ENGLISH DIALECTS

Dialects of English

Dr. C. George Boeree

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English is actually an unusual language.  Already a blend of early Frisian and Saxon, it absorbed Danish and Norman French, and later added many Latin and Greek technical terms.  In the US, Canada, Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and elsewhere, it absorbed terms for indigenous plants, animals, foodstuffs, clothing, housing, and other items from native and immigrant languages.  Plus, the various dialects, from Cockney to Jamaican, and innumerable sources of slang, from Polari to hip hop, continue to add novel terms and expressions to the mix.  It is no surprise to hear from people learning English what a student once told me:  English just has too many words!

Pronunciation (for our purposes):

i: as in beet i as in bit ei as in bait e as in bet æ as in bat a: as in father å as in pot (RP) o as in paw ou as in coat u as in cook u: as in kook œ as in but ' as in ago yu: as in cute ai as in kite oi as in coy

au as in cow c as in church j as in judge th as in thin dh as in then sh as in shush zh as in azure ng as in ring hw as in whale hy as in huge ü as in German ö as in French kh as in Scottish loch (lokh) gh as in Dutch ñ as in Spanish ? as t in Cockney bottle (bo?'l)

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British English

Southern

Southern English engages in r-dropping, that is, r's are not pronounced after vowels, unless followed by another vowel.  Instead, vowels are lengthened or have an /'/ off-glide, so fire becomes /fai'/, far becomes /fa:/, and so on.

• regular use of "broad a" (/a:/), where GA (General American) would use /æ/.
• "long o" is pronounced /'u/, where GA uses /ou/.
• final unstressed i is pronounced /i/, where GA uses /i:).
  
• t between vowels retained as /t/ (or a glottal stop, in its variants), where GA changes it to /d/.
  

The English of well-bred Londoners, especially graduates of the public schools (e.g. Eton and Harrow) and "Oxbridge" universities, was the origin of "the Queen's English," also known as Received Pronunciation (RP), BBC, or "posh."

Cockney

Originally the dialect of the working class of East End London.

• initial h is dropped, so house becomes /aus/ (or even /a:s/).
• /th/ and /dh/ become /f/ and /v/ respectively: think > /fingk/, brother > /brœv'/.
• t between vowels becomes a glottal stop: water > /wo?i/.
• diphthongs change, sometimes dramatically: time > /toim/, brave > /braiv/, etc.

Besides the accent, it includes a large number of slang words, including the famous rhyming slang:

• have a butchers -- take a look [from butcher's hook = look]
• north and south -- mouth
• plates -- feet [from plates of meat = feet]
• boat race --  face
• skin and blister -- sister
• trouble --  wife [from trouble and strife = wife]
• dustbin lids -- kids / children
• whistle -- suit [from whistle and flute = suit]
• oily rag -- fag = cigarette
• jam jar -- car
• mince pies -- eyes
• pen and ink -- stink
• porkies -- lies [from pork pies = lies]
• titfer -- hat [from tit for tat = hat]
• apples and pears -- stairs
• Jimmy --  urinate [from Jimmy Riddle = piddle]
• Bertie Woofter --  gay man [from Bertie Woofter = poofter]
• China --  mate / friend  [from China plate = mate]
• Khyber --  buttocks [from Khyber Pass = ass]
• rabbit and pork --  talk
• tea leaf  --  thief
• taters -- cold  [from potato mold  = cold]
• dog and bone -- phone
• loaf  --  head  [from loaf of bread = head]
• brown bread --  dead
• elbows and knees -- trees
• gold watch  --  Scotch
• pride and joy --  boy
• current bun --  Sun
• dicky --  shirt [from dicky dirt = shirt]
• pots and pans -- hands
• jugs  --  ears [from jugs of beers = ears]
• ones and twos -- shoes
• daisies  --  boots [from daisy roots = boots]
• bird --  prison [from bird lime = time, as in doing time]

Estuary English

From London down the Thames and into Essex, Sussex, and even Kent, a new working and middle class dialect has evolved and is rapidly become "the" southern dialect.  It combines some of the characteristics of Cockney with RP, but makes much less use of Cockney slang.

East Anglian

This dialect is very similar to the Southern:

• t between vowels usually becomes a glottal stop.
• /ai/ becomes /oi/: time > /toim/.
• RP yu becomes u: after n, t, d... as in American English.

East Midlands

The dialect of the East Midlands, once filled with interesting variations from county to county, is now predominantly RP.  R's are dropped, but h's are pronounced.  The only signs that differentiate it from RP:

• ou > u: (so go becomes /gu:/).
• RP yu; becomes u: after n, t, d...  as in American English.

The West Country

• r's are not dropped.
• initial s often becomes z (singer > zinger).
• initial f often becomes v (finger > vinger).
• vowels are lengthened.

West Midlands

This is the dialect of Ozzie Osbourne!  While pronunciation is not that different from RP, some of the vocabulary is:

• are > am
• am, are (with a continuous sense) > bin
• is not > ay
• are not > bay

Brummie is the version of West Midlands spoken in Birmingham.

Lancashire

This dialect, spoken north and east of Liverpool, has the southern habit of dropping r's.  Other features:

• /œ/ > /u/, as in luck (/luk/).
• /ou/ > /oi/, as in hole (/hoil/)

Scouse is the very distinctive Liverpool accent, a version of the Lancashire dialect, that the Beatles made famous.

• the tongue is drawn back.
• /th/ and /dh/ > /t/ and /d/ respectively.
• final k sounds like the Arabic q.
• for is pronounced to rhyme with fur.
  

Yorkshire

The Yorkshire dialect is known for its sing-song quality, a little like Swedish, and retains its r's.

• /œ/ > /u/, as in luck (/luk/).
• the is reduced to t'.
• initial h is dropped.
• was > were.
• still use thou (pronounced /tha/) and thee.
• aught and naught (pronounced /aut/ or /out/ and /naut/ or /nout/) are used for anything and nothing.

Northern

The Northern dialect closely resembles the southern-most Scottish dialects.  It retains many old Scandinavian words, such as bairn for child, and not only keeps its r's, but often rolls them.  The most outstanding version is Geordie, the dialect of the Newcastle area.

• -er > /æ/, so father > /fædhæ/.
• /ou/ > /o:'/, so that boat sounds like each letter is pronounced.
• talk > /ta:k/
• work > /work/
• book > /bu:k/
• my > me
• me > us
• our > wor
• you plural > youse

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Wales

Welsh English is characterized by a sing-song quality and lightly rolled r's.  It has been strongly influenced by the Welsh language, although it is increasingly influenced today by standard English, due to the large number of English people vacationing and retiring there.

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Scotland

Scotland actually has more variation in dialects than England!  The variations do have a few things in common, though, besides a large particularly Scottish vocabulary:

• rolled r's.
• "pure" vowels (/e:/ rather than /ei/, /o:/ rather than /ou/)
• /u:/ is often fronted to /ö/ or /ü/, e.g. boot, good, muin (moon), poor...

There are several "layers" of Scottish English.  Most people today speak standard English with little more than the changes just mentioned, plus a few particular words that they themselves view as normal English, such as to jag (to prick) and burn (brook).  In rural areas, many older words and grammatical forms, as well as further phonetic variations, still survive, but are being rapidly replaced with more standard forms.  But when a Scotsman (or woman) wants to show his pride in his heritage, he may resort to quite a few traditional variations in his speech.  First, the phonetics:

• /oi/, /ai/, and final /ei/ > /'i/, e.g. oil, wife, tide...
• final /ai/ > /i/, e.g. ee (eye), dee (die), lee (lie)...
• /ou/ > /e/, e.g. ake (oak), bate (boat), hame (home), stane (stone), gae (go)...
• /au/ > /u/, e.g. about, house, cow, now... (often spelled oo or u)
• /o/ > /a:/, e.g. saut (salt), law, aw (all)...
• /ou/ > /a:/, e.g. auld (old), cauld (cold), snaw (snow)...
• /æ/ > /a/, e.g. man, lad, sat...
• also:  pronounce the ch's and gh's that are silent in standard English: nicht, licht, loch...

Plus, the grammar:

• Present tense:  often, all forms follow the third person singular (they wis, instead of they were).
• Past tense (weak verbs):  -it after plosives (big > biggit); -t after n, l, r, and all other unvoiced consonants (ken > kent); -ed after vowels and all other voiced consonants (luv > luved).
• Past tense (strong verbs): come > cam, gang > gaed and many more.
• On the other hand, many verbs that are strong in standard English are weak in Scottish English:  sell > sellt, tell > tellt, mak > makkit, see > seed, etc.
• Past participle is usually the same as the past (except for many strong verbs, as in standard English)
• Present participle: -in (ken > kennin)
• The negative of many auxiliary verbs is formed with -na:  am > amna, hae (have) > hinna, dae (do) > dinna, can > canna, etc.
• Irregular plurals:  ee > een (eyes), shae > shuin (shoes), coo > kye (cows).
• Common diminutives in -ie:  lass > lassie, hoose > hoosie...
• Common adjective ending: -lik (= -ish)
• Demonstratives come in four pairs (singular/plural):  this/thir, that/thae, thon/thon, yon/yon.
• Relative pronouns:  tha or at.
• Interrogative pronouns: hoo, wha, whan, whase, whaur, whatna, whit.
• Each or every is ilka; each one is ilk ane.
• Numbers: ane, twa, three, fower, five, sax, seeven, aucht, nine, ten, aleeven, twal...

And finally, the many unique words:  lass, bairn (child), kirk (church), big (build), bonny, greet (weep), ingle (household fire), aye (yes), hame (home)...  As you can see, Scottish English in its original glory is as near to being different language as one can get, rather than simply another dialect of English.  See Clive P L Young's Scots Haunbuik at http://www.electricscotland.com/tourist/sh_gram.htm for more detail.

There are also several urban dialects, particularly in Glasgow and Edinburgh.  The thick dialect of the working class of Edinburgh can be heard in the movie Trainspotting.

In the Highlands, especially the Western Islands, English is often people's second language, the first being Scottish Gaelic.  Highland English is pronounced in a lilting fashion with pure vowels.  It is, actually, one of the prettiest varieties of English I have ever heard.

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Ireland

English was imposed upon the Irish, but they have made it their own and have contributed some of our finest literature.  Irish English is strongly influenced by Irish Gaelic:

• r after vowels is retained
• "pure" vowels (/e:/ rather than /ei/, /o:/ rather than /ou/)
• /th/ and /dh/ > /t/ and /d/ respectively.

The sentence structure of Irish English often borrows from the Gaelic:

• Use of be or do in place of usually:
• I do write... (I usually write)
  
• Use of after for the progressive perfect and pluperfect:
• I was after getting married (I had just gotten married)
• Use of progressive beyond what is possible in standard English:
• I was thinking it was in the drawer
• Use of the present or past for perfect and pluperfect:
• She’s dead these ten years (she has been dead...)
• Use of let you be and don’t be as the imperative:
• Don’t be troubling yourself
• Use of it is and it was at the beginning of a sentence:
• it was John has the good looks in the family
• Is it marrying her you want?
• Substitute and for when or as:
• It only struck me and you going out of the door
• Substitute the infinitive verb for that or if:
• Imagine such a thing to be seen here!
• Drop if, that, or whether:
• Tell me did you see them
• Statements phrased as rhetorical questions:
• Isn’t he the fine-looking fellow?
• Extra uses of the definite article:
• He was sick with the jaundice
• Unusual use of prepositions:
• Sure there’s no daylight in it at all now

As with the English of the Scottish Highlands, the English of the west coast of Ireland, where Gaelic is still spoken, is lilting, with pure vowels.  It, too, is particularly pretty.

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