets of words in which Received Pronunciation and General American English generally differ in vowel selected. The largest and better known is the set called "bath words". In spelling these words have
a+f (after)
a-th (path)
a+ss (pass)
a+m+consonant (example)
a+n+consonant (dance)
The second set of words that vary comprises those in which an intervocalic /r/ follows midcentral vowel, e.g.:
courage
RP /'k ArIdZ /
GenAm / 'kWrIdZ /
The third set includes words derived from Latin which end in -ile, e.g.:
missile textile
RP / mI'sQIl / RP /'tekst QI l/
GenAm / mIsIl / GenAm /'tekst I l/
The final set includes the names of some countries, e.g.:
Nicaragua
RP / nIkq'rxgjuq /
GenAm / nIkq'rRguq /
Individual words differ in pronunciation:
| RP | General American | |
| Schedule | S | sk |
| Erase | Z | s |
| Herb | h | No consonant |
| Aesthetic | J | e |
| Squirrel | I | Er |
| Neither | aI | I |
| Dynasty | I | aI |
| Progress Process | qu | O |
| Date Apparatus Status | eI | eI , x |
| Wrath | P | x |
| Produce Shone Yoghurt | P | ou |
| Tomato | R | eI |
| What Was Of | P | A |
| vase | vRz | veIz / veIs |
1.7.5. Stress and Intonation
The stress patterns in Received Pronunciation and General American English are generally the same. One of well-known differences is the pronunciation of words ending in -ary, -ery, -ory. In Received Pronunciation they contain a single stressed syllable, in General American English the stress is on the first syllable and in addition the stress falls on the last but one syllable, e.g.:
RP GenAm
' stationary
' secretary
' dormitory
' library
' statio " nary
' secre " tary
' dormi " tory
' li " brary
The number of individual words carry stress on different syllable, e.g.:
RP GenAm
' ballet bal ' let
' detail de ' tail
' garage ga ' rage
' resume resu ' me
Intonation of RP and GenAm functions according to the same principle. The intonation of Received Pronunciation is often characterized as more varied and that of General American English is flatter. Received Pronunciation uses more frequently sharp jumps downwards but has more gradual rises. In lengthy sentences General American English will repeat the overall contour leaving the final rise or fall until the very end. Received Pronunciation in contrast draws out the rise and fall in small increments from stressed syllables to stressed syllables. General American English has usually falling intonation in why-questions while Received Pronunciation frequently uses an alternative pattern with the low rise at the end. Yes-no questions have a rapid rise in General American English, they remain high and finish with the further small rise.
1.8. BRITISH ENGLISH AND AMERICAN ENGLISH:
DIFFERENCES IN MORPHOLOGY
1.8.1. Differences in the Verb
A number of verbs ending in a nasal sound
(e.g. dream, learn) or l (e.g. spill) have two forms for Past Tense and Past Participle: one is regular, the other - irregular: burn - burned, burnt; dream - dreamed, dreamt. American English is more likely to have the regular form and British English - the irregular form, e.g. learnt is rare in American English in contrast to learned.
A further widespread phenomenon is the tendency in American English for non-standard Past Tense forms: sprung for sprang, sung for sang. Most other differences in the Past Tense forms are singular, incidental including the differences in pronunciation:
e.g. Past Indefinite ate / x t/ - /eit/, shone RP / Son / - GenAm / SOun /
American English uses sometimes “proven” and “shaven” next to common “proved” and “shaved”.
American English has the Past Participles beat and shook instead of beaten and shaken. Get has two Past Participle forms in American English: got and gotten. They are used with different meaning. Have got is used for possession and to denote obligation and logical necessity in both varieties, e.g. I've got a book on the subject. You 've got to read it. It’s got to be interesting. “Have got” meaning logical necessity is common in American English but it is less widespread in British English. Have gotten doesn't occur in British English, in American English it means "receive", e.g. She has just gotten a letter. In its modal sense it means "be able", "have an opportunity", e.g. I've gotten to do more reading lately. Have got is barely possible in the modal meaning of obligation in British English.
“Do" and "Have".
British English treats "have" in expressions of possession and obligation as a lexical verb and uses “do” for negation, in questions. "Do" is obligatory in both languages in the expressions to have lunch, dinner… Exclusively British English is the use of "do" to replace a lexical verb:
E.g. Did you write to the hotel?
Yes, I have done. < AmE Yes, I have.
Modal verbs
Should, shall, ought to, dare, need, must are relatively infrequent in both varieties. Dare and need are to be used as blends between operators and lexical verbs in American English. They will take "do" in negative and interrogative form but an unmarked infinitive, e.g. I don't dare think about this.