Theresa Winderlich, Linda Bösser, Ayisha Malik, Emely Eichhorn, Yvonne Mücke, Janine Bögel, Carolin
1
Justus-Liebig-University, FB 05 – Department of English
PS: English Dialects, Prof. Dr. Magnus Huber
1. Dezember 2005
Regional dialects in the British Isles
Introduction
 BBC Accent only spoken by a minority
 Standard English is their standard dialect
 Dialects developed because of geographical reasons (The Fens)
 Each area has its own dialects
 Large variety of dialects because of the long history of language
The Pronunciation of Traditional Dialects
 different features of pronunciation to localize dialects
Long
Night
Blind
Land
Arm
Hill
Seven
Bat
Northumberland lang
neet
blinnd
land
arrm
hill
seven
bat
Lower North
lang
neet
blinnd
land
ahm
ill
seven
bat
Lancashire
long
neet
blined
lond
arrm
ill
seven
bat
Staffordshire
long
nite
blined
lond
ahm
ill
seven
bat
South Yorkshire long
neet
blinnd
land
ahm
ill
seven
bat
Lincolnshire
long
nite
blinnd
land
ahm
ill
seven
bat
Leicestershire
long
nite
blined
land
ahm
ill
seven
bat
Western
long
nite
blined
land
arrm
ill
zeven
bat
Southwest
Northern
long
nite
blined
lond
arrm
ill
seven
bat
Southwest
Eastern
long
nite
blined
land
arrm
ill
seven
bat
Southwest
Southeast
long
nite
blined
lænd
arrm
ill
seven
bæt
Central East
long
nite
blined
lænd
ahm
ill
seven
bæt
Eastern Counties long
nite
blined
lænd
ahm
hill
seven
bæt
 sentence: “It won’t be long – it’s not far. It’ll be all right – I’ll give you a hand. We’ll be in by
six. We’d better get home soon.”
 it won’t be long – must be south (north: lang)
 it’s not farr – must be Lancashire or Southwest (others: fah)
 it’ll be all rite – not Lancashire (reet), must be Southwest
 I’ll give you an and – not Northern Southwest (ond), must be Western or Eastern Southwest
 We’ll be in by zix – must be Western Southwest (Eastern Southwest: six)
 we’d bedder – not Wiltshire/Hampshire (better)
 ged ome – not Somerset/Dorset (wome), must be Devon or East Cornwall
 zoon – not Devon (züün), must be East Cornwall
Modern English Dialects
1. Features of Modern Dialects
(1)
The vowel of 'but'
The north and the south of England are distinguished by their pronunciation of the short u /ʊ/ like in
but or up:
Northerners say: 'boott' /bʊt/ and 'oopp' /ʊp/
Southerners say: 'but' /bʌt/ and ‘up’ /ʌp/
 Northern accents have preserved the older medieval (Middle English) vowel system
 Southern accents have developed the additional short u vowel /ʌ/
2. Pronunciation of R in 'arm'

the change of ‘arrm’ /aːrm/  ‘ahm’ /aːm/ has started in the southeast of England
(London, South Midlands and East Anglia)
 r-pronouncing accents today: only in parts of Lancashire (Blackburn & Burnley) & in
southwest England (e.g.: Cornwall, Devon, Somerset…)
 every year the r-pronouncing area becomes smaller
 consequences of the loss of 'r' in modern dialects:
a) linking 'r': The 'r' was dropped before a consonant or pause but retained before a vowel (/aː/ ,
/ɔː/, /ɪə/, /ə/).
r pronounced: car engine; four o'clock; near it; better off
r not pronounced: car port; four thirty; near them; better liked
b) intrusive 'r': Words which did not have 'r' in their pronunciation but ended in one of these
four vowels (/aː/, /ɔː/, /ɪə/, /ə/) came to be treated the same way:
r pronounced: bra-r advert; saw-r it; idea-r of; Angela-r Evans
r not pronounced: bra strap; saw them; idea for; Angela Smith
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
Pronunciation of ng in 'singer'
Pronunciation of ew in 'few'
Pronunciation of ee in 'coffee'
Pronunciation of a in 'gate'
Pronunciation of l in 'milk'
1. Sixteen Modern Dialect Regions of England
Putting together all seven features named above and drawing a composite accent map of England,
we finally come up with a differentiation of sixteen Modern Dialect regions of England:
(1)
Northeast (Newcastle, Durham, Sunderland)
Bsp: Veree few cahs mehd it opp the long hill.
/veriː fjuː kaːz meːd ɪt ʊp ðə lɒŋ hɪl/
(2)
Home Counties (London, Brighton, Dover)
Bsp: Veree few cahs mayd it up the long iooll.
/veriː fjuː kaːz meɪd ɪt ʌp ðə lɒŋ ɪʊl/
Central North (Leeds, Bradford, York); Central Lancashire (Blackburn, Burnlay, Accrington);
Humberside (Hull, Scunthorpe, Grimsby); Merseyside (Liverpool, Birkenhead); Northwest
Midlands (Derby, Chester, Manchester);West Midlands (Birmingham, Walsall); Northeast
Midlands (Lincoln, Louth); Central Midlands (Nottingham, Leicester); East Midlands (Grantham,
Peterborough); Upper Southwest (Gloucester, Hereford);Central Southwest (Bristol, Salisbury);
Lower Southwest (Plymouth, Exeter, Truro); South Midlands (Bedford, Northampton, Cambridge);
East Anglia (Norwich, Ipswich)
The Grammar of English Dialects
1. Grammatical Distinctions
 This/that demonstrative system of Standard English is a two-way system while Traditional
Dialects have a three-way distinction
 Standard English differs from other dialects due to the lost of old forms  development of
new forms
2. Personal Pronouns






Modern Dialects: use of me rather than my
use of us as a singular
Nonstandard Modern Dialects have developed a system of reflexive pronouns, which is
different from that of Standard English (hisself, theirselves)
Traditional Dialects: possessive forms end in –n (mine, hisn, ourn)
Thou and thee were used for the singular, ye and you were used for the plural
Pronoun Gender in the Southwest: he can be referred to count nouns, it can be referred to
mass nouns
Pronoun Exchange: he, she, we, they can occur as objects as well as subjects of verb
3. Verbs
Standard English
Nonstandard English
Third person singular –s, all other persons
without an –s ending
- East Anglian area:
no –s endings at all
- western and northern dialects:
all persons carry –s endings
Negation: aren’t, isn’t or haven’t
Example: You aren’t coming
You haven’t done it
Negation: Ain’t
Example: You ain’t coming
You ain’t done it
(doesn’t apply to the full verb of have)
Forms of be:
 highly irregular
 some dialects use was for all persons in the past tense, others rather were
 some dialects in the North have is for all persons in the present tense, while others in the
Staffordshire are have am throughout
4. The Future
 it is very unlikely that the differences within Traditional Dialects and also within Modern
Dialects will diminish to any great extent
Dialect words
1. Regional vocabulary
Regional vocabulary → traditional dialects
2. Dialects and Standard Words
Non- Regional vocabulary:
The traditional dialect word of one region became the Standard
English word.
3. Vocabulary Origins
 Joseph Wright’s wrote the “English Dialect Dictionary”
 Reasons for different vocabulary:
settlement patters and geographical patters
4. Vocabulary Loss
 Example:


Traditional Dialect:
girl, lass, mawther, maiden, wench
Modern Dialect:
girl, lass
Standard Dialect:
girl
This loss of vocabulary is called: LEXICAL ATTRITION (It’s a eating away of dialects
words)
reasons: changes of social life
Source: Trudgill, Peter. 19992. The dialects of England. Oxford: Blackwell.