Regional accents of English speakers
The
regional accents of English speakers show great variation across the areas where English is spoken as a first language. This article provides an overview of the many identifiable variations in
pronunciation, usually deriving from the
phoneme inventory of the local
dialect, of the local variety of
Standard English between various
populations of native English speakers.
Local accents are part of local
dialects. Any dialect of English has unique features in
pronunciation,
vocabulary, and
grammar. The term "accent" describes only the first of these, namely, pronunciation. See also:
List of dialects of the English language.
Non-native speakers of English tend to carry over the
intonation and
phonemic inventory from their
mother tongue into their English speech. For more details see
Non-native pronunciations of English.
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,
Oldham and
Salford, each have distinct accents, all of which form the Lancashire accent, yet in extreme cases are different enough to be noticed even by a non-local listener. There is also much room for misunderstanding between people from different regions, as the way one word is pronounced in one accent (for example,
petal in American English) will sound like a different word in another accent (for example,
pearl in Scottish English).
Main article: British English
English accents and dialects vary more widely within
Great Britain than they do in other parts of the world.
England
Main article: English English
The main accent groupings within
England are between the north and south; the dividing line runs roughly from
Shrewsbury to south of
Birmingham and then to
The Wash. The prestige or posh accent in England is
Received Pronunciation, which originates from the educated speech of southeastern England and is referred to as the Southern English accent.The London-derived
Estuary English is growing in importance as a widespread standard form in the south.
There is considerable variation in accents in England. Notable geographical accents include West Country (counties of Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset and to a slightly lesser extent Bristol), North East (Northumbria, Durham, Newcastle), Lancashire (with regional variants of Bolton, Manchester, Liverpool, Blackpool), Yorkshire (Leeds, Sheffield, York, East Riding), West Midlands (Black country, Dudley, Birmingham). Even within these broad catergories there is considerable difference in inflection and pronunciation.
The arrival of large scale immigration to England has produced another layer of regional accents that have merged with the accents of immigrants. Such examples include London- Caribbean, West Yorkshire mixed with Pakistani, Indian and Bangladeshi.
Scotland
Main article: Scottish English
Standard English as spoken in
Scotland is usually called
Scottish English and is distinguished from
Scots, which is considered a separate language or at least a highly divergent dialect. Both Scots and
Scottish Gaelic have had a certain degree of influence on Scottish English. In normal every-day usage, most people's speech is somewhere on a continuum ranging from traditional broad Scots to
Scottish Standard English. Many speakers are either
diglossic and/or able to
code-switch along the continuum depending on the situation in which they find themselves. Where on this continuum English-influenced Scots becomes Scots-influenced English is difficult to determine.
Wales
Main article: Welsh English
The accent of English in
Wales is strongly influenced by the phonology of the
Welsh language, which 20% of the population of Wales still speak as their first or second language. North east Wales however tends to have a North English accent due to a large English population just over the border.
The differences between accents in northern and southern
Ireland are significant enough that it is best to treat them separately. There are, of course, differences within each group as well, but these are often noticeable only to locals.
Connacht, Leinster and Munster
Main article: Hiberno-English
Hiberno-English is spoken throughout the
Republic of Ireland, except in Counties Donegal,
Monaghan and parts of
County Cavan, which belong linguistically to
Ulster, the province to which the six counties of Northern Ireland belong.Dublin is notable for having accents different to most of the rest of Ireland (although certain other accents are quite distinctive, for example
Kerry,
Cork,
Cavan,
Wexford and
Offaly). There is also stereotypically a difference between the accents of the
Northside and
Southside of Dublin.
Ulster
The
Ulster accent (
Mid Ulster English) is spoken in the UK region of
Northern Ireland as well as in Counties Cavan, Donegal, and Monaghan in the Republic. It is also spoken in some northern areas of the other counties such as Louth and
Leitrim. It bears many similarities to Scottish English through influence from
Ulster Scots, which is distinct and recognized as a variety of
Scots.
Some characteristics of the Ulster accent include:
* As in Scotland, the vowels and are merged, so that
look and
Luke are homophonous. The vowel is a
high central rounded vowel, .
* The diphthong is pronounced approximately , but wide variation exists, especially between
social classes in
Belfast* The vowel is a monophthong in open syllables (e.g.
day ) but a rising diphthong in closed syllables (e.g.
daze ). But the monophthong remains when inflectional endings are added, thus
daze contrasts with
days .
* The
alveolar stops become
dental before , e.g.
tree and
spider* often undergoes
flapping to before an
unstressed syllable, e.g.
eighty Irish Travellers
Irish Travellers have a very distinct accent closely realted to a rural
Hiberno-English. Even Travellers that were born in and grown up in
London have the accent too. They also have their own language which strongly links in with their dialect/accent of English, see
Shelta.
Main article: North American English
Canada
Main article: Canadian English
Accents vary widely across
Canada, 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 aim for a
General American accent (similar to that formerly used by actors and announcers in the
United States), to make their pronunciation more acceptable to U.S. listeners. An example of this is the speech of actor
Christopher Plummer. There are five main Canadian accents.
* Starting from the east, first is the Newfoundland accent (dialect is more accurate, as there are many words which are only defined in
Newfoundland). It is very hard to describe (in fact, in 2005 when a Newfoundland-born Canadian general was put in charge of the military occupation forces in Kabul, Afghanistan, his staff presented his American colleagues with a dictionary of Newfoundland English), but there are elements from nearly every European country that inhabited the Americas in the 15th to 17th centuries (Irish being the strongest influence). It is also spoken very quickly, sometimes to the point where it is impossible for non-Newfoundlanders to understand. It is primarily spoken on the island of Newfoundland. The
Cape Breton accent, spoken on
Cape Breton Island, is similar.
* The second is the Eastern Canadian accent. It is similar to Newfoundland, but not as thick nor nearly as fast. This is frequently confused on American television as
the Canadian accent, quite incorrectly.
* The third Canadian accent is the "Quebec" accent. It has a more throaty sound than the Eastern or Central accents.
* The fourth (and by far the most common) accent in Canada is the central/western accent. Broadly similar to the generic northern U.S. accent, it is spoken by about 60% of the population of Canada.
* The fifth accent is the official
Ottawa Valley Twang, an accent in Canada's national capital Ottawa. An estimated 1.3 million people live in the Ottawa Valley. Heavy, early immigration from Irish, Scottish and French Canadians is thought to have influenced the development of this accent. In the capital city
Ottawa, the accent is spoken to a lesser degree today due to homogenization and is influenced by the broader central/western accent. But suburban and rural areas are strong in the Ottawa Valley Twang, and even speak with slight r-trilling accents. An example is "gidday" (good day, hello), and "cairp" (town or fish).
Within this group there are myriad smaller regional accents, many sounding anywhere from "American" (though one must hesitate to classify them this way, as there are many differences between the American and Canadian accents) to slightly British (in a few locales in Southern Ontario, as well as in
British Columbia's
Lower Mainland and
Vancouver Island). Most Canadians, especially those speaking with a Central/Western accent deny they have an accent at all.
United States
Main article: American English
There is great variation among accents of English spoken in the
United States; accents are perhaps more variable in the U.S. than in any other English-speaking country besides the
United Kingdom. In terms of phonology,
flapping may be the only process common to all accents of American English: not all American English accents are
rhotic, not all use the "
flat A" in words like
half and
can't, not all have lost the
phonemic differentiation between the vowels of
father and
bother or the vowels of
cot and
caught or the consonants of
wine and
whine, and so forth.
General American is the name given to the accent used by most TV network announcers; it is most similar to the local accents of
Iowa and adjacent parts of
Nebraska, and
Illinois. General American makes a good reference accent, and a good goal for foreigners learning American English, because it is generally regarded as a "neutral" accent (when most Americans say someone "doesn't have an accent" they mean he or she has a General American accent).
West Indies and Bermuda
For discussion, see:
*
Bajan*
Bermudian English*
Caribbean English*
Jamaican EnglishAustralia
Main article: Australian English phonology
The
Australian accent varies between
social classes and from
state to state. Many dispute this theory and say that it is more the lexis that varies between states, as well as the pronunciation of certain words, the most cited examples being
castle and
advantage. However, many Australians can identify another's socio-economic status, subculture and area of residence simply through everyday conversation. Generally, accents are found to be
broadest in the more remote and rural areas. While many foreigners deem Australian and New Zealand accents similar to each other, many differences are evident, particularly in the pronunciation of vowels. The length of the vowels in Australian pronunciation tends to be much shorter than in the New Zealand dialect, which is very evident in words such as "dance" and "chance". Both accents bear notable similarities with those of
London,
England, including
Cockney. Unlike American English, Australian English pronounces
tu sounds as
chu. For example Tuesday would sound to an American like
Chooseday and tune like
choo-n. Also, new is pronounced as
n-you unlike the short American
nu, dew, due and jew all sound the same (pronounced like
jew.)
New Zealand
Main article: 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 "sixty-six" as "suxty-sex" whereas New Zealanders believe the Australian pronunciation to be "Feesh and Cheps", "Yis" and "sexty-sex". To American ears, the New Zealand soft "s" sounds slushy, more like "sh", so that "consumer" sounds like "con-SHOO-mer". This is attributable to the influence of
Scottish English speech patterns. The
Scottish English influence is more evident in the southern regions of New Zealand, notably
ChristchurchGeographical 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.
South Atlantic
Falkland Islands
The
Falkland Islands have a large non-native born population, mainly from England, but also from
Saint Helena. In rural areas, the Falkland accent tends to be stronger. The accent has resemblances to both Australia-NZ English, and that of
Norfolk in England.
Saint Helena
"Saints", as Saint Helenan islanders are called, have a variety of different influences on their accent. To outsiders, the accent has resemblances to the accents of South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand.
Television is a reasonably recent arrival there, and is only just beginning to have an effect.
Southern Africa
South Africa
Main article: 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 (caused by the Afrikaner influence). Native English speakers in South Africa also insert a number of Afrikaans loanwords into their speech.
Zimbabwe
In
Zimbabwe, native English speakers (mainly the white minority) have a similar speech pattern to
South Africa, hence 'Zimbabwe' is pronounced as
zom-baw-bwi, as opposed to the more correct African pronunciation
zeem-bah-bwe.
Namibia
Namibian English tends to be strongly influenced by that of
South AfricaHong Kong
Main article: 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
Australian influences, attributable to the return to Hong Kong of persons who had emigrated to these countries.
American influence in
vocabularies and
spellings is also substantial through
multinational conglomerates and
Hollywood movies.
South Asia
Main article: Indian English
A number of distinct dialects of English are spoken in
South Asia. 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 (somewhat reminiscent of those of
Welsh English).
Malaysia and Singapore
English is the
lingua franca of
Singapore, a former British colony. It also is the most frequently used language in the homes of about 23% of Singaporeans (see http://www.singstat.gov.sg/papers/c2000/adr-literacy.pdf).
The Singaporean and
Malaysian accents are fairly similar and the distinctions between the two are analogous to that between the American and Canadian accents. The Singaporean/Malaysian accent is so distinctive that it is one of the ways Singaporeans and Malaysians recognize one another when they are overseas.
The Singaporean/Malaysian accent appears to be a melding of British, Chinese, and Malay influences.
Many Singaporeans and Malaysians 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 than with friends or while out shopping.
See also British and Malaysian English differences, Manglish, and Singlish (Singapore Colloquial English).
*
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" and "court" rhyme, both being pronounced , "can't" rhymes with "aren't", etc.
* Much dropping off of final consonants: "must" becomes "mus'", "cold" becomes "co'", etc.
* The "ay" and "ow" sounds in "raid" and "road" ( and respectively) are pronounced as
monophthongs, i.e. with no "glide": and .
* is pronounced as /t/ and as /d/; hence, "thin" is and "then" is .
* 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.
Philippines
Philippine English is heavily influenced by American English but it is also influenced by
Tagalog and other
Philippine languages.
Many vowels and consonant sounds such as [f] and [v] are not found in most
Philippine languages so they are realized differently by Filipinos.
*Filipino: [pilipino]
*Victor: [biktor]
*Family: [pamili]
*Varnish: [barnis]
*Fun: [pan]
*Vehicle: [bihikel]
*Lover = [laber]
*Find = [paInd]
*Official: [opisyal]
*Very = [beri]
*
The Speech Accent Archive, 559 audio samples of people with various accents reading the same paragraph.
*
International Dialects of English Archive*
English Accents and Dialects: searchable free-access archive of 681 speech samples, England only, wma format with linguistic commentary, British Library
Collect Britain website.
*
Britain's crumbling ruling class is losing the accent of authority an article on the connection of class and accent in the UK, its decline, and the spread of Estuary English
*
The Telsur Project Homepage of the telephone survey of North American English accents
*
The Atlas of North American English (demo version) A demo version of the soon-to-be-published Atlas. Includes sound files of Canadians.
*
Pittsburgh Speech & Society A site for non-linguists, by Barbara Johnstone of Carnegie-Mellon University
*
Linguistic Geography of Pennsylvania by Claudio Salvucci
*
Guide to Regional English Pronunciation includes working versions of the Telsur Project regional maps
*
Phillyspeak A newspaper article on Philadelphia speech
*
J.C. Wells' English Accents course includes class handouts describing Cockney, Scottish, Australian, and Scouse, among other things.
*
Evaluating English Accents Worldwide*
Do You Speak American? A series of web pages by PBS that attempts to discuss the differences between dialects in the United States
