Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Wikimedia
The United Kingdom is probably the most dialect-obsessed nation in the world. With
countless accents shaped by thousands of years of history, there are few Englishspeaking nations with as many varieties of language in such a small space.
(NOTE: This page uses the International Phonetic Alphabet(IPA). For information about this
notation, please visit my page ofIPA Resources.)
Here is a list of the most important types of British English. While this is not a complete
list by any means, it will give you an overview of the accents and dialects most often
discussed on this site and elsewhere.
Received Pronunciation
Received Pronunciation is the closest to a standard accent that has ever existed in the
UK. Although it originally derives from London English, it is non-regional. Youve
probably heard this accent countless times in Jane Austen adaptations, Merchant Ivory
films, and Oscar Wilde plays. It emerged from the 18th- and 19th-Century aristocracy,
and has remained the gold standard ever since.
Features:
Trap-bath split, meaning that certain a words, like bath, cant, and dance are
pronounced with the broad-a in father. (This differs from most American accents, in
which these words are pronounced with the short-a in cat.
The vowels tend to be a bit more conservative than other accents in Southern
England, which have undergone significant vowel shifting over the past century.
Speech Samples:
Raised vowel in words like trap and cat so these sounds like trep and cet.
London vowel shift: The vowel sounds are shifted around so that Cockney day
sounds is pronounced IPA d (close to American die) and Cockney buy verges
near IPA b(close to American boy).
Glottal Stopping: the letter t is pronounced with the back of the throat (glottis) in
between vowels; hence better becomes IPA be? (sounds to outsiders like beuh).
L-vocalization: The l at the end of words often becomes a vowel sound
Hence pal can seem to sound like pow. (Ive seen this rendered in IPA as /w/, /o,/
and //.)
Th-Fronting: The th in words like think or this is pronounced with a more
forward consonant depending on the word: thing becomes fing, this becomes dis,
and motherbecomes muhvah.
Speech Samples:
Similar to Cockney, but in general Estuary speakers do not front th words or raise
the vowel in trap. There are few hard-and-fast rules, however.
Glottal stoppingof t and l-vocalization (see above) are markers of this accent, but
Rhoticity, meaning that the letter r is pronounced after vowels. So, for example,
Speech Samples:
Comedian Justin Lee Collins (Another Bristol Accent) (also from Bristol)
Midlands English
Midlands English is one of the more stigmatized of Englishes. Technically, this can be
divided into East Midlands and West Midlands, but I wont get into the differences
between the two just now. The most famous of these dialects
is Brummie (Birmingham English).
Features:
The foot-strut merger, meaning that the syllable in foot and could is pronounced
short i in kitsometimes verging toward IPA kit (keet) and extremely open loose
dipthongs.
A variety of unusual vocabulary: some East Midlands dialects still feature a
Features:
The dipthong in words like kite and ride is lengthened so that kite can become
English.
Speech Samples:
The /ai/ dipthong in kite is raised to IPA , so it sounds a bit more like
Usually non-rhotic.
Speech Samples:
Glottal stopping of the letter t when in between vowels (similar to Cockney and
related accents).
Monopthongal pronounciations of the /ei/ and /ou/ dipthongs, so that
that face becomes IPA fe:s and goat becomes IPA go:t.
Speech Samples: