Selected Languages and Accents of British Isles

Selected Languages and Accents of British Isles

British English (BrE) is a term used to distinguish the form of the English language used in the British Isles from forms used elsewhere. It includes all the varieties of English used within the Isles, including those found in England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales.

As with many other aspects of culture within the British Isles, the English language as spoken in the United Kingdom and Ireland is governed by convention rather than formal code: there is significant variation in grammar, usage, spelling, and vocabulary within English as used in the UK and Ireland.

While there is a meaningful degree of uniformity in formal written English in the UK and Ireland, the forms of spoken English used vary considerably more than in most other areas of the world where English is spoken. Dialects and accents vary not only between the nations of the British Isles, for example in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, but also within these countries themselves. The written form of the language, as taught in schools, is the same as in the rest of the English-speaking world (except North America), with a slight emphasis on words whose usage varies amongst the different regions of the UK.

For historical reasons dating back to the rise of London in the 9th century, the form of language spoken in London and the East Midlands became standard English within the Court, and thus the form generally accepted for use in the law, government, literature and education within the British Isles. To a great extent, modern British spelling was standardized in Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language (1755), although previous writers had also played a significant role in this and much has changed since 1755.

The most common form of English used by the British ruling class is that of s outh-east England (the area around the capital, London, and the ancient English university towns of Oxford and Cambridge). This form of the language is associated with Received Pronunciation (RP), which is still regarded by many people outside the UK (especially in the United States) as "the British accent". However, even RP has evolved quite markedly over the last 40 years.

Scottish English

Scottish English is usually taken to mean the standard form of the English language used in Scotland, often termed Scottish Standard English. It is the language normally used in formal, non-fictional written texts in Scotland.

Scottish English is the result of language contact between Scots and English after the 17th century. The resulting shift to English by Scots-speakers resulted in many phonological compromises and lexical transfers, often mistaken for mergers by linguists unfamiliar with the history of Scottish English. The standard spelling, grammar, and punctuation of Scottish English tend to follow the style of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). However, there are some unique characteristics, mainly in the phonological and phonetic systems. Highland English is slightly different from the variety spoken in the lowlands in that it is more phonologically, grammatically, and lexically influenced by a Gaelic substratum.

Lexis

General items are: pinkie for little finger; doubt meaning to think or suspect; and wee, the Scots word for small. Culturally specific items like caber, haggis. In some areas there is a substantial non-standard lexis apparently acquired from the Romany language and from Eastern European languages; examples include gadge (lad, chap) and peeve (alcoholic drink). There is a wide range of legal and administrative vocabulary inherited from Scots.

Pronunciation features vary among speakers, and there are social and regional differences:

• It is a rhotic accent, with r still pronounced before consonants or silence. It may be [r] (an alveolar trill), though more commonly a alveolar tap.The differentiation between "w" in witch and "wh" in which, [w] and [ʍ] respectively survives.

• L is usually dark, though in areas where Gaelic was recently spoken—including Dumfries and Galloway—a clear l may be found.

• The following may occur in colloquial speech, usually among the young, especially males. They are not usually regarded as part of SSE, their origin being in Scots:

o The use of glottal stops for [t] between vowels or word final after a vowel, for example butter /ˈbʌʔəɹ/ and cat /ˈkaʔ/.

o The realisation of the nasal velar in the suffix "-ing" as a nasal alveolar "in'" for example talking /ˈtɔːkɪn/.

• Vowel length is usually regarded as non-phonemic, but is a crucial aspect of the accent (Scobbie et al. 1999). It most clearly affects /i/, /u/ and /ae/. Predictable short vowel duration gives many Scottish accents a distinctive "clipped" pronunciation before two classes of consonants, namely nasals, for example spoon [spun] and voiced stops, especially /d/, e.g. brood /brud/. This is generally the same as in the Scots language, but the latter includes minimal pairs for /ae/ e.g. gey, "very" vs. /aːe/ e.g. guy

• SSE usually distinguishes between [ɛ]-[ɪ]-[ʌ] before [r] in herd-bird-curd, in Received Pronunciation these have merged into [ɜː].

• Many varieties contrast /o/ and /ɔ/ before [r] as in hoarse and horse.

 SSE contrasts [oːr] and [uːr], as in shore and pour vs. sure and poor..

Syntax

Syntactical differences are few though in colloquial speech shall and ought are wanting, must is marginal for obligation and may is rare:

• Can I come too? or Can I come as well?' for "May I come too?"

• Have you got any? for "Do you have any?"

• I've got one of those already. for "I have one of those already."

• It's your shot. for "It's your turn."

• My hair is needing washed. or My hair needs washed for "My hair needs washing."

• Amn't I invited? for "Am I not invited?"

• How no? for "Why not?"

The use of "How?" meaning "Why?" is unique to Scottish and Northern Irish English.

Note that in Scottish English, the first person declarative I amn't invited. and interrogative "Amn't I invited?" are both possible.

Other examples are distinctively Scots:

• Dae ye ken Ken kens Ken? for "Do you know Ken knows Ken?"

• Am I no invited? for "Am I not invited?"

Welsh English, Anglo-Welsh, or Wenglish

refer to the dialects of English spoken in Wales by Welsh people. The dialects are significantly modified by Welsh grammar and nouns, and contain a number of unique words. In addition to the distinctive words and grammar, there are a variety of accents found across Wales.

Pronunciation and Peculiarities

• Distinctive pitch differences giving a "sing-song" effect.

• Lengthening of all vowels is common in strong valleys accents.

• A tendency towards using an alveolar trill /r/ (the 'rolled r') in place of an approximant /ɹ/ (the 'normal English r').

• Yod-dropping does not occur after any consonant, so rude and rood, threw and through, chews and choose, chute and shoot etc. are distinct.

• Sometimes adding the word "like" or "indeed" to the end of a sentence for emphasis, or using them as stop-gaps.

Grammar

As well as straightforward borrowings of words from the Welsh language (cwtsh, picking to rain), grammar from the language has crept into English spoken in Wales. Placing something at the start of a sentence emphasises it: "furious, she was". Periphrasis and auxiliary verbs are used in spoken Welsh, resulting in the English: "He do go there", "I do do it", particularly in the so-called Wenglish accent.

There is also evidence of the misappropriation into English sentence forms of Welsh verbs. The common Wenglish form, "He learned me to drive," is in place of the correct English usage, "He taught me to drive,".

There is a very wide range of regional accents within Wales.

The sing-song Welsh accent familiar to many English people is generally associated with South Wales. Accents from South Wales can be heard from the actors Richard Burton and (to a lesser extent) Anthony Hopkins, or on recordings of Dylan Thomas. Swansea accents are prominent in the film Twin Town. The popular Welsh actress Catherine Zeta-Jones also has a Swansea accent. The singers Shirley Bassey and Charlotte Church, meanwhile, are from Cardiff.

The accents of North Wales are markedly different. In North West Wales the accent is less sing-song, with a more consistently high-pitched voice and the vowels pressed to the back of the throat. The "R" sound is rolled extensively and the dark L is used at the beginning or middle of words, for example in "lose", "bloke", and "valley". The sound /z/ is often pronounced unvoiced (the sound does not exist in Welsh), so "lose" is pronounced the same as "loose".

In North East Wales, the accent can sound like that of Cheshire or Staffordshire. Around Wrexham, accents are similar to Scouse and younger people in particular have begun to use more Scouse-like vocabulary, such as "la" and "kid."

The accents of West-Wales are gentler in nature than either the "valleys" or the Northern Welsh accents and are one of the more beautiful British accents to listen to.

HIBERNO-ENGLISH

Hiberno-English is the form of the English language spoken in Ireland. Hiberno-English is also referred to as Irish English and occasionally, if inaccurately, as Anglo-Irish. English as it is spoken in Ireland is the result of the Irish language and the interaction of the English and Scots varieties brought to Ireland in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The standard spelling and grammar of Hiberno-English are largely the same as UK English. However, some unique characteristics exist, especially in the spoken language, owing to the influence of the Irish language on the pronunciation of Hiberno-English.

Pronunciation

Hiberno-English retains many phonemic differentiations which have merged in other English accents.

• With some local exceptions 'r' is pronounced wherever it occurs in the word, making Irish English a generally rhotic dialect.

• /t/ is rarely pronounced as a plosive where it does not occur word-initially; instead, it is pronounced as a fricative between [s] and [ʃ].

• The distinction between w /w/ and wh /ʍ/, as in wine vs whine is preserved.

• In some varieties, the merger of the vowels in father and bother in Southern Irish English; /fɑːðɚ/ and /bɑːðɚ/.

• The distinction between /ɔːɹ/ and /oʊɹ/ in horse and hoarse is preserved.

• The distinction between [ɛɹ]-[ɪɹ]-[ʌɹ] in herd-bird-curd is preserved.

• Diphthongs in words like "boat" and cane are monopthongs: [boːt], and [keːn] respectively.

• The /aɪ/ in "night" may be pronounced [ɔɪ].

Grammar derived from Irish

The syntax of the Irish language is quite different from that of English. Various aspects of Irish syntax have influenced Hiberno-English, though it should be noted that many of these differences are disappearing in urban areas and among the younger population.

Irish lacks words which directly translate as "yes" or "no", and instead repeats the verb in a question, possibly negated, to answer. People in Ireland have a tendency to repeat the verb, positively or negatively, instead of using "yes" or "no".

• "Are you coming home soon?" "I am."

• "Is your mobile charged?" "It isn't."

(However, quite a number of people in Ireland, especially younger people, exclusively use the words yes and no, as elsewhere in the English-speaking world.) It is common for Irish English-speakers in north Leinster and Ulster to use the word "aye" as a weak form of "yes" (somewhat akin to "yeah" or the use of "sure" in American English). "It's getting late, is it?" "Aye, it is." or " It is, aye."

• "Is that okay with you?" "Aye."

Some Irish speakers of English, especially in rural areas, use the verb "to be" in English similarly to how they would in Irish, using a "does be/do be" (or "bees", although less frequently) construction to indicate this latter continuous present:

• "He does be working every day."

• "They do be talking on their mobiles a lot."

• "They bees doing a lot of work at school." (rare)

• "It's him I do be thinking of."

Irish has no pluperfect tense: instead, "after" is added to the present continuous (a verb ending in "-ing"). The idiom for "I had done X when I did Y" is "I was after doing X when I did Y", modelled on the Irish usage of the compound This can most commonly be heard used by Dubliners.

• "Why did you hit him?" "He was after insulting me."

A similar construction is seen with the 'hot news perfect', used to express extreme excitement at something which has happened recently:

• "Jayzus, I'm after hitting him with the car!"

• "Would ya look at yer one — she's after losing five stone in five weeks!"

Mirroring the Irish language and almost every other European language, the plural 'you' is distinguished from the singular, normally by use of the otherwise archaic English word 'ye' [ji]; the word 'yous' (sometimes written as 'youse') also occurs, but primarily only in Dublin and across Ulster:

• "Did ye/youse all go to see it?"

In rural areas, the reflexive version of pronouns is often used for emphasis or to refer indirectly to a particular person, etc., according to context:

• "Was it all of ye or just yourself?"

• "'Tis herself that's coming now." Is í féin atá ag teacht anois.

- where 'herself' might, for example, be the boss or the woman of the house. Use of 'herself' or 'himself' in this way often indicates that the speaker attributes some degree of arrogance or selfishness to the person in question. Note also the indirectness of this construction relative to, for example, 'She's coming now' and the use of "'Tis" rather than the more standard contraction "It's".

It is also common to end sentences with 'no?' or 'yeah?'

• "He's not coming today, no?" "The bank's closed now, yeah?"

This isn't limited only to the verb 'to be': it's also used with 'to have' when used as an auxiliary; and, with other verbs, the verb 'to do' is used. This is most commonly used for intensification.

• This is strong stuff, so it is.

When describing something, rural Hiberno-English speakers may use the term 'in it' where 'there' would usually be used. This is due to the Irish word ann (pronounced "oun") fulfilling both meanings.

• Is it yourself that's in it? An tú féin atá ann?

Another idiom is this thing or that thing described as 'this man here' or 'that man there', which also features in Newfoundland English in Canada.

• This man here. An fear seo. (cf. the related anseo = here)

• That man there. An fear sin. (cf. the related ansin = there)

The reported clause is also often preserved in its direct form, for example 'John asked me to buy a loaf of bread' becomes 'John asked me would I buy a loaf of bread'.

Irish English also always uses the "light l" sound, and the naming of the letter 'h' as 'haitch' is standard. A is often pronounce "Ah" and Z as "Ezed"

Turns of phrase

Amn't is used as an abbreviation of "am not", by analogy with "isn't" and "aren't". This can be used as a tag question ("I'm making a mistake, amn't I?"), or as an alternative to "I'm not" ("I amn't joking"), and the double negative is also used ("I'm not late, amn't I not?"). This construction occurs identically in Scots English

Arra is used also. Arra tends to be used after something bad has happened, when someone is looking on the bright side ("Arra, we'll go next week", "Arra, 'tis not the end of the world"). Arra comes from the Irish word "dhera" (pronounced "yerra"). As a result, the words yerra and erra are also used in different parts of the country.

Reduplication is not an especially common feature of Irish; nevertheless in rendering Irish phrases into English it is occasionally used:

• ar bith corresponds to English at all, so the stronger ar chor ar bith gives rise to the form at all at all I've no money at all at all.

Sure is often used as a tag word, emphasising the obviousness of the statement. Can be used as "to be sure", the famous Irish stereotype phrase. Or "Sure, I can just go on Wednesday", "I will not, to be sure." "Sure Jayzus" is often used as a very mild expletive to express dismay.

Will is often used where standard English would use "shall" ("Will I make us a cup of tea?"). The standard-English distinction between "shall" (for first-person simple future, and second- and third-person emphatic future) and "will" (second- and third-person simple future, first-person emphatic future) does not exist in Hiberno-English, with "will" generally used in all cases.

Casual conversation in many parts of Ireland includes a variety of colourful turns of phrase. Some examples:

• Yer man (your man) and Yer wan (your one) are used in referring to an individual known by the party being addressed, but not being referred to by name. The phrases are an unusual sort of half-translation of a parallel Irish-language phrase, "mo dhuine" (literally 'my person'). The nearest equivalents in colloquial English usage would be "whatsisname" and "whatsername". Note also "wan" for female person may be a direct usage of the Irish 'bean' (woman). In Newfoundland the same form exists as 'buddy,' who is a generic nameless person. They use the word not always in the sense of 'my friend' but more in the sense of 'what's his name'. 'I went inside to ask for directions and buddy said to go left at the lights'.

• a soft day: referring to a rainy day with that particular soft drizzle, and an overcast sky, but yet relatively bright. This is a translation of the Irish "lá bog".

• Yoke is typically used in place of the word "thing", for instance, "gimme that yoke there." It's more commonly used with tools or other objects needed to accomplish some sort of manual task; a book or an apple, for example, are not very likely to be referred to as a "yoke." Like "thing," it's more frequently used to refer to objects for which the actual name is cumbersome to say or more difficult to call to mind. It's also used as an insult: "you're some yoke".

• Now is often used at the end of sentences or phrases as a semantically empty word, completing an utterance without contributing any apparent meaning. Examples include "Bye now" (= "goodbye"), "There you go now" (= when giving someone something), "Ah now!" (= expressing dismay), "Hold on now" (= "wait a minute"), "Now then" as a mild attention-getter, etc. This usage is universal among English dialects, but occurs more frequently in Hiberno-English.

Lexicon

Hiberno-English vocabulary is largely the same as British English, though there are variances, especially with reference to certain goods, services and institutions. Examples that would come into everyday conversation include:

• Bold describes someone (usually a child) who is impudent, naughty or badly behaved.

• Cat - bad, terrible. Sometimes "catmalogeon".

• Couple often means "a few", somewhere between two and four or five - whereas in British and American English it is more likely to mean precisely two.

• Crack or craic is a good time, good company, good atmosphere and conversation.

• Cub - means a young child

• Cute can mean shrewd or clever, particularly in the business sense, as in "cute hoor".

• Doss, meaning bed, or to be lazy.

• Dozy, Dublin adjective meaning annoying - e.g. "Dozy git!".

• Evening starts rather earlier in the day in Ireland than it does in British English. Any time after midday is likely to be described as the "evening", whereas in Britain the evening does not start until about 1700 hrs.

• Feck is a slang term that can mean "throw", "steal" or "go away" ("Feck offFeen - A man. Its meaning is somewhat akin of the American Dude and the London Geezer.

• Fierce, used as a stronger intensifier than 'very'; e.g., "This is fierce bad weather we're having".

• Gammy - bad, broken, crooked, unstable, improbably lucky.

• Jacks: toilet, usually in a pub or similar. As in "mind my handbag while I go to the jacks". From 16th century English "Jakes". (mind means "look after") the words Bog and Loo are also used.

• Press is almost invariably used instead of Cupboard. The hot press is the airing cupboard.

• Ratchet, used mostly in Cork and Kerry, refers to a thing. See "yoke"

• Rubber means an eraser (not a condom!)

• Whisht - Meaning 'be quiet'. 'Hauld (Hold) your whisht' is a common phrase in rural Cavan.

• Yoke - an unnamed thing. Used commonly.

Cockney (London)

Dropping initial [h], [ai] instead of [ei], [w] instead of [l] – kneel – [ni:w], [n] instead of [ŋ] – writin merger of / θ/-zd- with /f/, and [ð]-d- with /v/; monophthongisation of /au/ to [æu]; use of a glottal stop for intervocalic 't', as in bottle or butter

Rules not observed

use of ain't instead of isn't, am not, are not, has not, and have not

Scouse (liverpool)

Flat vowels (not clearly pronounced), nasal consonants, “pitiful” intonation; the /k/ phoneme is often pronounced [ x ]. There are several possibilities for the /t/ phoneme in Scouse. In some contexts, it may be realised as an alveolar slit fricative, or as a similar affricate; these sounds may sound like [s] and [ts] respectively. In some words, for example but and what, the final /t/ may be replaced by [h]. The th sounds /θ, ð/ may be pronounced as dental [t, d]. The velar nasal [ŋ] is usually followed by a hard [ g] sound in words where most other English accents have it at the end of a word or before a vowel, so that sing is [siŋg] as opposed to [siŋ] in RP. The /r/ is often similar to Scots.

Scouse is noted for a fast, highly accented manner of speech, with a range of rising and falling tones not typical of most of northern England.

Irish influences include the pronunciation of the letter 'h' as 'haitch' and the plural of 'you' as 'youse'. There are also idioms shared with Hiberno-English, such as "I know where you're at" (Standard English: "I know who you are").

Expressions include 'lah' or 'lid', as an abbreviation of lad, used to mean mate or pal, e.g. "alright lid!"

Georgie (Newcastle-upon-Tyne)

Not clear and indistinct pronunciation: what a = worra; got a = gorra; "er" on the end of words becomes "a" (/æ/) ("father" is pronounced "fatha"). Many "a" sounds become more like "e": "hev" for "have" and "thet" for "that". Double vowels are often pronounced separately as diphthongs: "boat" becomes "boh-ut" and ""boot"" becomes "bee-yut". Some words acquire extra vowels ("growel" for "growl", "cannet" for "can't"). This property of the dialect has lead Geordie to be known for putting as many vowels as possible into a word. The "or" sound in words like "talk" becomes "aa" ("walk" becomes "waak"), "er" sounds in words like "work" becomes "or". The "ow" in words like "down" or, most famously, "town" becomes "oo", hence "the Toon" meaning Newcastle. (In Wearside, the "oo" in words like "cook", "book" or "look" becomes "uu", although this accent has come to be known as Mackem, not Geordie.)

canny for "pleasant" (it should be noted that the Scottish use of canny is often somewhat less flattering), hyem for "home", deeky for "look at",

ket for "sweets/treats", naa for "to know/know",

divn't for "don't", bairn/grandbairn for "child/grandchild", hacky for "dirty", gan for "to go/go". Howay is broadly comparable to the invocation "Come on!". Examples of common use include Howay man!, meaning something like "come on" or "hurry up", Howay the lads! as an encouragement for a sports team, or Ho'way!? (with stress on the second syllable) expressing incredulity or disbelief.

Geordie commonly uses the word aye meaning "yes", which is also found in most Scottish dialects. By contrast, a Geordie might say na for an emphatic or dismissive "no".

Brummie (Birmingham)

Traditional expressions include: "A bit black over Bill's mother's"... Likely to rain soon (now widespread).

"Bab"... Used by older generation to refer to a spouse or female. "Bostin"... Excellent, brilliant. "Face as long as Livery Street"... Looking miserable. "Go and play up your own end"... Said to children from a different street making a nuisance. It has been used as the title of the autobiographical book and musical play about the Birmingham childhood of radio presenter and entertainer Malcolm Stent. "Keep away from the 'oss road" / "mind the 'orse road"... An admonition to travel safely, originally a warning to children in the days of horse-drawn traffic. "Rock"... a children's hard sweet (as in "give us a rock"). "Up the cut"... Up the canal (not uniquely Birmingham). "Yampy" (often "dead yampy") Scatty and lively, to the point of madness.

West country (Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset)

Velar (back) [r], voiced [s] – [z] (Somerset – Zummerset). [а] sounds like [u] – club, discussion, plug. A slower, drawling manner of speech, with lengthened vowel sounds (this is less pronounced among the Cornish and Bristolians, who actually speak quite rapidly).

The initial "s" is pronounced as "z".

"r"s are pronounced far more prominently than in Standard English, in a Rhotic fashion

An initial "f" may become pronounced "v", as in varmer Joe

In the Bristol area, a terminal "a" (realised as [aw]),

I am = I be; she said to us = her says to we

The second person singular thee and thou forms used, thee often contracted to ee. Bist may be used instead of are e.g. ow bist? = "how are you?". Use of male (rather than neutral) gender with nouns; put he over there = put it over there. An a prefix may be used to denote the past tense; a-went = gone. Use of they rather than them or those; they shoes be mine = those shoes are mine. Am used exclusively in the present tense, usually contracted to 'm; you'm = you am = you are. In other areas, be may be used exclusively in the present tense, often in the present continuous; Where you be going to? = Where are you going? Using "Where's [something] to?", often with "it" replaced by "he" (pronounced "ee"), so "Where's he to?". Use of the past participle "writ" (pronounced reaht) in lieu of "wrote", as in "I writ about eaht larhts in moiy buuk" or "I wrote about it lots in my book". Use of elongated "uh" sound for "oo" as in "buuk", which leads to the accusations of ignorance and stupidity as others may find this 'backwards drawl' -so to speak- amusing.

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