English English
English English is a term that has been applied to the
English language as spoken in
England. In English speaking countries outside the
UK, the term "
British English" is much more frequently used for this variety of English; however,
Peter Trudgill in
Language in the British Isles introduced the term
English English (EngEng), and this term is now generally recognised in academic writing in competition with
Anglo-English and
English in England.
In this usage the term
British English has a wider meaning, and is 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 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, and Northern English dialects, and Scottish English and the closely related dialects of
Scots and
Ulster Scots (varieties of Scots spoken in
Ulster). There is also
Hiberno-English (English as spoken in
Ireland) and the form of English used in
Wales. The various English dialects differ in the words they have borrowed from other languages. The Scottish and Northern dialects include many words originally borrowed from
Old Norse; the Scottish dialects include words borrowed from
Scots and
Scottish Gaelic. Hiberno-English includes words derived from
Irish.
An important feature of English regional accents is the bundle of
isoglosses — geographically running roughly from mid-
Shropshire to south of
Birmingham and then to
The Wash — separating Northern and Southern accents. This reflects the historical
Danelaw division, which split England into
Viking-controlled and
Saxon-controlled areas.
Accents throughout Britain are influenced by the
phoneme inventory of regional dialects, and native English speakers can often tell quite precisely where a person comes from, frequently down to a few miles. Historically, such differences could be a major impediment to understanding between people from different areas.
However, modern communications and mass media have reduced these differences significantly. In addition, speakers may modify their pronunciation and vocabulary towards Standard English, especially in public circumstances. In consequence, the
accent best known to many people outside the United Kingdom as English English, is that of
Received Pronunciation (RP).
Until recently, RP English was widely believed to be more educated than other accents and was referred to as the King's (or Queen's) English, or even "
BBC English" (due to the fact that in the early years of broadcasting it was very rare to hear any other dialects on the BBC). However, for several decades, regional accents have been more widely accepted and are frequently heard. Thus the relatively recent spread of
Estuary English is influencing accents throughout the south east.
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,
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
New York City. Areas with rhotic accents are
Scotland,
Northumbria, the
West Country, and parts of
Lancashire.
* 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.
* Many varieties undergo
h-dropping, making
harm and
arm homophones. This is a feature of working-class accents across most of England, but is heavily stigmatised (a fact the comedy musical
My Fair Lady was quick to exploit). See Trask (1999), pp104-106. The accents of
Northumberland and
Tyneside are an exception to this rule.
* 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.
* 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.
In general, Southern English accents are distinguished from Northern English accents primarily by the use of
broad A (that is, words like "cast" and "bath" are pronounced rather than . There are other peculiarities in specific regions. Accents originally from the upper-class speech of the
London–
Oxford–
Cambridge triangle are particularly notable as the basis for
Received Pronunciation,
Southern English accents have three main historical influences:
*The London accent, in particular,
Cockney.
*
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.
After
World War 2 around 1 million Londoners were relocated to
new and expanded towns throughout the south east, bringing with them their distinctive London accent (and possibly sowing the seed of
Estuary English).
* As in the North, Midlands accents generally do not use a
broad A, so that
cast is pronounced [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 in the Midlands as "owd" and "cowd" (rhyming with "loud"), and in the northern Midlands
home can become "wom".
* 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 and even shorter than in the North, with no distinction between
putt and
put.
* In
Northamptonshire, crossed by the North-South
isogloss, residents of the north of the county have an accent similar to that of
Leicestershire and those in the south an accent similar to rural
Oxfordshire.
* The town of
Corby in
Northamptonshire has an accent with some originally Scottish features, apparently due to immigration of Scottish steelworkers. [
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
Nottinghamshire north of the
Trent,
ee found in short words is pronounced as two syllables, for example
feet being , sounding like "fee-yut" (and also in this case ending with a
glottal stop).
* Mixing of the words
was and
were when the other is used in Standard English.
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.
* Northern English tends not to have (
strut,
but, etc.) as a separate vowel. Most words that have this vowel in RP are pronounced with in Northern accents, so that
put and
putt are homophonous as . But some words with in RP can have in Northern accents, so that a pair like
luck and
look may be distinguished as and .
* The
Received Pronunciation phonemes (as in
face) and (as in
goat) are often pronounced as monophthongs (such as and ), although the quality of these vowels varies considerably across the region.
* In many areas, the letter
y on the end of words as in
happy or
city is pronounced , like the
i in
bit, and not .
For more localised features, see the following sections.
See
Yorkshire dialect and accent.
Some characteristics which can be found in Lancashire accents (other than
Scouse) include:
* Lack of
Ng coalescence, so that words like
sing may have a hard sound at the end.
*
Rhotic accents may be found in some parts of Lancashire, for example around
Accrington,
Burnley and
Bolton.
* In some words with
RP a sound more like may be used, for example, "hole" is pronounced (in IPA) , "hoil", although is uncommon in newer generations.
*
Merger of the vowels of
nurse and
square. For example
fair and
fur can sound exactly the same, in some areas.
* The use of
owt and
nowt (sometimes spelled as aught and naught) for "anything" or "nothing".
Ewt and
newt are also Lancashire variations thereof.
* The use of
summat (sometimes spelled as summit or sommat) for
something.
*
Glottal stop frequent for /t/. Phrases like "to the" become [tɘ"] "tert" (with
to the pronounced with a
schwa and a glottal stop). [tu̟ː"] "toot" and [tɘt] "tert" are never used.
* Use of the third person singular
were (it were a big step for me).
* Use of the first person singular
were (I were massive in them days).
* Use of a "z" sound for an "s" as in "bus" pronounced "buzz" for example in
Darwen.Lancashire also has many dialect words, and as in Yorkshire, reduction of
the to
t' may be found, or in some older generations, reduction of
the to
th. An example of the latter is in the place name "Back o'th Moss" (Back of the Moss) and "Hall i'th Wood" (Hall in the Wood).
*The Newcastle 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.
*
Berkshire (a southern rural accent): poet
Pam Ayres.
*
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.
*
Bolton: comedian
Peter Kay, McFly singer and guitarist
Danny Jones and
BBC Radio 1 DJ
Vernon Kay.
*
Coventry: the actor
Clive Owen, in the films
Sin City and
King Arthur*
Bristol: Professor
Colin Pillinger of the
Beagle 2 project.
*
Gloucestershire:
Laurie Lee, ruralist
*
Hampshire (a southern rural accent): the late
John Arlott, sports presenter.
*
London: listen to old recordings by
Petula Clark,
Julie Andrews,
the Rolling Stones, and
The Who (although many of these contain affected patterns). For a clear example see actor
Stanley Holloway (Eliza Doolittle's father in
My Fair Lady), or
footballer David Beckham.
**
Cockney: the actor
Bob Hoskins. More examples can be heard in the movies
Snatch and
Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels.
**
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).
*
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.
*
Manchester:
Oasis members
Liam and
Noel Gallagher,
Herman's Hermits, actor
Christopher Eccleston, actor
Dominic Monaghan.
*
Northumberland/
Tyneside (
Geordie): the actor
Robson Green, the footballer
Alan Shearer, actor and singer
Jimmy Nail, rock singer
Brian Johnson and television personalities
Ant and Dec. Singer
Cheryl Tweedy of
Girls Aloud has a strong Newcastle accent.
*
Sunderland (
Mackem): the accent of the rock group
The Futureheads, is easily detected on recordings and live performanes
*
West Midlands:
Phil Drabble, presenter of
One Man and His Dog.
*
Yorkshire this accent can be detected in interviews with
Melanie Brown of the
Spice Girls and
David Bradley in the 1969 film
Kes, the lead character has a very broad
Barnsley accent. Sam Nixon from Pop Idol 2003, Top Of The Pops Saturday and Reloaded and Level Up also has a Barnsley accent. Singers
Gareth Gates and
Kimberley Walsh of
Girls Aloud have a Yorkshire accents as they are from Bradford. Actor
Peter Sallis, of
Last of the Summer Wine and
Wallace and Gromit, speaks with the accent from the Holme Valley of Yorkshire.
Misrepresentations can also appear in the media. The soap "
Emmerdale" is set in Yorkshire, yet some of the actors have Lancashire accents. "
Coronation Street" is set in Lancashire, yet some of the actors speak with Yorkshire accents. It's fair to say both programmes have actors from either side of the Pennines. "
The Archers" has had characters with a variety of different West Country accents (see
Mummerset). 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 sci-fi show
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? (The usual response is "Lots of planets have a North!")
*
American and British English differences*
Estuary English*
Languages in the United Kingdom*
Received Pronunciation*
UK topics* Peters, Pam (2004).
The Cambridge Guide to English Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 052162181X.
* McArthur, Tom (2002).
Oxford Guide to World English. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198662483 hardback, ISBN 0198607717 paperback.
* Trask, Larry (1999).
Language: The Basics, 2nd edition. London: Routledge. ISBN 041520089X.
* Trudgill, Peter (1984).
Language in the British Isles. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521284090.
* Wells, J. C. (1982).
Accents of English 2: The British Isles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521285402.
*
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*
European Commission English Style Guide PDF. (Advocates
-ise spellings.)
*For the Yorkshire dialect, see http://www.yorksj.ac.uk/dialect/
*For Scottish English, see http://www.scots-online.org/grammar/sse.htm
*
World English Organization
