56-516: Estuary English is an English accent , continuum of accents, or continuum of accent features associated with the area along the River Thames and its estuary , including London , since the late 20th century. Phonetician John C. Wells proposed a definition of Estuary English as "Standard English spoken with the accent of the southeast of England". He views Estuary English as an emerging standard accent of England, while also acknowledging that it
112-442: A clear [l] in pull ." /l/-vocalization appears to be spreading into RP (or GB, the similar accent referred to by some writers). Collins et al say "Traditional RP speakers tend to stigmatize this feature, which is nevertheless one of the most striking changes going on in present-day GB English". The term glottalization has several different meanings: the most important are glottal reinforcement (or pre-glottalization ), where
168-627: A concrete "standard" accent in the same way that Britain has Received Pronunciation . A form of speech known to linguists as General American is perceived by many Americans to be "accent-less", meaning a person who speaks in such a manner does not appear to be from anywhere in particular. The region of the United States that most resembles this is the central Midwest, specifically eastern Nebraska, including Omaha and Lincoln; southern and central Iowa, including Des Moines; and parts of Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, and western Illinois, including Peoria and
224-429: A few key features. Estuary English is widely encountered throughout southeast England, particularly among the young. It is considered to be a working-class accent, although often used by the lower middle classes too. In the debate that surrounded a 1993 article about Estuary English, a London businessman claimed that RP was perceived as unfriendly, so Estuary English was now preferred for commercial purposes. Some adopt
280-514: A glottal closure accompanies an oral closure, and glottal replacement , where a glottal closure is substituted for an oral consonant. Although glottalization of /t/ has been singled out for attention in discussion of EE features, pre-glottalization of /p/, /k/ and /tʃ/ is also widespread in RP, particularly when another consonant follows. Examples are "popcorn" ['pɒʔpkɔːn], "electric" [ɪ'leʔktrɪk], "butcher" ['bʊʔtʃə]. Wells proposes that in transcribing EE,
336-630: A midway between the two regions. The Hull accent's rhythm is more like that of northern Lincolnshire than that of the rural East Riding, perhaps due to migration from Lincolnshire to the city during its industrial growth. One feature that it shares with the surrounding rural area is that an /aɪ/ sound in the middle of a word often becomes an /ɑː/, for example, "five" may sound like "fahve", and "time" like "tahme". Historic Lancashire , with regional variants in Bolton , Burnley , Blackburn , Manchester , Preston , Blackpool , Liverpool , and Wigan . Many of
392-467: A recognised place as "talking differently": The regions of Otago and especially Southland , both in the south of the South Island, harbour a "Celtic fringe" of people speaking with what is known as the "Southland burr" in which "R" is pronounced with a soft burr, particularly in words that rhyme with "nurse". The area formed a traditional repository of immigration from Scotland. Some sections of
448-751: A vowel: girl out [ɡɛo ˈæoʔ] . In all phonetic environments, male London speakers were at least twice as likely to vocalize the dark l as female London speakers. According to Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996) , the vocalized dark l is sometimes an unoccluded lateral approximant, which differs from the RP [ɫ] only by the lack of the alveolar contact. /l/-vocalization can lead to loss of distinctions between some vowels and diphthongs. Examples of vowel mergers before historic /l/ found in EE are: Przedlacka (2001) found coda /l/ pronounced as clear [ l ] , as in most accents of Irish English , in some speakers: she notes that in her study, "all four Essex speakers have
504-474: Is /ʃɒn/ , "been" is often /biːn/ , "lieutenant" is /lɛfˈtɛnənt/ , "process" can be /ˈproʊsɛs/ , etc. Words like "drama", "pajamas"/"pyjamas", and "pasta" tend to have /æ/ rather than /ɑ/ ~ /ɒ/ . Words like "sorrow", "Florida", and "orange" have /ɔr/ rather than /ɑr/ ; therefore, "sorry" rhymes with "story" rather than with "starry". For discussion, see: Australian English is relatively homogeneous when compared to British and American English. There
560-412: Is a social construct rather than a technically well-defined linguistic phenomenon. He describes it as "intermediate" between the 20th-century higher-class non-regional standard accent, Received Pronunciation (RP), and the 20th-century lower-class local London accent, Cockney . There is much debate among linguists as to where Cockney and RP end and where Estuary English begins, or whether Estuary English
616-673: Is a variety of English confined to the banks of the Thames estuary, which it is not. The label actually refers to the lower middle-class accents, as opposed to working-class accents, of the Home Counties Modern Dialect area". Roach comments, "In reality there is no such accent and the term should be used with care. The idea originates from the sociolinguistic observation that some people in public life who would previously have been expected to speak with an RP accent now find it acceptable to speak with some characteristics of
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#1732782744679672-615: Is even a single cohesive accent. Cruttenden uses the term London Regional General British in preference to the popular term "Estuary English". The names listed above may be abbreviated: Wells has used different names for an accent closer to Cockney ( Popular London ) or closer to Received Pronunciation ( London Regional Standard or South-Eastern Regional Standard ). Cruttenden uses the name Popular London to refer to Cockney pronunciation itself. The boundaries between RP (Received Pronunciation), Estuary English and Cockney are far from clear-cut. Wells cites David Rosewarne as locating EE in
728-542: Is like RP, but unlike Cockney, in being associated with standard grammar and usage". Differences are found at phonemic and allophonic levels. Wells identifies a small number of key features that may distinguish EE from RP; these features may be summarized as follows: Other distinguishing features have been suggested by other studies: It has been widely observed that EE exhibits vocalization of preconsonantal/final /l/, perhaps with various vowel mergers before it (an informal example being miwk-bottoo 'milk-bottle'). Wells cites
784-900: Is replaced by a glottal stop are: "that table" [ðæʔ 'teɪbəl], "Scotland" ['skɒʔlənd], "witness" ['wɪʔnəs]. The most extreme case of glottal replacement is when a glottal stop takes the place of /t/ between vowels (normally when the preceding vowel is stressed). Examples are "not on" [ˌnɒʔ 'ɒn], "bottle" ['bɒʔo]. Wells says "glottalling word-internally before a vowel is well-known as a 'rough' pronunciation variant: thus EE water ˈwɔːtə, but Cockney ˈwɔʊʔə". However, in work published twenty years later, Cruttenden (p 184) remarks that such glottal replacement "was until recently stigmatized as non-GB but all except [ʔl̩] are now acceptable in London RGB" (i.e. EE). He continues "Use of [ʔ] for /t/ word-medially intervocalically, as in water , still remains stigmatized in GB". EE
840-560: Is said to exhibit diphthong shift, particularly of the FACE, PRICE, MOUTH and GOAT vowels (informal example: "nime" for "name"). Yod-coalescence is found in EE: the use of the affricates [ d͡ʒ ] and [ t͡ʃ ] instead of the clusters [dj] and [tj] in words like dune and Tuesday results in the words sounding like June and choose day , respectively. Although at the time when most studies of EE were carried out, yod-coalescence
896-422: Is some regional variation between the states , particularly in regard to South Australia , Victoria , Queensland , Northern Territory and Western Australia . Three main varieties of Australian English are spoken according to linguists: Broad Australian , General Australian and Cultivated Australian . They are part of a continuum, reflecting variations in accent. They can, but do not always, reflect
952-525: Is spoken throughout the nine counties of Ulster and in some northern areas of bordering counties such as Louth and Leitrim . It bears many similarities to Scottish English through influence from the Ulster varieties of Scots . Some characteristics of the Ulster accent include: The accent of these three provinces fluctuates greatly from the flat tone of the midlands counties of Laois, Kildare, and Offaly to
1008-689: Is the length of the vowel in words such as "dog" and "job", which are longer than in Australian English, which shares the short and staccato pronunciation shared with British English. There is a tendency in New Zealand English, found in some but not all Australian English, to add a schwa between some grouped consonants in words, such that — for example — "shown" and "thrown" may be pronounced "showun" and "throwun". Geographical variations appear slight and are mainly confined to individual special local words. One group of speakers holds
1064-727: Is the part of dialect concerning local pronunciation. Vocabulary and grammar are described elsewhere; see the list of dialects of the English language . Secondary English speakers tend to carry over the intonation and phonetics of their mother tongue in English speech. For more details on this, see non-native pronunciations of English . Primary English speakers show great variability in terms of regional accents. Examples such as Pennsylvania Dutch English are easily identified by key characteristics, but others are more obscure or easily confused. Broad regions can possess subforms. For instance, towns located less than 10 miles (16 km) from
1120-502: Is within this group, found across the region. It includes terms specific to coal mining. Yorkshire is distinctive, having regional variants around Leeds , Bradford , Hull , Middlesbrough , Sheffield , and York . Although many Yorkshire accents sound similar, accents in areas around Hull and Middlesbrough are markedly different. Due to this, the Middlesbrough accent is sometimes grouped, with modern Northumbrian accents being
1176-458: The article wizard to submit a draft for review, or request a new article . Search for " English-language vowel changes before historic " in existing articles. Look for pages within Misplaced Pages that link to this title . Other reasons this message may be displayed: If a page was recently created here, it may not be visible yet because of a delay in updating the database; wait
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#17327827446791232-407: The social class , education, and urban or rural background of the speaker. The New Zealand accent is most similar to Australian accents, particularly those of Victoria, Tasmania, New South Wales, and South Australia, but is distinguished from these accents by the presence of three "clipped" vowels, slightly resembling South African English . Phonetically, these are centralised or raised versions of
1288-420: The "r" exhibits the typified Irish "brrr". In Kerry, especially in rural areas, the roll on the "r" is enforced with vibrations from the tongue, not unlike Scottish here. "Are you?" becomes a cojoined "A-rrou?" single tongue flutter, especially in rural areas. This extra emphasis on "R" is also seen in varying measures through parts of West Limerick and West Cork in closer proximity to Kerry. Another feature in
1344-513: The 1990s and the first few years of the 2000s, this putative new variety was fiercely debated both in the media and academia, but since then interest in Estuary English has waned and been replaced by discussion of the capital's latest linguistic innovation – Multicultural London English ". Published accounts of EE describe it mainly in terms of differences from contemporary RP and from Cockney. Wells (1994) states that "Estuary English (EE)
1400-1329: The Falkland accent tends to be stronger. The accent has resemblances to both Australia-NZ English and that of Norfolk in England and contains a number of Spanish loanwords. English-language vowel changes before historic Look for English-language vowel changes before historic on one of Misplaced Pages's sister projects : [REDACTED] Wiktionary (dictionary) [REDACTED] Wikibooks (textbooks) [REDACTED] Wikiquote (quotations) [REDACTED] Wikisource (library) [REDACTED] Wikiversity (learning resources) [REDACTED] Commons (media) [REDACTED] Wikivoyage (travel guide) [REDACTED] Wikinews (news source) [REDACTED] Wikidata (linked database) [REDACTED] Wikispecies (species directory) Misplaced Pages does not have an article with this exact name. Please search for English-language vowel changes before historic in Misplaced Pages to check for alternative titles or spellings. You need to log in or create an account and be autoconfirmed to create new articles. Alternatively, you can use
1456-505: The Kerry accent is the "S" before the consonant. True to its Gaelic origins in a manner similar to parts of Connacht, "s" maintains the "shh" sound as in "shop" or "sheep". The word "start" becomes "shtart", and "stop" becomes "shtop". Irish Travellers have a very distinct accent closely related to a rural Hiberno-English , particularly the English of south-eastern Ireland. Many Irish Travellers who were born in parts of Dublin or Britain have
1512-474: The Lancashire accents may sound similar to outsiders, with the exception of Manchester and Wigan, where an older dialect has been maintained. The Liverpool accent, known as Scouse , is an exception to the Lancashire regional variant of English. It has spread to some of the surrounding towns. Before the 1840s, Liverpool's accent was similar to others in Lancashire, though with some distinct features due to
1568-458: The London area ... such as glottal stops, which would in earlier times have caused comment or disapproval". Foulkes & Docherty (1999) state "All of its [EE's] features can be located on a sociolinguistic and geographical continuum between RP and Cockney , and are spreading not because Estuary English is a coherent and identifiable influence, but because the features represent neither
1624-720: The Quad Cities but not the Chicago area. Three major dialect areas can be found in Canada: Western/Central Canada, the Maritimes, and Newfoundland . The phonology of West/Central Canadian English , also called General Canadian , is broadly similar to that of the Western US, except for the following features: The pronunciation of certain words shows a British influence. For instance, "shone"
1680-817: The West Country: The Bristolian dialect is distinctive from the accent heard in Gloucestershire (especially south of Cheltenham ), for example. The Cornish accent has an east–west variation, with the east of the county having influences from West Country English and the west of the county having direct influences from the Cornish language . There is great variation within Greater London , with various accents such as Cockney , Estuary English , Multicultural London English , and Received Pronunciation being found all throughout
1736-528: The accent as a means of "blending in" to appear to be more working class or in an attempt to appear to be "a common man". That affectation of the accent is sometimes derisively referred to as " Mockney ". A move away from traditional RP accents is almost universal among middle-class young people in the South-East of England. Older rural dialects of the Estuary region survived longest in areas like Kent and
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1792-471: The accent in spite of it being strikingly different from the local accents in those regions. They have their own language, Shelta , which strongly links in with their dialect/accent of English. North American English is a collective term for the dialects of the United States and Canada. It does not include the varieties of Caribbean English spoken in the West Indies. The United States does not have
1848-581: The accents of English across England, one of the most obvious being the trap–bath split of the southern half of the country. Two main sets of accents are spoken in the West Country , namely Cornish and West Country , spoken primarily in the counties of Devon , Somerset , Gloucestershire , Bristol , Dorset (not as common in Dorset), and Wiltshire (again, less common in eastern Wiltshire). A range of variations can be heard within different parts of
1904-508: The city of Manchester , such as Bolton , Oldham , Rochdale , and Salford each have distinct accents, all of which are grouped together under the broader Lancashire accent . These sub-dialects are very similar to each other, but non-local listeners can identify firm differences. On the other side of the spectrum, Australia has a General Australian accent which remains almost unchanged over thousands of miles. English accents can differ enough to create room for misunderstandings. For example,
1960-704: The city's proximity to Wales . The city's population of around 60,000 was swelled in the 1840s by the arrival of around 300,000 Irish refugees escaping the Great Famine , as Liverpool was England's main Atlantic port and a popular departure point for people leaving for a new life in the United States . While many of the Irish refugees moved away, a vast number remained in Liverpool and permanently influenced
2016-401: The east of Essex , which early on showed features of, as well as some features distinct from, the modern Estuary dialect that has since become regionally widespread. Notably, rhoticity was a feature of older rural English in most of the Estuary counties, now largely replaced by non-rhoticity. Regional accents of English Spoken English shows great variation across regions where it is
2072-476: The glottal stop symbol [ʔ] could be used in contexts where the consonant in question is preceded by a vowel and followed by a consonant or the end of a word: examples are "bit" [bɪʔ], "football" [ˈfʊʔbɔo], "belt" [beoʔ], "Cheltenham" [ˈtʃeoʔnəm], "bent" [benʔ], "Bentley" [ˈbenʔli]. Pre-glottalization of /t/ therefore appears to be present both in RP and in EE. Glottal replacement of /t/ may be found when /t/ occurs before another consonant. Examples from RP where /t/
2128-524: The islands when English is used are similarly influenced but in a much milder way. In the case of Norfolk Island, Australian English is the primary influence, producing an accent that is like a softened version of an Australian accent. The Pitcairn accent is for the most part largely indistinguishable from the New Zealand accent. The Falkland Islands have a large non-native-born population, mainly from Britain but also from Saint Helena . In rural areas,
2184-428: The isolated Pacific islands of Norfolk and Pitcairn shows evidence of the islands' long isolation from the world. In the case of Pitcairn, the local creole, Pitkern , shows strong evidence of its rural English 19th-century origins, with an accent that has traces of both the English southwest and Geordie . The Norfolk Island equivalent, Norfuk , was greatly influenced in its development by Pitkern. The accents heard in
2240-621: The local accent. The regional accents of Scottish English generally draw on the phoneme inventory of the dialects of Modern Scots , a language spoken by around 30% of the Scottish population with characteristic vowel realisations due to the Scottish vowel length rule . Highland English accents are more strongly influenced by Scottish Gaelic than other forms of Scottish English. The accents of English in Wales are strongly influenced by
2296-522: The main urban areas of Auckland and Wellington show a stronger influence of Māori and Pacific island (e.g., Samoan) pronunciations and speech patterns than most of the country. The trilled "r" is used by some Māori, who may pronounce "t" and "k" sounds without aspiration, striking other English speakers as similar to "d" and "g". This is also encountered in South African English, especially among Afrikaans speakers. The English spoken in
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2352-400: The middle of "a continuum that has RP and London speech at either end". Several writers have argued that Estuary English is not a discrete accent distinct from the accents of the London area. The sociolinguist Peter Trudgill has written that the term "Estuary English" is inappropriate because "it suggests that we are talking about a new variety, which we are not; and because it suggests that it
2408-516: The perceived sing-song of Cork and Kerry to the soft accents of Mayo and Galway. Historically, the Dublin City and county area, parts of Wicklow and Louth, came under heavy exclusive influence from the first English settlements, known as The Pale . It remained until Independence from Britain as the biggest concentration of English influence on the whole island. Some Cork accents have a unique lyrical intonation. Every sentence typically ends in
2464-525: The phonology of the Welsh language , which more than 20% of the population of Wales speak as their first or second language . The North Wales accent is distinct from South Wales . North East Wales is influenced by Scouse and Cheshire accents. South East Wales accents are influenced by West Country accents. The Wenglish of the South Wales Valleys shows a deep cross-fertilisation between
2520-475: The predominant language. The United Kingdom has a wide variety of accents, and no single "British accent" exists. This article provides an overview of the numerous identifiable variations in pronunciation . Such distinctions usually derive from the phonetic inventory of local dialects , as well as from broader differences in the Standard English of different primary-speaking populations. Accent
2576-469: The presence of yod-coalescence distinguishes EE from RP. It has been suggested that th -fronting is "currently making its way" into Estuary English, for example those from the Isle of Thanet often refer to Thanet as "Plannit Fannit" (Planet Thanet). However, this feature was also present in the traditional dialect of Essex before the spread of Estuary English. Wells suggests that EE differs from Cockney in
2632-660: The pronunciation of "pearl" in some variants of Scottish English can sound like the entirely unrelated word "petal" to an American. For a summary of the differences between accents, see Sound correspondences between English accents . English dialects differ greatly in their pronunciation of open vowels. In Received Pronunciation , there are four open back vowels, /æ ɑː ɒ ɔː/ , but in General American there are only three, /æ ɑ ɔ/ , and in most dialects of Canadian English only two, /æ ɒ/ . Which words have which vowel varies between dialects. Words like bath and cloth have
2688-902: The region and the Home Counties . Other accents are those of In February 2019, the New York Times published a quiz that maps the geographical differences between British and Irish dialects. The accents of Northern England have a range of regional variations. Cumbria has regional variants in Western Cumbria ( Workington ), Southern Cumbria ( Barrow-in-Furness ), and Carlisle . Modern Northumbrian has local variants in Northern Northumberland ( Berwick-upon-Tweed ), Eastern Northumberland ( Ashington ) and Newcastle , Sunderland , and mid- and southern County Durham . A specialist dialect called Pitmatic
2744-546: The short "i", "e", and "a" vowels, which in New Zealand are close to [ɨ] , [ɪ] , and [ɛ] , respectively, rather than [ɪ] , [ɛ] , and [æ] . New Zealand pronunciations are often popularly represented outside New Zealand by writing "fish and chips" as "fush and chups", "yes" as "yiss", and "sixty-six" as "suxty-sux". Scottish English influence is most evident in the southern regions of New Zealand, notably in Dunedin . Another difference between New Zealand and Australian English
2800-545: The specific case of allophony in GOAT (> [ɒʊ] before dark /l/ or its reflex), leading perhaps to a phonemic split ("wholly" vs. "holy"). This topic is usually referred to as L-vocalization . There is said to be alternation between the vocalized [o ~ ʊ ~ ɯ] , dark non-vocalized [ɫ] and clear non-vocalized [l] , depending on the word. These alternations happen in final positions or in a final consonant cluster, e.g. sold (pronounced [sɔʊd] ). In London, that may even occur before
2856-489: The standard nor the extreme non-standard poles of the continuum". In order to tackle these problems put forward by expert linguists, Altendorf (2016) argues that Estuary English should be viewed as a folk category rather than an expert linguistic category. As such it takes the form of a perceptual prototype category that does not require discrete boundaries in order to function in the eyes (and ears) of lay observers of language variation and change. Collins et al. state that "In
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#17327827446792912-457: The trademark elongated tail-off on the last word. In Cork, heavier emphasis yet is put on the "brrr" sound to the letter "R." This is usually the dialect in northern parts of Cork City. Similar to the Cork accent but without the same intonation, Kerry puts even heavier emphasis on the "brrr" sound to the letter "R.", for example, the word "forty". Throughout the south, this word is pronounced whereby
2968-409: The two. The Cardiff dialect and accent is quite distinctive from that of the South Wales Valleys , primarily: Manx English has its own distinctive accent, influenced to some extent by the Lancashire dialect and to a lesser extent by some variant of Irish English. Ireland has several main groups of accents, including (1) the accents of Ulster, with a strong influence from Scotland as well as
3024-465: The underlying Gaelic linguistic stratum, which in that province approaches the Gaelic of Scotland, (2) those of Dublin and surrounding areas on the east coast where English has been spoken since the earliest period of colonisation from Britain, and (3) the various accents of west, midlands, and south. The Ulster accent has two main sub accents, namely Mid Ulster English and Ulster Scots . The language
3080-593: The vowels /ɑː ɒ/ in Received Pronunciation, but /æ ɔ/ in General American. The table above shows some of these dialectal differences. Accents and dialects vary widely across Great Britain, Ireland and nearby smaller islands. The UK has the most local accents of any English-speaking country . As such, a single "British accent" does not exist. Someone could be said to have an English, Scottish, Welsh, or Irish accent, although these all have many different subtypes. There are considerable variations within
3136-716: Was not common in RP, it has now become so widely accepted that RP-based pronunciation dictionaries include it. Thus the latest edition of the Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary gives /dʒuːn/ and /tʃuːz.deɪ/ as the preferred pronunciations; the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary and the Oxford Dictionary of Pronunciation give /djuːn/ and /tjuːzdeɪ/ as their first preference, but give /dʒuːn/ and /tʃuːz.deɪ/ as second preference. It cannot be said that
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