Intonation is a general term for the pitch of your voice rising and falling as you speak:
- It includes things like the pitch of your voice rising at the end of the sentence to signal a question, or lowered pitch to indicate a parenthetical phrase.
- It excludes phonemic pitch contrasts used to distinguish words as in tonal languages (Thai, Mandarin) or pitch accent languages (Japanese)—although you might find some definitions that include this sort of thing.
Accent has a few different meanings. The relevant meaning here is "features of pronunciation that signal regional or social identity" (Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, p.420). This could include differences in intonation between different groups of speakers, although I wouldn't go so far as to say it includes intonation generally.
Your examples of eye dialect appear to describe differences in vowels between different groups of speakers. This sort of difference falls under accent.
Dialect, by the way, is different from accent. It's defined as "a language variety in which the use of grammar and vocabulary identifies the regional or social background of the user" (Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, p.425). So a word like prepone existing in Indian English but not American English is a matter of dialect rather than accent.
Is “in one go” British English or just English?
I've wrestled with this one, mostly because of the way you've titled your question.
Take, for example, nappies (which we call diapers in the U.S.). I would consider nappies to be UK English; I rarely hear the word, and, more importantly, when I do, I almost have to translate it in my mind.
As for in one go, I looked at a lot of blogs and message boards, and, indeed, when I managed to find this expression on the internet, it was almost invariably traced to a U.K. speaker1. But, for some reason, it doesn't sound chiefly British to me. It's immediately understandable. I got this done in one go doesn't sound like something I would never say, (unlike, I need to go change a nappy).
So, getting back to your title, I find myself wondering: What makes something "British English" vs. "just English"?
If I had to make a ruling, I'd say, no, "in one go" is not "British English", and I'll count on Macmillan to back me up.
Here is the definition of nappy in the American version of Macmillan:
Now here is the definition of the noun go in the same edition:
So, the Macmillan editors, at least, don't seem to think the phrase is British enough to be tagged BRITISH
.
That absence of a BRITISH
tag doesn't appear to be an oversight, either; that same entry also reveals:
In short, Macmillan would categorize
I'll have a go at answering this question
as British English, but
I typed this whole answer in just one go
would be what you called "just English."
Based on my usage searches, though, I think it's a borderline call, so I wouldn't vehemently argue against Codeswitcher's stance.
1Like this one, from an electrician:
In the latter case, then you'd be doing yourself a favour to have the whole lot done in one go.
The speaker is a self-identified electrician from Thornbury, which I assume is a U.K. Thornbury, judging by the way favour is spelled.
Best Answer
In American English, we always use a determiner (or the plural) when going to hospitals or airports. The form with "the" is used for both cases where "the" makes sense, because you're talking about a particular one, and for the general sense you asked about: "the hospital", "the airport". So in your examples, you should say "took him to the hospital" and "be at the airport".
I've never heard "go to hospital" or "go to airport" in normal use*. While I could guess what meaning was intended, it doesn't truly have a meaning in my dialect.
When you use a language or dialect idiomatically, you don't always phrase things exactly the way you mean. Sometimes there's a more common phrasing, and you choose to rephrase what you're saying to use that more common phrasing. "The hospital" and "the airport" are phrases like that in American English. Even in cases where "go to a hospital" or "go to an airport" might make more sense, people will choose to say "the hospital" or "the airport".
* There are note-taking and headline-writing registers of American English where articles are commonly dropped out, so in those situations you'd find "go to airport", but that's an abbreviation of "go to the airport".