Pitch and Intensity Variations in English Speech: A Contrastive Analysis of British RP and Ghebi Speakers

This paper attempts to explain the differences between British Received Pronunciation (RP) and the Ghebi speakers while communicating in English by using contrastive anal- ysis from Robert Lado’s book Linguistics Across Cultures (1957). Robert Lado was bilingual and talked about the challenges that he encountered while learning a second language. The research gap is that it focuses on a new perspective of differences between the Ghebi speakers and native English speakers when communicating. Praat software is used for data analysis of the words uttered by Ghebi speakers and British Received Pronunciation (RP). The study’s comparative analysis provides in-depth details about the differences between British RP and Ghebi speakers. British speakers have a higher pitch and intensity than the Ghebi speakers, for instance, variations in stress patterns and the influence of L1 over L2. It shows apparent differences based on their pitch and intensity (Lado, 1957; Brown, 2007; Ellis, 2015).