Wells (Longmans Pronunciation Dictionary) uses the term "GA" (General American) to refer to the accent spoken by "the majority of Americans, namely those who do not have a noticeable Eastern or Southern accent" (xiv). This page will outline the main differences between RP and GA.

Personally I prefer to use the terms BE (General British English) and AE (General American English), and I might forget myself and use them in these pages and in my lectures. But for the moment we'll try to stick to Wells's "RP" anf "GA".

General differences

In the LDP Wells keeps the length-mark for tense vowels in his GA transcriptions ( ), and I have kept it in English Pronunciation for Icelanders in the GA answers in the Key, but I shall leave it out on this page.

If you are transcribing GA English, you may omit all length-marks in this course, and write the tense vowels .

Lax vowels

	The LOT vowel in GA is the same as the PALM vowel (tense - see below) - the LOT sound in RP is missing in GA.
	TRAP and BATH words have different vowels in RP: in RP BATH has the same vowel as PALM (tense - see below) in RP, but in GA BATH words have the same vowel as TRAP words.

Tense vowels

	In RP BATH and PALM both have the vowel , but in GA BATH has .
	In GA the vowel doubles for LOT and PALM. Many Americans also use the vowel for THOUGHT words - caught, law, call.

Diphthongs

• The diphthongs FACE, PRICE, CHOICE and MOUTH are the same in RP and GA.
  See however this note on American phonology.

  

   

• The diphthong GOAT often starts from a back position in GA ( or ),
  not the central position of RP (). Also, American phoneticians often write it simply as "o".
  
• Note also that RP has a variant of , which Wells writes , before :
      code --
      cold -- 

  

• The centring diphthings NEAR, SQUARE and CURE do not occur in GA - instead there is a vowel followed by r:

  	RP	GA
  near, here	,	,
  square, there	,	,
  cure, jury	,	,

  
  (I know, my American accent is atrocious!)

• But note that many CURE words in both GA and RP are pronounced with the NORTH vowel, RP , GA . This is more common in RP than in GA.

  	RP	GA
  cure	usually:,  sometimes:	only:
  sure	usually: ,  sometimes:	usually:   sometimes:
  poor	usually: ,  sometimes:	usually: ,  sometimes: or

Summary  TRAP BATH PALM LOT

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If you have any questions mail me at peturk@hi.is.