Scotland

Wales

Northern

Yorkshire

Lancashire

West Midlands

East Midlands

East Anglian

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.

This dialect is very similar to the Southern:

· t between vowels usually becomes a glottal stop;

· [aI] becomes [oI]: time > [toIm];

· RP [ju:] becomes [u:] after n, t, d... as in American English.

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 [ju:] becomes [u:] after n, t, d... as in American English;

· r's are not dropped;

· initial s often becomes z (singer > zinger);

· initial f often becomes v (finger > vinger);

· vowels are lengthened.

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.

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

· [V] > [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;

· [T] and [D] > [t] and [d] respectively;

· final k sounds like the Arabic q;

· for is pronounced to rhyme with fur.

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

· the is reduced to [t'];

· [V] > [u], as in luck ([luk]);

· 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.

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.

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.

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, 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:

· [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.

And finally, there are 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.

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.

Дата добавления: 2014-12-17