Development of Broadcast Standard US English

Bill Labov talks about the shift in Standard from a RP (Received Pronunciation) influenced r-less pronunciation to a r-full (i.e. rhotic) pronunciation.

The rhotic pronunciation of Philadelphia probably influenced the rest of the United States. Now the rhotic pronunciation is standard in US English although there is still r-less speech in the South and New England (Boston, New York). The r-less speech of New England is due to the longer/stronger influence of the British RP standard speech.

An additional feature that changed was the flapping of "t" between two vowels. RP does not flap "t" while US English does. FDR does not flap "t" in the word "shatter" showing the older RP influenced pattern.

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Transcript


At this stage, what interests me most is the whole idea of what passes for correct or incorrect in American English. Even before America declared its independence from Britian here in Philadelphia, the two Englishes had been going their own ways. George Bernard Shaw once joked that the two nations were separated by the same language. Bill Labov is the director of the Atlas of North American English.

RM: What do you consider Standard American?

BL: Well, most linguists recognize that there is a broadcast standard pronunciation which is not fixed but which converges towards a pattern that is not local. And that's changed over time.

RM: We drew originally from where?

BL: From England. There was something called International English that was really modelled upon British Received Pronunciation and took its form in London at the beginning of the 19th century. Americans were not all influenced by it. Only the big Tory cities: Boston, New York, Savannah, Charleston, Richmond. They adopted that r-less pronunciation whereby you say [ka:] not [kar] "car" and "store" [stor] which shifts to [sto:].
And that's still the pattern in England today. For me, the model of that international English standard was always FDR. He was a New Yorker who had the prestige pattern of the upper class in New York, and it was really r-less. It sounded like this:

FDR: "To those who would not admit the possibility of the approaching storm, the past two weeks have meant the shattering of many illusions. With this rude awakening has come fear, fear bordering on panic. I do not share these fears."

BL: So you notice that every time the letter R comes up unless a vowel follows its gonna sound like this: "The approaching storm".

RM: Stom.

BL: Not "storm" [storm] but [sto:m] and: "I do not share these fears". But he — it's more than just the R. You notice the way he say "shattering", and "utter good faith". So the pronunciation of "t" as "t" in those situations still found in Boston was again modelled on the British pattern. And it held right up to the end of World War 2. And then, to our great astonishment, it flipped. So, right after WW2 people growing up in New York City and in many other cities behaved in just the opposite way. When they were careful, they pronounced their "r"s. And when they were not careful, just speaking casually, they stayed with their r-less dialect.

RM: So people wanted to sound more English before World War II and less so after World War II.

BL: We hear British people use that pattern, and we love it. But it's not right for an American.

Labov believes Philadelphia shaped American speech more than any other city because it was the only east coast city originally to pronounced its "r"s. And that "r" sound that so typifies American English, migrated west.

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From "Do you speak American?" documentary.