English English

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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 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 term is used in Britain.

[edit] General features

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, 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). Rural accents are often ignored in dialect studies[1], sometimes being grouped to the nearest large city. This can be unfortunate in cases where a large city has a very different accent from a surrounding rural area [e.g. Bristol and Avon, Hull and the East Riding].

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, Malaysian English, New Zealand English, and South African English. Parts of the Eastern United States where the upper classes historically looked to England for standards of speech have non-rhotic pronunciation, most notably New England and New York City. Areas with rhotic accents are Scotland, Northumberland, the West Country, the East Riding of Yorkshire and parts of Lancashire.

Northern versions of the dialect often lack the foot-strut split, so that there is no distinction between /ʊ/ and /ʌ/, making put and putt homophones as [pʊt].

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, [ɑː] or a similar vowel) while in the Midlands and Northern varieties they're pronounced with the same vowel as trap or cat, usually [a], as they are in Scottish English. For more details see Trap-bath split. There are some areas of the West Country that would use the Southern variety for some words and the Northern variety for other words.

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 [w] and [ʍ] 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 [sj], [zj], and [lj] 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.

In most of the eastern half of England, plurals and past participle endings which are pronounced /ɪz/ and /ɪd/ (with the vowel of kit) in RP may be pronounced with a schwa, /ə/. This can be found as far north as Wakefield and as far south as Essex. This is unusual in being an east-west division in pronounciation when English dialects tend to divide along north-south lines.

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.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Southern England

Main article: Southern English dialects

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 /kɑːst/, /bɑːθ/ rather than /kæst/, /bæθ/. 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 the Second World War, about one 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).

[edit] South-West of England

It should be noted that it some parts of the south-west, a broad South-Eastern A is used in some words and a short Northern A in other words. See West Country dialects for more details.

[edit] Midlands

As in the North, Midlands accents generally do not use a broad A, so that cast is pronounced [kast] rather than the [kɑːst] pronunciation of most southern accents. The northern limit of the [ɑː] 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.^{[citation needed]}

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".

Whether Derbyshire should be classed as the West or East Midlands in terms of dialect is debatable. Stanley Ellis, a dialect expert, said in 1985 that it was more like the West Midlands, but it is often grouped with the East and is part of the E.U. region "East Midlands".

Cheshire, although part of the North-West region, is usually grouped the Midlands for the purpose of accent and dialect.

[edit] West Midlands

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.

[edit] East Midlands

East Midlands accents are generally non-rhotic.
Yod-dropping, as in East Anglia, can be found in some areas, for example new as /nuː/, sounding like "noo".
The u vowel of words like strut is often [ʊ] 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. [2]
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. [3]

In Nottinghamshire north of the Trent, ee found in short words is pronounced as two syllables, for example feet being ['fijəʔ], sounding like "fee-yut" (and also in this case ending with a glottal stop).^{[citation needed]}
Lincolnshire also has a marked north-south split in terms of accent. The north shares many features with Yorkshire, such as the open a sound in "car" and "park" or the replacement of take and make with tek and mek. The accent in Hull is a descendent of North Lincolnshire dialect. The south of Lincolnshire is close to Standard English, although it still has a short Northern a in words such as bath.
Mixing of the words was and were when the other is used in Standard English.

[edit] South-East Midlands

Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire and south Northamptonshire form the basis for Received Pronounciation. To many Britons, it is hard to distinguish them from the rest of the South-East, but there are some key differences:

The word room is pronounced with a long oo, as it is in the rest of the North and the Midlands. Not as "rumm", as is said in the South-East.
The u sound in cup, putt, luck, etc. is shorter than in the South, although not as short as in the North.
Words that end in th are said with a final v rather than a final f.
A final y on a word is said as ee. Not as ay, which is common in the South-East.
Glottal stops for a t are much less common, although do feature when surrounded by other consonents [e.g. bluntness, nightwatchman].

[edit] Northern England

[edit] 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 [a] rather than the [æ] 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 [kast] rather than the [kɑːst] pronunciation of most southern accents.
Northern English tends not to have /ʌ/ (strut, but, etc.) as a separate vowel. Most words that have this vowel in RP are pronounced with /ʊ/ in Northern accents, so that put and putt are homophonous as /pʊt/. But some words with /ʊ/ in RP can have /uː/ in Northern accents, so that a pair like luck and look may be distinguished as /lʊk/ and /luːk/.
The Received Pronunciation phonemes /eɪ/ (as in face) and /əʊ/ (as in goat) are often pronounced as monophthongs (such as [eː] and [oː]), 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 [ɪ], like the i in bit, and not [i].
The "present historical" is often used. Instead of saying "I said to him", many Northerners would say, "I says to him". Instead of saying, "I went up there", they would say, "I goes up there."
People from the North are generally more likely to use old-fashioned phrases, and less likely to use American phrases.

For more localised features, see the following sections.

[edit] Liverpool (Scouse)

Main article: Scouse

[edit] Yorkshire

See Yorkshire dialect and accent.

[edit] Middlesbrough area

The accents for Middlesbrough and the surrounding towns is sometimes grouped with Yorkshire and sometimes grouped with the North-East of England, for it shares characteristics with both. See Tees speak. Note that Hartlepool is invariably classifed as a Durham accent.

[edit] Lancashire

Simon Elmes' book Talking for Britain said that Lancashire dialect had declined over the last fifty years to a greater degree than in any other region of Britain. However, some elements still remain, and some new trends have developed. 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 [g] sound at the end.
Rhotic accents may be found in some parts of Lancashire, for example around Accrington, Blackburn, Burnley and Bolton. Oldham also has a rhotic accent, despite being separated from the other rhotic parts of Lancashire. As many of these areas are close to the Yorkshire boundary, it can be a good distinguishing mark between a Yorkshire and Lancashire speaker; there are no rhotic accents in the West Riding of Yorkshire. However, Rochdale, which is very close to the border, is a non-rhotic part of Lancashire, and is probably the most likely to be mistaked for Yorkshire.
In some words with RP /əʊ/ a sound more like [ɔɪ] may be used, for example, "hole" is pronounced (in IPA) [hɔɪl], "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.
In West Lancashire, an oo in words such as book, look, hook can be pronounced with a long sound similar to the ue in R.P. blue.
A short o can be lengthened so that "pot" sounds like "pawt" and "posh" sounds like "pawsh".
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.
Traditionally, a /t/ was replaced with an /r/; for example, "I'm gerring berrer", "a lorra laughs". This is now confined to the more rural parts of Lancashire. Around Manchester and Salford, a glottal stop is much more common for /t/. Phrases like "to the" become [tɘʔ] "tert" (with to the pronounced with a schwa and a glottal stop). [tu̟ːʔ] "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.
In Salford, tha accent is similar to the Manchester accent but has noticable differences ; the Salford accent tends to be spoken faster and with a more blunt delivery than the Manchester accent.

People from the old mill towns tend to use their hands when talking to illustrate what they mean more. This is said to be a tradition that started when the heavy machinery of the mills meant that it was necessary to use one's hands as well to communicate.

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).

[edit] Cumbria

See Cumbrian dialect.

[edit] North-East England eg. Newcastle and Sunderland

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.

[edit] Examples of accents used by public figures

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.
Bristol: Professor Colin Pillinger of the Beagle 2 project.
Coventry: the actor Clive Owen, in the films Sin City and King Arthur
Gloucestershire: Laurie Lee, ruralist
Hampshire (a southern rural accent): the late John Arlott, sports presenter.
Lancashire: comedian Peter Kay, McFly singer and guitarist Danny Jones and BBC Radio 1 DJ Vernon Kay. The actor/musician Bernard Wrigley has a broad Bolton accent. The actress Michelle Holmes has a Rochdale accent, which has more similarities with Yorkshire.
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. Footballer, Steven Gerrard also has a scouse accent and so does Jennie Corner (BB7). The british soap Brookside was set in Liverpool so the majority of the cast, including Philip Olivier and Jennifer Ellison, had scouse accents.
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).
Manchester: Oasis members Liam and Noel Gallagher, Herman's Hermits, actor Christopher Eccleston, actor Dominic Monaghan.
Sunderland (Mackem): the accent of the rock group The Futureheads, is easily detected on recordings and live performanes
Teesside (Tees speak) Comedians Vic Reeves, Bob Mortimer, Roy 'Chubby' Brown and Pop Idol contestants Journey South.
Tyneside (Geordie): former Cabinet members Alan Milburn MP and Nick Brown MP, the actors Robson Green and Tim Healy, the footballer Alan Shearer, actor and singer Jimmy Nail, rock singer Brian Johnson, television personalities Ant and Dec, Jayne Middlemiss. Singer Cheryl Tweedy of Girls Aloud has a strong Newcastle accent.
West Country: The Vicar of Dibley was set in Oxfordshire, and many of the characters had West Country accents.
West Midlands: Phil Drabble, presenter of One Man and His Dog.
Yorkshire
- Barnsley: 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. Also, chat show host Michael Parkinson and ex-union leader Arthur Scargill.
- Bradford: singers Gareth Gates and Kimberley Walsh of Girls Aloud.
- Hemsworth: cricketer Geoffrey Boycott has an accent similar to those found in many old coal-mining towns
- Holme Valley: Actor Peter Sallis, of Last of the Summer Wine and Wallace and Gromit
- Huddersfield: former Prime Minister Harold Wilson is said to have deliberately maintained a Huddersfield accent
- Leeds: Melanie Brown of the Spice Girls, BBC Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles
- Scarborough: the film Little Voice
- Sheffield: the band Pulp. The film The Full Monty

[edit] Radio and TV featuring regional English accents

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. As most Britons cannot tell the difference between an accent from Lancashire and one from the West Riding of Yorkshire, media set in these areas tend to continously use the same actors, such as Pete Postlethwaite, Bernard Wrigley and Michelle Holmes.

"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!")

Channel 4's reality programme "Rock School" was set in Suffolk in its 2nd series, providing lots of examples of the Suffolk dialect.

The television show Fresh Prince of Bel Air starring actor Will Smith contains an African American butler from somewhere in England who speaks with a British accent.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

Peters, Pam (2004). The Cambridge Guide to English Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-62181-X.
McArthur, Tom (2002). Oxford Guide to World English. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-866248-3 hardback, ISBN 0-19-860771-7 paperback.
Trask, Larry (1999). Language: The Basics, 2nd edition. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-20089-X.
Trudgill, Peter (1984). Language in the British Isles. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-28409-0.
Wells, J. C. (1982). Accents of English 2: The British Isles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-28540-2.