An analysis of the most spoken varieties of English language in Netflix series

Abstract

Studies have been conducted on showing the differences between British and American English in terms of pronunciation and lexicon. Therefore, we have analysed ten minutes of two series chapters from Netflix with the help of scripts in order to achieve our goal. First, we have studied the American one, Stranger Things. Then, the Bodyguard, from United Kingdom, has been useful to compare both varieties. When comparing the results, whether the American series or the British one is being analysed, we have included the other version with the purpose of making the distinction more tangible. The results concluded that the use of the rhotic accent is the main variation between both versions. Moreover, the distinct way of pronouncing the intervocalic “t” is one of the other major changes between American and British English. Finally, discrepances of pronouncing /əʊ/ instead of /oʊ/ are present depending on the speaker background. Regarding lexicon, our research has determined that there are not any relevant differences between American and British English. However, considering that our study has focused on twenty minutes (ten minutes for each chapter), we could state that a more extensive analysis is needed to get more specific results.