What dialect of English do Americans speak?

American English (AmE, AE, AmEng, USEng, en-US), sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States.

What is the prestige dialect of English?

English – In the UK, the prestige dialect is often considered to be Received Pronunciation whereas General Australian English and Cultivated South African English have traditionally been the prestige dialect in those countries. The United States is said to have no single prestige dialect.

Does Received Pronunciation still exist?

RP remains the accent most often heard in the speech of announcers and newsreaders on BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4, and in some TV channels, but non-RP accents are now more widely encountered.

Which American dialect is closest to British English?

The Transatlantic accent taught in the 1930s and 40s is arguably the accent that is most similar to the British accent. Transatlantic pronunciation was popular in Hollywood and on television until about 1970.

Why is the American accent different from British?

An important reason why American English and British English sound different is rhotacism, the change of a particular sound in a language. Americans kept their rhotic American accent—for the most part. Port cities on the East Coast, especially in New England, had a lot of contact with the R-less Brits.

What is the most prestigious language in the world?

English
English is by far the most powerful language. It is the dominant language of three G7 nations (USA, UK and Canada), and British legacy has given it a global footprint. It is the world’s lingua franca. Mandarin, which ranks second, is only half as potent.

Why do some dialects have more prestige than others?

Various forms of language, such as accents, dialects, gender varieties, and even multilingualism, are seen as more prestigious than others completely because of the people who speak them. This idea of people in power deciding the “best” form of the language applies to all of the areas of your question.

Who speaks the Queen’s English?

The Queen’s English is also often called BBC English. It is the standard English which most non-native English speakers associate with people from the UK. It includes Received Pronunciation – the “posh” accent that the Queen uses – as well as grammatically correct utterances free of slang.

Is the Geordie accent fading?

Changing times. The main reason for the loss of old words is that Geordies aren’t geographically isolated any more. As a result the dialect words associated with those industries have also been fading away.

What is the difference between Received Pronunciation and a dialect?

It’s important to make the distinction between an accent and a dialect: in the UK, there are many dialects as well as accents, but Received Pronunciation (or RP) is not a dialect. A dialect suggests the geographic region of the speaker whereas an accent, particularly RP, is associated with a person’s location within the social hierarchy.

What is RP ( Received Pronunciation)?

Updated July 28, 2019. Received pronunciation, commonly abbreviated as RP, is a once prestigious variety of British English spoken without an identifiable regional dialect. It is also known as British Received Pronunciation, BBC English, the Queen’s English, and posh accent.

Why is there no pronounced h sound in the British accent?

Not every dialect in Britain has a pronounced h sound, which is one difference between them, among differences in vowels. “The prestige British accent known as ‘received pronunciation’ (RP) pronounces h at the beginning of words, as in hurt, and avoids it in such words as arm.

What is the difference between social dialect and linguistic prestige?

Having a dialect or manner of speaking associated with different classes is called a social dialect. Having esteem or social value to a manner of speaking is called linguistic prestige. The flip side of that coin is called accent prejudice .