15. Varieties of English. The international spread of English, Regional variation.

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, such as Pennsylvania Dutch English, are easily identified by certain characteristics. Further variations are to be found within the regions identified below; for example, towns located less than 10 miles (16 km) 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).

Great Britain

Accents and dialects vary widely across the United Kingdom; as such, a single "British accent" does not exist, but someone could be said to have an English, Welsh, or Scottish accent although these all have several different sub-types.

England

There is considerable variation within the accents of English across England.

Two sets of accents are spoken in the West Country, Cornish (primarily in South Cornwall) and West Country (the counties of Devon, Somerset, Gloucestershire, Bristol, Dorset (not as common in east Dorset), Wiltshire (again, less common in eastern Wiltshire), and also in East Cornwall).

The accents of Northern England are also distinctive including a range of variations: Northumberland, County Durham, Teesside, Newcastle upon Tyne, Sunderland, Cumbria, Lancashire with regional variants in Bolton, Burnley, Blackburn, Manchester, Preston, Fylde, Liverpool and Wigan, Yorkshire is also distinctive, having variations between the North Riding of Yorkshire, West Riding of Yorkshire and East Riding of Yorkshire.

Whilst many of the Lancashire accents may sound similar, the difference is the 'Scouse' accent, as spoken in Liverpool. Prior to the Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s the Liverpool accent was not dissimilar to others in Lancashire, except that with Liverpool being close to Wales, there were some Northern Welsh inflections. However, Liverpool's population of around 60,000 in the 1840s was swelled by the passage of around 300,000 Irish refugees escaping the Famine. Liverpool had this influx due to being England's main Atlantic port and a popular departure point for people seeking to embark for a new life in America. So, whilst many of the Irish refugees moved on to other parts of Britain and further afield, many remained in Liverpool and the Liverpool accent became changed forever over the succeeding years. Today, the Scouse accent is completely distinct from others in the North West of England and bears little resemblance to them.

Other accents include a range of accents spoken in the West Midlands (in the major towns and conurbations (The Black Country, Birmingham, Coventry, Stoke-on-Trent and Wolverhampton) and in rural accents (such as in Herefordshire and south Worcestershire)); the accents of the counties comprising the East Midlands (Derby, Leicester, Lincoln, Northampton, and Nottingham), East Anglia (Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire) and the Home Counties (typically Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Essex, Berkshire, Middlesex, Surrey, Kent, Sussex.)

There is also great variation within London as a borough, with differences between Cockney, North London and South London accents among others.

Scotland

The regional accents of Scottish English generally follow the a similar pattern to that of the dialects of Modern Scots.

A number of pronunciation features set Scots apart from neighbouring English dialects. The Scots pronunciation of come [kʌm] contrasts with [kʊm] in Northern English. The Scots realisation [kʌm] reaches as far south as the mouth of the north Esk in north Cumbria, crossing Cumbria and skirting the foot of the Cheviots before reaching the east coast at Bamburgh some 12 miles north of Alnwick. The Scots [x]–English [∅]/[f] cognate group (micht-might, eneuch-enough, etc.) can be found in a small portion of north Cumbria with the southern limit stretching from Bewcastle to Longtown and Gretna. The Scots pronunciation of wh as [ʍ] becomes English [w] south of Carlisle but remains in Northumberland, but Northumberland realises “r” as [ʁ], often called the burr, which is not a Scots realisation. Thus the greater part of the valley of the Esk and the whole of Liddesdale can be considered to be northern English dialects rather than Scots ones. From the nineteenth century onwards influence from the South through education and increased mobility have caused Scots features to retreat northwards so that for all practical purposes the political and linguistic boundaries may be considered to coincide.

Wales

The accent of English in Wales is strongly influenced by the phonology of the Welsh language, which more than 20% of the population of Wales speak as their first or second language. The North Wales accent is distinct from South Wales and north east Wales is influenced by Scouse and Cheshire accents. South Wales border accents are influenced by West Country accents. The Wenglish of the South Wales Valleys shows a deep cross-fertilisation between the two.

The Cardiff dialect and accent is also quite distinctive from that of the South Wales Valleys, primarily:

• The substitution of /ɪə/ by [øː]

• here /hɪə/ pronounced [hjøː] or [jøː] in broader accents

• A closer pronunciation of /ʌ/ as in love and other

• /ɑː/ is widely realised as [æː], giving a pronunciation of Cardiff /ˈkaːdɪf/ as Kahdiff [ˈkæːdɪf]

Northern Ireland

Ireland has several main groups of accents, including (1) those of Dublin and surrounding areas on the east coast where English has been spoken since the earliest period of colonisation from Britain, (2) the accents of Ulster, with a strong influence from Scotland as well as the underlying Gaelic linguistic stratum which in that province approaches the Gaelic of Scotland, and (3) the various accents of west, midlands and south.

Ulster

The Ulsteraccent has two main sub accents, namelyMid Ulster EnglishandUlster Scots. The language is spoken throughout the nine counties of Ulster, and in some northern areas of bordering counties such asLouthandLeitrim. It bears many similarities to Scottish English through influence from theUlster varietiesofScots.Some characteristics of the Ulster accent include:

• As in Scotland, the vowels /ʊ/ and /u/ are merged, so that look and Luke are homophonous. The vowel is a high central rounded vowel, [ʉ].

• The diphthong /aʊ/ is pronounced approximately [əʉ], but wide variation exists, especially between social classesinBelfast

• In Belfast, /eɪ/ is a monophthong in open syllables (e.g. day [dɛː]) but a rising diphthong in closed syllables (e.g. daze [deəz]). But the monophthong remains when inflectional endings are added, thus daze contrasts with days [dɛːz].

• The alveolar stops/t, d/ becomedentalbefore /r, ər/, e.g.tree and spider

• /t/ often undergoes flappingto [ɾ] before anunstressedsyllable, e.g.eighty [ˈeəɾi]