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'English English' is a term that has been applied to the English language as spoken in England. In English-speaking countries outside the United Kingdom, the term "British English" is 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', 'English in England' and 'Proper English'.
In this usage, the term ''British English'' has a wider meaning, and is usually (but not always) 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 different accents and dialects that exist in Britain are a source of interest for many. Joseph Wright compiled the ''English Dialect Dictionary'', which is now extremely valuable. The 2006 BBC Voices survey, the more comprehensive Survey of English Dialects and the existence of societies that seek to maintain regional dialects all study the diversity within the nation. Dialect research papers are often sold for hundreds of pounds. It is not uncommon for people to be very proud of their local accent or dialect.
The British Isles are 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, 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 miles. Historically, such differences could be a major impediment to understanding between people from different areas. There are furthermore several cases where a large city has a very different accent from a surrounding rural area [e.g. Bristol and Avon, Hull and the East Riding].
However, modern communications and mass media have reduced all 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.
British Isles varieties of English, including English English, are discussed in Wells (1982). Some of the features of English English are that:
★ Most versions of this dialect have non-rhotic pronunciation, wherein ''r'' is not pronounced in syllable coda position. This pronunciation is also found in many other English dialects, including Australian English, Indian English, Malaysian English, New Zealand English, and South African English. Parts of the Eastern United States where the upper classes historically looked to England for standards of speech have non-rhotic pronunciation, most notably New England and New York City. Areas with rhotic accents are the East Midlands town of Corby, the far north, the West Country and Lancashire other than the Manchester area. Some parts of England are partially rhotic, such as the East Riding of Yorkshire.
★ 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 .
★ In the Southern variety, words like ''bath'', ''cast'', ''dance'', ''fast'', ''after'', ''castle'', ''grass'' etc. are pronounced with the long vowel found in ''calm'' (that is, or a similar vowel) 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. For more details see Trap-bath split. There are some areas of the West Country that would use the Southern variety for some words and the Northern variety for other words.
★ Many varieties undergo h-dropping, making ''harm'' and ''arm'' homophones. This is a feature of working-class accents across most of England, but was traditionally stigmatised (a fact the comedy musical ''My Fair Lady'' was quick to exploit) but less so now. See Trask (1999), pp104-106. The accents of Northumberland, Tyneside and parts of Norfolk are an exception to this rule. In the past, working-class people were often unsure where an ''h'' ought to be pronounced, and, when attempting to speak "properly, would often preface any word that began with a vowel with an ''h'' [e.g. ''henormous'' instead of ''enormous'', ''hicicles'' instead of icicles]; this was referred to as the "hypercorrect h" in the Survey of English Dialects, and is also referenced in literature [e.g. the policeman in ''Danny the Champion of the World ].
★ A glottal stop for the letter ''t'' is now common amongst younger speakers across of the country. It was originally confined to some areas of the south-east and East Anglia, but has now spread across the country. Many in the older generation consider this to be "annoying".
★ The distinction between and in ''wine'' and ''whine'' is lost in most varieties.
★ 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.
★ Many Southern varieties have the bad-lad split, so that ''bad'' /bæːd/ and ''lad'' /læd/ don't rhyme.
★ In most of the eastern half of England, plurals and past participle endings which are pronounced /ɪz/ and /ɪd/ (with the vowel of kit) in RP may be pronounced with a schwa, /ə/. This can be found as far north as Wakefield and as far south as Essex. This is unusual in being an east-west division in pronunciation when English dialects tend to divide along north-south lines.
★ 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''.
★ Across of England, segments of old forms of the language can still be heard. For example, the use of ''come'' as a past participle rather than ''came'', the use of a clitic ''to have'' rather than ''to have got'', use of ''thou'' and/or ''ye'' for ''you''.
The Survey of English Dialects was undertaken in the 1950s and 1960s to preserve a record of the traditional spectrum of rural dialects that merged into each other. The traditional picture was that there would be a few changes in lexicon and pronunciation every couple of miles, but that there would be no sharp borders between completely different ways of speaking. Within a county, the accents of the different towns and villages would drift gradually so that residents of bordering areas sounded more similar to those in neighbouring counties.
Due to greater social mobility and the teaching of Standard English in secondary schools, this model is no longer very accurate. There are now certain English counties within which there is little change in accent/dialect, and people are more likely to categorise their accent by a region or county than by their town or village. As agriculture became less prominent, many rural dialects were made redundant. Some urban dialects have also declined; for example, traditional Bradford dialect is now quite rare in the city, and call centres have seen Bradford as a useful location due to the lack of dialect in potential employees.[1]
However, a factor that has worked in the opposite direction is how concentrations of migration may cause a certain town or area of a town to have a completely unique accent. The two most famous examples are Liverpool and Corby. Liverpool's dialect is influenced heavily by Irish and Welsh, and it sounds completely different from surrounding areas of Lancashire. Corby's dialect is influenced heavily by Scottish, and it sounds completely different from the rest of Northamptonshire. The Voices 2006 survey found that the various ethnic minorities that have settled in certain parts of Britain are developing their own specific dialects. For example, many residents of East London, even if they are not of Bangladeshi origin, may have a Bangladeshi influence on their accent. This has led to a situation where urban dialects may now be just as easily identifiable as rural dialects. In the traditional view, urban entities were usually seen as merely watered-down versions of the surrounding rural area. Historically, rural areas had much more stable demographics than urban areas, but there is now only a small difference.
Main articles: Southern English dialects
In general, Southern English accents are distinguished from Northern English accents primarily by not using the short a in words such as "bath". In the south-east, the broad A dominates (that is, words like "cast" and "bath" are pronounced rather than . In the south-west, the sound is similar to that of Wales, and may be represented as /a:/. 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:
★ The London accent, in particular, Cockney. [However, London has continuously absorbed migrants throughout its history, and its accent has always been prone to change quickly]
★ Received Pronunciation ('R.P.').
★ Southern rural accents, of which the West Country, Kent 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. The south-east coast accents traditionally have several features in common with the West country; for example, rhoticity and the a: sound in words such as ''bath'', ''cast'', etc. However, the younger generation in the area is more likely to be non-rhotic and use the London/East Anglian A: sound in ''bath''.
After the Second World War, about one 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).
The Cornish language was once used in the county of Cornwall. Although this is no longer in common use, Cornwall and the West Country have varied and complicated dialects. Surveys such as the Survey of English Dialects and Voices 2006 found that these dialects were as far away from Standard English as was anything from the far North. See West Country dialects for more details.
The Norfolk dialect is spoken in the traditional county of Norfolk and areas of north Suffolk. Famous speakers include Lord Nelson and Keith Skipper.
The group FOND (Friends Of the Norfolk Dialect) was formed to record the county's dialect and to provide advice for TV companies using the dialect in productions.
★ As in the North, Midlands accents generally do not use a broad A, so that ''cast'' is pronounced [kast] 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 as "owd" and "cowd" (rhyming with "loud" in the West Midlands and "ode" in the East Midlands), and in the northern Midlands ''home'' can become "wom".
★ Whether Derbyshire should be classed as the West or East Midlands in terms of dialect is debatable. Stanley Ellis, a dialect expert, said in 1985 that it was more like the West Midlands, but it is often grouped with the East and is part of the E.U. region "East Midlands".
★ Cheshire, although part of the North-West region, is usually grouped the Midlands for the purpose of accent and dialect.
★ The best known accents in the West Midlands area are the Birmingham accents (see "Brummie") and the 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]). ''Saft'' also may mean silly as in, "Stop bein' so saft".
★ The Birmingham and Coventry accents are quite distinct, even though the cities are not very far apart.
★ 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".
★ Herefordshire and parts of Worcestershire and Shropshire have a rhotic accent somewhat like the West Country.
★ 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 , with no distinction between ''putt'' and ''put''. In Lincolnshire, such sounds are even shorter than in the North.
★ The town of Corby in Northamptonshire has an accent with some originally Scottish features, apparently due to immigration of Scottish steelworkers. [1]
★ In Leicester, words with short vowels such as ''up'' and ''last'' have a northern pronunciation, whereas words with vowels such as ''down'' and ''road'' sound rather more like a south-eastern accent. The vowel sound at the end of words like ''border'' (and the name of the city) is also a distinctive feature. [2]
★ In north Nottinghamshire ''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).
★ Lincolnshire also has a marked north-south split in terms of accent. The north shares many features with Yorkshire, such as the open ''a'' sound in "car" and "park" or the replacement of ''take'' and ''make'' with ''tek'' and ''mek''. The south of Lincolnshire is close to Standard English, although it still has a short Northern a in words such as ''bath''.
★ Mixing of the words ''was'' and ''were'' when the other is used in Standard English.
★ 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.
Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire and south Northamptonshire form the basis for Received Pronunciation. Unlike the rest of the Midlands, they use a long A: in words such as bath, demand, etc. To many Britons, it is hard to distinguish them from the South-East, but there are some key differences:
★ The word ''room'' is pronounced with a long ''oo'', as it is in the rest of the North and the Midlands. Not as "rumm", as is said in the South-East.
★ The ''u'' sound in ''cup'', ''putt'', ''luck'', etc. is shorter than in the South, although not as short as in the North.
★ Words that end in ''th'' are said with a final ''v'' rather than a final ''f''.
★ A final ''y'' on a word is said as ''ee''. Not as ''ay'', which is common in the South-East.
★ Glottal stops for a ''t'' are much less common, although do feature when surrounded by other consonants [e.g. bluntness, nightwatchman].
There are several accent features which are common to most of the accents of northern England (Wells 1982, section 4.4).
★ 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. However, the words "father" and "rather" are increasingly being pronounced with a broad A by the younger generation.
★ 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 .
★ The "present historical" is often used. Instead of saying "I ''said'' to him", many Northerners would say, "I ''says'' to him". Instead of saying, "I ''went'' up there", they would say, "I ''goes'' up there."
★ People from the North are generally more likely to use old-fashioned phrases, and less likely to use American phrases.
For more localised features, see the following sections.
Main articles: Scouse
See Yorkshire dialect and accent.
The accents for Middlesbrough and the surrounding towns are sometimes grouped with Yorkshire and sometimes grouped with the North-East of England, for they share characteristics with both. As this urban area grew in the early 20th century, there are fewer dialect words that date back to older forms of English; Teesside speak is the sort of modern dialect that Peter Trudgill identified in his "The Dialects of England". There is a Lower Tees Dialect group. The Yorkshire Dialect Society does not concern itself with the area; Middlesbrough speech has a similar relation to Yorkshire speech that Liverpool has to Lancashire.
Some examples of traits that are shared with [most parts of] Yorkshire include:
★ H-dropping.
★ An /a:/ sound in words such as ''start, car, park'', etc.
★ Non-rhotic.
Examples of traits shared with the North-East include:
★ Absence of definite article reduction.
★ Glottal stops for /k/, /p/ and /t/ can all occur.
The vowel in "goat" is a /o:/ sound, as is found in both Durham and rural North Yorkshire.
Words such as ''nurse, first, worse'', etc. have an /E:/ sound, which is not common in this part of England. It is, however, common in Liverpool, Birkenhead and Hull. The link between these areas is that they all absorbed large numbers of Irish immigrants, who had a siginificant influence on the language.
Lancashire Dialect and Accent
See Cumbrian dialect.
★ The Newcastle Upon Tyne/Tyneside dialect is known as Geordie whereas the dialect of neighbouring Sunderland/Wearside is Mackem. The two are broadly similar but do have slight differences in word usage and pronunciation. For example, with words ending -re/-er, such as culture and father, the end syllable is pronounced by Geordies as a short 'a', such as in 'fat' and 'back' therefore producing "cultcha" and "fatha" respectively. Natives of Sunderland (Mackems) pronounce the syllable much more closely to the standard English. Similarly, in Geordie "make" is pronounced in line with standard English e.g. to rhyme with take. However, a Mackem would pronounce "make" to rhyme with "mack" or "tack". For other differences see the respective articles. For an explanation of the traditional dialects of the mining areas of County Durham and Northumberland see Pitmatic.
★ Received Pronunciation: The Queen has followed the changes of this accent over the years. Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and politician Tony Benn. Richard Dawkins, Oxford science professor and outspoken atheist. The lead character in Keeping Up Appearances, who was actually played by Birkenhead-born Patricia Routledge.
★ Berkshire (a southern rural accent): poet Pam Ayres, comedy writer and performer Ricky Gervais is from Reading.
★ Birmingham (Brummie): the rock musician Ozzy Osbourne (although he sometimes Americanises his speech), Jasper Carrot. Mark Rhodes Pop Idol 2003. See Brummie for more examples.
★ Bristol: Professor Colin Pillinger of the Beagle 2 project, comedy writer, actor, radio DJ and director Stephen Merchant.
★ Coventry: the actor Clive Owen, in the films ''Sin City'' and ''King Arthur''
★ Gloucestershire: Laurie Lee, ruralist
★ Hampshire (a southern rural accent): the late John Arlott, sports presenter.
★ Hertfordshire: comedian and writer Robert Newman
★ Lancashire: comedian Peter Kay, McFly singer and guitarist Danny Jones and BBC Radio 1 DJ Vernon Kay. The actor/musician Bernard Wrigley has a broad Bolton accent. The actress, Michelle Holmes, has a Rochdale accent, which has more similarities with Yorkshire.
★ 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 actors Bob Hoskins, Michael Caine. Jonathan Ross has quite an old-fashioned Cockney accent, and his replacement of an initial /r/ with a /w/ has been stigmatised. More examples can be heard in the movies ''Snatch'' and ''Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels''.
★
★ Mockney: used by Guy Ritchie and many musicians, it is a variant of the London regional accent characterised by a non-standard mixture of linguistic and social class characteristics.
★
★ Estuary: the model Jordan (Katie Price).
★ Manchester: Oasis members Liam and Noel Gallagher, Herman's Hermits, actor Dominic Monaghan.
★ Merseyside
★
★ Liverpool (Scouse): recordings by The Beatles (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. Footballer, Steven Gerrard also has a scouse accent and so does Jennie Corner (BB7). The British soap Brookside was set in Liverpool so the majority of the cast, including Philip Olivier and Jennifer Ellison, had scouse accents.
★
★ St Helens: Comedian Johnny Vegas.
★
★ The Wirral: Comedian and TV presenter Paul O'Grady alias Lily Savage is from Birkenhead, pop singer Pete Burns of Dead or Alive is from the model village Port Sunlight.
★ Salford: actor Christopher Eccleston.
★ Stoke-on-Trent or The Potteries: pop star Robbie Williams, TV presenter Anthea Turner, ex pop star and TV presenter Jonathan Wilkes has a strong Potteries accent.
★ Sunderland (Mackem): the accent of the rock group The Futureheads, is easily detected on recordings and live performanes
★ Tyneside (Geordie): former Cabinet members Alan Milburn MP and Nick Brown MP, the actors Robson Green and Tim Healy, the footballer Alan Shearer, actor and singer Jimmy Nail, rock singer Brian Johnson, television personalities Ant and Dec, Donna Air, Jayne Middlemiss. Singer Cheryl Tweedy of Girls Aloud has a strong Newcastle accent.
★ West Country: The Vicar of Dibley was set in Oxfordshire, and many of the characters had West Country accents.
★ West Midlands: Phil Drabble, presenter of ''One Man and His Dog''.
★ Leicester: The band Kasabian have good examples of the Leicester accent.
★ Yorkshire:
★
★ Barnsley: in the 1969 film ''Kes'', the lead characters, David Bradley and Freddie Fletcher, both have very broad Barnsley accents, which are less likely to be heard nowadays. Sam Nixon from Pop Idol 2003, Top Of The Pops Saturday and Reloaded and Level Up also has a Barnsley accent. Also, chat show host Michael Parkinson and ex-union leader Arthur Scargill.
★
★ Bradford: singers Gareth Gates and Kimberley Walsh of Girls Aloud. In ''Rita, Sue and Bob Too'', Bob has a Bradford accent whilst Rita and Sue sound more like Lancashire.
★
★ Hemsworth: cricketer Geoffrey Boycott has an accent similar to those found in many old coal-mining towns
★
★ Holme Valley: Actor Peter Sallis, of ''Last of the Summer Wine'' and ''Wallace and Gromit''
★
★ Huddersfield: former Prime Minister Harold Wilson is said to have deliberately maintained a Huddersfield accent
★
★ Kingston-upon-Hull: Radio DJ and former leader of The Housemartins and The Beautiful South, Paul Heaton.
★
★ Leeds: Melanie Brown of the Spice Girls
★
★ Scarborough: the film ''Little Voice''
★
★ Sheffield: Sean Bean, the band ''Pulp''. The film ''The Full Monty'', the band Arctic Monkeys
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. As most Britons cannot tell the difference between an accent from Lancashire and one from the West Riding of Yorkshire, media set in these areas tend to continuously use the same actors, such as Pete Postlethwaite, Bernard Wrigley and Michelle Holmes.
"The Archers" has had characters with a variety of different West Country accents (see Mummerset). Also, CBBC show Byker Grove is set in Byker, Newcastle whereas the actors in recent series often have Sunderland accents.
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.
In the 2005 version of the science fiction programme ''Doctor Who'', various Londoners wonder that if the Doctor (played by Christopher Eccleston) is an alien, why does he sound as if he comes from the North? (Eccleston used his own Salford accent in the role; the usual response is "Lots of planets have a North!") Other accents in the same series include Cockney (used by actress Billie Piper) and Estuary (preferred by Eccleston's successor, David Tennant).
Channel 4's reality programme "Rock School" was set in Suffolk in its 2nd series, providing lots of examples of the Suffolk dialect.
The television character, Stewie Griffin, from the popular animated TV series "Family Guy" is well known for his English accent in the US, despite not sounding authentic to most English people. His voice actor Seth MacFarlane, also creator of the TV series, is American. Dick van Dyke had similar success with his Cockney accent in the Disney film "Mary Poppins".
★ American and British English differences
★ Estuary English
★ Languages in the United Kingdom
★ Received Pronunciation
★ UK topics
★ Welsh English
★ Scottish English
★ Scots language
★ Survey of English Dialects
1. http://archive.cravenherald.co.uk/2004/4/5/101548.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bradford/voices2005/pete_1.shtml
http://www.tapnet.co.uk/mahonyreport.pdf page 8 for the call centres point
★ Peters, Pam (2004). ''The Cambridge Guide to English Usage''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-62181-X.
★ McArthur, Tom (2002). ''Oxford Guide to World English''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-866248-3 hardback, ISBN 0-19-860771-7 paperback.
★ Trask, Larry (1999). ''Language: The Basics'', 2nd edition. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-20089-X.
★ Trudgill, Peter (1984). ''Language in the British Isles''. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-28409-0.
★ Wells, J. C. (1982). ''Accents of English 2: The British Isles''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-28540-2.
★ 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 including phonetic transcriptions in X-SAMPA, British Library Collect Britain website.
★ Online British English and American English pronunciation courses
★ The American·British British·American Dictionary
★ BBC America's British American dictionary
★ . (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
In this usage, the term ''British English'' has a wider meaning, and is usually (but not always) 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 different accents and dialects that exist in Britain are a source of interest for many. Joseph Wright compiled the ''English Dialect Dictionary'', which is now extremely valuable. The 2006 BBC Voices survey, the more comprehensive Survey of English Dialects and the existence of societies that seek to maintain regional dialects all study the diversity within the nation. Dialect research papers are often sold for hundreds of pounds. It is not uncommon for people to be very proud of their local accent or dialect.
General features
The British Isles are 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, 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 miles. Historically, such differences could be a major impediment to understanding between people from different areas. There are furthermore several cases where a large city has a very different accent from a surrounding rural area [e.g. Bristol and Avon, Hull and the East Riding].
However, modern communications and mass media have reduced all 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.
British Isles varieties of English, including English English, are discussed in Wells (1982). Some of the features of English English are that:
★ Most versions of this dialect have non-rhotic pronunciation, wherein ''r'' is not pronounced in syllable coda position. This pronunciation is also found in many other English dialects, including Australian English, Indian English, Malaysian English, New Zealand English, and South African English. Parts of the Eastern United States where the upper classes historically looked to England for standards of speech have non-rhotic pronunciation, most notably New England and New York City. Areas with rhotic accents are the East Midlands town of Corby, the far north, the West Country and Lancashire other than the Manchester area. Some parts of England are partially rhotic, such as the East Riding of Yorkshire.
★ 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 .
★ In the Southern variety, words like ''bath'', ''cast'', ''dance'', ''fast'', ''after'', ''castle'', ''grass'' etc. are pronounced with the long vowel found in ''calm'' (that is, or a similar vowel) 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. For more details see Trap-bath split. There are some areas of the West Country that would use the Southern variety for some words and the Northern variety for other words.
★ Many varieties undergo h-dropping, making ''harm'' and ''arm'' homophones. This is a feature of working-class accents across most of England, but was traditionally stigmatised (a fact the comedy musical ''My Fair Lady'' was quick to exploit) but less so now. See Trask (1999), pp104-106. The accents of Northumberland, Tyneside and parts of Norfolk are an exception to this rule. In the past, working-class people were often unsure where an ''h'' ought to be pronounced, and, when attempting to speak "properly, would often preface any word that began with a vowel with an ''h'' [e.g. ''henormous'' instead of ''enormous'', ''hicicles'' instead of icicles]; this was referred to as the "hypercorrect h" in the Survey of English Dialects, and is also referenced in literature [e.g. the policeman in ''Danny the Champion of the World ].
★ A glottal stop for the letter ''t'' is now common amongst younger speakers across of the country. It was originally confined to some areas of the south-east and East Anglia, but has now spread across the country. Many in the older generation consider this to be "annoying".
★ The distinction between and in ''wine'' and ''whine'' is lost in most varieties.
★ 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.
★ Many Southern varieties have the bad-lad split, so that ''bad'' /bæːd/ and ''lad'' /læd/ don't rhyme.
★ In most of the eastern half of England, plurals and past participle endings which are pronounced /ɪz/ and /ɪd/ (with the vowel of kit) in RP may be pronounced with a schwa, /ə/. This can be found as far north as Wakefield and as far south as Essex. This is unusual in being an east-west division in pronunciation when English dialects tend to divide along north-south lines.
★ 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''.
★ Across of England, segments of old forms of the language can still be heard. For example, the use of ''come'' as a past participle rather than ''came'', the use of a clitic ''to have'' rather than ''to have got'', use of ''thou'' and/or ''ye'' for ''you''.
Change over time
The Survey of English Dialects was undertaken in the 1950s and 1960s to preserve a record of the traditional spectrum of rural dialects that merged into each other. The traditional picture was that there would be a few changes in lexicon and pronunciation every couple of miles, but that there would be no sharp borders between completely different ways of speaking. Within a county, the accents of the different towns and villages would drift gradually so that residents of bordering areas sounded more similar to those in neighbouring counties.
Due to greater social mobility and the teaching of Standard English in secondary schools, this model is no longer very accurate. There are now certain English counties within which there is little change in accent/dialect, and people are more likely to categorise their accent by a region or county than by their town or village. As agriculture became less prominent, many rural dialects were made redundant. Some urban dialects have also declined; for example, traditional Bradford dialect is now quite rare in the city, and call centres have seen Bradford as a useful location due to the lack of dialect in potential employees.[1]
However, a factor that has worked in the opposite direction is how concentrations of migration may cause a certain town or area of a town to have a completely unique accent. The two most famous examples are Liverpool and Corby. Liverpool's dialect is influenced heavily by Irish and Welsh, and it sounds completely different from surrounding areas of Lancashire. Corby's dialect is influenced heavily by Scottish, and it sounds completely different from the rest of Northamptonshire. The Voices 2006 survey found that the various ethnic minorities that have settled in certain parts of Britain are developing their own specific dialects. For example, many residents of East London, even if they are not of Bangladeshi origin, may have a Bangladeshi influence on their accent. This has led to a situation where urban dialects may now be just as easily identifiable as rural dialects. In the traditional view, urban entities were usually seen as merely watered-down versions of the surrounding rural area. Historically, rural areas had much more stable demographics than urban areas, but there is now only a small difference.
Southern England
Main articles: Southern English dialects
In general, Southern English accents are distinguished from Northern English accents primarily by not using the short a in words such as "bath". In the south-east, the broad A dominates (that is, words like "cast" and "bath" are pronounced rather than . In the south-west, the sound is similar to that of Wales, and may be represented as /a:/. 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:
★ The London accent, in particular, Cockney. [However, London has continuously absorbed migrants throughout its history, and its accent has always been prone to change quickly]
★ Received Pronunciation ('R.P.').
★ Southern rural accents, of which the West Country, Kent 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. The south-east coast accents traditionally have several features in common with the West country; for example, rhoticity and the a: sound in words such as ''bath'', ''cast'', etc. However, the younger generation in the area is more likely to be non-rhotic and use the London/East Anglian A: sound in ''bath''.
After the Second World War, about one 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).
South-West of England
The Cornish language was once used in the county of Cornwall. Although this is no longer in common use, Cornwall and the West Country have varied and complicated dialects. Surveys such as the Survey of English Dialects and Voices 2006 found that these dialects were as far away from Standard English as was anything from the far North. See West Country dialects for more details.
East Anglia
Norfolk
The Norfolk dialect is spoken in the traditional county of Norfolk and areas of north Suffolk. Famous speakers include Lord Nelson and Keith Skipper.
The group FOND (Friends Of the Norfolk Dialect) was formed to record the county's dialect and to provide advice for TV companies using the dialect in productions.
Midlands
★ As in the North, Midlands accents generally do not use a broad A, so that ''cast'' is pronounced [kast] 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 as "owd" and "cowd" (rhyming with "loud" in the West Midlands and "ode" in the East Midlands), and in the northern Midlands ''home'' can become "wom".
★ Whether Derbyshire should be classed as the West or East Midlands in terms of dialect is debatable. Stanley Ellis, a dialect expert, said in 1985 that it was more like the West Midlands, but it is often grouped with the East and is part of the E.U. region "East Midlands".
★ Cheshire, although part of the North-West region, is usually grouped the Midlands for the purpose of accent and dialect.
West Midlands
★ The best known accents in the West Midlands area are the Birmingham accents (see "Brummie") and the 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]). ''Saft'' also may mean silly as in, "Stop bein' so saft".
★ The Birmingham and Coventry accents are quite distinct, even though the cities are not very far apart.
★ 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".
★ Herefordshire and parts of Worcestershire and Shropshire have a rhotic accent somewhat like the West Country.
East Midlands
★ 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 , with no distinction between ''putt'' and ''put''. In Lincolnshire, such sounds are even shorter than in the North.
★ The town of Corby in Northamptonshire has an accent with some originally Scottish features, apparently due to immigration of Scottish steelworkers. [1]
★ In Leicester, words with short vowels such as ''up'' and ''last'' have a northern pronunciation, whereas words with vowels such as ''down'' and ''road'' sound rather more like a south-eastern accent. The vowel sound at the end of words like ''border'' (and the name of the city) is also a distinctive feature. [2]
★ In north Nottinghamshire ''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).
★ Lincolnshire also has a marked north-south split in terms of accent. The north shares many features with Yorkshire, such as the open ''a'' sound in "car" and "park" or the replacement of ''take'' and ''make'' with ''tek'' and ''mek''. The south of Lincolnshire is close to Standard English, although it still has a short Northern a in words such as ''bath''.
★ Mixing of the words ''was'' and ''were'' when the other is used in Standard English.
★ 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.
South-East Midlands
Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire and south Northamptonshire form the basis for Received Pronunciation. Unlike the rest of the Midlands, they use a long A: in words such as bath, demand, etc. To many Britons, it is hard to distinguish them from the South-East, but there are some key differences:
★ The word ''room'' is pronounced with a long ''oo'', as it is in the rest of the North and the Midlands. Not as "rumm", as is said in the South-East.
★ The ''u'' sound in ''cup'', ''putt'', ''luck'', etc. is shorter than in the South, although not as short as in the North.
★ Words that end in ''th'' are said with a final ''v'' rather than a final ''f''.
★ A final ''y'' on a word is said as ''ee''. Not as ''ay'', which is common in the South-East.
★ Glottal stops for a ''t'' are much less common, although do feature when surrounded by other consonants [e.g. bluntness, nightwatchman].
Northern England
General features
There are several accent features which are common to most of the accents of northern England (Wells 1982, section 4.4).
★ 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. However, the words "father" and "rather" are increasingly being pronounced with a broad A by the younger generation.
★ 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 .
★ The "present historical" is often used. Instead of saying "I ''said'' to him", many Northerners would say, "I ''says'' to him". Instead of saying, "I ''went'' up there", they would say, "I ''goes'' up there."
★ People from the North are generally more likely to use old-fashioned phrases, and less likely to use American phrases.
For more localised features, see the following sections.
Liverpool (Scouse)
Main articles: Scouse
Yorkshire
See Yorkshire dialect and accent.
Middlesbrough area
The accents for Middlesbrough and the surrounding towns are sometimes grouped with Yorkshire and sometimes grouped with the North-East of England, for they share characteristics with both. As this urban area grew in the early 20th century, there are fewer dialect words that date back to older forms of English; Teesside speak is the sort of modern dialect that Peter Trudgill identified in his "The Dialects of England". There is a Lower Tees Dialect group. The Yorkshire Dialect Society does not concern itself with the area; Middlesbrough speech has a similar relation to Yorkshire speech that Liverpool has to Lancashire.
Some examples of traits that are shared with [most parts of] Yorkshire include:
★ H-dropping.
★ An /a:/ sound in words such as ''start, car, park'', etc.
★ Non-rhotic.
Examples of traits shared with the North-East include:
★ Absence of definite article reduction.
★ Glottal stops for /k/, /p/ and /t/ can all occur.
The vowel in "goat" is a /o:/ sound, as is found in both Durham and rural North Yorkshire.
Words such as ''nurse, first, worse'', etc. have an /E:/ sound, which is not common in this part of England. It is, however, common in Liverpool, Birkenhead and Hull. The link between these areas is that they all absorbed large numbers of Irish immigrants, who had a siginificant influence on the language.
Lancashire
Lancashire Dialect and Accent
Cumbria
See Cumbrian dialect.
North-East England eg. Newcastle and Sunderland
★ The Newcastle Upon Tyne/Tyneside dialect is known as Geordie whereas the dialect of neighbouring Sunderland/Wearside is Mackem. The two are broadly similar but do have slight differences in word usage and pronunciation. For example, with words ending -re/-er, such as culture and father, the end syllable is pronounced by Geordies as a short 'a', such as in 'fat' and 'back' therefore producing "cultcha" and "fatha" respectively. Natives of Sunderland (Mackems) pronounce the syllable much more closely to the standard English. Similarly, in Geordie "make" is pronounced in line with standard English e.g. to rhyme with take. However, a Mackem would pronounce "make" to rhyme with "mack" or "tack". For other differences see the respective articles. For an explanation of the traditional dialects of the mining areas of County Durham and Northumberland see Pitmatic.
Examples of accents used by public figures
★ Received Pronunciation: The Queen has followed the changes of this accent over the years. Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and politician Tony Benn. Richard Dawkins, Oxford science professor and outspoken atheist. The lead character in Keeping Up Appearances, who was actually played by Birkenhead-born Patricia Routledge.
★ Berkshire (a southern rural accent): poet Pam Ayres, comedy writer and performer Ricky Gervais is from Reading.
★ Birmingham (Brummie): the rock musician Ozzy Osbourne (although he sometimes Americanises his speech), Jasper Carrot. Mark Rhodes Pop Idol 2003. See Brummie for more examples.
★ Bristol: Professor Colin Pillinger of the Beagle 2 project, comedy writer, actor, radio DJ and director Stephen Merchant.
★ Coventry: the actor Clive Owen, in the films ''Sin City'' and ''King Arthur''
★ Gloucestershire: Laurie Lee, ruralist
★ Hampshire (a southern rural accent): the late John Arlott, sports presenter.
★ Hertfordshire: comedian and writer Robert Newman
★ Lancashire: comedian Peter Kay, McFly singer and guitarist Danny Jones and BBC Radio 1 DJ Vernon Kay. The actor/musician Bernard Wrigley has a broad Bolton accent. The actress, Michelle Holmes, has a Rochdale accent, which has more similarities with Yorkshire.
★ 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 actors Bob Hoskins, Michael Caine. Jonathan Ross has quite an old-fashioned Cockney accent, and his replacement of an initial /r/ with a /w/ has been stigmatised. More examples can be heard in the movies ''Snatch'' and ''Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels''.
★
★ Mockney: used by Guy Ritchie and many musicians, it is a variant of the London regional accent characterised by a non-standard mixture of linguistic and social class characteristics.
★
★ Estuary: the model Jordan (Katie Price).
★ Manchester: Oasis members Liam and Noel Gallagher, Herman's Hermits, actor Dominic Monaghan.
★ Merseyside
★
★ Liverpool (Scouse): recordings by The Beatles (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. Footballer, Steven Gerrard also has a scouse accent and so does Jennie Corner (BB7). The British soap Brookside was set in Liverpool so the majority of the cast, including Philip Olivier and Jennifer Ellison, had scouse accents.
★
★ St Helens: Comedian Johnny Vegas.
★
★ The Wirral: Comedian and TV presenter Paul O'Grady alias Lily Savage is from Birkenhead, pop singer Pete Burns of Dead or Alive is from the model village Port Sunlight.
★ Salford: actor Christopher Eccleston.
★ Stoke-on-Trent or The Potteries: pop star Robbie Williams, TV presenter Anthea Turner, ex pop star and TV presenter Jonathan Wilkes has a strong Potteries accent.
★ Sunderland (Mackem): the accent of the rock group The Futureheads, is easily detected on recordings and live performanes
★ Tyneside (Geordie): former Cabinet members Alan Milburn MP and Nick Brown MP, the actors Robson Green and Tim Healy, the footballer Alan Shearer, actor and singer Jimmy Nail, rock singer Brian Johnson, television personalities Ant and Dec, Donna Air, Jayne Middlemiss. Singer Cheryl Tweedy of Girls Aloud has a strong Newcastle accent.
★ West Country: The Vicar of Dibley was set in Oxfordshire, and many of the characters had West Country accents.
★ West Midlands: Phil Drabble, presenter of ''One Man and His Dog''.
★ Leicester: The band Kasabian have good examples of the Leicester accent.
★ Yorkshire:
★
★ Barnsley: in the 1969 film ''Kes'', the lead characters, David Bradley and Freddie Fletcher, both have very broad Barnsley accents, which are less likely to be heard nowadays. Sam Nixon from Pop Idol 2003, Top Of The Pops Saturday and Reloaded and Level Up also has a Barnsley accent. Also, chat show host Michael Parkinson and ex-union leader Arthur Scargill.
★
★ Bradford: singers Gareth Gates and Kimberley Walsh of Girls Aloud. In ''Rita, Sue and Bob Too'', Bob has a Bradford accent whilst Rita and Sue sound more like Lancashire.
★
★ Hemsworth: cricketer Geoffrey Boycott has an accent similar to those found in many old coal-mining towns
★
★ Holme Valley: Actor Peter Sallis, of ''Last of the Summer Wine'' and ''Wallace and Gromit''
★
★ Huddersfield: former Prime Minister Harold Wilson is said to have deliberately maintained a Huddersfield accent
★
★ Kingston-upon-Hull: Radio DJ and former leader of The Housemartins and The Beautiful South, Paul Heaton.
★
★ Leeds: Melanie Brown of the Spice Girls
★
★ Scarborough: the film ''Little Voice''
★
★ Sheffield: Sean Bean, the band ''Pulp''. The film ''The Full Monty'', the band Arctic Monkeys
Radio and TV featuring regional English accents
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. As most Britons cannot tell the difference between an accent from Lancashire and one from the West Riding of Yorkshire, media set in these areas tend to continuously use the same actors, such as Pete Postlethwaite, Bernard Wrigley and Michelle Holmes.
"The Archers" has had characters with a variety of different West Country accents (see Mummerset). Also, CBBC show Byker Grove is set in Byker, Newcastle whereas the actors in recent series often have Sunderland accents.
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.
In the 2005 version of the science fiction programme ''Doctor Who'', various Londoners wonder that if the Doctor (played by Christopher Eccleston) is an alien, why does he sound as if he comes from the North? (Eccleston used his own Salford accent in the role; the usual response is "Lots of planets have a North!") Other accents in the same series include Cockney (used by actress Billie Piper) and Estuary (preferred by Eccleston's successor, David Tennant).
Channel 4's reality programme "Rock School" was set in Suffolk in its 2nd series, providing lots of examples of the Suffolk dialect.
The television character, Stewie Griffin, from the popular animated TV series "Family Guy" is well known for his English accent in the US, despite not sounding authentic to most English people. His voice actor Seth MacFarlane, also creator of the TV series, is American. Dick van Dyke had similar success with his Cockney accent in the Disney film "Mary Poppins".
See also
★ American and British English differences
★ Estuary English
★ Languages in the United Kingdom
★ Received Pronunciation
★ UK topics
★ Welsh English
★ Scottish English
★ Scots language
★ Survey of English Dialects
References
1. http://archive.cravenherald.co.uk/2004/4/5/101548.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bradford/voices2005/pete_1.shtml
http://www.tapnet.co.uk/mahonyreport.pdf page 8 for the call centres point
★ Peters, Pam (2004). ''The Cambridge Guide to English Usage''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-62181-X.
★ McArthur, Tom (2002). ''Oxford Guide to World English''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-866248-3 hardback, ISBN 0-19-860771-7 paperback.
★ Trask, Larry (1999). ''Language: The Basics'', 2nd edition. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-20089-X.
★ Trudgill, Peter (1984). ''Language in the British Isles''. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-28409-0.
★ Wells, J. C. (1982). ''Accents of English 2: The British Isles''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-28540-2.
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 including phonetic transcriptions in X-SAMPA, British Library Collect Britain website.
★ Online British English and American English pronunciation courses
★ The American·British British·American Dictionary
★ BBC America's British American dictionary
★ . (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
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