Dialects

What is a Dialect?

• Varieties of a Language that differ from each other in pronunciation, phonology, morphology, syntax, lexis, etc.

• Come in various types, but are often broken into three sub-classes: standard dialect, modern dialect, traditional dialect.

What is a Traditional Dialect?

• The most old-fashioned, divergent, non-standard forms of speech that are still currently used (even if in minimal frequency) in the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries.

• Characterised by endogenous features and developments that are relatively unaffected by standard influence or dialect levelling

• Most characteristic of NORMs (non-mobile, older, rural, males)

What is a Modern Dialect?

"

• The current forms of regionally distinctive speech, differing mainly in terms of their phonetics and phonology
• Differentiated from traditional dialects by a reduced number of other features, morpho-syntax, or lexical items
• Also known as ""levelled dialects""

"

How do Dialects Form?

• They are a result of geographical and social variation found in all languages - they are everywhere

• Influenced by both internal and external factors - the result of language change

How does Language Contact change a Dialect?

• Contact results in influence, which can drive linguistic changes

• Features may be borrowed, levelled out, or combined in a variety of ways

• Internal changes within a dialect can create divergence between specific varieties

• Contact induced changes may also create convergence between distinct varieties.

What are some Examples of Language Contact Influencing Variation?

• Norse lexis being borrowed by English, as a result of contact between Norse speaking Vikings and the Anglo-saxons. i.e. anger, cake, egg, law, wing, etc.

• Liverpool English being the result of contact between North Western English Dialects, Welsh varieties, and Irish Varieties.

What is the Brief History of English Dialect Variation?

• Dialects of English (and Scots) have been changing, diversifying and influencing each other ever since OE was brought to Britain

• There were already dialect differences in OE, as a result of settlement of different groups and of geographical and political separation

• This situation continues into the ME period, when a clear distinction between northern (including Scots) and non-northern varieties crystalises along the ‘Humber-Ribble Line’

What is an Isogloss?

• A line drawn on a map that seperates two regions which differ with respect to some linguistic feature

• Locations on one side of the isogloss have on value for the feature, and locations on the other side have another

What is a Dialect Boundary?

• Where isoglossess for different features bundle is the suggestion of a dialect boundary

• The varieties on either side of the bundle are different in numerous respects

• Often indicative of political, cultural, historical, or physical differences and seperations

What is the Ribble-Humber Line?

• A significant linguistic and historical boundary in Northern England, roughly spanning from the Humber estuary in the East to the river Ribble in the West.

• Historically, it seperates Northern English varieties from the Midland varities.

What is Traditional Dialectology?

• Dialectological research in the late 19th and early 20th centuries

• Aimed to elucidate the history of standard language by using evidence from non-standard dialects to find how the standard variety developed.

• Focus on determining the nature of sound-change and representing the relationships between varieties of language geographically

What are the Methods of Traditional Dialectology?

• Recording the most old-fashioned/traditional form of the dialect

• Specially selecting informants of a dialect for study - typically NORMs

• Direct elicitation

• Impressionistic phonetic transcription

What is the SED?

"

• The Survey of English Dialects (1950s)
• The result of Traditional Dialectology studies and served as an ""atlas"" or ""corpus"" of information on dialects found throughout Britain
• Data revealed the most traditional/localized forms of speech, not always representative of the wider lingusitic context

"

What is Modern Dialectology?

• Research that took place in the later half of the 20th century

• Many small-scale studies performed at urban locations throughout Britain

• Typically performed from a socio-dialectological perspective

What are the Results of Modern Dialectology?

• Paint a good picture of variation and change across a range of social groups at the locations under investigation

• Few features being examined - with a focus often on phonology or phonetics

• Studies are widely scattered and not wide-reaching

What are the Main things to consider when Thinking about Dialects?

• Geographical distribution

• Dialect features - phonological, morphosyntactic, phonetic, etc.

• Speakers of a Dialect

• Perceptions of Speakers of a Dialect

• Structural vs. Perceptual Dialectology

Where is Northern England?

"

• Perceptions tend to vary, but it is below the Scottish-English Border and extending down to the Midlands - generally starting around the River Trent.
• Consists of 3 main areas: North East, North West, Yorkshire and Humber. 
• Includes cities like Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, and Leeds.

"

What are the Counties of North England/Distinct Varieties?

North East:

• Northumberland
• Tyne and Wear
• Durham

North West:

• Cumbria/Carlisle
• Lancashire
• Merseyside
• Manchester
• Chesire

Other:

• Yorkshire North, West, South

What Dialect Features should be Considered in Analysis?

• The Lexicon
• The Grammar - Morphology and Syntax
• Phonology

What are Recognizable and Distinct Features of Northern English?

"Lexis:

• Lass for ""Girl""
• Slithy for ""Anvil""
• Slape for ""Slipper""
• Addled for ""Earned""
• Grimer-lamb for ""Ewe""

Morphology:

• Thou as ""second person singular pronoun - namelyy historical but can be found in Modern dialects
• -Sel or -Sen for ""reflexive pronouns""

Syntax:

• Negative Concord - ""I don't know nothing about it.""

Phonology:

• H-dropping
• G-dropping -  [-ɪn]~[-ɪŋ] variation 
• Rhotic - Common historically, but less frequent in Modern Dialects
• NURSE-SQUARE Merger (Vowels in NURSE and SQUARE will be pronounced the same - either favouring traditional NURSE sound or SQUARE sound depending on area.)
• T-to-R - We crack on and we get [ɡɛɹɪt] it done.
• FACE and GOAT vowels (Modern = monophthongs [eː], [ɛː]  [oː], [ɔː], Traditional = diphthongs [eə], [ɪə], [oə], [ʊə].)
• Definite Article Reduction (DAR) - typically targeting the vowels

"

What are Recognizable and Distinctive Features of Northeast English?

"Phonology

• Glottalization of intervocalic voiceless stops
• Uvular R (Also known as ""Burr"") - namely in Northumberland which is traditionally Rhotic
• H-retaining - Northumberland and Tyneside
• Minimal H-dropping - namely in Durham and Teeside
• Distinction between /w/ and /hw/
• Clear L
• Monophthong in Mouth (traditional dialect) 
• Monophthong [iː] in Night
• Monophthong [aː] in Know
  
• Scottish Vowel Length Rule (SVLR) in Northumberland and Tyneside
• FACE diphthong [iə]
• GOAT monophthong [oː] or [øː]

Lexis

• Dinna, divn't, dinnet for ""don't""
• Have went, needs washed
• Charva, radgie, gadgie, howay, marrow, mass tea, ket - commonly use nicknames for items

"

What is the Scottish Vowel Length Rule (SVLR)?

"A phonological rule in Scottish English and Scots that dictates vowel duration based on its environment. It states that vowels are generally short, but are long (or lengthened) in three specific environments: in final open syllables, before voiced fricatives (/v/, /z/, /ð/, /ʒ/), and before /r/."

What is Dedialectalization/Lexical Redistribution?

The redistribution of the phonemes of a language – such that their distribution is more like the standard variety. (Changing the dialect to be similar to other dialects – results in modern dialects that appear very different to their traditional counterparts). This is the outcome of dialect levelling.

Importantly, this does NOT need to involve the change in the pronunciation of phonemes.

What are some examples/places where Dedialectalization has occured?

• Northeastern English - occured with the FACE and GOAT vowels

• The Holy Island - fishers were extremely traditional while shopkeepers were less regional - when the fishing industry crashed mass amounts of features were lost.

What is Dialect Death?

"The dramatic loss of traditional features/assimilation of dialects to a more standard variety. This occured in the Holy Island after the fishing industry crashed."

What is the brief history of Scots?

• Scots arose from the standardization of Scottish English in contrast to the English standard which arose from the Old English/London standardization.

• The two countries began to dedialectalized towards English instead of Scots 

• The upper echelon transitioned from Scots to English. Others followed suit. 

• People still have a spectrum variation between Scots and Scottish Standard English 

• Traditional Scots and Northern English dialects share a common source in Northern Middle English 

What is the Scottish-English Border Linguistically?

"

• Aitken (1984): ""Scotland is very certainly a dialect island within the English-speaking world and very probably far the most copious bunch of isoglosses in English is that running along the historical border."" 
  
• Williamson (2002): “The received view is that up to the fifteenth century these two language labels are used to distinguish geopolitically what is perceived to have been a common speech area.” 

"

What are the Recognizable and Distinctive Features of the Scottish English Border?

"Lexis

• Hacks or Keens for ""finger blisters""
• Dinna or Divn't for ""don't""
• -bogle or Flaycrow for ""scarecrow""

Phonology

• Glottal Replacement
• STRUT - /ʌ/
• FOOT - /ʉ/
• GOOSE - /ʉ/ 
• TRAP/BATH -/a/ 
• PALM - /ɑ/ 
• FACE - /e/ 
• GOOSE - /o/ 
• KIT - /ə/ or /ɛ/ 
• PRICE - /ɛi/ vs. /aı/ 
• English side - Longer VOT for voiceless stops
• Scottish side - Shorter VOT for voiceless stops
• English side - Non-rhotic
• Scottish side - Rhotic
• Moderate SVLR adherence

"

What is the 2008-2001 York University Study?

A modern phonological and phonetic analysis study focusing on the Scottish-English border. They focused on VOT, rhoticity, and SVLR in 4 locations: Gretna and Eyemouth (Scotland) and Carlisle and BErwick (England). Found the main differences in Scottish-English border english.

What is Recieved Pronunciation?

"Also known as RP this is ""high-status"" and socially prestigious British accent that is traditionally associated with educated speakers, the upper classes, and broadcasting networks like the BBC. Often characterized as ""The Queen's English"" it is non-regional but rooted in Southern England."

How should Linguists Identify a Sample of RP?

RP cannot be straightforwardly identified by geography – definitions can vary according to place (London, the Home Counties), institution (schools, eton, etc.), or social group (landowners, debutantes), and often require some combination of all three (Wells, 1982). Because RP is often tied to specific individuals and fluid social groupings, it cannot be comparable to a stable, non-mobile community, which, in turn, makes it incredibly difficult to construct a representative group sample and instead linguists often focus on specific individuals and their backgrounds.

What kind of things can Influence an RP Speaker's Dialect?

"

• Change within an individual over their lifetime
• Endogenous/Exogenous changes
• Members of social class have contact with outsiders
• Movement into social class
• Movement into area
• Movement into institution
• Change within an institution over time

"

What is the Harrington (2000) RP study?

"This is a longitudinal study, commonly known as the study of the Queen's speech, analyzed Christmas broadcasts over 50 years to demonstrate how an individual's Received Pronunciation (RP) shifts toward mainstream usage, including key changes in vowel production. By tracking shifts in F1 and F2 frequencies for specific vowels, the research provided crucial evidence for both life-span phonetic change and the gradual convergence of aristocratic speech towards broader RP. Findings: Queen Elizabeth II's speech shifted toward a more mainstream form of Received Pronunciation between the 1950s and 1980s - with the lowering and retracting (ultimate inversing) of TRAP and STRUT."

"What is ""Going Down Market""?"

"Refers to the process in which features in Cockney dialects are adopted into RP dialects. Begins with the regarding of specific features as ""vulgar"" and then slowly are adopted into the higher dialect. I.e. Happy tensing, GOOSE fronting, diphthong FACE pronunciations"

What is Downward Convergence?

A very rare phenomenon, occuring namely in adults, where a speaker with a higher social status or dialect willl reduce their linguistic prestige to match a lower-status speaker's style. Often done in an attempt to build social rapport.

"What is a ""Yuppie"" or ""Essex Man""?"

"Refers to the well-to-do, self-made young people who were seen by the establishment as lacking in “culture” and “taste”. These people, typically, spoke Estuary English – they were upwardly mobile, and so had wider social contacts than their parents would have had. As a result, they accommodated to members of their new networks by removing some of the more marked features of their local accents and dialects. "

What is Estuary English?

Refers to the modern Southern British Accent originating in the London and Thames Estuary region. Often considered a bridge between RP and Cockney Englishes.

What is Cockney English?

Refers to a distinct working-class accent and dialect traditionally associated with East Londoners. Characterized by specific phonetic changes and marked features. 

What are the Distinct and Recognizable features of Cockney English?

"

• T-glottaling
• H-dropping
• Th-frontong
• Cockney rhyming slang 
• Double Negatives
• Diphthong alterations - ""day"" = ""dye"" ""no"" = ""nar""

"

What are the Distinct and Recognizable features of Estuary English?

"

• Glottal stops intervocalically
• Th-fronting
• L-vocalization - ""fill"" as ""fiw""
• Fronted and Closer vowels and more Open Back vowels
• NO h-dropping
• Yod-Coalescence - merging of /j/ with preceding consonants
• Double negatives
• Omission of -ly in adverbial endings (quick instead of quickly)
• Non-standard Demonstratives

"

What is Dialect Levelling?

"A process whereby differences between regional varieties are reduced, features which make varieties distinctive disappear, and new features emerge and are adopted by speakers over a wide geographical area” (Williams and Kerswill 1999: 149)."

Why are Milton Keynes and Reading important in Dialectology?

"They serve as prime examples of dialect levelling demonstrating how new, transient populations (especially in a ""New Town"" like Milton Keynes) lead to rapid language change and the decline of traditional local accents. Studies, primarily by Paul Kerswill and Ann Williams, show a shift towards a common, London-influenced ""standard"" southern accent, skipping older regional variations in favor of a new, distinct ""suburban"" dialect."

What is a Multi-Ehtnolect?

"An urban language variety spoken by diverse, mostly young people in multicultural neighborhoods, incorporating influences from multiple immigrant languages and the local majority language. Unlike an ethnolect tied to one group, it is used collectively across ethnic lines, often signaling a local, urban identity rather than foreign origin"

What are the Causes of Group Second Language Acquisition?

• Mix of Languages in Inner City Areas

• Migration - from many sources not just one

• Not direct transfer from any single language to English

• Models of L1 English not locally avaliable

• Parents are NNS and children acquire English from peers

• Produces innovations

• Can cause changes in the host community

What is Enregisterment?

"The sociohistorical process by which a particular linguistic repertoire (a way of speaking, writing, or behaving) becomes socially recognized and linked to specific social identities, personas, or contexts. Coined by Asif Agha it is the mechanism that transforms variations in language into a distinct, named ""register"" or ""social style""."

What happened historically in East London?

"Saw migration from the heavily bombed East London to new towns and neighbourhoods outside the city. This was followed by large-scale immigration from the Commonwealth, from where people were actively encouraged to relocate to the UK to help tackle post-war labour shortages. This included the ‘Windrush generation’ – those who arrived between 1948 and 1971 from Caribbean countries, particularly Jamaica. Later migrants came from other Commonwealth countries, especially those in South Asia and, subsequently, Africa"

What are the Differences between Hackney and Havering?

"

Hackney:

• over 1 in 10 Hackney residents speak Turkish
• over 1 in 20 speak Yoruba

Havering:

• Less than 1 in 100 Havering residents speak Panjabi or Hindi
• Younger and older speakers from both Hackney and Havering;
• 16 older speakers, 105 17 year olds in H and H
• North London study has different ages
• ""Anglos"" families of British origin in the neighbourhood for 2 or more generations (""White British"") - homogenous ""non-Anglo"" - highly mixed ethnicity

"

What are some Recognizable Features of MLE?

"

• Blud
• Bruv
• Innit
• Rudeboy
• This is them
• FACE is [eɪ] or often [eː], hence [phleɪs] or [phleːs] for place (cf. traditional London English (‘Cockney’) [phlɛɪs]
  
• Backed and Raised GOAT vowel
• Th-stopping 
• Jamaican Creole influences
• Similarites to AAVE

"

What is British Asian English?

BrAE is considered to be a pan-regional contact variety that has recieved phonetic input from, at least, monolingual native varieties of a range of Indo-Aryan languaes, varities of these languages spoken outside their traditional heartlands. and varieties of British English. 

What are the influences in BrAE?

• India - Gujarat, Punjab, Jelhim, Mirpir, Azad Kashmir, Khyber, Balochistan, Sylhet Division

• Parition of India by the British in 1947

• Bangladesh War of Indpendence

• Migration from India into Britian

• Chain migration caused by labour shortages, NHS recruitment, etc.

What is Indian/Pakistani English?

IndE emerges from mass second-language acquisition with wide variation in how its used and learned. There is some shared features with BrAE, due to their similar input language backgrounds.

What are the Recognizable Features of BrAE?

• Retroflex /t, d/

• Clear /l/

• Postvocalic tap /r/

• Monophthongs in FACE and GOAT - reduced especially in northern BrAE communities.

What are the Recognizable Features of Bradford BrAE?

• Zayn Malik speech

• FOOT=STRUT

• Glottal /t/

• GOAT monophthong

• Retains h (unexpected)

• Clear /l/

• Retroflex /t, d/ 

What is the Brief History of English in Ireland?

• Spoken since the 12th century, but properly established in the 16th century
• Stems from Southwest England, Midlands, Northwest, and Scotland
• English and Gaelic are in constant contact and often influence eachother
• Known as Hiberno-English

What is Irish Gaelic?

"Irish (Gaelic) is a Celtic Indo-European language which has been spoken in Ireland for at least the last 2000-2500 years
• the oldest recorded form of the language is called Old Irish, attested in the 8th to 10th centuries AD
• but with early ‘ogham’ inscriptions from the 4th century
• Old Irish is the ancestor of modern Irish, Scottish Gaelic and (the now
extinct) Manx
From the 16th century, Irish has been declining in use as a result of
• the predominance of English
• dramatic population changes in Ireland as a result of settlement from
Britain and famine in Ireland
• and political and educational policies, which promoted English and
side-lined Irish"

What are the Irish English Dialects?

"

• extinct archaic dialects deriving from Irish-influenced Middle English in County Wexford (Forth and Bargy)
• Ulster Scots in the northern fringes of Ireland, in areas of densest Scottish settlement in the 17th century
• Mid-Ulster English across much of Ulster, as a result of contact between Scots, English and Irish Gaelic
• Southern Irish English, spoken across most of the Republic of Ireland, developing from 16th and 17th century English, influenced by Irish Gaelic and British English throughout its history – including the distinctive Dublin dialect, which combines general Southern Irish English, archaic Irish English and home-grown features
• Gaeltacht English (various forms) – essentially second language or new varieties of English spoken in Gaeltacht areas showing obvious signs of Irish influence

"

What are the Recognizable Features of Irish English?

"

• No H-dropping
• /hw/ and /w/ distinction 
• Clear /r/
• Rhotic
• STRUT = FOOT (Traditionally) but is becoming Seperated
• MEAT-MATE merger in Traditional dialects
• Old, Cold, Told pronounced with the MOUTH viwel
• Yous for 2nd person plural pronoun
• Habitual ""does"" and ""be's""
• After perfect ""I'm after my dinner = i've just had my dinner""

"

What are the Differences between Souther and Northern Irish English?

"

Southern features:
• [t̪] and [d̪] in think and this
• GOOSE and MOUTH not fronted
([uː]/[ʊu] and [æʊ])
• unrounded L O T , T H O U G H T
and N O R T H ([ɑ], [ɑː], [ɑːɹ])
• /r/ is typically velarised [ɹʷ]
with lip rounding
• final /t/ is usually fricated (to
something close to [s])
• START vowel raised ([æːɹ])

Northern features:
• [θ] and [ð] in think and this
• fronted G O O S E and M O U T H
([ʉ] and [əʉ])
• rounded L O T , T H O U G H T and
NORTH ([ɒ], [ɔː], [ɔːɹ])
• /r/ is post-alveolar [ɹ] or
retroflex [ɻ]
• final /t/ is usually [t] or
unreleased [t̚ ]
• START vowel not raised ([aːɹ] or [ɑːɹ])

"

What is Ulster Scots?

"A traditional dialect spoken in parts of Donegal, Derry, Antrim, and Down (places with the most intense Scottish settlement). This is the most divergent form of English speech in Ireland and are essentially varities of Lowland Scots with Northern Irish English phonetics.
mouth [mʏθ], home [hɪəm], pay [pəi], dead [did], right [ɹæ̈xt]
• e.g. couldae [kʏne], dinnae [dæ̈ne], isnae [æ̈zne]mouth [mʏθ], home [hɪəm], pay [pəi], dead [did], right [ɹæ̈xt]
• e.g. couldae [kʏne], dinnae [dæ̈ne], isnae [æ̈ [mʏθ], home [hɪəm], pay [pəi], dead [did], right [ɹæ̈xt]
• e.g. couldae [kʏne], dinnae [dæ̈ne], isnae [æ̈zne]mouth [mʏθ], home [hɪəm], pay [pəi], dead [did], right [ɹæ̈xt]
• e.g. couldae [kʏne], dinnae [dæ̈ne], isnae [æ̈zne]"

What are the Two Main Groups in Northern Ireland?

The Protestants and the Catholics. They are ethno-religious groups.

Protestants: Unionist, pro-British, stems from Plantations of Ulster

Catholics: Nationalist and Republican, pro-Irish, stems from Indigenous Irish populus

What are the Main Studies on Northern Irish Ethno-Religious Groups:

"Pioneering sociolinguistic studies by James and Lesley Milroy in Belfast in the 1970s (e.g. L. Milroy 1987, J. Milroy 1992), which analysed variation in terms of neighbourhood, class, and social network structure, all of which are highly correlated with ethno-religious factors (though the ethno-religious dimension wasn’t considered separately)

Douglas-Cowie’s work on code-switching in Articlave, (London)Derry – her informants were almost all Protestants (Douglas-Cowie 1978)

Kingsmore’s study of Coleraine speech, which analyses a sample of
Protestant speakers (Kingsmore 1995"

What is the Belfast Paradox?

An interesting characterisitic of Belfast English , where instead of having linguistic differences based on ethno-religious groups (as expected in the rest of Northern Ireland), people are distinguished based on either working-class or middle-class, and older or younger traits.

What is Angloromani?

The language of the Romani people that is being spoken in the UK. This is the remnants of the Roma language after it has been combined with local vareities of English. Often mixing English structures with Romani words.

What is Para-Romani?

While Romani has a distinct lexicon and grammatical system, Para-
Romani varieties “have a Romani vocabulary, but the original
grammatical system of Romani is virtually completely lost. Far fewer speakers of Para-Romani speakers compared to Romani
(100k vs. 3.5m). Angloromani has been classified as a Para-Romani variety. Para-Romani varieties do not always share the same properties

What are the Recognizable Features of Angloromani/Para-Romani?

The language that is spoken by one English Rom to another today
is really a register of English rather than a dialect of Romani

Grammar - often grammar is like that of the co-territorial language. I.e. English in the case of Angloromani

Lexis - will employ words of Romani in otherwise non-Romani sentences. Place names are often different - Romani speakers will create new names for cities or places based on descriptions or geographical characterizations.

muš ‘man’ (cf. non-standard English mush as a term of
endearment) < Sanskrit puruša
chavvi ‘boy, child’ < Sanskrit šāva ‘young person’
rakli ‘girl, often a non-Roma girl’ (cf. Hindi larkā ‘boy)
thud ‘milk’ < Sanskrit dugdha

pani ‘water’ < Sanskrit panīyā ‘drinkable, water’

Compounding of words - Stallion + Grey = grey male horse

What is the Brief History of Angloromani?

Arrival in Britain: Romani speakers arrived in Great Britain around the early 16th century (or possibly late 15th century).

Initial Language: Initially, these groups spoke a complete inflected Romani language similar to other European Romani dialects.

Early Records: The first documentation of a mixed Romani-English speech in Britain appears around 1566–1567.

Shift to English: By the late 19th century, increased social pressures, persecution, and intermarriage with English-speaking travelers led to the decline of the fully inflected Romani language.

Emergence of a New Form: Instead of disappearing entirely, the Romani language was adapted. British Romani speakers began using English grammatical structures (syntax) while retaining a large reservoir of Romani words for key content.

Documented Change: Linguists like George Borrow and Charles Leland noted in the 1870s that while some older people still used the full language, most had shifted to this "mixed" type, with gender distinction and complex inflection disappearing by around 1876.

Quick Facts RP

• Southern England / prestige accent (non-regional)

• “Queen’s English”

• Clear articulation and standardised pronunciation

• Non-rhotic (/r/ not pronounced unless before vowel)

• No glottal stops (/t/ always [t])

• Long vowels: /ɑː/ in bath, dance

• Diphthongs clearly realised: /əʊ/ (go), /eɪ/ (face)

• Front vowel articulation (/æ/ in trap is open)

• Example: Queen Elizabeth II

Quick Facts Cockney

• East London, traditionally working class

• Glottal stop /t/ → [ʔ] (butter → [ˈbʌʔə])

• Th-fronting: /θ/ → [f], /ð/ → [v] (think → [fɪŋk])

• H-dropping: house → [aʊs]

• Dark /l/ vocalisation → [w] (milk → [mɪwk])

• Diphthong shift: /aɪ/ → [ɔɪ] (time → [tɔɪm])

• Example: Danny Dyer

Quick Facts MLE

• Spoken by young, multi-ethnic communities in London

• Influenced by Caribbean and South Asian English

• Th-stopping/fronting: /θ/ → [t] or [f], /ð/ → [d]

• Monophthongisation: /aɪ/ → [aː]

• Backing of vowels (e.g. go → [gɔː])

• Discourse markers: innit, man, bruv

• Example: Stormzy

Quick Facts Essex

• Estuary English influence (between RP and Cockney)

• Glottal /t/ → [ʔ]

• L-vocalisation: /l/ → [w] (feel → [fiːw])

• Th-fronting common

• Vowel shifts: /iː/ → slightly diphthongised [ɪi]

• Example: Gemma Collins

Quick Facts Midlands/Birmingham

• Distinct nasal quality

• Flattened intonation (less pitch variation)

• /æ/ often raised → [ɛ] (trap closer to [trɛp])

• Short vowels retained: bath → [baθ] (not /ɑː/)

• Weak diphthongs: /eɪ/ → [eː]

• Example: Alison Hammond

Quick Facts Yorkshire

• Non-rhotic (generally)

• Short /a/ in bath → [a]

• Monophthongal vowels: /eɪ/ → [eː], /əʊ/ → [oː]

• Final /i/ instead of /ɪ/ or /iː/ (happy → [ˈhapɪ])

• Th-fronting sometimes: /θ/ → [f], /ð/ → [v]

• Strong, elongated vowels

• Examples: Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik

Quick Facts Liverpool/Scouse

• Strong nasal quality

• Influenced by Irish English

• Fricativisation of /k/ → [x] (book → [bʊx])

• /t/ often affricated → [ts]

• Non-rhotic

• Distinct rising intonation

• Example: Jodie Comer

Quick Facts Newcastle/Geordie

• Non-rhotic but strong vowel distinctions

• /uː/ → [ʊu] (goose)

• /aʊ/ → [uː] (house → [huːs])

• Final -er → [a] (never → [ˈnɛva])

• Monophthongs instead of diphthongs

• Example: Jade Thirlwall

Quick Facts Scottish

• Rhotic: /r/ pronounced (often tapped [ɾ])

• Monophthongal vowels: /eɪ/ → [e], /oʊ/ → [o]

• Dark /l/ [ɫ] in most positions

• /u/ often fronted [ʉ]

• Distinction between /ʍ/ and /w/ (which vs witch)

• Example: James McAvoy

Quick Facts Welsh

• Sing-song intonation (pitch variation)

• Clear vowel articulation

• Rolled or tapped /r/

• Length distinction important: /ɪ/ vs /iː/

• Consonant gemination (doubling): better → [ˈbɛtːə]

• Example: Elis James

Quick Facts Northern Irish

• Rhotic accent

• /aʊ/ → [ɛʉ] or [əʉ] (house)

• /eɪ/ → [ɛ]

• Strong consonants, especially /t/ [t̪]

• Influence from Scottish English (Ulster Scots)

• Example: Jamie Dornan

What is Diaglossia?

A sociolinguistic situation where two distinct varieties of the same language coexist in a community, serving different social functions. A "high" (H) variety is used for formal settings like literature, education, and government, while a "low" (L) variety is used for daily conversation, home, and informal situations.