English language in England

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English language in England refers to the English language as spoken in England, part of the United Kingdom.

There are many different accents and dialects throughout England and people are often very proud of their local accent or dialect, however there are many associated prejudices - illustrated by George Bernard Shaw's comment:

"It is impossible for an Englishman to open his mouth without making some other Englishman hate or despise him"

Other terms used to refer to the English language as spoken in England include: English English, ^[1][2] Anglo-English, ^[3][4] English in England. ^[5] The related term British English has "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"^[6] but is usually reserved to describe the features common to English English, Welsh English, Scottish English, and Hiberno-English.

Contents 1 General features 2 Change over time 3 Southern England 3.1 South-West of England 4 East Anglia 4.1 Norfolk 5 Midlands 5.1 West Midlands 5.2 East Midlands 5.3 South-East Midlands 6 Northern England 6.1 General features 6.2 Liverpool (Scouse) 6.3 Yorkshire 6.4 Middlesbrough area 6.5 Lancashire 6.6 Cumbria 6.7 North-East England 7 Examples of accents used by public figures 8 Radio and TV featuring regional English accents 9 See also 10 Notes 11 References 12 External links

[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, which separate different pronunciations and grammar in different areas. The most prominent one is the north-south split in the pronunciation of words such as cut, strut, etc., which runs geographically running roughly from mid-Shropshire to south of Birmingham and then to The Wash — separating Northern and Southern accents. However, there are several other isoglosses in England, and it is rare for them to coincide with each other.

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. There are, furthermore, several 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).

However, modern communications and mass media have reduced all 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 Queen's (or King'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. RP is also sometimes called "Oxford English", and the Oxford Dictionary gives RP pronunciations for each word.

British Isles varieties of English, including English English, are discussed in John C. 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, New Zealand English, and South African English, as well as most non-native varieties spoken throughout the Commonwealth of Nations. Areas with rhotic accents are the far north, the West Country, Lancashire other than the Manchester area, and the town of Corby where there was a large Scottish influence. Some parts of England are partially rhotic, such as the East Riding of Yorkshire. Up until the early 20th century, Standard English was rhotic. The fifth book of On Early English Pronunciation (1889) treated rhoticity as the sign of refined pronunciation when discussing various English and Lowland dialects.

• 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 are pronounced with the same vowel as trap or cat, usually [a]. 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 was traditionally stigmatised (a fact the comedy musical My Fair Lady was quick to exploit) but less so now.^[7] The accents of Northumberland, Tyneside, and parts of Norfolk are an exception to this rule. In the past, working-class people were often unsure where an h ought to be pronounced, and, when attempting to speak "properly", would often preface any word that began with a vowel with an h (e.g. "henormous" instead of enormous, "hicicles" instead of icicles); this was referred to as the "hypercorrect h" in the Survey of English Dialects, and is also referenced in literature (e.g. the policeman in Danny the Champion of the World).

• A glottal stop for intervocalic /t/ is now common amongst younger speakers across the country; it was originally confined to some areas of the south-east and East Anglia. Many in the older generation consider this to be "annoying".^[who?]

• 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.^[8]

• 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/ do not 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 pronunciation when English dialects generally divide along north-south lines.

• Across England, segments of old forms of the language can still be heard. For example, the use of come as a past participle rather than came, the use of a clitic to have rather than to have got,^[clarify] and the use of thou and/or ye for you.

[edit] Change over time

There has been academic interest in dialects since the last 19th century. The main works are On Early English Pronunciation by A.J. Ellis, English Dialect Grammar by Joseph Wright and the English Dialect Dictionary by Joseph Wright. The Dialect Test was developed by Joseph Wright as a way of viewing the main vowel sounds of a dialect by listening to a reading of a short passage.

The Survey of English Dialects was undertaken in the 1950s and 1960s to preserve a record of the traditional spectrum of rural dialects that merged into each other. The traditional picture was that there would be a few changes in lexicon and pronunciation every couple of miles, but that there would be no sharp borders between completely different ways of speaking. Within a county, the accents of the different towns and villages would drift gradually so that residents of bordering areas sounded more similar to those in neighbouring counties.

As a result of greater social mobility and the teaching of Standard English in secondary schools, this model is no longer very accurate. There are now certain English counties within which there is little change in accent/dialect, and people are more likely to categorise their accent by a region or county than by their town or village. As agriculture became less prominent, many rural dialects were made redundant. Some urban dialects have also declined; for example, traditional Bradford dialect is now quite rare in the city, and call centres have seen Bradford as a useful location due to the lack of dialect in potential employees.^[9][10] Some call centres state that they were attracted to Bradford because it has a regional accent which is relatively easy to understand.^[11]

However, a factor that has worked in the opposite direction is how concentrations of migration may cause a certain town or area of a town to have a completely unique accent. The two most famous examples are Liverpool and Corby. Liverpool's dialect is influenced heavily by Irish and Welsh, and it sounds completely different from surrounding areas of Lancashire. Corby's dialect is influenced heavily by Scottish, and it sounds completely different from the rest of Northamptonshire. The Voices 2006 survey found that the various ethnic minorities that have settled in certain parts of Britain are developing their own specific dialects. For example, many residents of East London, even if they are not of Bangladeshi origin, may have a Bangladeshi influence on their accent. This has led to a situation where urban dialects may now be just as easily identifiable as rural dialects. In the traditional view, urban entities were usually seen as merely watered-down versions of the surrounding rural area. Historically, rural areas had much more stable demographics than urban areas, but there is now only a small difference.

[edit] Southern England

Main article: Southern English English

In general, Southern English accents are distinguished from Northern English accents primarily by not using the short a in words such as "bath". In the south-east, the broad A is normally used before a /f/, /s/ or /Ө/: words such as "cast" and "bath" are pronounced /kɑːst/, /bɑːθ/ rather than /kæst/, /bæθ/. This sometimes occurs before /nd/: it is used in "command" and "demand" but not in "brand" or "grand".

In the south-west, the sound is similar to that of Wales, and may be represented as /aː/. 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. [However, London has continuously absorbed migrants throughout its history, and its accent has always been prone to change quickly]
• 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. The south-east coast accents traditionally have several features in common with the West country; for example, rhoticity and the a: sound in words such as bath, cast, etc. However, the younger generation in the area is more likely to be non-rhotic and use the London/East Anglian A: sound in bath.

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

The Cornish language was once used in the county of Cornwall. Although this is no longer in common use, Cornwall and the West Country have varied and complicated dialects. Surveys such as the Survey of English Dialects and Voices 2006 found that these dialects were as far away from Standard English as anything from the far North. See West Country dialects for more details.

[edit] East Anglia

[edit] Norfolk

The Norfolk dialect is spoken in the traditional county of Norfolk and areas of north Suffolk. Famous speakers include Lord Nelson and Keith Skipper. The group FOND (Friends Of the Norfolk Dialect) was formed to record the county's dialect and to provide advice for TV companies using the dialect in productions.

[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 as "owd" and "cowd" (rhyming with "loud" in the West Midlands and "ode" in the East Midlands), 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".^{[citation needed]}

• 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 only 19 miles/30 km 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 'Potteries' accents can even render the latter as "bess-keet". The Potteries accent is perhaps the most distinctly 'northern' of the West Midlands accents, given that the urban area around Stoke-on-Trent is close to the Cheshire border.

• 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^[where?], for example new as /nuː/, sounding like "noo".
• The u vowel of words like strut is often [ʊ], with no distinction between putt and put. In Lincolnshire, such sounds are even shorter than in the North.

• The town of Corby in northern 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 north Nottinghamshire 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 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.
• 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.

[edit] South-East Midlands

The traditional dialects of Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire and south Northamptonshire are closer to Received Pronunciation than any other dialects in Britain. This is because the upper-class who migrated into London during the 15th century were mostly from the counties just north of London^{[citation needed]}. However, there are still a number of differences between their dialects and R.P.:

• This area traditionally used /a:/ in words where an was followed by /f/, /s/ or /θ/. Younger speakers in the area are more likely to use the R.P. /ɑː/.^[12]
• The isogloss for the vowel in cup, push, such, etc. is another traditional north-south marker, but the isogloss is slightly further south for this. Much of the area uses /ʊ/. Some parts of this area, such as Peterborough, would use the southern pronunciation for "bath" but the northern pronunciation for "suck".^[13]
• The R.P. vowel /æ/ in words such as bag, can, pat, sack, etc. is instead pronounced as [a], as is the case in all of England except the south-east and East Anglia.^[14]
• In common with the south-east, the vowel in about, pound, sound, etc may be [ɛʊ] rather than /aʊ/.^[15]
• It is common for residents of this area to pronounce the -shire in county names as /ʃɪə/ rather than the more common /ʃə/, which is used in the Oxford Dictionary.^[16]
• In some areas, an /ai/ can turn into an [oi] sound. For example, nineteen ninety-five would be said as noineteen noientee foive.

[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. However, the words "father" and "rather" are increasingly being pronounced with a broad A by the younger generation.
• 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 as it is in many working class dialects in the south of England too. 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. Although this is heard just as often in the West Country and on Eastenders"
• Generally, old-fashioned features of English are more common. For example, use of gotten as the past tense for got^[17] [as is also common in American English] and use of the old triphthong /ɪuə/ in cure, pure, sure.

Some dialect words used across the North are listed in extended editions of the Oxford Dictionary with a marker "North England": for example, the words ginnell and snicket for specific types of alleyway, or the use of while to mean until. For more localised features, see the following sections.

[edit] Liverpool (Scouse)

Main article: Scouse

[edit] Yorkshire

Main article: Yorkshire dialect and accent

Wuthering Heights is one of the few classic works of English literature to contain a substantial amount of dialect. Set in Haworth, the servant Joseph speaks in the traditional dialect of the area, which many modern readers struggle to understand. This dialect was still spoken around Haworth until the late 1970s, but there is now only a minority of it still in everyday use.^[18]

[edit] Middlesbrough area

The accents for Middlesbrough and the surrounding towns are sometimes grouped with Yorkshire and sometimes grouped with the North-East of England, for they share characteristics with both. As this urban area grew in the early 20th century, there are fewer dialect words that date back to older forms of English; Teesside speak is the sort of modern dialect that Peter Trudgill identified in his "The Dialects of England". There is a Lower Tees Dialect group^[19] A recent study found that most people from Middlesbrough do not consider their accent to be "Yorkshire", but that they are less hostile to being grouped with Yorkshire than to being grouped with the Geordie accent.^[20] Some examples of traits that are shared with [most parts of] Yorkshire include:

• H-dropping.
• An /aː/ sound in words such as start, car, park, etc.
• In common with the east coast of Yorkshire, words such as bird, first, nurse, etc. have an /E:/ sound. It is difficult to represent this using the alphabet, but could be written bare-d, fare-st, nare-ss. [This vowel sound also occurs in Liverpool and Birkenhead].

Examples of traits shared with the North-East include:

• Absence of definite article reduction.
• Glottal stops for /k/, /p/ and /t/ can all occur.

The vowel in "goat" is an /oː/ sound, as is found in both Durham and rural North Yorkshire. In common with this area of the country, Middlesbrough is a non-rhotic accent.

[edit] Lancashire

Main article: Lancashire Dialect and Accent

[edit] Cumbria

Main article: Cumbrian dialect

[edit] North-East England

• The common name for the north east dialect is Geordie (though in recent times the term Mackem has entered some use so as to distinguish Sunderland from Newcastle upon Tyne). The dialects across the region are broadly similar however some differences do exist. For example, with words ending -re/-er, such as culture and father, the end syllable is pronounced in Newcastle as a short 'a', such as in 'fat' and 'back' therefore producing "cultcha" and "fatha" respectively. Natives of Sunderland pronounce the syllable much more closely to the standard English. Similarly, in Newcastle "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" (hence the origin of the term Mackem). 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.

• A feature of the North East accent, shared with Scots and Irish English, is the pronunciation of the consonant cluster -lm in coda position. As an example, "film" is pronounced as "filəm".

[edit] Examples of accents used by public figures

• Received Pronunciation: The Queen has followed the changes of this accent over the years.^[21] Also, Margaret Thatcher, Tony Benn, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, David Dimbleby. The lead character Hyacinth in Keeping Up Appearances, who was stereotypically "posh".
• Berkshire (a southern rural accent): poet Pam Ayres, comedy writer and performer Ricky Gervais is from Reading.
• Birmingham (Brummie): the rock musician Ozzy Osbourne (although he sometimes Americanises his speech), Jasper Carrot, Rob Halford, Mark Rhodes Pop Idol 2003. See Brummie for more examples.
• Bristol: Professor Colin Pillinger of the Beagle 2 project, comedy writer, actor, radio DJ and director Stephen Merchant. Presenter and Comedian Justin Lee Collins.
• 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 and gardener Charlie Dimmock.
• Hertfordshire: comedian and writer Robert Newman
• Lancashire: comedian Peter Kay, McFly singer and guitarist Danny Jones and BBC Radio 1 DJ Vernon Kay as well as Bernard Wrigley have degrees of broad Bolton accents. The actress, Michelle Holmes, has a Rochdale accent, which is virtually identical to the western fringe of Yorkshire and she has featured mostly in Yorkshire dramas. Julie Hesmondhalgh and Vicky Entwistle and Julie Haworth all from Coronation Street have East Lancashire accents which have a slightly different intonation and rhythm and also feature clear rhoticity.
• 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 actors Bob Hoskins, Michael Caine. Ray Winstone has quite an old-fashioned Cockney accent, and his replacement of an initial /r/ with a /w/ has been stigmatised. 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.
  • West London: the journalist Janet Street Porter.
  • Estuary: the model Jordan (Katie Price).
• Manchester: Oasis members Liam and Noel Gallagher, Herman's Hermits, actor Dominic Monaghan.
• Merseyside
  • 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. The British soap Brookside was set in Liverpool so the majority of the cast, including Philip Olivier and Jennifer Ellison, had scouse accents.
  • St Helens: Comedian Johnny Vegas. The comedy band the Lancashire Hotpots sing in a traditional rhotic St Helens accent.
  • The Wirral: Comedian and TV presenter Paul O'Grady alias Lily Savage is from Birkenhead, pop singer Pete Burns of Dead or Alive is from the model village Port Sunlight.
• Salford: actor Christopher Eccleston.
• Stoke-on-Trent or The Potteries: pop star Robbie Williams, TV presenter Anthea Turner, ex pop star and TV presenter Jonathan Wilkes has a strong Potteries accent.
• Sunderland (Mackem): the accent of the rock group The Futureheads and ex-footballer Chris Waddle, is easily detected on recordings and live performanes
• 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, Donna Air, 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.
• Leicester: The band Kasabian have good examples of the Leicester accent.
• Yorkshire:
  • Barnsley: in the 1969 film Kes, the lead characters, David Bradley and Freddie Fletcher, both have very broad Barnsley accents, which are less likely to be heard nowadays. 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 have slightly reduced Barnsley accents.
  • Bradford: singers Gareth Gates and Kimberley Walsh of Girls Aloud. In Rita, Sue and Bob Too, Bob has a Bradford accent whilst Rita and Sue sound more like Lancashire.
  • 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
  • Kingston-upon-Hull: Radio DJ and former leader of The Housemartins and The Beautiful South, Paul Heaton.
  • Leeds: Melanie Brown of the Spice Girls and Beverley Callard who plays Liz McDonald in Coronation Street Radio DJ Chris Moyles.
  • Scarborough: the film Little Voice
  • Sheffield: Sean Bean, the band Pulp. The film The Full Monty, the band Arctic Monkeys

[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 continuously 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 science fiction programme 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? (Eccleston used his own Salford accent in the role; the usual response is "Lots of planets have a North!") Other accents in the same series include Cockney (used by actress Billie Piper) and Estuary (preferred by Eccleston's successor, David Tennant).

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 character, Stewie Griffin, from the popular animated TV series Family Guy is well known for his English accent in the US, despite not sounding authentic to most English people. His voice actor Seth MacFarlane, also creator of the TV series, is American. Dick Van Dyke had similar success with his Cockney accent in the Disney film Mary Poppins. However, this accent is highly inaccurate as Van Dyke made the erroneous decision that the best place for him to learn a Cockney accent was in Australia.

[edit] See also

• Languages in the United Kingdom
• Queen's English Society
• Regional accents of English speakers
• American and British English differences

[edit] Notes

[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.
• Trudgill, Peter and Jean Hannah. (2002). International English: A Guide to the Varieties of Standard English, 4th ed. London: Arnold. ISBN 0-340-80834-9.
• Wells, J. C. (1982). Accents of English 2: The British Isles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-28540-2.

[edit] External links

• 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 GuidePDF (621 KB). (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

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