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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).

Great Britain

Main article: British English

English accents and dialects vary more widely within Great Britain than they do in other parts of the world owing to the longer history of the language there.

England

Main article: English English

The main accent groupings within England are between the north and south; the dividing line runs roughly from Shrewsbury to south of Birmingham and then to The Wash. The prestige or posh accent in England is Received Pronunciation, which originates from the educated speech of southeastern England and is referred to as the Southern English accent. The London-derived Estuary English is growing in importance as a widespread standard form in the south.

Scotland

Main article: Scottish English

Standard English as spoken in Scotland is usually called Scottish English and is distinguished from Scots, which is often considered a separate language or at least a highly divergent dialect. The influence of both Scots and Scottish Gaelic on Scottish English is undeniable.

Wales

Main article: Welsh English

The accent of English in Wales is strongly influenced by the phonology of the Welsh language, which 20% of the population of Wales still speak as their first or second language. North east Wales however tends to have a North English accent due to a large English population just over the border.

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.

Connacht, Leinster and Munster

Main article: Hiberno-English

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.

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 provinces 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 and are merged, so that look and Luke are homophonous. The vowel is a high central rounded vowel, .
  • The diphthong is pronounced approximately , but wide variation exists, especially between social classes in Belfast
  • The vowel is a monophthong in open syllables (e.g. day ) but a rising diphthong in closed syllables (e.g. daze ). But the monophthong remains when inflectional endings are added, thus daze contrasts with days .
  • The alveolar stops become dental before , e.g. tree and spider
  • often undergoes flapping to before an unstressed syllable, e.g. eighty

Irish Travellers

Irish Travellers have a very distinct accent closely realted to a rural Hiberno-English. Even Travellers that were born in and grown up in London have the accent too. They also have their own language which strongly links in with their dialect/accent of English, see Shelta.

North America

Main article: North American English

Canada

Main article: Canadian English

Accents vary widely across Canada, and the accent of a particular region is often closer to 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 is very hard to describe (in fact, in 2005 when a Newfoundland-born Canadian general was put in charge of the military occupation forces in Kabul, Afghanistan, his staff presented his American colleagues with a dictionary of Newfoundland English), 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. It is primarily spoken on the island of Newfoundland. 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.

United States

Main article: American English

There is great variation among accents of English spoken in the United States; accents are perhaps more variable in the U.S. than in any other English-speaking country besides the United Kingdom. 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. 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).

West Indies and Bermuda

For discussion, see:

Southern Hemisphere

Australia

Main article: Australian English phonology

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 example being castle. 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. Both accents bear notable similarities with those of London, England, including Cockney.

New Zealand

Main article: New Zealand English

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". 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.

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.

South Atlantic

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.

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.

Southern Africa

South Africa
Main article: South African English

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 a number of Afrikaans loanwords into their speech.

Zimbabwe
In Zimbabwe, native English speakers (mainly the white minority) have a similar speech pattern to South Africa, hence 'Zimbabwe' is pronounced as zom-baw-bwi, as opposed to the more correct African pronunciation zeem-bah-bwe.

Namibia
Namibian English tends to be strongly influenced by that of South Africa

Asia

Hong Kong

Main article: Hong Kong English

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.

South Asia

Main article: 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).

Malaysia and Singapore

English is the lingua franca of Singapore, a former British colony. 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, Manglish, 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 , "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" ( and respectively) are pronounced as monophthongs, i.e. with no "glide": and .
  • is pronounced as /t/ and as /d/; hence, "thin" is and "then" is .
  • 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.

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 and [v are not found in most Philippine languages so they are realized differently by Filipinos.

  • Filipino: *
  • Victor: *
  • Family: *
  • Varnish: *
  • Fun: *
  • Vehicle: *
  • Lover = *
  • Find = *
  • Official: *
  • Very = *

External links

English dialects | English phonology

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Regional accents of English speakers".

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