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Regional accents of English speakers describes the many identifiable variations in pronunciation of Standard English between various populations, usually deriving from the phoneme inventory of the local dialect. Although local accents are part of local dialects, local accents should not be confused with local dialects which are varieties differing in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. See List of dialects of the English language.
Non-native speakers of the English language tend to carry the intonation, accent or pronunciation from their mother tongue into their English speech. For more details see Non-native pronunciations of English.
This page deals only with the accents of native English speakers.
Contributors to this article have then gone on to confuse accent and dialect.
Among native English speakers, many different accents exist. Some regional accents are easily identified by certain characteristics. It should be noted that further variations are to be found within the regions identified below; for example, towns located less than 10 miles from the city of Manchester such as Bolton, Salford and Oldham, each have distinct accents, all of them a form of the Lancashire accent, yet in extreme cases different enough to be noticed by a non-local listener. There is also much room for misunderstanding between people from different regions, such as the way that the word "right" is pronounced in some parts of Yorkshire in the way that Southerners say "rate".
Countries and Regions (in alphabetical order)
(See also Australian English)
The Australian accent varies between social classes and is sometimes claimed to vary from state to state, though this is disputed (it is more the lexis that varies between states, as well as the pronunciation of certain words, the most cited example being 'castle'). Accents tend to be strongest in the more remote areas. (Note that while there are many similarities between Australian accents and New Zealand ones, there are also a number of differences.) The following are some Australian characteristics:
- The Australian vowel system is quite different from that of other dialects. Other standard dialects have tense vowels, lax vowels, and diphthongs. Australian English on the other hand has turned most of the tense vowels into diphthongs, and turned some of what are diphthongs in Received Pronunciation into long vowels, thus replacing the tense-lax distinction (one of quality) with a long-short distinction (one of quantity). The table below shows these.
- Vowels are changed in pronunciation using Harrington, Cox and Evans (1997) (see [1] (http://www.ling.mq.edu.au/units/ling210-901/phonetics/ausenglish/auseng_vowels.html)):
| Australian Vowel Pronunciation in IPA and X-SAMPA
|
| Australian
| Received Pronunciation
| Examples
|
| iː | i:
| iː | i:
| heed
|
| ɪ | I
| ɪ | I
| hid
|
| e | e
| ɛ | E
| head
|
| æ | {
| æ | {
| hat, had
|
| aː | a:
| ɑː | A:
| hard, fast
|
| a | a
| ʌ | V
| hut
|
| ɔ | O
| ɒ | Q
| hot
|
| oː | o:
| ɔː | O:
| horde
|
| ʊ | U
| ʊ | U
| hood
|
| ʉː | }:
| uː | u:
| hoon
|
| ɜː | 3:
| ɜː | 3:
| heard
|
| ə | @
| ə | @
| banana
|
| æɪ | {I
| eɪ | eI
| hate
|
| ɑe | Ae
| aɪ | aI
| hide
|
| æɔ | {O
| aʊ | aU
| howl
|
| əʉ | @}
| əʊ | @U
| hope
|
| ɔɪ | OI
| ɔɪ | OI
| hoist
|
| ɪː/ɪə | I:/I@
| ɪə | I@
| hear
|
| eː/eə | e:/e@
| ɛə | E@
| hair
|
| ʊə | U@
| ʊə | U@
| tour
|
- The vowel in words like 'pure', 'tour' has diverged according to the whim of the speaker, either remaining as a diphthong or becoming two separate monophthongs.
- Additionally, the vowels are generally pronounced higher up in the mouth than their English counterparts; [ɪə] (beard) is often pronounced as [ɪː] when followed by a consonant; /ɜː/ (bird) takes on a fronter, more rounded quality; /æ/ (bat) has split into two distinct phonemes, so that whereas dad, can (I can do it), bat have a short vowel, bad, can (tin can), pal have a long one.
- gone takes on a peculiar quality: whereas all other /ɔː/ (born, saw) became [oː], and all /ɒ/ (hot) became [ɔ], gone stayed as [ɔː].
- In Victoria, a short e before an l is pronounced as a short a, so that celery and salary are homonyms.
- The /l/ sound in "Australia" may be elided; it becomes "Austray-yah".
- In some eastern Australian states, "pool" and "school" are sometimes pronounced "schoo-el" and "poo-el" whereas in other states the sound is more akin to "pull".
- See regional accents in Australia for more information.
Reference
Listen to various Australian actors, singers and native speakers. Internationally known actors Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman speak in their natural Australian accents when not acting in roles as non-Australians.
- Steve "Crocodile hunter" Irwin has a broad rural Queensland accent. His broad accent and excited style is often parodied inside Australia as well as out.
- Several Australian actors provided voices for Finding Nemo. Nigel the pelican, the three sharks, and the dentist are Australian voices.
- The ABC provides many streams of their radio programs (http://www.abc.net.au/streaming/). Many of these would make a good reference for the casual, relaxed Australian accent and use of the English language as opposed to scripted performances.
(See also Canadian English; North American English)
Canadian accents vary widely across the country, and the accent of a particular region is often closer to neighbouring parts of the United States. Nevertheless, there are some characteristics that exist across the country, in varying degrees, such as Canadian raising. Canadian actors and announcers used to speak with a Mid-Atlantic accent, similar to that formerly used by actors and announcers in the United States. An example of this is the actor Christopher Plummer.
Regional variations include:
- /aI/ diphthong pronounced /^I/
- loss of non-prevocalic r
- faster speech tempo
- use of "Eh?" interrogative
- Newfoundland English is a distinct dialect of the language with its own pronunciation and vocabulary. Please refer to article for more information.
- subtle Canadian raising, although in Ontario it is often quite strong
- in southwestern Ontario (especially rural areas), some speakers also have aspects of the Midwestern US accent, e.g. "not" sounds like "naht" (/nOt/ --> [nat]), combined with Canadian raising (see USA below).
- Many speakers in Ontario and the provinces further west have a new chain shift called the Canadian Shift. (see Canadian English)
- accent is slightly modified to signify sarcasm: "not" becomes a heavily stressed "nat", for example.
- in Ontario, widespread use of Eh? interrogative.
- more frequent voicing of intervocalic s – in resource, for example
- short a in words like drama; in common with most Canadians, Ontarians and Quebeckers pronounce words of foreign origin (Datsun, Mazda, etc.) as if the vowels are French.
- in Central Ontario (that is, the region around Toronto) in particular, voiced th and d are often not distinguished, the two pronunciations frequently appearing together (Do you want this one or dis one?, for example)
- strong Canadian raising, second syllable of "about" is pronounced /VU/ rather than RP /aU/.
The main distinction between Canadian (Prairie) pronunciation of this diphthong is in its resolution.
Namely, an American pronunciation resolves the 'a-'sound [\&\] (or, alternatively, the schwa-sound; please see external source http://www.m-w.com/pronsymbols.htm for explanation of this notation) resolves with an 'oo'-sound [\u\], as such: 'a bah oo t'; whereas the Canadian pronunciation resolves with an 'oh'-sound [\O\], as such: 'a bah oh t'.
- "sing-songy" intonation
- use of "Eh?" interrogative is found more often in the east of Canada.
(See also British English)
English accents and dialects vary more widely within the U.K. itself than they do in other parts of the world owing to the longer history of the language within the countries of the U.K. Here are some of the distinctions to be found:
Southern English
- Generally use a broad A, so "cast" is pronounced kAst rather than the k{st pronunciation of most northern accents. 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 classes began to adopt affectations (including the broad A), usually referred to as 'posh'.
- 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 infflections (and possibly creating the seed of Estuary English).
- Estuary English (see below) is common in the Home Counties, as often as an affected accent as a native one. Where an individual does not adopt this accent:
- Southern and Western Home Counties (i.e. Surrey, Hampshire, Sussex, Buckinghamshire) 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.
- Initial h sounds are dropped; e.g. "house" becomes "ouse"; "help" becomes "elp"
- T sounds in the middle of words are replaced with a glottal stop; e.g. "water" becomes "wa><er"
- Diphthongs shift tongue positioning distinctively, similarly to Australian English
- An l at the end of a word is pronounced more like a w, eg "Phil" becomes "Fiw"
Jamaican-influenced London accent
Used by Jamaicans, or children of Jamaican parents, in the United Kingdom.
- Jamaican sounding i, which sounds almost like the a in sat but shorter, followed by a very short ee sound: so might: ma'ee><
- Adopted from the "host nation," Britain, T sounds in the middle of words are replaced with a glottal stop; e.g. "water" becomes "wa><er" - you may even hear "fauw'een" (fourteen) , "de'aiw" (detail).
- Total loss of rhoticness. Dancer becomes daahnsaah.
- Jamaican style vowels, so day becomes "dey" or "deh-ee" (deh has the e sound in get)
'Wigga'
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.
- A broadly spread extension of Cockney, with less emphasis on the dropping of initial 'h's and a more profound presence of the glottal stop.
Southeastern English
- Terminal "r" is smashed; e.g. "doorway" becomes "doe-way", "forever" becomes "forevuh"
- Unstressed vowels are also smashed
London
- The tongue is more forward in the mouth
- Words can be overpronounced
- th becomes f or v, depending on whether or not it is voiced. "Fo'i fouzand fevvers on a frush's froat."
- In south London, the place is called "saaf London"
- "Council House" becomes "cancel ass"
- h replaced by glottal catch, as in the last example
- 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).
- 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 /bu:><.I.fUl/ (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 www.norfolkdialect.com
Northern and Midlands English
- 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 /^/ ("strut," "but," etc.) as a separate vowel. All short-u words are pronounced with [U] as in "look" and "book."
- 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 kAst. 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 Accent
- 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.
- "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!"
- The "u" sound is pronounced like the standard English "oo", so "luck" is pronounced (in SAMPA) lUk. 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 SAMPA 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".
- 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 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.
- Several dialect words. "Gip" for "vomit", "lughole" for "ear", "stodge" for "food".
- 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
- The "u" sound is pronounced like the standard English "oo", so "luck" is pronounced (in SAMPA) lUk. The "oo" in look is pronounced like the "oo" in "boom", so look is look is the SAMPA luk.
- "o" pronounced "oi", so "hole" is pronounced (in SAMPA) "hOIl".
- 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.
- 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 Makkem accent, used in nearby Sunderland, is considered by Geordies to be less refined than their own). See also Pitmatic.
Reference
- The Cockney accent can be found in the movies Snatch and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels.
- 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 "fust"] 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.
(See also Scottish English)
General
English as spoken in Scotland should not be confused with Scots which is a language in itself. However, the debt owed by Scottish English to Scots and Gaelic is undeniable.
Some immediate distinguishing features of Scottish spoken English are:
- The pronunciation of "r" wherever it occurs in a word (often with an alveolar trill or 'rolled-r').
- The differentiation between "w" and "wh" in witch and which (X-SAMPA) /w/ and /W/.
- The ability to pronounce the "ch" /x/ in loch.
- The non-phonemic vowel length (monophthongs) in place of 'gliding pairs' of vowel sounds (diphthongs). "Bait" and "boat" are pronounced /bet/ and /bot/ respectively. Hearers of Scottish English-speakers frequently pick up on the short "oo" sound of words like "boot".
- The advancement of the "oo" sound" - "boot" is pronounced /bʉt/.
Other frequent usages in Scottish English include Scots "canna" (or "cannae") for "can't", "dinna" (or "dinnae") for "don't", winna (or winnae, or willnae) for won't, etc. (When Scots speakers speak at speed, "canna" often becomes "ca'", "dinna" often becomes "deh" and "winna" becomes "weh".)
Features common, but by no means universal or unique to English as spoken by Scots are:
- A prevalence of glottal stops for 't' between vowels or after a vowel (e.g. "bu'er" instead of "butter")
- realising the nasal velar in "-ing" as a nasal alveolar "in'" ("talkin'" instead of "talking")
Scottish Regional Accents
For a small nation Scotland exhibits considerable regional variation in accents (dialects!) Here is a summary confusing Scots, English, dialect and accent - see points above.
Glasgow & The West Coast
Glaswegians and others in the West of Scotland speak a little more slowly than those in the East - vowels are drawn out somewhat and the rolled-r is slightly more prevalent. Billy Connolly may be regarded as an 'ambassador' for the Glasgow accent.
The middle-class Edinburgh accent is often considered (by Scots) to be a Scottish equivalent of received pronunciation, characterised by 'pure' vowels and careful enunciation. The working class accent is extremely different, and was brought to prominence in the movie Trainspotting.
Aberdeen & The North-East
Natives of Aberdeen and the Further North East of Scotland speak a distinct dialect of Scots called Doric. Its most well-known characteristic is the realisation of "wh" as an "f" sound, as in the characteristic inquiry "Fa fuppit the fite fulpie?" Of course others speak English with an Aberdeenshire accent
Residents of Dundee have an accent distinguished by a particular vowel sound - the flat "e" (as in "men"), which is used at all times in place of the diphtong "ai" (as in "kite"), and occasionally in place of the flat "a" in "have". Part of a famous Dundonian saying is "eh'll hae a peh" ("I'll have a pie").
Angus & The Glens
A characteristic of speech in this region, to the North of Dundee, is the use of the gutteral "ch" sound in place of the silent "gh" in certain words. For example "fight" becomes "fecht" and "mighty" become "michty". Speech in this region is often closer to pure Scots than in other areas of the country.
Not all Scots speak with 'pure' vowels - vowels are frequently 'dropped' (e.g. "car" becomes "cawr" - another vowel!). This is especially so in this region (the Scottish Borders). The Borders is also home to a curiosity of grammar in which the auxiliary verb "can" is treated as a progressive verb ("be able to"). For example, "you won't be able to do that" becomes "you'll no' can dae that".
Here, in the North West, English is spoken in a lilting manner influenced by the continued use of Gaelic. This is especially noticeable in the Western Isles.
Similarly, traces of the Norse influence upon these extreme Northern isles can be heard in today's islanders' distinctively pitched accents (c.f. Norn).
See also:
(See also British English and Wenglish)
- Distinctive pitch differences giving a "sing-song" effect
- Overpronunciation of vowels is common in strong "valleys" accents
- Light rolling of r's
South Wallian accents can be heard from the actors Richard Burton and (to a lesser extent) Anthony Hopkins, or on recordings of Dylan Thomas or in the music of Catatonia, Tom Jones or Shirley Bassey.
The accents of North Wales are markedly different with 'Scouse' like Liverpool accents in Queensferry and Fflint to the very distinctive accent of North West Wales. Here the R are rolled extensively and the vowels are pressed to the back of the throat especially the letter 'U' which is pronounced as a guttural ee. The accents of some indivduals from some of the more rural communities have been likened to German acents by visitors from England.
The accents of mid-wales especially North Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion are more gentle in nature than either the 'valleys' of the Northern welsh accents and are, by repute, one of the more beautiful British accents to listen to.
See also Hong Kong English
The accent of English spoken in Hong Kong follows mainly British, with rather strong influence from Cantonese on the pronunciations of a few consonants and vowels, and sentence grammar and structure. In recent years there are some Canadian and Australia influences, due to the return of emigrants to these countries. American influence in vocabularies and spellings is also substantial through multinational conglomerates and Hollywood movies.
A number of distinct dialects of English are spoken on the Indian subcontinent (see Indian English). Accents originating in this part of the world tend to display two distinctive features:
- syllable-timing, in which a roughly equal time is allocated to each syllable. Akin to the English of Singapore and Malaysia. (Elsewhere, English speech timing is based predominantly on stress);
- "sing-song" pitch changes (somewhat akin to those of English speakers in Wales - see below).
(See also Hiberno-English and British English)
Most of the pronunciations below differ in various areas of Ireland. Those who are native will often be able to distinguish which county of Ireland the speaker hails from. There is a marked difference between accents in the North of the country and those the South. Notable variations in the Republic are the accents of County Cork, Cork City, County Kerry, Limerick City, Dublin, the West of Ireland, County Cavan and County Donegal. As with many English speaking countries, speakers from outside urban areas tend to have a softer accent.
Republic of Ireland
- Pronounces "r" whenever it occurs in a word.
- "l" is clear wherever it occurs in a word, as in French
- 'Pure' vowels: "boat", in a traditional accent, is pronounced (in SAMPA) "bo:t", and cane is pronunced "ke:n"
- Aspiration: "what" may be pronounced "hwat".
- The "i" in "night" may be pronounced "oy"
- The "u" in Dublin may be pronounced like the "oo" in "book"
- In many areas, including Dublin, the "th" sound is replaced with a dental stop (Irish "three" and Spanish "tres" start with same consonant cluster, while "there" becomes "dere")
- In County Cork, some vowel sounds are often altered. An "e" sound becomes an "i" ("well" becomes "will"). Also "Cork" is locally pronounced as "cark".
- An accent unique to Dublin known as the Dublin 4 intonation (referring to a postal code therein) is an urban/suburban middle class feature. This is an oft derided posh dialect that renders words such as 'car' as 'core' and 'far' as 'fore'. Dublin 4 speakers often end a sentence with the rising question 'Do you know what I mean?' contracted and pronounced rapidly as 'Dja kneww whad I min?'
- Similarly the working-class Dublin accent is a unique urban feature resembling the blue-collar accents of Manchester and Liverpool in England. This dialect includes phrases such as 'What's the story, Bud?' meaning 'How are you, friend?' pronounced 'Wats de stary bud?' and 'Mad out of it!' pronounced 'Mad ou vih!' meaning drunk or high.
Northern Ireland
- The "oo" sound is brought forward, so "too" is pronounced "tooy" (in SAMPA) "b}t"
- The "ou" or "ou" in "sound" is pronounced as "uy" or "oy" ("soynd")
- The "ay" sound becomes "ia" or with "day" pronounced as "dia" (also "deh")
- The "i" in "time" is pronounced as "ay" ("tame")
- The sound "ere" in "there" is pronounced as "urr" ("thurr")
- The letter t has a dental stop.
See Also:
(note: Many Malaysians and Singaporeans, even those who use English for it to be considered their native language may also frequently speak their 'mother-tongue' that is the native language of their parents. This may be Malay, a dialect of Chinese, Tamil or another language from the Indian subcontinent. There is also significant variation between these different groups. In Malaysian urban areas, there is also variation between those educated at more up-market schools and those from less up-market schools with the former generally speaking with a more British accent. Also, many adopt different accents and usages depending on the situation, for example an office worker may speak with less coloquialism and with a more British accent at the job then with friends or while out shopping.
(see also: Singapore Colloquial English and Manglish)
- syllable-timing, where speech is timed according to syllable, akin to the English of the Indian Subcontinent. (Elsewhere, speech is usually timed to stress.)
- A quick, staccato style, with "puncturing" syllables and well-defined, drawn out tones.
- No rhotic vowels, like British English. Hence "caught" = "court", "can't" rhymes with "aren't", etc. In recent years however, this has been breaking down due to the influence of American English.
- Much dropping off of final consonants: "must" becomes "mus'", "rent" becomes "ren'", etc.
- The "ay" and "ow" sounds in "raid" and "road" are pronounced as monophthongs, i.e. with no "glide", making them sound like "rehd" and "rohd".
- "Th" becomes "t" and "d", e.g. "thin" = "tin", "then" = "den".
- Depending on how colloquial the situation is: many discourse particles, or words inserted at the end of sentences that indicate the role of the sentence in discourse and the mood it conveys, like "lah", "leh", "mah", "hor", etc.
(See also New Zealand English)
The New Zealand accent is distinguished from the Australian one by the presence of short or "clipped" vowels, also encountered in South African English. New Zealanders, according to Australians, pronounce "fish and chips" as "fush and chups", "yes" as "yiss" and "milk" as "muwk". This is attributable to the influence of Scottish English speech patterns.
Geographical variations appear slight, and mainly confined to individual special local words. One group of speakers, however, hold a recognised place as "talking differently": the South of the South Island (Murihiku) harbours a "Celtic fringe" of people speaking with a "Southland burr" in which a back-trilled 'r' appears prominently. The area formed a traditional repository of immigration from Scotland.
The trilled 'r' is also used by some Māori, who may also pronounce 't' and 'k' sounds almost as 'd' and 'g'. This is also encountered in South African English, especially among Afrikaans speakers.
(See also South African English)
South Africa has 11 official languages, one of which is English. Afrikaners (Boers), descendants of mainly Dutch settlers, tend to pronounce English phonemes with a strong Afrikaans inflection, which is very similar to Dutch.
Native English speakers in South Africa have an accent that generally resembles British Received pronunciation modified with varying degrees of Germanic inflection, due to the Afrikaner influence. Native English speakers in South Africa also insert a number of Afrikaans loanwords into their speech.
In Zimbabwe, native English speakers (mainly the white minority) have a similar speech pattern, hence 'Zimbabwe' is pronounced as zom-baw-bwi, as opposed to the more correct African pronunciation zeem-bah-bwe.
(See also American English; North American English)
The standard American English accent is the neutral dialect spoken by TV network announcers and typical of educated speech in the Upper Midwest, Chicago, Minneapolis/St. Paul and Philadelphia. Standard American makes a good reference dialect because it has crisp consonants and more vowel distinctions than other major dialects, tends to retain distinctions between unstressed vowels, and is considered a "neutral" dialect. However, /O/ and /A/ tend to merge in standard American (which means that "father" and "bother" rhyme). This may help readers accustomed to accents resembling British Received Pronunciation. American actors and announcers used to speak with a Mid-Atlantic accent, which was an affected hybrid of educated American and British accents.
Regional and cultural variations within the USA include the following:
(Sometimes referred to as Ghetto)
This is actually a cluster of dialects with numerous regional variations. The below describes some features found in many (but not necessarily all) varieties, and emphasizes a stereotype that may or may not be true in some areas of the United States. This dialect is not exclusive to African-Americans and might be more appropriately titled Ghetto(The definition meaning a poor urban area as opposed to the definition meaning a racially segregated area.) or Ghetto English.
- Use of double negative; in some speakers, multiple negation is used for emphasis: "I ain't never done nuthin' like that."
- Use of "ain't" where Standard American English (SAE) uses "isn't". (Note: Ain't is often used in other dialects)
- Many Ebonics dialects drop off the second part of a contraction, unless the second part of the contraction turns the word into a negative. "We done that" as opposed to "We've done that" (Meaning "We have done that.")
- Auxiliary "be" + verb is used for the habitual aspect of a verb. "It be dat way sometime" = "It's like that, sometimes".
- Auxiliary "done" + verb is used for the completive aspect of a verb "He done gone to the store" means that he completed the errand he set out to do. SAE has no direct equivalent to this.
- Some speakers may pronounce /D/ as [d] initially and as [v] between vowels; and /T/ as [f].
- Many people may perceive the dialect as having a distinct "Southern" quality to it, because of a tendency to monophthongize /ay/ as [a:] (see "USA (Southern)" below).
- Ebonic dialects are not only non-rhotic, but in some cases may also delete /r/ between vowels. Thus, "Carol never made drop rate art" may be pronounced "Ca'ol nevah made drop rate aht" [k}.ol nE.v@ med drOp ret a:t]. "Store" is pronounced "stow".
(South Midlands, Tennessee through Texas)
- monophthongization of /ay/ as [a:], e.g. most dialects' "I" --> "Ah" in the South.
- raising of initial vowel of /au/ to /æu/ (/{u/); the initial vowel is often lengthened and prolonged, yielding /æ:w/.
- nasalization of vowels, esp. diphthongs, before /n/.
- raising of /æ/ to /e/; can't --> cain't, &c.
- Unlike most American English, but like Commonwealth English, glides (/j/, the y sound) are inserted before /u/ after the consonants /t/, /d/, /θ/, /s/, /z/, /n/, and /l/.
- South Midlands speech is rhotic. This is diagnostic for Yankees to whom it all sounds "Southern."
- NOTE: Related to Southern.
The old-fashioned Boston accent is non-rhotic, merges the cot and caught classes of vowels in a rounded position, and has a small broad A class. See the article on the Boston accent for a more thorough description. John F Kennedy spoke with a Boston accent.
The accent varies across the boroughs. The classic example is "dirty toilet water" becoming pronounced something like "doity terlet wada."
- loss of postvocalic <r>. This is general in New York City.
- faster speech tempo
- /@I/ pronounced /3r/ and /3r/ pronounced /@I/. When asked if the apartment had heat in the winter the landlord replied "Shua. We got a brand new url boyna." ("Sure. We got [purchased] a brand new oil burner.") This is a popular stereotype, but not very common among natives born after World War II.
Reference
Old Bugs Bunny cartoons (Bugs has a Brooklyn accent). The accent is often exaggerated, but it still does exist to some degree with many Brooklyn natives. Groucho Marx also had a passable Brooklyn accent. A more contemporary version can be found on the popular television show The Sopranos even though the show is set in Essex County, New Jersey: the Brooklyn accent was carried to New Jersey by New Yorkers moving to the suburbs.
Use of a glottal stop in place of a "t" in the middle of a word, e.g. "to><al" rather than "toT-tl", water is pronounced "wa><er".
- As in Boston and much of Massachusetts, the accent of long-time residents is distinctively non-rhotic with heavy use of epenthetic rs.
- Older native Maine (USA) residents pronounce "yes" or "yeah" as "ayuh", with the stress on the second syllable.
- Additionally, word "ayuh" is frequently spoken while inhaling, rather than exhaling. This makes it easy to insert in between sentences while breathing. In such cases, it is often truncated to simply "yuh"
- Many Mainers (locally pronounced maine-ahs) use the phrase "right ruthless" (pronounced right roofless). This usually means that something is in good form, e.g. "I'll tell you, it was right ruthless when you flipped your snowmobile back there"
The Inland North
This area consists of western New York State (Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse), Michigan's Lower Peninsula (Detroit, Ann Arbor, etc.), Cleveland, Chicago, Gary, and Milwaukee.
- This region is dominated by the Northern cities vowel shift, in which "cad," "cod," "cawed," "Ked," and "cut," are pronounced [ke@d], [kad], [kAd], [k^d], and [kOt], respectively.
- The /aw/ vowel of "mouse" and "down" is pronounced noticeably in the back of the mouth as [mAus] and [dAun], while /ay/ of "mice" and "dine" is much further front: [mais] and [dain].
- The long-o of "bone" and "goat" is rounded and pronounced far back.
- The word "on" rhymes with "don," not with "dawn."
- R's are always pronounced.
- Canadian raising is found in areas close to the Canadian border.
The Midland
This consists of the larger parts of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois which are not in the Inland North, as well as Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska, where it begins to blend into the West. Some linguists call this the "North Midland" with the Southern highlands being the "South Midland."
- In some rural areas, words like "roof" and "root" get the vowel of "book" and "hoof"
- Midland people don't usually distinguish the vowels of cot and caught but at the same time, don't merge them either. This is called a "merger in transition."
- People who pronounce "don" and "dawn" differently pronounce "on" to rhyme with "dawn" and not "don"
- St. Louis has a distinctive accent, see the section on it below.
- South Indiana has a distinctive accent, locally known as the "Hoosier Twang" (a well-known speaker is actor Jim Nabors, who played Gomer Pyle on TV and has for many years sung "Back Home In Indiana" before the Indy 500 race).
New England accents include influence from both Boston and New York which results in a sliding scale of different accents as you travel between the two cities.
- (also South:) loss of non-prevocalic r in some dialects.
- faster speech tempo
- See the section on the Boston accent.
North Central
(Minnesota (esp. rural), Upper Peninsula of Michigan, North Dakota)
- /O/ merged with /a/. ("Father" rhymes with "bother".)
- Preservation of non-prevocalic <r>
- Canadian raising: see section on Canada.
- "roof", "book", and "root" all use the same vowel (SAMPA [U]).
- Use of German/Scandinavian "ja" as an affirmative filler or emphatic; Standard US English "yes" is used to answer questions and to start an explanation.
- Tendency towards a "sing-songy" intonation (the area's earliest European settlers were primarily Scandinavian, and this has influenced the local dialect). More recently, this has been reinforced by an influx of Asians, most of whom speak tonal languages.
- Known as "Yooper" in Upper Pensinsula of Michigan [UP = Yoo-Pee]
- For a stereotypical (if somewhat overdone) example of Minnesotan, refer to the movie Fargo. For a more normative example, Garrison Keillor speaks with a typical urban Minnesota accent.(Note: most southern, even rural, Minnesota accents sound more like the northern Iowan accent. Thicker accents up in the northern areas are still much less defined than in Fargo.)
- "You" ==> "Youse"
- W ==> V, particularly well=>vell and what=>vaht (Rarely found in people under 35.)
- Perhaps to a greater degree than other parts of the United States, standard American English pronunciation is replacing the regional accent, probably because there is less cultural identity wrapped up in the language than elsewhere
While the accent is usually associated with Philadelphia, it is actually part of a Mid-Atlantic region encompassing southern New Jersey, Wilmington, Baltimore, and Reading.
Some region-specific features include:
- Distinction between "cot" [kAt] and "caught" [kOt]. Unlike New York City and north Jersey, "on" is pronounced [On], so it rhymes with "dawn."
- The long-o of "goat" and "boat" is unrounded and fronted, so it is pronounced [@U], like in the Midland and South.
- The short-a class is split between lax [æ] and tense [e@], like in New York City, but fewer words are tense in Philadelphia than in New York City.
- As in New York City and Boston, there is a three-way distinction between "Mary," "marry," and "merry." A recent development is a merger of the vowels of "merry" with "Murray."
- Canadian raising occurs for /ay/ ("price") but not for /aw/ ("mouth")
- There is a split of /ey/ (long-a as in "face") so at the end of a word ("day") it sounds like it does in Australia, while in any other position ("date") it is pronounced more like a long-e. Commonly confused words include "eight" and "eat," "snake" and "sneak," "slave" and "sleeve."
- Water is pronounced "wooder" in the city as well as surrounding suburban areas.
- South Philadelphia has been known for r-dropping, even though it has never been a characteristic of the rest of the region.
Pittsburgh accents have a number of distinctive features. Please reference that article for more information.
- Some St. Louisans (probably born earlier than 1960) tend to merge the /Or/ sound as in for with the /Ar/ sound of far. Interstates 40 and 44, both of which curve through town, are thus farty and farty-far. This accent is otherwise a typical north Midland accent.
- Some younger speakers are picking up the Northern cities vowel shift heard in Chicago, eastern Wisconsin, and much of Michigan and New York State. This vowel shift causes words like cat /k&t/ to become more like /kEt/ and talent /'t&l,nt/ to be more like /'tj&l,nt/ or /'tEl,nt/.
- Since this is in the Midland, "on" rhymes with "dawn," and the Northern cities vowel shift makes this more noticeable here than in the rest of the Midland.
- Some speakers, usually older generations, pronounce words like measure as /"meIZ.@r/, and wash as /wOrS/, e.g. /"wOrS.IN.t@n/ for Washington.
- Some speakers mispronounce mostaccioli as /mVskAtSoli:/. This seems ironic, with the presence of The Hill.
South
(Coastal Virginia, North Carolina through Louisiana)
(See also Southern American English)
- monophthongization of /aI/ as [a:], e.g. most dialects' "I" --> "Ah" in the South.
- (also some East Coast:) loss of non-prevocalic r.
- slower speech tempo
- putting two modals together as if the second were an infinitive: "I might could do that."
- Coastal Southern speech is non-rhotic.
- -ing suffix is pronounced [@n]
- /e/ and /i/ merged before nasal consonants, e.g. "Wendy" becomes "Windy," "pen" becomes "pin," and so forth.
- Unlike most American English, but like Commonwealth English, glides (/j/, the y sound) are inserted before /u/ after the consonants /t/, /d/, /θ/, /s/, /z/, /n/, and /l/.
- In the deep south, vowels tend to take the hard sound more often e.g. "on" and "own" are similar; "can't" and "ain't" and "glass" and "face" also might rhyme.
- Verbs can have various meanings. e.g. 'Cut' the light off, or 'mash' the buttons
New Orleans
While including such characteristics of the Southern US English as using "y'all" for second person plural and dropping the "g" from words ending in "ing", the New Orleans, Louisiana accent is so unlike the rest of the South and so simliar to that of New York City, that New Orleanians traveling in other parts of the USA are often mistaken for New Yorkers.
Many pronunciations are surprisingly similar to that found in New York City and northern New Jersey, presumably arrising from a similar mix of immigrants. Parallels include the split of the historic short-a class into tense [e@] and lax [æ] versions, as well as pronunciation of "cot" and "caught" as [kAt] and [kOt]. The stereotypical New York r-dropping of "toity-toid street" (33rd Street) used to be a common New Orleans feature, though it has mostly receded today.
The ending "ed" is commonly deleted from words. Some common phrases use anglisized versions of old French sentence structure, for example to go shopping for groceries is "making grocieries".
Perhaps the most distinctive New Orleans accent is locally nicknamed "yat", from a traditional greeting "Where y'at" ("Where are you at?", meaning "How are you?"). One of the most detailed phonetic depictions of an extreme "yat" accent of the early 20th century is found in the speech of the character Krazy Kat in the comic strip of the same name by George Herriman. While such extreme "yat" accents are no longer so common in the city, they can still be found in parts of Mid-City and the 9th ward, as well as in St. Bernard Parish, just east of New Orleans.
The novel A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole is generally considered the best depiction of New Orleans accents in literature.
- some southern New Jersey residents have a tendency to drop the letter T in speech, or pronounce it like the letter D. "Atlantic" becomes "Alanic", "Antarctica" becomes "Anardica"
- "Water" is sometimes pronounced "Wooder"
- "Orange" and "horrible" often pronounced as "ahrange" and "hahrible" (also Central New Jersey)
- Not technically a feature of accent, South Jersey and Philadelphia natives tend to say "yous guys" where others would say "you guys" or "y'all"
Utah (Utahnics)
- diphthongization of /E/ as /EI/: "egg" and "leg" pronounced "ayg" and "layg", "leisure" and "pleasure" pronounced "layzhur" and "playzhur".
- in some cases, "ar" and "or" are reversed: "I was barn in a born" (I was born in a barn).
- introduction of a "T" into certain words: "teacher" pronounced "teat-chur".
- shortening of some words from several syllables to one or two: "coral" as "crall", "probably" to "probly" or "prolly".
- the use of "fer" in certain expressions, such as "fer cute", meaning "cute" or "fer ignernt": "stupid".
- due to the influence of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, unique euphemisms: "oh my heck" and "gol".
- The western washington accent, notably the Puget Sound region, has more in common with the rest of the west coast, whereas more rural parts of the state have accents closer to Idaho and Montana.
- /il/ is often pronounced as /el/: "milk" and "pillow" become "melk" and "pellow"
- Some speakers pronounce the /e/ vowel in the word "pen" as /i/ creating a homophone of the word "pin"
- For the most part, accents are very similar to General American.
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