Social and Territorial Varieties of English Pronunciation/British Dialects
Cockney is probably the second most famous British accent. Cockney English refers to the accent or dialect of English traditionally spoken by working-class Londoners.
- Non-rhoticity
- Raised vowel in words like trap and cat so these sounds like “trep” and “cet.”
- Trap-bath split
- London vowel shift
- Glottal Stopping
- L-vocalization
- Th-Fronting
Estuary English is an accent derived from London English which has achieved a status slightly similar to “General American”.
- Non-rhoticity
- Wholly-holy split
- T-glottalisation
- L-vocalisation
West Country (Southwest British) refers to a large swath of accents heard in the South of England, starting about fifty miles West of London and extending to the Welsh border.
- Rhoticity
- /aɪ/, as in guide or life, more precisely approaches [ɒɪ] or [ɑɪ]
- /aʊ/, as in house or cow, more precisely approaches [æy] or [ɐʏ]
- The trap-bath split's
Midlands English divides into East Midlands and West Midlands, but there are no much differences between them.
- The foot-strut merger
- is firmly rhotic
- In some areas, words like "roof" and "root" are pronounced with the FOOT vowel /ʊ/
Northern England English is a group of related dialects in cities like Manchester, Leeds, and Liverpool.
- The foot-stut merger
- Non-rhoticity
- do not have the trap–bath split
Geordie refers to both the people and dialect of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, in Northeast England.
- The foot-stut merger
- Non-rhoticity
- Yod-coalescence in both stressed and unstressed syllables
- T-glottalization
Welsh English refers to the dialects of English spoken in Wales by Welsh people.
- Usually non-rhotic.
- In northern accents, /l/ is frequently strongly velarised [ɫː]
- Some dialect words imported from the Welsh language.
Scottish English is spoken in the country of Scotland.
- Rhotic, with trilled or tapped r’s.
- Glottal stopping of the letter t when in between vowels.
- has no /ʊ/, instead transferring Scots /u/