Regional accents of English speakers describes the many identifiable variations in pronunciation of Standard English between various populations, usually deriving from the phoneme inventory of the local dialect. Although local accents are part of local dialects, local accents should not be confused with local dialects which are varieties differing in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. See List of dialects of the English language.

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 deals only with the accents of native English speakers.

Contributors to this article have then gone on to confuse accent and dialect.

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. There is also much room for misunderstanding between people from different regions, such as the way that the word "right" is pronounced in some parts of Yorkshire in the way that Southerners say "rate".

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 using Harrington, Cox and Evans (1997) (see [1] (http://www.ling.mq.edu.au/units/ling210-901/phonetics/ausenglish/auseng_vowels.html)):

Australian Vowel Pronunciation in IPA and X-SAMPA
Australian		Received Pronunciation		Examples
iː	i:	iː	i:	heed
ɪ	I	ɪ	I	hid
e	e	ɛ	E	head
æ	{	æ	{	hat, had
aː	a:	ɑː	A:	hard, fast
a	a	ʌ	V	hut
ɔ	O	ɒ	Q	hot
oː	o:	ɔː	O:	horde
ʊ	U	ʊ	U	hood
ʉː	}:	uː	u:	hoon
ɜː	3:	ɜː	3:	heard
ə	@	ə	@	banana
æɪ	{I	eɪ	eI	hate
ɑe	Ae	aɪ	aI	hide
æɔ	{O	aʊ	aU	howl
əʉ	@}	əʊ	@U	hope
ɔɪ	OI	ɔɪ	OI	hoist
ɪː/ɪə	I:/I@	ɪə	I@	hear
eː/eə	e:/e@	ɛə	E@	hair
ʊə	U@	ʊə	U@	tour

• The vowel in words like 'pure', 'tour' has diverged according to the whim of the speaker, either remaining as a diphthong or becoming two separate monophthongs.
• Additionally, the vowels are generally pronounced higher up in the mouth than their English counterparts; [ɪə] (beard) is often pronounced as [ɪː] when followed by a consonant; /ɜː/ (bird) takes on a fronter, more rounded quality; /æ/ (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 /ɔː/ (born, saw) became [oː], and all /ɒ/ (hot) became [ɔ], gone stayed as [ɔː].
• In Victoria, a short e before an 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 some eastern 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.

• Steve "Crocodile hunter" Irwin has a broad rural Queensland accent. His broad accent and excited style is often parodied inside Australia as well as out.
• Several Australian actors provided voices for Finding Nemo. Nigel the pelican, the three sharks, and the dentist are Australian voices.
• The ABC provides many streams of their radio programs (http://www.abc.net.au/streaming/). Many of these would make a good reference for the casual, relaxed Australian accent and use of the English language as opposed to scripted performances.

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

• Cape Breton Island has a distinct dialect due to settlement by speakers of Acadian French and Scottish Gaelic

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 refer to 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).
• Many speakers in Ontario and the provinces further west have a new chain shift called the Canadian Shift. (see Canadian English)
• 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, second syllable of "about" is pronounced /VU/ rather than RP /aU/.

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.

United Kingdom

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.

Note that southern accents, outside London, are influenced by two extra phenomena, both relatively recent:

• Social class. From some time during the 19th century middle and upper classes began to adopt affectations (including the broad A), usually referred to as 'posh'.
• After World War 2 around 1 million Londoners were relocated to new and expanded towns throughout the south east, bringing with them their distinctive London infflections (and possibly creating the seed of Estuary English).

Home Counties

• Estuary English (see below) is common in the Home Counties, as often as an affected accent as a native one. Where an individual does not adopt this accent:
• Southern and Western Home Counties (i.e. Surrey, Hampshire, Sussex, Buckinghamshire) tend to be associated with a slightly "posh" (RP) accent.
• Essex is generally associated with Estuary English, mainly in urban areas receiving an influx of East London migrants, but the true Essex accent is more closely related to East Anglian accents.
• Hertfordshire varies: the east Herts accent is akin to the native Essex, while west Herts shares elements with West Country accents, south Midlands accents - again with strong influences from London accents thanks to the influx of post-War migrants from London.

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
• An l at the end of a word is pronounced more like a w, eg "Phil" becomes "Fiw"

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)

'Wigga'

Part accent, part dialect, from around the mid-1990s, and influenced not only by British black urban culture, but by American rap music, this variant is used by the youth all races as a 'street' patois, with clear US influences (such as the greeting "Yo!"), but also Carribean patterns such as "arks" (rather than "ask"). Although used by all races, the term 'wigga' derives from 'white nigger', originally intended to mock the aspiration of white youths to sound like their supposedly 'cooler' black contemporaries. It can be heard in many parts of England, but especially the south.

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

• Generally use a flat a, so "cast" is pronounced [kast] rather than the [kɑst] pronunciation of most southern accents. This applies everywhere north of (though not including) Birmingham. There are other peculiarities in specific northern Regions.
• Northern English does not recognize /^/ ("strut," "but," etc.) as a separate vowel. All short-u words are pronounced with [U] as in "look" and "book."

West Midlands English

• Among other things, "bus" pronounced as "buzz", and flat "a" is used, as in the northern accents (below). In a Brummie accent (Birmingham), 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 glottal stops at increased rates of speech, e.g. little -> li:le
• In some Nottingham accents the glottal 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.
• Some parts of North Nottinghamshire, in the old mining areas around Retford and Mansfield, may have what sounds like a Doncaster-style soft Yorkshire accent.

Northern English/Liverpool (Scouse)

• "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, for example: "gerr off me backk will yer!"

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.
• An "a" sound in the middle of the word tends to be very long. e.g. "care" becomes "caaare", "say" becomes "saaay". Words with "ake" at the end tend to become "ek" - as in "tek", "mek" and "sek" for "take", "make" and "sake".
• 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 the archaic "aught" and "naught" ("owt" and "nowt") for "anything" and "nothing". In some areas these both rhyme with "note", in others they rhyme with "out".
• Sing-song intonation, as in Swedish, Welsh, and the US accent from the film Fargo.
• In cases when the rest of Britain would say "give me that", Yorkshire people would say "give that me" [or "give that us"]. This can lead to confusion.
• Sheffield people traditionally said "de" for "the" and "dere" for "there". This is now rare to find, however. In most other parts of Yorkshire, "there" is pronounced "they-yer".
• The mining areas tend to say "darn" for "down" and "sarf" for "south". They always talked about "guein darn t'pit".
• The word "buried" is often pronounced as it is spelt.
• The word "while" is used to mean "until", especially in West Yorkshire. This can confuse outsiders e.g. "stay here while it shuts" would mean that you only have to stay until it shuts, but outsiders might think that you had to stay after it shuts.
• Several dialect words. "Gip" for "vomit", "lughole" for "ear", "stodge" for "food".
• 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 word "right" can also be pronounced, around Barnsley and Wakefield, as a Southerner would say "rate", which can lead to misunderstandings.
• 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"].
• 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".
• It is easy to tell a Lancastrian speaker from a Yorkshire speaker by the distinctive pronunciation of the word 'hair'. In Lancashire it is pronounced 'hurr'.
• 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). See also Pitmatic.

Reference

• For London accents, listen to old recordings by Petula Clark, Julie Andrews, the Rolling Stones, and The Who (although many of these contain affected patterns). For a clear example see actor Stanley Holloway (Eliza Dootlittle's father in My Fair Lady), or footballer David Beckham.

• The Cockney accent can be found in the movies Snatch and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels.

• Ozzy Osbourne has a Birmingham accent.

• For Liverpool accents, recordings by The Beatles (George Harrison's accent was the thickest of the four of them), Gerry and the Pacemakers, Herman's Hermits, Echo and the Bunnymen.

• A Yorkshire (Leeds) accent can be detected in interviews with Melanie Brown of The Spice Girls.

• An East Riding accent can be heard in recordings by the Watersons.

• The film Kes contains a broad Yorkshire accent associated with the mining areas around Barnsley and Wakefield. Some of the pronounciations in this film [e.g. "father" is pronounced as it is spelt, "first" is pronounced "fust"] are now only heard amongst the elder generation. The more recent film Brassed Off shows a much weaker version of the Barnsley-Wakefield accent, having been set in the village of Grimethorpe.

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.

Some 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 differentiation between "w" and "wh" in witch and which (X-SAMPA) /w/ and /W/.
• The ability to pronounce the "ch" /x/ in loch.
• The non-phonemic vowel length (monophthongs) in place of 'gliding pairs' of vowel sounds (diphthongs). "Bait" and "boat" are pronounced /bet/ and /bot/ respectively. Hearers of Scottish English-speakers frequently pick up on the short "oo" sound of words like "boot".
• The advancement of the "oo" sound" - "boot" is pronounced /bʉt/.

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

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

• A prevalence of glottal stops for 't' between vowels or after a vowel (e.g. "bu'er" instead of "butter")
• realising the nasal velar in "-ing" as a nasal alveolar "in'" ("talkin'" instead of "talking")

Scottish Regional Accents

For a small nation Scotland exhibits considerable regional variation in accents (dialects!) Here is a summary confusing Scots, English, dialect and accent - see points above.

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 of Scots called Doric. Its most well-known characteristic is the realisation of "wh" as an "f" sound, as in the characteristic inquiry "Fa fuppit the fite fulpie?" Of course others speak English with an Aberdeenshire accent

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 hae 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" - another vowel!). 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:

• - Scottish Standard English pronunciation (http://www.scots-online.org/grammar/sse.htm)
• Scots-Online (http://www.scots-online.org/) - an introduction to the Scots language;
• The Speech Accent Archive (http://classweb.gmu.edu/accent/)

Wales

(See also British English and Wenglish)

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

South Wallian 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.

The accents of North Wales are markedly different with 'Scouse' like Liverpool accents in Queensferry and Fflint to the very distinctive accent of North West Wales. Here the R are rolled extensively and the vowels are pressed to the back of the throat especially the letter 'U' which is pronounced as a guttural ee. The accents of some indivduals from some of the more rural communities have been likened to German acents by visitors from England.

The accents of mid-wales especially North Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion are more gentle in nature than either the 'valleys' of the Northern welsh accents and are, by repute, one of the more beautiful British accents to listen to.

Hong Kong

See also Hong Kong English

The accent of English spoken in Hong Kong follows mainly British, with rather strong influence from Cantonese on the pronunciations of a few consonants and vowels, and sentence grammar and structure. In recent years there are some Canadian and Australia influences, due to the return of emigrants to these countries. American influence in vocabularies and spellings is also substantial through multinational conglomerates and Hollywood movies.

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,