Regional accents of English speakers
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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).
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[edit] Great Britain
English accents and dialects vary widely in Great Britain due to the evolution of the language on the island itself and the fact that it is comprised of several nations (England, Scotland, and Wales).
[edit] England
The main accent groupings within England are between the north and the south; the dividing line runs roughly from Shrewsbury to south of Birmingham and then to The Wash. For many years, the British media and academic bodies have employed Received Pronunciation as a 'standard', although this has become far less common in recent years. Received Pronunciation is a deliberately-structured accent, designed for clarity, which has its roots in the speech patterns of south-eastern England (home of Oxford and Cambridge Universities). The London-derived Estuary English is now growing in importance as a widespread standard form in the south.
There is considerable variation in the accents of the English. Notable geographical accents include West Country (the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset and to a slightly lesser extent Bristol), North East (Northumbria, Durham, Middlesbrough, Newcastle, Sunderland), Lancashire (with regional variants in Bolton, Manchester, Liverpool, Blackpool), Yorkshire (which has huge differences between the North, West and East Ridings), West Midlands (The Black Country, Dudley, Birmingham). Even within these broad categories there are considerable differences 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.
[edit] Scotland
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 a certain degree of influence upon 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. It is difficult to determine where on this continuum English-influenced Scots becomes Scots-influenced English.
[edit] Wales
The accent of English in Wales is strongly influenced by the phonology of the Welsh language, which 20% of the population of Wales speak as their first or second language. North-east Wales however tends to have a Northern English accent due to the large English population on the other side of the border.
[edit] Ireland
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.
[edit] Connacht, Leinster and Munster
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.
[edit] 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 /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 classes in Belfast
- The vowel /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/ become dental before [r, ɚ], e.g. tree and spider
- /t/ often undergoes flapping to [ɾ] before an unstressed syllable, e.g. eighty [ɛːɾi]
[edit] Irish Travellers
Irish Travellers have a very distinct accent closely related to a rural Hiberno-English. Many Travellers who were born in other parts of the British Isles have the accent, dispite the fact that they do not live in Ireland. They also have their own language which strongly links in with their dialect/accent of English, see Shelta.
[edit] North America
[edit] Canada
Accents vary across Canada, and the accent of a particular region is often not very similar to those of 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 sounds primarily like an Irish accent, 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. 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.
[edit] United States
There is great variation among accents of English spoken in the United States. 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, but has not set definition beyond being rhotic. Because of this, "General American" speakers can be found throughout the United States, especially in the North, and in English-speaking Canada. 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).
[edit] West Indies and Bermuda
For discussion, see:
[edit] Southern Hemisphere
[edit] Australia
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 tchu or chu. For example Tuesday would sound to an American like Chooseday and tune like choo-n. Also, the word new is pronounced as nyew (unlike the short American nu) and together with dew, due and jew are homophones of each other, pronounced like jew.
[edit] New Zealand
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-sux" 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 Dunedin
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.
[edit] South Atlantic
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] Southern Africa
[edit] South Africa
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 varying numbers of Afrikaans loanwords into their speech.
[edit] Zimbabwe
In Zimbabwe, native English speakers (mainly the white minority) have a similar speech pattern to that of South Africa. Hence those with high degrees of Germanic inflection would pronounce 'Zimbabwe' as zom-baw-bwi, as opposed to the more correct African pronunciation zeem-bah-bwe.
[edit] Namibia
Namibian English tends to be strongly influenced by that of South Africa
[edit] Asia
[edit] Hong Kong
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.
[edit] South Asia
- See also: 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).
[edit] Malaysia and Singapore
English is the lingua franca of Malaysia and Singapore, two former British colonies. 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, Malaysian English, 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 /kɔːt/, "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" (/eɪ/ and /oʊ/ respectively) are pronounced as monophthongs, i.e. with no "glide": /red/ and /rod/.
- /θ/ is pronounced as /t/ and /ð/ as /d/; hence, "thin" is /tɪn/ and "then" is /dɛn/.
- 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.
[edit] 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]
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- The Speech Accent Archive, 559 audio samples of people with various accents reading the same paragraph.
- Sound Comparisons Project: hear the same words pronounced in English accents from around the world - instantaneous playback online
- 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
- 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
