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The major native dialects of English are often divided by linguists into three general categories: the British Isles dialects, those of North America, and those of Australasia. [2] Dialects can be associated not only with place but also with particular social groups.
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Jul 20, 2020 · The UK is obsessed with the way people talk. And with more than thirty seven dialects, it’s no surprise why. That’s right, accents and dialects* vary greatly across Great Britain, and there is no such thing as a single ‘British accent’.
- Scottish
- Geordie
- Scouse
- Yorkshire
- Welsh
- Brummie
- West Country
- R.P.
- Essex
- Cockney
Let’s start in the North, with the accent that universally symbolises glassy lochs (lakes), snowy mountains, tartan, and… shortbread? The Scottish accent as we know it now developed as late as the 1700s, but existed in different forms before that. It was heavily influenced by the Gaelic language, which was (and still sometimes is) spoken in certain...
People from Newcastle speak a dialect called Geordie, which is one of the strongest and most distinctive accents in England. Geordie changes all the rules of Standard English, so nothing is pronounced as you’d expect it to be: the word button would be pronounced BOT-tdan instead of BUH-tun, with a ‘ooh’ sound on the letter U and a rolled T. Yeah, b...
People from Liverpool are called Scousers or Liverpudlians, and their dialect (which, like Geordie, is very strong and instantly recognisable) is called Scouse. Liverpudlians would say woss dtha? instead of what’s that?with a lot of emphasis on the letters A and Y in words. They also roll their Rs, making it hard to tell if they’re saying L or R. B...
One of the biggest counties in England, Yorkshire has a distinctive accent where one of the biggest pronunciation differences is on the letter U, which is spoken as ooo rather than uh – so cut is pronounced coht and blood is pronounced blohd. Apparently it’s seen as one of the nicest and most trustworthy dialects by other people in the UK, but pers...
Officially a different country, Wales has a culture and language of its own that’s spoken by half a million people. They have brilliantly long and complicated words like Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, which is the name of a Welsh village (and the second longest place name in the world). When Welsh people speak English, ...
Possibly the cutest name on our list, this accent is actually one of the most ridiculed in the UK – which is quite mean, because clearly people from Essex have never heard themselves speak. The name is derived from Brummagem and Bromwichham, both historical alternate names for the large city of Birmingham, where people speak this dialect. People wi...
The West Country includes the counties of Gloucestershire, Dorset, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, and the dialect is the closest to the old British language of Anglo-Saxon, which was rooted in Germanic languages – so, true West Country speakers say I be instead of I am, and Thou bist instead of You are, which is very close to Ich bin (I am) and Du b...
The accent of the Home Counties area (the counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Kent, Surrey, and Sussex) is closest to what people call Queen’s English, also known as Received Pronunciation (R.P.) or Standard English. It’s basically a ‘flat’ accent with emphasised vowels like A (pronounced ah as in car) and O (pronounced ohw as in...
This county’s dialect is so distinct, you can immediately tell if someone comes from Essex. They’ll pronounce words like no as NA-hw and drop the th sound from words like think, so they’d say finkinstead. It’s also become common to drop words like to and thein statements like “Let’s go (to the) shops”. It’s an accent that’s become much more well kn...
Perhaps the most famous British accent other than R.P. is Cockney. It developed as the dialect of the poorer working classes in the East End of London, and it’s still regarded as a marker of ‘true’ East London heritage. Like the Essex accent, Cockney swaps the th sound for f, drops the h in front of words like head, and elongates vowels like A and ...
- Cockney. This is one of the UK’s most famous dialects, and it goes hand in hand with London. It came about as the dialect of the London working classes, especially in the poorer East End of the city.
- Estuary English. Here’s another dialect that is London-based. The ‘Estuary’ in question is the Thames Estuary, and this dialect is spoken by people who live along its stretch.
- Yorkshire. Yorkshire is a big county in England, and lots of people speak with a variation of the Yorkshire dialect as a result. Known as ‘God’s Own County’, Yorkshire has a delicious dialect.
- Northern Irish. The Northern Irish accent is quite a beautiful one, and a strong one too. The first thing you’ll probably notice about Northern Irish is how many letters seem to be missing from words when people speak it.
This website celebrates the rich diversity in dialects of English spoken all over the United Kingdom: how we use various words to refer to the same things, pronounce the same words in different ways, and even form sentences using entirely different grammatical constructions.
Listen to 115 samples of English accents and dialects from nine regions, organized by county and city. Learn about the history, pronunciation, and features of each dialect, and compare them with other varieties of English.
Jan 23, 2023 · It’s no secret that the United Kingdom has its own unique set of accents and dialects. But how exactly do these differ from one region to another? In this article, we’ll explore the features of each accent, as well as any regional variations in pronunciation and vocabulary.
