English English is the version of the English language spoken in England. Much more frequently, the term British English is used for this but 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.

Some of the features of this dialect are:

• 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 no phonemic differentiation between and /ʌ/, making put and putt homophones as [pʊt].

• Many varieties undergo h-dropping, making harm and arm homophones.

• In the Southern variety, words like cast, dance, fast, after, castle, grass etc. are pronounced with broad A (i.e. /ɑː/) while in the Northern variety they're pronounced with /æ/.

Contents

1 Southern England 1.1 London and the Home Counties 1.2 West Country accent 1.3 East Anglian English 2 Northern England and the Midlands 2.1 West Midlands 2.2 East Midlands 2.3 Liverpool (Scouse) 2.4 Yorkshire 2.5 Lancashire 2.6 Newcastle-upon-Tyne and the northeast 3 Reference 4 See also

Southern England

The accents of southern England provide the basis for RP, originally the upper-class speech of those from the London-Oxford-Cambridge triangle. In general, Southern English accents are distinguished from Northern English accents primarily by:

• The use of broad A, i.e. words like "cast" and "bath" are pronounced [kɑːst], [bɑːθ] rather than [kæst], [bæθ]. There are other peculiarities in specific southern regions.

Note that southern accents, outside London, are influenced by two extra phenomena, both relatively recent:

• Social class. From some time during the 19th century middle and upper-middle classes began to adopt affectations associated with the upper class.
• 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, i.e. the sound [ɹ] occurs only before vowels. Before consonants and in word-final position it is dropped, e.g. far [fɑː], farm [fɑːm].

Some characteristics of a London accent include:

• diphthongal realization of /iː/ and /uː/, e.g. beat [bɪit], boot [bʊʉt]
• diphthongal realization of /ɔː/ in open syllables, e.g. bore [bɔə], paw [pɔə] versus a monophthongal realization in closed syllables, e.g. 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], e.g. 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.

Southern and Home Counties (i.e. Surrey, Hampshire, Sussex, Buckinghamshire, Kent) tend to be associated with a slightly "posh" (RP) accent. Essex is generally associated with Estuary English, mainly in urban areas receiving an influx of East London migrants, but the true Essex accent is more closely related to East Anglian accents. Hertfordshire varies: the east Herts accent is akin to the native Essex, while west Herts shares elements with West Country accents, south Midlands accents - again with strong influences from London accents thanks to the influx of post-War migrants from London.

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, ð] 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 (e.g. duty [dʒuːti]).

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, ð] are replaced with labiodental [f, v], e.g. think [fɪŋk]
• The diphthong [aʊ] is monophthongized to [æː], e.g. south [sæːf]
• H-dropping, e.g. house [æːs]
• Replacement of [t] in the middle or end of a word with a glottal stop; e.g. hit [ɪʔ]
• Diphthong shift of /iː/ to [əi] (e.g. beet [bəiʔ]), /eɪ/ to [aɪ] (e.g. bait [baɪʔ]), /aɪ/ to [ɒɪ] (e.g. bite [bɒɪʔ]), and /ɔɪ/ to [oɪ] (e.g. boy [boɪ].
• Vocalization of [ɫ] (dark L) to [o], e.g. people [pəipo]

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], e.g. 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], e.g. 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 all races as a 'street' patois, with clear US influences (such as the greeting "Yo!"), but also Carribean 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.

West Country accent

• Vowel sounds are usually lengthened.
• Among other things, inital "s" is pronounced as "z"; "r"s are pronounced.
• In the Bristol area a terminal "a" is often followed by an intrusive "l". Hence the old joke about the three Bristolian sisters Evil, Idle and Normal (written Eva, Ida and Norma).

East Anglian English

Main article: East Anglian Accent

• Iotisation is dropped from diphthongs: "beautiful" pronounced as "bootiful", "huge" as "hooj", and so on; often Ts are downgraded to glottal stops, so "beautiful" would become /buː.ɪ.fʊl/ (boo'-i-ful)
• Some diphthongs are moved further forward: "eye" and "I" are pronounced "oy", "right" is "royt", and so on
• High intonation throughout most of a sentence

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 dialect words thrown in) at [1]

Northern England and the Midlands

• Generally use a flat a, so "cast" is pronounced [kast] rather than the [kɑst] pronunciation of most southern accents. This applies everywhere north of (though not including) Birmingham. There are other peculiarities in specific northern Regions.
• Northern English does not recognize [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 have [uː] in Northern accents, so that a pair like luck/look is distinguished as [lʊk]/[luːk].

West Midlands

• Among other things, "bus" pronounced as "buzz", and flat "a" is used, as in the northern accents (below). In a "Brummie" accent (Birmingham), a broad (rounded) A is used so "cast" is pronounced /kɑst/. A Black Country accent uses the more northern approach.
• Dialect verbs are used, e.g. 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" (i.e. "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, e.g. little -> li:le
• In some Nottingham accents the glottal stop in pronounced as a k. E'g 'bokkle' instead of bottle.
• Also l's may not be pronounced, for instance cold is pronounced cowd.
• loss of invisible is, e.g. 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 the accent is different between the north and south of the county due to the Danelaw, which split the area that is now modern Northamptonshire in half. This means that people in the north of the county have an accent similar to the Leicestershire (Viking controlled area during the Danelaw) accent and those in the south an accent similar to rural Oxfordshire (Saxon area during the Danelaw). The urban areas are different again with people either speaking the rural northern/southern accent depending on location, Estuary English as do the many thousands of London migrants in the county or RP (Received Pronunciation) depending on education or social class. Some even speak more than the one accent depending on the situation. The editor of this section speaks with the south rural accent or RP depending on whom he is talking to.

Liverpool (Scouse)

• "th" is often pronounced as "d", for example "there" becomes "dere" usage "oarite dere la!" ("all right there, lad!")
• distinctive rolling "ck" sound from the Welsh influence, for example: "gerr off me backk will yer!" although there is also opinion that the prevelance of the "k" sound can be attributed to Germanic and Scandinavian ancestry, as these peoples settled in what was to become Liverpool.
• A curiosity of the Liverpudlian dialect is also the use of the plural "yous" when talking to two or more persons, rather than "you." This has sometimes been derided, but linguists have pointed out that this could be considered a practicality and logical-- parallel to the French "vous" for plural usage.

Yorkshire

• The "u" sound is pronounced like the standard English "oo", so "luck" is pronounced (in IPA) [lʊk]. The difference between the Yorkshire Pronunciation of "look" and "luck" is difficult to hear, the "look" vowel being slightly longer in duration and tending towards the IPA [lyk] pronunciation.
• An "a" sound in the middle of the word tends to be very long. e.g. "care" becomes "caaare", "say" becomes "saaay". Words with "ake" at the end tend to become "ek" - as in "tek", "mek" and "sek" for "take", "make" and "sake".
• Shortening of "the" to "t", as in "I'm going down 't pub". In fact the word "the" is often ommitted completely, e.g. "I were driving down road".
• 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".
• Sing-song intonation, as in Swedish, Welsh, and the US accent from the film Fargo.
• 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.
• Sheffield people traditionally said "de" for "the" and "dere" for "there". This is now rare to find, however. In most other parts of Yorkshire, "there" is pronounced "they-yer".
• The mining areas tend to say "darn" for "down" and "sarf" for "south". They always talked about "guein darn t'pit". The words "out" and "art" are indistinguishable.
• The word "buried" is often pronounced as it is spelt.
• The word "while" is used to mean "until", especially in West Yorkshire. This can confuse outsiders e.g. "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 the South-East of Yorkshire vowel shifts so "i" becomes "ee", and "ee" becomes "i", so "Where have you been last night" becomes "wherst tha bin last neet". The word "right" can also be pronounced, around Barnsley and Wakefield, as a Southerner would say "rate", which can lead to misunderstandings.
• The letter "y" on the end of words is pronounced like the "i" in "city" or "pity" and is thus shorter than in Standard English [e.g. "It's a piti 'at ah didn't get sum spogs"].
• In West Yorkshire, words like "blue" and "you" have an exaggerated "euw" sound in "bleuw" and "yeuw". This is best heard in the West Yorkshire town "Deuws-bri" [Dewsbury].
• An "h" at the start of the world is usually dropped, but not if there is a "hu" sound ["human", "herd", "hook" or "Huddersfield"].
• Where Standard English would have a long vowel syllable, Yorkshire often splits it into two syllables. e.g. "school" becomes "skeu-il", "there" becomes "they-yer" and "door" becomes "deu-er".

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 [e.g. York and Leeds sound more alike than York and Scarborough].

Lancashire

• The "u" sound is pronounced like the standard English "oo", so "luck" is pronounced (in IPA) [lʊk]. The "oo" in look is pronounced like the "oo" in "boom", so look is look is the IPA [luk].
• "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'.
• 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.

Reference

• For London accents, 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 Dootlittle's father in My Fair Lady), or footballer David Beckham.
• The Cockney accent can be found in the movies Snatch and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels.
• Ozzy Osbourne has a Birmingham accent.
• For Liverpool accents, recordings by The Beatles (George Harrison's accent was the thickest of the four of them), Gerry and the Pacemakers, Herman's Hermits, Echo and the Bunnymen.
• A Yorkshire (Leeds) accent can be detected in interviews with Melanie Brown of The Spice Girls, or in Monty Python's Holy Grail in the "Swamp Castle" scene with Michael Palin.
• An East Riding accent can be heard in recordings by the Watersons.
• The film Kes contains a broad Yorkshire accent associated with the mining areas around Barnsley and Wakefield. Some of the pronounciations in this film [e.g. "father" is pronounced as it is spelt, "first" is pronounced "fst"] are now only heard amongst the elder generation. The more recent film Brassed Off shows a much weaker version of the Barnsley-Wakefield accent, having been set in the village of Grimethorpe.
• Peter Kay is from Bolton and has a Lancashire accent, although it is not generally strong enough to be notably different from much of Yorkshire.
• Paul Gascoigne, Peter Beardsley and Alan Shearer all have Geordie accents.
• Robbie Williams is from Stoke in the West Midlands, although he is moderately well-spoken.
• The Chuckle Brothers have an accent found around Rotherham and Doncaster, which Southerners generally find easier to understand than other Yorkshire accents.

See also

• Languages in the United Kingdom
• Received Pronunciation
• Estuary English