is a term that has been applied to the English Language as spoken in England . In English speaking countries outside the UK , the term " British English " is much more frequently used for this variety of English; however, Peter Trudgill in ''Language in the British Isles'' introduced the term ''English English'' (EngEng), and this term is now generally recognised in academic writing in competition with '''Anglo-English''' and '''English in England'''.
In this usage the term ''British English'' has a wider meaning, and is reserved to describe the features common to English English, Welsh English , Hiberno-English , and Scottish English . According to Tom McArthur in the ''Oxford Guide to World English'' (p. 45), the phrase ''British English'' shares "all the ambiguities and tensions in the word ''British'', and as a result can be used and interpreted in two ways, more broadly or more narrowly, within a range of blurring and ambiguity".
The British Isles is one of the most linguistically diverse areas in the English-speaking world. Significant changes in Dialect ( Pronunciation , Grammar , and Vocabulary ) may occur within one region. The four major divisions are normally classified as Southern English dialects, Midlands English dialects, and Northern English dialects, and Scottish English and the closely related dialects of Scots and Ulster Scots (varieties of Scots spoken in Ulster ). There is also Hiberno-English (English as spoken in Ireland ) and the form of English used in Wales . The various English dialects differ in the words they have borrowed from other languages. The Scottish and Northern dialects include many words originally borrowed from Old Norse ; the Scottish dialects include words borrowed from Scots and Scottish Gaelic . Hiberno-English includes words derived from Irish .
An important feature of English regional accents is the bundle of Isoglosses — geographically running roughly from mid- Shropshire to south of Birmingham and then to The Wash — separating Northern and Southern accents. This reflects the historical Danelaw division, which split England into Viking -controlled and Saxon -controlled areas.
Accents throughout Britain are influenced by the Phoneme Inventory of regional dialects, and native English speakers can often tell quite precisely where a person comes from, frequently down to a few kilometres. Historically, such differences could be a major impediment to understanding between people from different areas.
However, modern communications and mass media have reduced these differences significantly. In addition, speakers may modify their pronunciation and vocabulary towards Standard English, especially in public circumstances. In consequence, the Accent best known to many people outside the United Kingdom as English English, is that of Received Pronunciation (RP).
Until recently, RP English was widely believed to be more educated than other accents and was referred to as the King's (or Queen's) English, or even " BBC English" (due to the fact that in the early years of broadcasting it was very rare to hear any other dialects on the BBC). However, for several decades, regional accents have been more widely accepted and are frequently heard. Thus the relatively recent spread of Estuary English is influencing accents throughout the south east.
Some of the features of English English are that:
- Northern versions of the dialect often lack the Foot-strut Split , so that there is no distinction between and , making ''put'' and ''putt'' homophones as .
- Many varieties undergo H-dropping , making ''harm'' and ''arm'' homophones. This is a feature of working-class accents across most of England, but is heavily stigmatised (a fact the comedy musical '' My Fair Lady '' was quick to exploit). See Trask (1999), pp104-106.
- Most varieties have the Horse-hoarse Merger . However some northern accents retain the distinction, pronouncing pairs of words like ''for''/''four'', ''horse''/''hoarse'' and ''morning''/''mourning'' differently. (Wells 1982, section 4.4)
- The consonant clusters , , and in ''suit'', ''Zeus'', and ''lute'' are Preserved by some.
- The distinction between ''rood'' and ''rude'', ''through'' and ''threw'', ''shoot'' and ''chute'', ''choose'' and ''chews'', ''you'' and ''yew'' etc. is lost in most varieties.
- The Distinction Between And in ''moan'' and ''mown'', ''toe'' and ''tow'', ''sole'' and ''soul'', ''throne'' and ''thrown'' etc. is preserved in some varieties.
- Some varieties lack the Meet-meat Merger , so that the distinction between pairs like ''meat'' and ''meet'', ''sea'' and ''see'' etc. is preserved in some varieties.
- Many Southern varieties have the Bad-lad Split , so that ''bad'' /bæːd/ and ''lad'' /læd/ don't rhyme.
- Many Northern varieties lack the Wait-weight Merger , so that ''wait'' /weːt/ and ''weight'' /wɛɪt/ are not homophones.
- In the Southern variety, words like ''bath'', ''cast'', ''dance'', ''fast'', ''after'', ''castle'', ''grass'' etc. are pronounced with Broad A (that is, ) while in the Midlands and Northern varieties they're pronounced with the same vowel as ''trap'' or ''cat'', usually , as they are in Scottish English .
- Generally speaking, the only vowel which is pronounced the same in every regional accent in England is the short "e" as in ''keg'' or ''deck''.
See Also: Southern English dialects
In general, Southern English accents are distinguished from Northern English accents primarily by the use of Broad A (that is, words like "cast" and "bath" are pronounced rather than . There are other peculiarities in specific regions. Accents originally from the upper-class speech of the London – Oxford – Cambridge triangle are particularly notable as the basis for Received Pronunciation ,
Southern English accents have three main historical influences:
Relatively recently, the first two have increasingly influenced southern accents outside London via Social Class mobility and the expansion of London . From some time during the 19th Century , middle and upper-middle classes began to adopt affectations, including the RP accent, associated with the upper class. In the late 20th and 21st Century other social changes, such as middle-class RP-speakers forming an increasing component of rural communities, have accentuated the spread of RP.
After World War 2 around 1 million Londoners were relocated to New and expanded towns throughout the south east, bringing with them their distinctive London accent (and possibly sowing the seed of Estuary English ).
- As in the North, Midlands accents generally do not use a Broad A , so that ''cast'' is pronounced {Link without Title} rather than the pronunciation of most southern accents. The northern limit of the in many words crosses England from mid- Shropshire to The Wash , passing just south of Birmingham .
- Midlands speech also generally uses the northern short U, so ''putt'' is pronounced the same as ''put''. The southern limit of this pronunciation also crosses from mid-Shropshire to the Wash, but dipping further south to the northern part of Oxfordshire .
- The West Midlands accent is often described as having a pronounced nasal quality, the East Midlands accent much less so.
- ''Old'' and ''cold'' may be pronounced in the Midlands as "owd" and "cowd" (rhyming with "loud"), and in the northern Midlands ''home'' can become "wom".
- Dialect verbs are used, for example ''am'' for ''are'', ''ay'' for ''is not'' (related to ''ain't''), ''bay'' for ''are not'', ''bin'' for ''am'' or, emphatically, for ''are''. Hence the following joke dialogue about bay windows: "What sort of windas am them?" "They'm bay windas." "Well if they bay windas wot bin them?". There is also humour to be derived from the shop-owner's sign of Mr. "E. A. Wright" (that is, "He ay right," a phrase implying someone is ''saft'' [soft in the ''jed'' [head]).
- The Birmingham and Coventry accents are quite distinct, even though the cities are not very far apart and to the untrained ear the accents sound very similar.
- The ''g'' sound may be emphatically pronounced where it occurs in the combination ''ng'', in words such as ''ringing'' and ''fang''.
- Around Stoke-on-Trent , the short ''i'' can sound rather like a short ''e'', so ''milk'' and ''biscuit'' become something like "melk" and "bess-kit". Strong accents can even render the latter as "bess-keet".
- East Midlands accents are generally Non-rhotic .
- Yod-dropping , as in East Anglia, can be found in some areas, for example ''new'' as , sounding like "noo".
- The ''u'' vowel of words like ''strut'' is often and even shorter than in the North, with no distinction between ''putt'' and ''put''.
- In Northamptonshire , crossed by the North-South Isogloss , residents of the north of the county have an accent similar to that of Leicestershire and those in the south an accent similar to rural Oxfordshire .
- The town of Corby in Northamptonshire has an accent with some originally Scottish features, apparently due to immigration of Scottish steelworkers. {Link without Title}
- In Leicester , words with short vowels such as ''up'' and ''last'' have a northern pronunciation, whereas words with long vowels such as ''down'' and ''road'' sound rather more like a south-eastern accent.
- In Nottingham north of the Trent , ''ee'' found in short words is pronounced as two syllables, for example ''feet'' being , sounding like "fee-yut" (and also in this case ending with a Glottal Stop ).
- Use of the word ''was'' when ''were'' would be used in Standard English.
There are several accent features which are common to most of the accents of northern England.
- The "short ''a''" vowel of ''cat, trap'' is normally pronounced rather than the found in traditional Received Pronunciation and in many forms of American English .
- The accents of Northern England generally do not use a Broad A , so ''cast'' is pronounced rather than the pronunciation of most southern accents.
- Northern English tends not to have (''strut'', ''but'', etc.) as a separate vowel. Most words that have this vowel in RP are pronounced with in Northern accents, so that ''put'' and ''putt'' are homophonous as . But some words with in RP can have in Northern accents, so that a pair like ''luck'' and ''look'' may be distinguished as and .
- The Received Pronunciation phonemes (as in ''face'') and (as in ''goat'') are often pronounced as monophthongs (such as and ), although the quality of these vowels varies considerably across the region.
- In many areas, the letter ''y'' on the end of words as in ''happy'' or ''city'' is pronounced , like the ''i'' in ''bit'', and not .
For more localised features, see the following sections.
See Also: Scouse
See Yorkshire Dialect And Accent .
Some characteristics which can be found in Lancashire accents (other than Scouse ) include:
- Lack of Ng Coalescence , so that words like ''sing'' may have a hard sound at the end.
- Rhotic accents may be found in some parts of Lancashire, for example around Accrington , Burnley and Bolton .
- In some words with RP a sound more like may be used, for example, "hole" is pronounced (in IPA) , "hoil", although is uncommon in newer generations.
- Merger of the vowels of ''nurse'' and ''square''. For example ''fair'' and ''fur'' can sound exactly the same, in some areas.
- The use of ''owt'' and ''nowt'' (sometimes spelled as aught and naught) for "anything" or "nothing". ''Ewt'' and ''newt'' are also Lancashire variations thereof.
- The use of ''summat'' (sometimes spelled as summit or sommat) for ''something''.
- Glottal Stop frequent for /t/. Phrases like "to the" become "tert" (with ''to the'' pronounced with a Schwa ''and'' a glottal stop). [tu̟ːʔ "toot" and [tɘt] "tert" are never used.
- Use of the third person singular ''were'' (it were a big step for me).
- Use of the first person singular ''were'' (I were massive in them days).
- Use of a "z" sound for an "s" as in "bus" pronounced "buzz" for example in Darwen .
Lancashire also has many dialect words, and as in Yorkshire, reduction of ''the'' to ''t''' may be found, or in some older generations, reduction of ''the'' to ''th''. An example of the latter is in the place name "Back o'th Moss" (Back of the Moss) and "Hall i'th Wood" (Hall in the Wood).
- The Newcastle dialect is known as Geordie and the accent is described in the article of that name. The accent of the neighbouring areas is broadly similar, e.g. Mackem from Sunderland, which has slight differences in word usage and pronunciation.
See also '' Pitmatic ''.
- has followed the changes of this accent over the years.
- .
- (although he sometimes americanises his speech), Jasper Carrot . See Brummie for more examples.
- , McFly singer and guitarist Danny Jones and BBC Radio 1 DJ Vernon Kay .
- , in the films '' Sin City '' and '' King Arthur ''
- of the Beagle 2 project.
- , ruralist
- , sports presenter.
- , Julie Andrews , The Rolling Stones , and The Who (although many of these contain affected patterns). For a clear example see actor Stanley Holloway (Eliza Doolittle's father in '' My Fair Lady ''), or Footballer David Beckham .
- ---. More examples can be heard in the movies '' Snatch '' and '' Lock, Stock, And Two Smoking Barrels ''.
- --- (Katie Price).
- ( George Harrison 's accent was the strongest of the four), Gerry And The Pacemakers , Echo And The Bunnymen . Also the singer Cilla Black and the actors Craig Charles and Ricky Tomlinson .
- members Liam and Noel Gallagher , Herman's Hermits , actor Christopher Eccleston , actor Dominic Monaghan .
- , the footballer Alan Shearer , Jimmy Nail
- , presenter of '' One Man And His Dog ''.
- Yorkshire this accent can be detected in interviews with Melanie Brown of the Spice Girls and David Bradley in the 1969 film Kes , the lead character has a very broad Barnsley accent. Last Of The Summer Wine and Wallace And Gromit both contain accents from the Holme Valley of Yorkshire.
- , is easily detected on recordings and live performanes
Misrepresentations can also appear in the media. The soap " Emmerdale " is set in Yorkshire, yet some of the actors have Lancashire accents. " Coronation Street " is set in Lancashire, yet some of the actors speak with Yorkshire accents. It's fair to say both programmes have actors from either side of the pennines. " The Archers " has had characters with a variety of different West Country accents (see Mummerset ).
The shows of Ian La Frenais and Dick Clement have often included a variety of regional accents, the most notable being '' Auf Wiedersehen Pet '' about working class men in Germany . Other programmes by them include '' Porridge '' featuring London and Cumberland accents, and '' The Likely Lads '', featuring north east England.
The programmes of Carla Lane such as '' The Liver Birds '' and '' Bread '' also feature Scouse accents.
The film Brassed Off is known for being a terribly inaccurate representation of accents in the Barnsley area of Yorkshire.
- Peters, Pam (2004). ''The Cambridge Guide to English Usage''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 052162181X.
- McArthur, Tom (2002). ''Oxford Guide to World English''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198662483 hardback, ISBN 0198607717 paperback.
- Trask, Larry (1999). ''Language: The Basics'', 2nd edition. London: Routledge. ISBN 041520089X.
- Trudgill, Peter (1984). ''Language in the British Isles''. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521284090.
- Wells, J. C. (1982). ''Accents of English 2: The British Isles''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521285402.
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