English English
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English English is the version of the English language spoken in England. In the United States, 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."
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General features
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 the Hereford 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. 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:
- Most versions of this dialect have non-rhotic pronunciation, wherein final r 's are not pronounced. This pronunciation is also found in many other English dialects, including Australian English, Indian English, New Zealand English, and South African English. Parts of the Eastern United States settled by the English have non-rhotic pronunciation, most notably New England and Boston.
- In the Northern version of the dialect, there is often no phonemic differentiation between [ʊ] and [ʌ], making put and putt homophones as [pʊt].
- Many varieties undergo h-dropping, making harm and arm homophones.
- The distinction between [w] and [ʍ] in wine and whine is lost in most varieties.
- The distinction between horse and hoarse is lost in most varieties.
- The consonant clusters [sj], [zj], and [lj] in suit, Zeus, and lute are preserved by some.
- The distinction between /e:/ and /eI/ in pane and pain, daze and days etc. is preserved in some varieties.
- In the Southern variety, words like bath, cast, dance, fast, after, castle, grass etc. are pronounced with broad A (that is, [ɑː]) while in the Northern variety they're pronounced with the same vowel as trap or cat, usually [a].
Southern England
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 /kɑːst/, /bɑːθ/ rather than /kęst/, /bęθ/. There are other peculiarities in specific regions. Accents originally the upper-class speech of the London–Oxford–Cambridge triangle are particularly notable as the basis for RP,
Southern English accents have three main historical influences:
- The London accent.
- RP.
- Southern rural accents, of which the West Country and East Anglian accents are examples.
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).
London and the Home Counties
The accents of this region are uniformly nonrhotic, that is, the sound [ɹ] occurs only before vowels. Before consonants and in word-final position it is dropped, for example far /fɑː/, farm /fɑːm/.
Some characteristics of a London accent include:
- diphthongal realization of /iː/ and /uː/, for example beat [bɪit], boot [bʊʉt]
- diphthongal realization of /ɔː/ in open syllables, for example bore [bɔə], paw [pɔə] versus a monophthongal realization in closed syllables, for example board [boːd], pause [poːz]. But the diphthong is retained before inflectional endings, so that board and pause can contrast with bored [bɔəd] and paws [pɔəz].
- an allophone of /əʊ/ before "dark L" ([ɫ]), namely [ɒʊ], for example whole [hɒʊɫ] verus holy [həʊli]. But the [ɒʊ] is retained when the addition of a suffix turns the "dark L" clear, so that wholly [hɒʊli] can contrast with holy.
Cockney, the working-class accent of London, is characterized by a number of phonological differences from RP, most of which are highly stigmatized:
- The dental fricatives [θ, š] are replaced with labiodental [f, v], for example think [fɪŋk]
- The diphthong /aʊ/ is monophthongized to [ęː], for example south [sęːf]
- H-dropping, for example house [ęːs]
- Replacement of [t] in the middle or end of a word with a glottal stop; for example hit [ɪʔ]
- Diphthong shift of [iː] to [əi] (for example beet [bəiʔ]), [eɪ] to [aɪ] (for example bait [baɪʔ]), [aɪ] to [ɒɪ] (for example bite [bɒɪʔ]), and [ɔɪ] to [oɪ] (for example, boy [boɪ].
- Vocalization of [ɫ] (dark L) to [o], for example, people [pəipo]
Estuary English is the name given to an accent (or group of accents) that may informally be considered a compromise between Cockney and RP. It avoids some of the most stigmatized aspects of Cockney speech, such as H-dropping and the replacement of [θ, š] with [f, v], while retaining others, such as replacement of [t] with [ʔ] (the glottal stop) in weak positions, the vocalization of [ɫ] (dark L) to [o], and yod coalescence in stressed syllables (for example, duty /dʒuːti/).
The speech of Jamaicans, or children of Jamaican parents, in London shows interesting combinations of the Jamaican accent with the London accent. For example, in Jamaican English, [θ] is replaced by [t], for example both /boːt/. In London, word-final [t] is replaced by [ʔ], as mentioned above. In Jamaican-London speech, glottalization of [t] applies also to [t] from [θ], for example both of them [bʌʊʔ ə dem]. Hypercorrections like /fʊθ/ for foot are also heard from Jamaicans. John C. Wells' dissertation, Jamaican pronunciation in London, was published the Philological Society in 1973.
"Wigga" is part accent, part dialect, from around the mid-1990s, and influenced not only by British black urban culture, but by American rap music. This variant is used by the youth of all races as a 'street' patois, with clear U.S. influences (such as the greeting "Yo!"), but also Caribbean patterns such as "arks" (rather than "ask"). Although used by all races, the term 'wigga' derives from 'white nigger', originally intended to mock the aspiration of white youths to sound like their supposedly 'cooler' black contemporaries. It can be heard in many parts of England, but especially the south.
South-East and Home Counties
The South-East and Home Counties (that is, Surrey, Hampshire, Sussex, Buckinghamshire, Kent) tend to reflect the interface between London and non-London regional accents. Affluent districts are associated with a slightly "posh" (RP) accent, reflecting their traditional popularity with middle-class and upper-class residents as desirable semi-rural areas within commuting distance of London. Less affluent areas have London-like accents that grade into southern rural outside urban areas.
Essex, however, is usually associated with Estuary English, mainly in urban areas receiving an influx of East London migrants. The non-urban Essex accent is more closely related to those of East Anglia.
Hertfordshire varies: the east Herts accent is akin to the native Essex, while west Herts shares elements with West Country accents and south Midlands accents — again with strong influences from London accents thanks to the influx of post-WW2 migrants from London.
Southern rural and West Country accents
This family of similar strongly rhotic accents — now perceived as rural — originally extended across much of southern England south of the broad A isogloss. Their shared characteristics have been caricatured as Mummerset.
They persist most strongly in areas that remain largely rural with a largely indigenous population, particularly the West Country. In many other areas they are declining due to immigration by RP and Estuary speakers; for instance, strong Isle of Wight accents tend to be more prevalent in older speakers.
As well as rhoticity, common features of these accents include
- The diphthong /aɪ/ (as in price) realised as [ʌɪ] or [ɔɪ], sounding more like the diphthong in Received Pronunciation choice.
- The diphthong /aʊ/ (as in mouth) realised as [ɛʊ], with a starting point close to the vowel in Received Pronunciation dress.
- The vowel /ɒ/ (as in lot) realised as an unrounded vowel [ɑ], as in many forms of American English.
- In traditional West Country accents, the voiceless fricatives /s,f,θ,ʃ/ are often voiced to [z,v,ð,ʒ], giving "Zummerzet" for Somerset, etc.
- In the Bristol area a vowel at the end of a word is often followed by an intrusive dark l, [ɫ]. Hence the old joke about the three Bristolian sisters Evil, Idle, and Normal (written Eva, Ida, and Norma).
East Anglian English
Features which can be found in East Anglian English (especially in Norfolk) include:
- Yod-dropping after all consonants: beautiful may be pronounced [bʉːʔɪfəl], often represented as "bootiful", huge as [hʉːʤ], and so on. There are more details on [1], written by Norfolk-born linguist Peter Trudgill.
- Absence of the Long mid merger between Early Modern English /oː/ (as in toe, moan, road, boat) and /ɔʊ/ (as in tow, mown, rowed). The vowel of toe, moan, road, boat may be realised as [ʊu], so that boat may sound to outsiders like boot.
- Glottal stop frequent for /t/.
- The diphthong /aɪ/ (as in price) realised as [ʌɪ], sounding more like the diphthong in Received Pronunciation choice.
- The vowel /ɒ/ (as in lot) realised as an unrounded vowel [ɑ], as in many forms of American English.
- Merger of the vowels of near and square (RP /ɪə/ and /ɛə/), making chair and cheer homophones.
- East Anglian accents are generally non-rhotic.
There are differences between areas within East Anglia, and even within areas: the Norwich accent has distinguishing aspects from the Norfolk dialect that surrounds it — chiefly in the vowel sounds.
Some examples of the Norfolk accent (with dialectal words thrown in) at [2]
Midlands
- As in the North, Midlands accents generally do not use a broad A, so that cast is pronounced [kast] rather than the [kɑːst] pronunciation of most southern accents. The northern limit of the [ɑː] in many words is close to Birmingham.
West Midlands
- See "Brummie" for a Birmingham accent.
- Another distinctive accent in this area is a Black Country accent (Yam Yam).
- 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 [isn't] right," a phrase implying someone is saft [soft] in the jed [head]).
- The Midlands accent is often described as having a pronounced nasal quality, though this varies considerably within the region, being much stronger to the west and less to the east. For example 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.
East Midlands
- The East Midlands has the least distinctive of all British accents. Nottingham, Leicester, Derby, and The Wash, and to a lesser extent Northampton and Lincoln all have accents close to BBC English. There is a gradation of accent through the region.
- The accent is non-rhotic and initial h's are pronounced.
- Some middle-t's turn into glottal stops at increased rates of speech, for example little → li:le
- In some Nottingham accents the glottal stop in pronounced as a k. For example, 'bokkle' instead of bottle.
- Also l's may not be pronounced, for instance cold is pronounced cowd.
- loss of invisible is, for example in new pronounced "noo" not "niew"
- o's are generally rounded not flat but sometimes are an oo sound goo-owm (go home)
- -er and -or a the end of words are replaced with a sharp flat -o sound. "Lestoh" for Leicester.
- Some parts of North Nottinghamshire, in the old mining areas around Retford and Mansfield, may have what sounds like a Doncaster-style soft Yorkshire accent. Grimsby, in North Lincolnshire, as also an area with an accent that is very different from the rest of the East Midlands and, indeed, the rest of the country.
- 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.
Northern England - general features
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 [a] rather than the [ę] 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 [kast] rather than the [kɑːst] pronunciation of most southern accents.
- Northern English tends not to have /ʌ/ (strut, but, etc.) as a separate vowel. Most words that have this vowel in RP are pronounced with /ʊ/ in Northern accents, so that put and putt are homophonous as /pʊt/. But some words with /ʊ// in RP can have /uː/ in Northern accents, so that a pair like luck and look may be distinguished as /lʊk/ and /luːk/.
- The Received Pronunciation phonemes /eɪ/ (as in face) and /əʊ/ (as in goat) are often pronounced as monophthongs (such as [eː] and [oː]), 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 [ɪ], like the i in bit, and not [i].
Manchester
- "er" is often pronounced as "oh", for example "river" becomes "rivoh" — pronounced "riv-oh".
- It is very common for the letter 't' to be spoke with a glottal stop in the Manchester accent.
The speed at which people with the Manchester accent speak and the strength of the accent tends to vary in different areas, for example, people in Salford tend to speak with a faster, heavier Manchester accent then say, people in Wythenshawe who speak slower with a lighter Manchester accent.
Liverpool (Scouse)
See separate article.
Yorkshire
- In some areas, especially South Yorkshire, there is a tendency to pronounce the phoneme /aʊ/ (as in mouth) as a monophthong [aː], often represented with ah, hence dahn for down, sahth for south, and people talking about "guein dahn t'pit". In these areas, the words "out" and "art" may be indistinguishable.
- Some words with igh in the spelling, like night, can be pronounced with /iː/ instead of /aɪ/, so "Where have you been last night" becomes "Wherst tha bin last neet." Around Sheffield, Barnsley and Wakefield, the word "right" can also be pronounced with a diphthong [ɛɪ], much as a Southerner would say "rate". This diphthong can also be used in weight [wɛɪt], which is then distinct from wait [weːt].
- Words with ake at the end may be pronounced with /ɛ/, as in "tek", "mek", and "sek" for "take", "make", and "sake".
- Shortening of "the" to "t", as in "I'm going down t' pub."
- Sheffield people traditionally said "dee" for "thee" and "dere" for "there". This is now rare to find, however. In most other parts of Yorkshire, "there" is pronounced "they-yer".
- The word "buried" is often pronounced as it is spelt.
- Many dialect words, for example the archaic "aught" and "naught" ("owt" and "nowt") for "anything" and "nothing". In some areas these both rhyme with "note", in others they rhyme with "out". Also, "Gip" for "vomit", "lughole" for "ear", "stodge" for "food".
- The word "while" is used to mean "until", especially in West Yorkshire. This can confuse outsiders for example "stay here while it shuts" would mean that you only have to stay until it shuts, but outsiders might think that you had to stay after it shuts.
- Use of the singular second-person pronoun "thou" and "thee".
- In all cases of the past tense of "to be" is "were": "I were wearing t'red coat, but he were wearing t'green one".
- In cases when the rest of Britain would say "give me that", Yorkshire people would say "give that me" (or "give that us"). This can lead to confusion.
It should be noted that that the three ridings of Yorkshire cover a huge area; vowel sounds and usage are quite different in Hull, Headingley, and Halifax. Also, the divisions into West, South, North, East Yorkshire by the post office has little correlation with accent [for example, York and Leeds sound more alike than York and Scarborough].
Lancashire
- "o" pronounced "oi", so "hole" is pronounced (in IPA) /hɔɪl/.
- It is easy to tell a Lancastrian speaker from a Yorkshire speaker by the distinctive pronunciation of the word 'hair'. In Lancashire it is pronounced 'hurr'.
- As for Yorkshire, shortening of "the" to "t" or omitting it completely.
- Many dialect words.
Newcastle-upon-Tyne and the northeast
- 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 (although the Mackem accent, used in nearby Sunderland, is considered by Geordies to be less refined than their own). See also Pitmatic.
Celebrity examples of accents
- Birmingham (Brummie): the rock musician Ozzy Osbourne. See Brummie for more examples.
- Devon: Professor Colin Pillinger of the Beagle 2 project.
- Hampshire (a southern rural accent): the late John Arlott, sports presenter.
- London: listen to old recordings by Petula Clark, 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.
- Cockney: the actor Bob Hoskins. More examples can be heard in the movies Snatch and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels.
- Estuary: the model Jordan (Katie Price).
- Liverpool (Scouse): recordings by The Beatles (George Harrison's accent was the strongest of the four), Gerry and the Pacemakers, Herman's Hermits, Echo and the Bunnymen. Also the singer Cilla Black and the actors Craig Charles and Ricky Tomlinson.
- Manchester: Oasis members Liam and Noel Gallagher.
- Northumberland (Geordie): the actor Robson Green, the footballer Alan Shearer.
- Oxfordshire (a southern rural accent): poet Pam Ayres.
- Yorkshire / Leeds: this accent can be detected in interviews with Melanie Brown of the Spice Girls, or in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
See also
- UK topics
- American and British English differences
- Languages in the United Kingdom
- Received Pronunciation
- Estuary English
References
- 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.
- 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.
External links
- IANA language tag for eng-GB-oed
- British National Corpus. (Official website for the BNC.)
- English Accents and Dialects: searchable free-access archive of 681 English English speech samples, wma format with linguistic commentary, British Library Collect Britain website.
- The American·British British·American Dictionary
- BBC America's British American dictionary
- European Commission English Style Guide PDF. (Advocates -ise spellings.)
- For the Yorkshire dialect, see http://www.yorksj.ac.uk/dialect/
- For Scottish English, see http://www.scots-online.org/grammar/sse.htm
- World English Organization