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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 now looks only at variations in the speech of native English speakers.
(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:
| Australian Vowel Pronunciation in SAMPA | ||
| Australian | Received Pronunciation | Examples |
| @i/Ii | i: | see |
| {I | eI | day |
| AI | aI | my |
| VU | @U | no |
| {U | aU | now |
| 1} | u: | soon,through |
| e: | e@ | there |
| a | V | but |
| a: | A: | fast, car |
Listen to various Australian actors, singers and native speakers. Internationally known actors Nicole KidmanNicole Mary Kidman (born June 20, 1967) is a famous American and Australian actress and singer. Biography Kidman was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. She lived in the United States until she was four, when her family moved to Australia. Her father, Tony Kidman, and Hugh JackmanHugh Jackman (born 12 October, 1968) is an Australian actor who portrayed Wolverine in X-Men (2000) and X2: X-Men United (2003). His other works include Swordfish (2001), Kate and Leopold (2001), Someone Like You (2001), and Van Helsing (2004). Biography speak in their natural Australian accents when not acting in roles as non-Australians.
(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:
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'.
(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:
Used by Jamaicans, or children of Jamaican parents, in the United Kingdom.
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
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
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:
(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, County Cavan and County Donegal. As with many English speaking countries, speakers from outside urban areas tend to have a softer accent.
(note: Many Malaysians and Singaporeans, even those who use English for it to be considered their native language may also frequently speak their 'mother-tongue' that is the native language of their parents. This may be Malay, a dialect of Chinese, Tamil or another language from the Indian subcontinent. There is also significant variation between these different groups. In Malaysian urban areas, there is also variation between those educated at more up-market schools and those from less up-market schools with the former generally speaking with a more British accent. Also, many adopt different accents and usages depending on the situation, for example an office worker may speak with less coloquialism and with a more British accent at the job then with friends or while out shopping. (see also: Singapore Colloquial English and Manglish)
(See also New Zealand English)
The New Zealand accent is distinguished from the Australian one by the presence of short or "clipped" vowels, also encountered in South African English. New Zealanders, according to Australians, pronounce "fish and chips" as "fush and chups", "yes" as "yiss" and "milk" as "muwk". This is attributable to the influence of Scottish English speech patterns.
Geographical variations appear slight, and mainly confined to individual special local words. One group of speakers, however, hold a recognised place as "talking differently": the South of the South Island (Murihiku) harbours a "Celtic fringe" of people speaking with a "Southland burr" in which a back-trilled 'r' appears prominently. The area formed a traditional repository of immigration from Scotland.
The trilled 'r' is also used by some Māori, who may also pronounce 't' and 'k' sounds almost as 'd' and 'g'. This is also encountered in South African English, especially among Afrikaans speakers.
(See also Scottish English)
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.
Three immediate distinguishing features of Scottish spoken English are:
Other standard usages in Scottish English include "canna" (or "cannae") for "can't", "dinna" (or "dinnae") for "don't", winna (or winnae, or willnae) for won't, etc. (When Scottish people speak at speed, "don't" often becomes "deh" and "won't" becomes "weh".)
Features common, but by no means universal or unique to English as spoken by Scots are:
For a small nation Scotland exhibits considerable regional variation in accents. Here is a summary
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.
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.
Natives of Aberdeen and the Further North East of Scotland speak a distinct dialect called Doric. Its most well-known characteristic is the replacement of the "w" sound at the beginning of words with an "f" sound, as in the characteristic greeting "Fit like?"
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 heh a peh" ("I'll have a pie").
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.
Not all Scots speak with 'pure' vowels - vowels are frequently 'dropped' (e.g. "car" becomes "cawr"). 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".
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.
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:
(See also South African English)
South Africa has 11 official languages, one of which is English. Afrikaners ( Boers), descendants of mainly Dutch settlers, tend to pronounce English phonemes with a strong Afrikaans inflection, which is very similar to Dutch.
Native English speakers in South Africa have an accent that generally resembles British Received pronunciation modified with varying degrees of Germanic inflection, due to the Afrikaner influence. Native English speakers in South Africa also insert a number of Afrikaans loanwords into their speech.
In Zimbabwe, native English speakers (mainly the white minority) have a similar speech pattern, hence 'Zimbabwe' is pronounced as zom-baw-bwi, as opposed to the more correct African pronunciation zeem-bah-bwe.
(See also American English; North American English)
The standard American English accent is the neutral dialect spoken by TV network announcers and typical of educated speech in the Upper Midwest, Chicago, Minneapolis/St. Paul and Philadelphia. Standard American makes a good reference dialect because it has crisp consonants and more vowel distinctions than other major dialects, tends to retain distinctions between unstressed vowels, and is considered a "neutral" dialect. However, /O/ and /A/ tend to merge in standard American (which means that "father" and "bother" rhyme). This may help readers accustomed to accents resembling British Received Pronunciation. American actors and announcers used to speak with a Mid-Atlantic accent , which was an affected hybrid of educated American and British accents.
Regional and cultural variations within the USA include the following:
(Sometimes referred to as Ebonics)
This is actually a cluster of dialects with numerous regional variations. The below describes some features found in many (but not necessarily all) varieties, and emphasizes a stereotype that may or may not be true in some areas of the United States. This dialect is not exclusive to African-Americans and might be more appropriately titled Urban.
(South Midlands, Tennessee through Texas)
Speeches of John F. Kennedy display Boston Irish speech
The accent varies across the boroughs. The classic example is "dirty toilet water" becoming pronounced something like "doity terlet wada."
Old Bugs Bunny cartoons (Bugs has a Brooklyn accent). The accent is often exaggerated, but it still does exist to some degree with many Brooklyn natives. Also, Groucho Marx has a passable Brooklyn accent.
Use of a glottal stop in place of a "t" in the middle of a word, e.g. "to> (Minnesota (esp. rural), Upper Peninsula of Michigan, North Dakota)
(Coastal Virginia, North Carolina through Louisiana))
(See also Southern American English)
While including such characteristics of the Southern US English as using "y'all" for second person plural and dropping the "g" from words ending in "ing", the New Orleans, Louisiana accent is so unlike the rest of the South that New Orleanians traveling in other parts of the USA commonly get the remark "You don't sound like you're from the South".
Many pronunciations are surprisingly similar to that found in northern New Jersey, presumably arrising from a similar mix of immigrants.
The ending "ed" is commonly deleted from words. Some common phrases use anglisized versions of old French sentence structure, for example to go shopping for groceries is "making grocieries".
Perhaps the most distinctive New Orleans accent is locally nicknamed "yat", from a traditional greeting "Where y'at" ("Where are you at?", meaning "How are you?"). One of the most detailed phonetic depictions of an extreme "yat" accent of the early 20th century is found in the speech of the character Krazy Kat in the comic strip of the same name by George Herriman. While such extreme "yat" accents are no longer so common in the city, they can still be found in parts of Mid-City and the 9th ward, as well as in St. Bernard Parish, just east of New Orleans.
The novel A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole is generally considered the best depiction of New Orleans accents in literature.
(See also British English)
Welsh 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.
11.5 Maine and Downeast
11.6 Midwest
11.6.1 ( Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Lower Peninsula of Michigan)
11.6.2 ( Nebraska, Western Iowa)
11.7 New England and East Coast
11.8 Old Northwest
11.9 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh accents have a number of distinctive features. Please reference that article for more information.
11.10 St. Louis and vicinity
11.11 South
11.11.1 New Orleans
11.12 Southern New Jersey
11.13 Utah (Utahnics)
12 Wales
13 External links
English dialects
English pronunciation
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