Details, Explanation and Meaning About Regional accents of English speakers

Regional accents of English speakers Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description

Regional accents of English speakers describes the many identifiable variations in pronunciation of the English language between various populations. 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, Salford and Oldham, each have distinct accents, all of them a form of the Lancashire accent, yet in extreme cases different enough to be noticed by a non-local listener.

Non-native speakers of the English language tend to carry the intonation, accent or pronunciation from their mother tongue into their English speech. For more details see Non-native pronunciations of English. This page now looks only at variations in the speech of native English speakers.

Table of contents
1 Countries and Regions (in alphabetical order)
2 Australia
3 Canada
4 England
5 Indian Subcontinent
6 Ireland
7 Malaysia and Singapore
8 New Zealand
9 Scotland
10 South Africa
11 United States of America
12 Wales
13 External links

Countries and Regions (in alphabetical order)

Australia

(See also Australian English)

The Australian accent varies between social classes and is sometimes claimed to vary from state to state, though this is disputed (it is more the lexis that varies between states, as well as the pronunciation of certain words, the most cited example being 'castle'). Accents tend to be strongest in the more remote areas. (Note that while there are many similarities between Australian accents and New Zealand ones, there are also a number of differences.) The following are some Australian characteristics:

  • The Australian vowel system is quite different from that of other dialects. Other standard dialects have tense vowels, lax vowels, and diphthongs. Australian English on the other hand has turned most of the tense vowels into diphthongs, and turned some of what are diphthongs in Received Pronunciation into long vowels, thus replacing the tense-lax distinction (one of quality) with a long-short distinction (one of quantity). The table below shows these.

  • Vowels are changed in pronunciation as follows:

Australian Vowel Pronunciation in SAMPA
Australian Received Pronunciation Examples
@i/Ii i: see
{I eI day
AI aI my
VU @U no
{U aU now
1} u: soon,through
e: e@ there
a V but
a: A: fast, car

  • Additionally, the vowels are generally pronounced higher up in the mouth than their English counterparts; [I@] (beard) is often pronounced as [I:] when followed by a consonant; /3:/ (bird) takes on a fronter, more rounded quality; /{/ (bat) has split into two distinct phonemes, so that whereas dad, can (I can do it), bat have a short vowel, bad, can (tin can), pal have a long one.
  • 'gone' takes on a peculiar quality: whereas all other /O:/ (born, saw) became [o:], and all /Q/ (hot) became [O], gone stayed as [O:].
  • In Victoria, a short e before l is pronounced as a short a, so that celery and salary are homonyms.
  • The /l/ sound in "Australia" may be elided; it becomes "Austray-yah".
  • In eastern mainland Australian states, "pool" and "school" are sometimes pronounced "schoo-el" and "poo-el" whereas in other states the sound is more akin to "pull".
  • See regional accents in Australia for more information.

Reference

Listen to various Australian actors, singers and native speakers. Internationally known actors Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman speak in their natural Australian accents when not acting in roles as non-Australians.

Canada

(See also Canadian English; North American English)

Canadian accents vary widely across the country, 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 speak with a Mid-Atlantic accent, similar to that formerly used by actors and announcers in the United States. An example of this is the actor Christopher Plummer.

Regional variations include:

British Columbia

  • /aI/ diphthong pronounced /^I/

Cape Breton Island

Maritimes

  • loss of non-prevocalic r
  • faster speech tempo
  • use of "Eh?" interrogative

Newfoundland

  • Newfoundland English is a distinct dialect of the language with its own pronunciation and vocabulary. Please reference that article for more information.

Ontario and Quebec

  • subtle Canadian raising, although in Ontario it is often quite strong
  • in southwestern Ontario (especially rural areas), some speakers also have aspects of the Midwestern US accent, e.g. "not" sounds like "naht" (/nOt/ --> [nat]), combined with Canadian raising (see USA below).
  • accent is slightly modified to signify sarcasm: "not" becomes a heavily stressed "nat", for example.
  • in Ontario, widespread use of Eh interrogative.
  • more frequent voicing of intervocalic s – in resource, for example
  • short a in words like drama; in common with most Canadians, Ontarians and Quebeckers pronounce words of foreign origin (Datsun, Mazda, etc.) as if the vowels are French.
  • in Central Ontario (that is, the region around Toronto) in particular, voiced th and d are often not distinguished, the two pronunciations frequently appearing together (Do you want this one or dis one?, for example)

Prairies

  • strong Canadian raising, "about" becomes "a boat", but not always, as about sounds like "a bout" to most ears.

The main distinction between Canadian (Prairie) pronunciation of this diphthong is in its resolution. Namely, an American pronunciation resolves the 'a-'sound [\\&\\] (or, alternatively, the schwa-sound; please see external source http://www.m-w.com/pronsymbols.htm for explanation of this notation) resolves with an 'oo'-sound [\\u\\], as such: 'a bah oo t'; whereas the Canadian pronunciation resolves with an 'oh'-sound [\\O\\], as such: 'a bah oh t'.

  • "sing-songy" intonation
  • use of "Eh?" interrogative is found more often in the east of Canada.

England

(See also British English)

English accents and dialects vary more widely within the U.K. itself than they do in other parts of the world owing to the longer history of the language within the countries of the U.K. Here are some of the distinctions to be found:

Southern English

  • Generally use a broad A, so "cast" is pronounced kAst rather than the k{st pronunciation of most northern accents. There are other peculiarities in specific Southern Regions.

Home Counties

  • Estuary English (see below) is extremely prevalent in the Home Counties, but where an individual does not adopt this accent:
  • Southern and Western Home Counties (i.e. Surrey, Hampshire, Sussex, Kent, Buckinghamshire) tend to adopt a slightly "posh" (RP) accent.
  • Essex in general uses Estuary English; this is in fact where it originated.
  • Northern Home Counties (e.g. Herts) is more akin to the West Country rural accent, but with dropped 'h's being common.

Cockney

  • Initial h sounds are dropped; e.g. "house" becomes "ouse"; "help" becomes "elp"
  • T sounds in the middle of words are replaced with a glottal stop; e.g. "water" becomes "wa><er"
  • Diphthongs shift tongue positioning distinctively, similarly to Australian English

Jamaican-influenced London accent

Used by Jamaicans, or children of Jamaican parents, in the United Kingdom.

  • Jamaican sounding i, which sounds almost like the a in sat but shorter, followed by a very short ee sound: so might: ma'ee><
  • Adopted from the "host nation," Britain, T sounds in the middle of words are replaced with a glottal stop; e.g. "water" becomes "wa><er" - you may even hear "fauw'een" (fourteen) , "de'aiw" (detail).
  • Total loss of rhoticness. Dancer becomes daahnsaah.
  • Jamaican style vowels, so day becomes "dey" or "deh-ee" (deh has the e sound in get)

Estuary English

  • A broadly spread extension of Cockney, with less emphasis on the dropping of initial 'h's and a more profound presence of the glottal stop.

Southeastern English

  • Terminal "r" is smashed; e.g. "doorway" becomes "doe-way", "forever" becomes "forevuh"
  • Unstressed vowels are also smashed

London

  • The tongue is more forward in the mouth
  • Words can be overpronounced
  • th becomes f or v, depending on whether or not it is voiced. "Fo'i fouzand fevvers on a frush's froat."
  • In south London, the place is called "saaf London"
  • "Council House" becomes "cancel ass"
  • h replaced by glottal catch, as in the last example

West Country Accent

  • Vowel sounds are usually lengthened.
  • Among other things, inital "s" is pronounced as "z"; "r"s are pronounced.
  • In the Bristol area a terminal "a" is often followed by an intrusive "l". Hence the old joke about the three Bristolian sisters Evil, Idle and Normal (written Eva, Ida and Norma).

East Anglian English

  • Iotisation is dropped from diphthongs: "beautiful" pronounced as "bootiful", "huge" as "hooj", and so on; often Ts are downgraded to glottal stops, so "beautiful" would become /bu:><.I.fUl/ (boo'-i-ful)
  • Some diphthongs are moved further forward: "eye" and "I" are pronounced "oy", "right" is "royt", and so on
  • High intonation throughout most of a sentence

There are differences between areas within East Anglia, and even within areas: the Norwich accent has distinguishing aspects from the Norfolk dialect that surrounds it - chiefly in the vowel sounds.

Some examples of the Norfolk accent (with dialect words thrown in) at www.norfolkdialect.com

Northern and Midlands English

West Midlands English

  • Among other things, "bus" pronounced as "buzz", and flat "a" is used, as in the northern accents (below). In a Birmingham accent, a broad (rounded) A is used so "cast" is pronounced kAst. A Black Country accent uses the more northern approach.
  • Dialect verbs are used, e.g. am for are, ay for is not (related to ain't), bay for are not, bin for am or, emphatically, for are. Hence the following joke dialogue about bay windows: "What sort of windas am them?" "They'm bay windas." "Well if they bay windas wot bin them?". There is also humour to be derived from the shop-owner's sign of Mr. "E. A. Wright" (i.e. "He ay [isn't] right", a phrase implying someone is saft [soft] in the jed [head]).
  • The Midlands accent is often described as having a pronounced nasal quality, though this varies considerably within the region, being much stronger to the west and less to the east. For example the Birmingham and Coventry accents are quite distinct, even though the cities are not very far apart and to the untrained ear the accents sound very similar.

East Midlands Accent

  • The East Midlands has the least distinctive of all British accents. Nottingham, Leicester, Derby and The Wash, and to a lesser extent Northampton and Lincoln all have accents close to BBC English. There is a gradation of accent through the region.
  • The accent is non-rhotic and initial h's are pronounced.
  • Some middle-t's turn into glottle stops at increased rates of speech, e.g. little -> li:le
  • In some Nottingham accents the glottle stop in pronounced as a k. E'g 'bokkle' instead of bottle.
  • Also l's may not be pronounced, for instance cold is pronounced cowd.
  • loss of invisible is, e.g. in new pronounced "noo" not "niew"
  • o's are generally rounded not flat but sometimes are an oo sound goo-owm (go home)
  • -er and -or a the end of words are replaced with a sharp flat -o sound. "Lestoh" for Leicester.

Northern English/Liverpool (Scouse)

  • The tongue is swallowed, cutting off nasal passages and making speech sound as if the speaker has a cold.
  • "th" is often pronounced as "d", for example "there" becomes "dere" usage "oarite dere la!" ("all right there, lad!")
  • distinctive rolling "ck" sound from the Welsh influence, sounds like the speaker is clearing their throat! usage:"gerr off me backk will yer!"
  • "arr, ey!" distinctive sound of a disappointed Scouser,

Northern English/Yorkshire

  • The "u" sound is pronounced like the standard English "oo", so "luck" is pronounced (in SAMPA) lUk. The difference between the Yorkshire Pronunciation of "look" and "luck" is difficult to hear, the "look" vowel being slightly longer in duration and tending towards the SAMPA lyk pronunciation.
  • Shortening of "the" to "t", as in "I'm going down 't pub". In fact the word "the" is often ommitted completely, e.g. "I were driving down road".
  • Many dialect words, for example "owt" and "nowt" for "anything" or "nothing", "bevvy" for drink etc.
  • Sing-song intonation, as in Swedish, Welsh, and the US accent from the film Fargo.
  • Use of the singular second-person pronoun "thou" and "thee".
  • In all cases of the past tense of "to be" is "were": "I were wearing t'red coat, but he were wearing t'green one".
  • In the South-East of Yorkshire vowel shifts so "i" becomes "ee", and "ee" becomes "i", so "Where have you been last night" becomes "wherst tha bin last neet".
  • The letter "y" on the end of words is pronounced like the "i" in "city" or "pity" and is thus shorter than in Standard English [e.g. "It's a piti 'at ah didn't get sum spogs"].
  • In West Yorkshire, words like "blue" and "you" have an exaggerated "euw" sound in "bleuw" and "yeuw". This is best heard in the West Yorkshire town "Deuws-bri" [Dewsbury].
  • An "h" at the start of the world is usually dropped, but not if there is a "hu" sound ["human", "herd", "hook" or "Huddersfield"].
  • A consonant at the end of the word can sometimes become merged with the next word [if the next word begins with a vowel], as occurs in a French accent. e.g. "Pack it in!" becomes "Pa-ki-tin!"
  • Where Standard English would have a long vowel syllable, Yorkshire often splits it into two syllables. e.g. "school" becomes "skeu-il", "there" becomes "they-yer" and "door" becomes "deu-er".
It should be noted that that the three ridings of Yorkshire cover a huge area; vowel sounds and usage are quite different in Hull, Headingley and Halifax

Northern English/Lancashire

  • The "u" sound is pronounced like the standard English "oo", so "luck" is pronounced (in SAMPA) lUk. The "oo" in look is pronounced like the "oo" in "boom", so look is look is the SAMPA luk.
  • "o" pronounced "oi", so "hole" is pronounced (in SAMPA) "hOIl".
  • Many dialect words.

Northern English/Newcastle-upon-Tyne and the northeast

  • The Newcastle dialect is known as Geordie and the accent is described in the article of that name. The accent of the neighbouring areas is broadly similar (although the Makkem accent, used in nearby Sunderland, is considered by Geordies to be less refined than their own).

Reference

Indian Subcontinent

A number of distinct dialects of English are spoken on the Indian subcontinent (see Indian English). 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 changes (somewhat akin to those of English speakers in Wales - see below).

Ireland

(See also Hiberno-English and British English)

Most of the pronunciations below differ in various areas of Ireland. Those who are native will often be able to distinguish which county of Ireland the speaker hails from. There is a marked difference between accents in the North of the country and those the South. Notable variations in the Republic are the accents of County Cork, Cork City, County Kerry, Limerick City, Dublin, the West of Ireland, County Cavan and County Donegal. As with many English speaking countries, speakers from outside urban areas tend to have a softer accent.

Republic of Ireland

  • Pronounces "r" whenever it occurs in a word.
  • "l" is clear wherever it occurs in a word, as in French
  • 'Pure' vowels: "boat", in a traditional accent, is pronounced (in SAMPA) "bo:t", and cane is pronunced "ke:n"
  • Aspiration: "what" may be pronounced "hwat".
  • The "i" in "night" may be pronounced "oy"
  • The "u" in Dublin may be pronounced like the "oo" in "book"
  • In many areas, including Dublin, the "th" sound is replaced with a dental stop (Irish "three" and Spanish "tres" start with same consonant cluster, while "there" becomes "dere")
  • In County Cork, some vowel sounds are often altered. An "e" sound becomes an "i" ("well" becomes "will"). Also "Cork" is locally pronounced as "cark".
  • An accent unique to Dublin known as the Dublin 4 intonation (referring to a postal code therein) is an urban/suburban middle class feature. This is an oft derided posh dialect that renders words such as 'car' as 'core' and 'far' as 'fore'. Dublin 4 speakers often end a sentence with the rising question 'Do you know what I mean?' contracted and pronounced rapidly as 'Dja kneww whad I min?'
  • Similarly the working-class Dublin accent is a unique urban feature resembling the blue-collar accents of Manchester and Liverpool in England. This dialect includes phrases such as 'What's the story, Bud?' meaning 'How are you, friend?' pronounced 'Wats de stary bud?' and 'Mad out of it!' pronounced 'Mad ou vih!' meaning drunk or high.

Northern Ireland

Malaysia and Singapore

(see also: 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" = "court", "can't" rhymes with "aren't", etc. In recent years however, this has been breaking down due to the influence of American English.
  • Much dropping off of final consonants: "must" becomes "mus'", "rent" becomes "ren'", etc.
  • The "ay" and "ow" sounds in "raid" and "road" are pronounced as monophthongs, i.e. with no "glide", making them sound like "rehd" and "rohd".
  • "Th" becomes "t" and "d", e.g. "thin" = "tin", "then" = "den".
  • 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.

New Zealand

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 "milk" as "muwk". This is attributable to the influence of Scottish English speech patterns.

Scottish influence is particularly strong in Southland in the South Island, where people speak with a trilled "r"- the city of Invercargill is pronounced as "Unverr-carr-guw". This is also encountered among Maori, especially native Maori speakers.

Scotland

(See also Scottish English)

General

English as spoken in Scotland should not be confused with Scots which is a language in itself. However, the debt owed by Scottish English to Scots and Gaelic is undeniable.

Two immediate distinguishing features of Scottish spoken English are:

  • The pronunciation of "r" wherever it occurs in a word (often with an alveolar trill or 'rolled-r').
  • The prevalence of clipped 'pure' vowels (monophthongs) in place of 'gliding pairs' of vowel sounds (diphthongs). Hearers of Scottish English-speakers frequently pick up on the short "oo" sound of words like "boot". (See also Aitken's Law)

Other standard usages in Scottish English include "canna" (or "cannae") for "can't", "dinna" (or "dinnae") for "don't", winna (or winnae, or willnae) for won't, etc. (When Scottish people speak at speed, "don't" often becomes "deh" and "won't" becomes "weh".)

Features common, but by no means unique to, English as spoken by Scots are:

  • A prevalence of glottal stops (e.g. "bu'er" instead of "butter")
  • Contraction of "-ing" to "in'" ("talkin'" instead of "talking")

Scottish Regional Accents

For a small nation Scotland exhibits considerable regional variation in accents. Here is a summary

Glasgow & The West Coast

Glaswegians and others in the West of Scotland speak a little more slowly than those in the East - vowels are drawn out somewhat and the rolled-r is slightly more prevalent. Billy Connolly may be regarded as an 'ambassador' for the Glasgow accent.

Edinburgh

The middle-class Edinburgh accent is often considered (by Scots) to be a Scottish equivalent of received pronunciation, characterised by 'pure' vowels and careful enunciation. The working class accent is extremely different, and was brought to prominence in the movie Trainspotting.

Aberdeen & The North-East

Natives of Aberdeen and the Further North East of Scotland speak a distinct dialect called Doric. Its most well-known characteristic is the replacement of the "w" sound at the beginning of words with an "f" sound, as in the characteristic greeting "Fit like?"

Dundee

Residents of Dundee have an accent distinguished by a particular vowel sound - the flat "e" (as in "men"), which is used at all times in place of the diphtong "ai" (as in "kite"), and occasionally in place of the flat "a" in "have". Part of a famous Dundonian saying is "eh'll heh a peh" ("I'll have a pie").

Angus & The Glens

A characteristic of speech in this region, to the North of Dundee, is the use of the gutteral "ch" sound in place of the silent "gh" in certain words. For example "fight" becomes "fecht" and "mighty" become "michty". Speech in this region is often closer to pure Scots than in other areas of the country.

The South East

Not all Scots speak with 'pure' vowels - vowels are frequently 'dropped' (e.g. "car" becomes "cawr"). This is especially so in this region (the Scottish Borders). The Borders is also home to a curiosity of grammar in which the auxiliary verb "can" is treated as a progressive verb ("be able to"). For example, "you won't be able to do that" becomes "you'll no' can dae that".

The Highlands & Islands;

Here, in the North West, English is spoken in a lilting manner influenced by the continued use of Gaelic. This is especially noticeable in the Western Isles.

Orkney and Shetland

Similarly, traces of the Norse influence upon these extreme Northern isles can be heard in today's islanders' distinctively pitched accents (c.f. Norn).

See also:

South Africa

(See also 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, due to the Afrikaner influence. Native English speakers in South Africa also insert a number of Afrikaans loanwords into their speech.

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

United States of America

(See also American English; North American English)

The standard American English accent is the neutral dialect spoken by TV network announcers and typical of educated speech in the Upper Midwest, Chicago, Minneapolis/St. Paul and Philadelphia. Standard American makes a good reference dialect because it has crisp consonants and more vowel distinctions than other major dialects, tends to retain distinctions between unstressed vowels, and is considered a "neutral" dialect. However, /O/ and /A/ tend to merge in standard American (which means that "father" and "bother" rhyme). This may help readers accustomed to accents resembling British Received Pronunciation. American actors and announcers used to speak with a Mid-Atlantic accent, which was an affected hybrid of educated American and British accents.

Regional and cultural variations within the USA include the following:

African American

(Sometimes referred to as Ebonics)

This is actually a cluster of dialects with numerous regional variations. The below describes some features found in many (but not necessarily all) varieties, and emphasizes a stereotype that may or may not be true in some areas of the United States. This dialect is not exclusive to African-Americans and might be more appropriately titled Urban.

  • Use of double negative; in some speakers, multiple negation is used for emphasis: "I ain't never done nuthin' like that."
  • Use of "ain't" where Standard American English (SAE) uses "isn't".
  • Auxiliary "be" + verb is used for the habitual aspect of a verb. "It be dat way sometime" = "It's like that, sometimes".
  • Auxiliary "done" + verb is used for the completive aspect of a verb "He done gone to the store" means that he completed the errand he set out to do. SAE has no direct equivalent to this.
  • Some speakers may pronounce /D/ as [d] initially and as [v] between vowels; and /T/ as [f].
  • People who live in the northern USA may perceive the dialect as having a distinct "Southern" quality to it, because of a tendency to monophthongize /ay/ as [a:] (see "USA (Southern)" below).
  • African American dialects are not only non-rhotic, but in some cases may also delete /r/ between vowels. Thus, "Carol never made drop rate art" may be pronounced "Ca'ol nevah made drop rate aht" [k}.ol nE.v@ med drOp ret a:t]. "Store" is pronounced "stow".

Appalachia

(South Midlands, Tennessee through Texas)
  • monophthongization of /ay/ as [a:], e.g. most dialects' "I" --> "Ah" in the South.
  • raising of initial vowel of /au/ to /æu/ (/{u/); the initial vowel is often lengthened and prolonged, yielding /æ:w/.
  • nasalization of vowels, esp. diphthongs, before /n/.
  • raising of /æ/ to /e/; can't --> cain't, &c.
  • Unlike most American English, but like Commonwealth English, glides (/j/, the y sound) are inserted before /u/ after the consonants /t/, /d/, /θ/, /s/, /z/, /n/, and /l/.
  • South Midlands speech is rhotic. This is diagnostic for Yankees to whom it all sounds "Southern."

Boston, Massachusetts

  • loss of postvocalic <r>, except when the following word begins with a vowel. "Park the car in Harvard Yard" becomes "Pahk the car in Hahvahd Yahd."
  • "I had no idea" becomes "I had no eye-dee-err"
  • A linking r, as in, for example, "Chiner and India"
  • See also Boston accent phonology
  • The positive use of the word "wicked" as an adverb or adjective, for example, as in "wicked cool"

Reference

Speeches of John F. Kennedy display Boston Irish speech

New York City

The accent varies across the boroughs. The classic example is "dirty toilet water" becoming pronounced something like "doity terlet wada."

Brooklyn, New York

  • loss of postvocalic <r>.
  • faster speech tempo
  • /OI/ pronounced /3r/ and /3r/ pronounced /OI/. When asked if the apartment had heat in the winter the landlord replied "Shua. We got a brand new url boyna." ("Sure. We got [purchased] a brand new oil burner.")

Reference
Old Bugs Bunny cartoons (Bugs has a Brooklyn accent). The accent is often exaggerated, but it still does exist to some degree with many Brooklyn natives. Also, Groucho Marx has a passable Brooklyn accent.

Bronx, New York

Use of a glottal stop in place of a "t" in the middle of a word, e.g. "to><al" rather than "toT-tl", water is pronounced "wa><er".

Maine and Downeast

  • As in Boston and much of Massachusetts, the accent of long-time residents is distinctively non-rhotic with heavy use of epenthetic rs.
  • Older native Maine (USA) residents pronounce "yes" or "yeah" as "ayuh", with the stress on the second syllable.
  • Additionally, word "ayuh" is frequently spoken while inhaling, rather than exhaling. This makes it easy to insert in between sentences while breathing. In such cases, it is often truncated to simply "yuh"
  • Many Mainers (locally pronounced maine-ahs) use the phrase "right ruthless" (pronounced right roofless). This usually means that something is in good form, e.g. "I'll tell you, it was right ruthless when you flipped your snowmobile back there"

Midwest

(Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Lower Peninsula of Michigan)

  • /O/ merged with /a/. "not" sounds like "naht" (/nOt/ --> [nat]), "opportunity" like "ahppertunity" (NOTE: This is standard in Connecticut, an eastern state.)
  • "roof", "book", and "root" all use the same vowel.
  • preservation of non-prevocalic <r>
  • perfectly rounded /O/, drawn out a bit for emphasis: "MinnesOHHta", "O yah," "fOHlks at hOHme"

  • Much of Indiana sounds similar to downstate Illinois.
  • South Indiana has a distinctive accent, locally known as the "Hoosier Twang" (a well-known speaker is actor Jim Nabors, who played Gomer Pyle on TV and has for many years sung "Back Home In Indiana" before the Indy 500 race).

(Nebraska, Western Iowa)

  • "Guess is frequently pronounced "giss," and "get" becomes "git."

New England and East Coast

  • (also South:) loss of non-prevocalic r in some dialects.
  • faster speech tempo

Old Northwest

(Minnesota (esp. rural), Upper Peninsula of Michigan, North Dakota)

  • /O/ merged with /a/. ("Father" rhymes with "bother".)
  • Preservation of non-prevocalic <r>
  • Canadian raising: see section on Canada.
  • "roof", "book", and "root" all use the same vowel (SAMPA [U]).
  • Use of German/Scandinavian "ja" as an affirmative filler or emphatic; Standard US English "yes" is used to answer questions and to start an explanation.
  • Tendency towards a "sing-songy" intonation (the area's earliest European settlers were primarily Scandinavian, and this has influenced the local dialect). More recently, this has been reinforced by an influx of Asians, most of whom speak tonal languages.
  • Known as "Yooper" in Upper Pensinsula of Michigan [UP = Yoo-Pee]
  • For a stereotypical (if somewhat overdone) example of Minnesotan, refer to the movie Fargo. For a more normative example, Garrison Keillor speaks with a typical urban Minnesota accent.
  • "You" ==> "Youse"
  • W ==> V, particularly well=>vell and what=>vaht
  • Perhaps to a greater degree than other parts of the United States, standard American English pronunciation is replacing the regional accent, probably because there is less cultural identity wrapped up in the language than elsewhere

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh accents have a number of distinctive features. Please reference that article for more information.

St. Louis and vicinity

  • Some St. Louisans (probably born earlier than 1960) tend to merge the /Or/ sound as in for with the /Ar/ sound of far. Interstates 40 and 44, both of which curve through town, are thus farty and farty-far. This accent is otherwise a typical Midwestern General American-like accent.
  • Some younger speakers are picking up the Northern cities vowel shift heard in Chicago, eastern Wisconsin, and much of Michigan. This vowel shift causes words like cat /k&t/ to become more like /kEt/ and talent /'t&l,nt/ to be more like /'tj&l,nt/ or /'tEl,nt/. Younger generations also tend to pronounce not more like /nAt/ (naht), as do older generations in this area. This does not necessarily mean a complete merger between /A/ and /O/, however.
  • Some speakers, usually older generations, pronounce words like measure as /"meIZ.@r/, and wash as /wOrS/, e.g. /"wOrS.IN.t@n/ for Washington.

South

(Coastal Virginia, North Carolina through Louisiana)) (See also Southern American English)

  • monophthongization of /aI/ as [a:], e.g. most dialects' "I" --> "Ah" in the South.
  • (also some East Coast:) loss of non-prevocalic r.
  • slower speech tempo
  • putting two modals together as if the second were an infinitive: "I might could do that."
  • Coastal Southern speech is non-rhotic.
  • -ing suffix is pronounced [@n]
  • /e/ and /i/ merged before nasal consonants, e.g. "Wendy" becomes "Windy," "pen" becomes "pin," and so forth.
  • Unlike most American English, but like Commonwealth English, glides (/j/, the y sound) are inserted before /u/ after the consonants /t/, /d/, /θ/, /s/, /z/, /n/, and /l/.
  • In the deep south, vowels tend to take the hard sound more often e.g. "on" and "own" are similar; "can't" and "ain't" and "glass" and "face" also might rhyme.
  • Verbs can have various meanings. e.g. 'Cut' the light off, or 'mash' the buttons

New Orleans

While including such characteristics of the Southern US English as using "y'all" for second person plural and dropping the "g" from words ending in "ing", the New Orleans, Louisiana accent is so unlike the rest of the South that New Orleanians traveling in other parts of the USA commonly get the remark "You don't sound like you're from the South".

Many pronunciations are surprisingly similar to that found in northern New Jersey, presumably arrising from a similar mix of immigrants.

The ending "ed" is commonly deleted from words. Some common phrases use anglisized versions of old French sentence structure, for example to go shopping for groceries is "making grocieries".

Perhaps the most distinctive New Orleans accent is locally nicknamed "yat", from a traditional greeting "Where y'at" ("Where are you at?", meaning "How are you?"). One of the most detailed phonetic depictions of an extreme "yat" accent of the early 20th century is found in the speech of the character Krazy Kat in the comic strip of the same name by George Herriman. While such extreme "yat" accents are no longer so common in the city, they can still be found in parts of Mid-City and the 9th ward.

The novel A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole is generally considered the best depiction of New Orleans accents in literature.

Southern New Jersey

  • some southern New Jersey residents have a tendency to drop the letter T in speech, or pronounce it like the letter D. "Atlantic" becomes "Alanic", "Antarctica" becomes "Anardica"
  • "Water" is sometimes pronounced "Wooder"
  • "Orange" and "horrible" often pronounced as "ahrange" and "hahrible" (also Central New Jersey)
  • Not technically a feature of accent, South Jersey and Philadelphia natives tend to say "yous guys" where others would say "you guys" or "y'all"

Utah

  • diphthongization of /E/ as /EI/: "egg" and "leg" pronounced "ayg" and "layg", "leisure" and "pleasure" pronounced "layzhur" and "playzhur".
  • in some cases, "ar" and "or" are reversed: "I was barn in a born" (I was born in a barn).

Wales

(See also British English)

  • Distinctive pitch differences giving a "sing-song" effect
  • Overpronunciation of vowels is common in strong "valleys" accents
  • Light rolling of r's

Welsh accents can be heard from the actors Richard Burton and (to a lesser extent) Anthony Hopkins, or on recordings of Dylan Thomas or in the music of Catatonia, Tom Jones or Shirley Bassey.

External links


This is an Article on Regional accents of English speakers. Page Contains Information, Facts Details or Explanation Guide About Regional accents of English speakers


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