Dialects in England

regional and social varieties of english

​Intro to varieties in england

Key terms

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Linguistic Geography: The study of the geographical distribution of linguistic features and how language varies across regions.

Dialect Boundary: A geographical line marking the limits of a particular linguistic feature or set of features.

Isogloss: A line on a map marking an area with a distinct linguistic feature, separating regions where different linguistic variants are used.

Dialect Levelling: The process by which dialectal differences reduce or disappear, often due to increased interaction and communication among speakers of different dialects.

Dialects
in
England

Draw

Fill/circle the areas whose local dialects approach the standard the closest:

​OE dialects

​mE/EME dialects

​national standard

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With roots in late ME dialects and incipient morphology of EME Central Midlands, East Anglia and Greater London area, national standard then emerged with further influences from North Midlands (Chancery standard).

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However, according to Schneider's dynamic model English did not achieve exonormative stabilization until late 17c. In 18c it started undergoing process of nativization (dictionaries) and codification through prescriptive grammars.

rp vs standard english

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Standard English is not socially restricted and exhibits vast regional variation.

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Standard English is broadly assumed to be Standard British English and is an umbrella term for ​Standard English English, Standard Scottish English and Standard Irish English.

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Regular regional features have been adopted in national standards, e.g. They hadn’t a good time (in Standard Scottish English)

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which dialect?

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Peter Trudgill distinguishes between traditional and mainstream dialects in England.

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Traditional dialects differ greatly from the standard and are spoken on the periphery in the North and West of England.

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While mainstream dialects are spoken in the Southeast by urban, younger and higher class demographic and differ much less from the standard.

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traditional english dialects

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Traditional dialects in England are descendants of older English dialects and subject to dialect levelling. They are not spoken by the majority of population in England and boast the heaviest of accents, grammatical idiosyncrasies and unique words. Their accents are established based on the pronunciation of sounds in keywords: long, right, blind, hand, seven.

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The subdivisions of traditional dialects also have other phonetic features that distinguish them among other English dialects.​ (cont'd after the charts)

​traditional english dialects

​mainstream english dialects

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​As traditional features have become localized, modern dialect boundaries are difficult to establish: e.g. h-dropping has become popular in East Anglia, so the full pronunciation 'hill' can be heard only in the northeaster part. Or pronunciation of bat as 'baet' has spread everywhere beyond East Anglia so can no longer be used to distinguish it; r-lessness as well has become very common.

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Thus, modern dialects are established on a set of other features better represented as a sentence: Very few cars made it up the long hill.

​mainstream english dialects

sounds in the survey of english dialects

"Good" vs "bad" accents

​What makes a pleasant/unpleasant sounding accent?

The psychology of accents | TED-EdTED-EdManage LibraryTED-EdInstagramTumblrTwitterFacebookYouTube

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Multiple Choice

What is the name psychologists have given the effect of drawing meaning from things without meaning?

• bubba/carkey effect

• bouba/kiki effect

• booboo/kicky effect

• bamboo/kitty effect

Multiple Choice

You can always judge someone's level of education, socio-economic status, and ethnicity based on the way they talk?

• Absolutely!

• No way!

Multiple Choice

Humans are capable of drawing meaning from things without meaning?

• Yes

• No

Multiple Choice

Babies have an own accent bias.

• Yes

• No

Multiple Choice

You sound more guilty if you have

• a London accent

• an RP accent

• a more regional accent

Split: A process where a single phoneme divides into two distinct phonemes.
Merger: The combination of two previously distinct phonemes into a single phoneme in a language or dialect.

Coalescence: The process where two adjacent sounds merge into a single sound, often a blend of the original sounds.

Reduction: The simplification of a sound or syllable.

Dropping: The omission of a sound that was previously present in a word.

Rhoticity: The pronunciation of the "r" sound in post-vocalic positions (after a vowel).

Fronting: The movement of a sound's place of articulation towards the front of the mouth.
Flapping: A phonological process where an intervocalic voiceless or voiced alveolar stop (like /t/ or /d/) turns into a voiced alveolar flap (often represented as [ɾ]).

Drawl: A speech characteristic where vowels are pronounced longer than usual. It gives the speech a slow, stretched-out quality.

Glottalisation: The process of using the glottis (the space between the vocal cords) to produce a sound, often resulting in a catch or abruptness in the voice.

Review of phonological terms

​1. phonetic and Phonological variation

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Although consonants do vary across regional varieties in England, vowels mainly account for the difference in accents.

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• consonants (glottal stop [t], th-fronting, h-dropping, singular [l] distribution, r-lessness)

• vowels​ (Foot-Strut split, Trap-Bath split, Face/Goat diphthong)

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*well's chart

Cockney Tongue Twisters.mp4 - Google Drive

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Multiple Choice

Which feature of the Cockney accent was the previous video making fun of?

• th-fronting

• h-dropping

• glottal stops

Multiple Choice

The images showed

• th-stopping

• th-fronting

• th-dropping

Multiple Choice

The images showed

• drawl

• rhoticity

• flapping

Multiple Choice

The images showed

• foot-strut split

• trap-bath split

• foot-goose merger

Multiple Choice

The images showed

• mete-mate merger

• trap-bath split

• /æ/ raising

Multiple Choice

The images showed

• yod-rhotacization

• glottalization

• yod-coalescence

Multiple Choice

The images showed

• ng-coalescence

• gn-reduction

• generalized final cluster reduction

what does all of this mean?

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Notwithstanding dialect levelling, the accents across England (and Britain) are defined and not characterized by volatility.

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The biggest divide in England is that between the North and the South (and while northern dialects tend to be more traditional, there can be established pan-Northern phonological features)​.

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Across Britain we can observe accents giving in to London trends in the South, West and Wales; while Scotland​ (and to a degree Ireland) is more likely to share affinity with the North.

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Zero-plural: A noun that has the same form in both singular and plural (e.g., "sheep" can be one sheep or many sheep).

Plural Coordination: Using two or more coordinated elements in a plural form, often to convey a combined or collective meaning (e.g., "ladies and gentlemen").

Negator: A word or morpheme that expresses negation (e.g., "not" in English).

Progressive Aspect: A verb form that indicates an ongoing action or state (e.g., "is running" or "was singing").

Negative Concord: A linguistic structure where two or more negative elements are used in a single clause, but the meaning is still singularly negative (e.g., "I didn't see nobody" in some dialects means "I didn't see anybody").

Focusing Device: A linguistic tool or structure used to emphasize or highlight a particular part of a sentence or discourse (e.g., the word "even" in "even I didn't know that").

Review of morphosyntactic terms

grammar in the survey of english dialects

​2. Morphosyntactic variation

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While standard English is spread across all regions, regional varieties also seem to share some non-standard features across all Britain.

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• them as demonstrative (how do you like them apples)

• zero-plural for nouns of measurement (2 pound of apples)

• what instead of which (apples what were bought yesterday)

• never as past tense negator (I never did that)

• there is plural coordination (there's three apples in the basket)

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• sat and stood in use as progressives (she was sat over there)

• ly-less adverbs (come quick)

• ain't /in't (she in't coming)

• was coordinating with plural (they was walking)

• me instead of I in coordinated subjects (My friends and me)

• was for unreal were (If I was you)

• us+NP as subjects (us kids used to steal apples)

• negative concord (he won't hurt nobody)

• like as a focusing device (how did he get away with that like?)

• regularization of irregular verbs (catched)

• etc.

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Open Ended

What do you think the previous map tells us about the linguistic processes in terms of variety studies?

north vs South divide

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Outside 'angloversals' (or more broadly vernacular universals), there can be observed other pan-regional features that are present in multiple dialects. Specifically, in morphosyntax there can be established pan-Northern and pan-Southern features.

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If in phonological sense, dialectal affinities were more diffused and relative, in grammatical, Scottish, Irish and Manx English more precisely match with the North of England, while Wales matches with the South.

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lexis in the survey of english dialects

onions across the pond

3. lexical variation

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Variation in lexis is not as obvious as phonological, nor as pervasive as morphosyntactic. Regional variation in vocabulary is due to either:language contact, local realia, different name for the same thing, different meaning for the same word.

Unlike traditional dialects, in modern mainstream dialects lexical variation is decreasing fast. Although vocabulary used in social life, such as food and drink tends to be regionally diverse.

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Across England, making tea could be referred to as brewing tea, wetting tea, mashing tea etc.

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The reasons for such lexical attrition​ are a more comprehensive exposure to standard English, disappearance of local artefacts and realia and decrease in rural population (which traditionally presents broader dialects.)

MAPS copy.pdf - Google Drive

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The British-Irish Dialect Quiz - The New York Times

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Open Ended

Which English dialects you are most curious about? What interest you most about them?