内容简介

在学习英语的过程中，你是否注意过同一个单词可能有多种不同的发音？比如，有的人在读单词 “water（水）” 时会在结尾使用卷舌音，而不是短元音 /ə/。其实，有些不同的发音来自于不同的 “accents（口音）”，而熟悉不同的口音，比如 “British accents（英式口音）” 和 “American accents（美式口音）”，则能帮助我们更好地提升英语听力和口语能力。本期节目中，主持人 Beth 和步理就来分享一些区分和使用英式英语和美式英语口音的技巧。

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（关于台词的备注: 请注意这不是广播节目的逐字稿件。本文稿可能没有体现录制、编辑过程中对节目做出的改变。）

Buli
大家好，欢迎收听 BBC 英语教学的 “你问我答” 节目。We are here to answer your questions about English language, culture and life. I'm Buli, and Beth is here to help me answer this week's question.

Beth
Hi, Buli. How's it going?

Buli
Not bad, actually. Thank you! So, let's hear the question.

Question
Recently, I've encountered a problem while practising my English listening. I'm usually accustomed to listening to British accents and I'm used to speaking with a British accent myself. As a result, sometimes when I listen to American accents, I can't understand what they are saying, or it takes me a long time to react. What should I do?

Buli
这位听众想知道，在练习英语听力时，如何才能区分英式英语和其它不同口音之间的区别，特别是美式英语的发音。

Beth
Oh, I love a question about listening!

Buli
I actually learnt English with an American accent, even though my accent sounds more British these days because I live in the UK.

Beth
And I have a British accent, so we can give lots of examples in this episode. We should say before we start that there are lots of different American and British accents. In this programme, we're going to take my accent as an example of the British accent.

Buli
Let's get started.

Beth
So, there are four key differences we're going to talk about in this episode. The first is the rhotic 'r', /r/. Generally, American English has the rhotic 'r' so we can say it is a rhotic accent.

Buli
That's right. And with a rhotic accent, you pronounce the /r/ sound whenever the letter 'r' appears in a word, like in 'learn', 'perfect' and 'better'. Some other examples of rhotic accents include Scottish, Irish and some Caribbean accents.

Beth
And if you have a non-rhotic accent, like my English accent, you don't pronounce the /r/ at the end of words like 'better' or between a vowel and a consonant, like in 'learn', but you do pronounce the letter 'r', or the /r/ sound at the start of a word like 'read' or in the middle of a word between two vowels, like 'carrot'.

Buli
OK. Our second difference relates to the letter 't' which can sound like a small /d/ in some accents, including in American English. For example, 'butter' in British English could sound like 'butter' in American English.

Beth
Yes. Now, this sound is sometimes called a flap. It can come between vowel sounds, like in 'city', /sɪdɪ/, 'water', /wɔːdər/, and 'writing', /raɪdɪŋ/, and at the end of words like 'rabbit,' /rabɪd/.

Buli
Our third difference is about vowel sounds. A lot of vowel sounds are the same in British and American accents, but there are some differences.

Beth
For example, in British English, the words 'dog' and 'pot' are pronounced with an /ɒ/ sound which is short.

Buli
But if you compare this to American English, the vowel sounds are slightly longer and sound more like an /ɑ/ sound – 'dog' and 'pot'.

你正在收听的是 BBC 英语教学的 “你问我答” 节目。刚才我和 Beth 介绍了一些常见的英式英语和美式英语之间发音上的区别。

首先，美式英语和英式英语相比，位于音节结尾的字母 “r” 带有更多的卷舌音。比如，单词 “car（车）” 和 “learn（学习）” 在美式英语中通常读作 “car” 和 “learn”。

其次，美式英语中在发字母 “t” 的发音时，有时会把两个元音中间或音节结尾的辅音 /t/ 读成很轻的 /d/，这个现象也被称为 “flap”。比如，在美式英语中读 “city（城市）” 和 “rabbit（兔子）” 等单词时，通常会念成 “city” 和 “rabbit”。

最后，美式英语中的短元音 /ɒ/ 也经常会被拉长，听起来更像 /ɑ/。比如，单词 “dog（狗）” 和 “pot（锅）” 在美式英语中听起来更像 “dog” 和 “pot”。

Beth
But something else we should mention is word stress. Some words, particularly two-syllable nouns, have the stress in different places in American and British accents. So, for example, compare the British English 'ballet', 'adult' and 'vaccine' – these all have the stress on the first syllable.

Buli
是的。美式英语和英式英语在一些单词的重音上也有所不同，就比如 Beth 提到的这三个单词 “ballet（芭蕾舞）”、“adult（成年人）” 和 “vaccine（疫苗）” 在美式英语中通常会念成 “ballet”、“adult” 和 “vaccine”，重音从第一个音节移到了第二个音节上。

Now, what tips do you have for improving listening to different accents, Beth?

Beth
Well, the key is to listen to as many different speakers with different accents as possible. Also, don't be afraid to pause what you're listening to, go back, listen again, and repeat what the person said. The more you practise saying words out loud, the better your ear will get at understanding different accents.

Buli
Great tips. 其实，帮助我们更加熟练地使用和辨别不同英语口音的最好方式就是练习。在熟悉基本的变化规则后，我们可以通过看电影或听播客并大声模仿和跟读的方式练习不同的口音，加深和增进自己对不同口音发音规律的理解。

Beth
And you can always follow BBC Learning English for more material to practise listening and using the British accent.

That's it for this week. Remember, if you have a question that you would like us to answer, you can email us at questions.chinaelt@bbc.co.uk

Buli
你还可以通过微博向我们提问。我们的微博账号是 “BBC英语教学”。Bye!

Beth
Goodbye!