Dialects in the British Isles

 

In the United Kingdom is spoken more than the 16% of English as mother tongue in the world and it is the origin of the language, however there are many dialects different from the standard or Received Pronunciation from the city of London and southern regions like Thames Estuary, Essex, Poole, etc.

-Cockney: it is a dialect from middle class East Londoners, they have rhyming sounds because at the beginning was argot or coded for criminals since the nineteenth century, it appears in films such as "Pygmalion", "Mary Poppins" and many twentieth century literary works.

-West Country accent:  spoken in South West, Cornwall, Devon, Wiltshire, Dorset, Somerset, Bristol, Gloucestershire, Bournemouth, etc. similar to RP English though with some archaisms "I be", thou bist, we be... they are rhotic and resemble Canadian and Irish accents in some expressions.

-Welsh English: mostly spoken in North Wales and the Valley. There is a trap split in Cardiff, it is non-rhotic, there is a lack of /z/ sound, also elongation of /u/ and the fronting or backing  of diphtongs and /h/ dropping and most i and a are pronunced as schwa or e. There are distinct vocabulary for example bach (little), awm (valley), butty (friend), eisteddfod, nain and taid (grandparents), tidy swill ( wash face and hands).

-Glaswegian or Glasgow pattern: is a linguistic continuun from West Central Scots with influences from Highland or Hiberno English. In literature they exaggerate the vernacular Sctos to the unintelligibility and uses words similar to vernacutlar Scots or Irish such as aye (yes) or tottie (potato).

-Brummie (Birmingham) it has a downward intonation of sentences, changes vowel sounds and drops "h" sounds at the beginning of sentences. Its spoken by characters from the TV series "Peaky Blinders".

-Yorkshire English: also in Leeds, York, Sheffield or Black country which has roots in Old English, Old Norse and appears in characters from "Game of Thrones" tv series.

It has got a different pronunciation of "u", pronouns towards /e/ even in final /y/, the vowel is short in "a", it shortens -íng endings, it drops the "h" at the beginning of words and avoids use of "the" and "to" in sentences. There is a distinctive vocabulary like bog (bathroom), butty (sandwich), in a bit (goodbye), flayed (scared), owdo (how do you do), nowt (nothing), owt (anything), allus (always), Ey up (hello)...

-Geordie or Northern English: also known as Tyneside or Newcastle English, it is a developmente of the language of Anglo-Saxon settlers initially employed by the ancient Brythons to fight Pictish invaders in the fifth century. The dialect is non rhotic as alveolar approximants are prevalent, it has glottalisation, íng is pronunced as /an/, the yod-coalescence happens in stressed and unstressed syllables, /l/ is clear in all contexts meaning the velarises absent allophone, the schwa is often rather open and it has vocabulary such as canny (pleasant), clag (sticky), divvy (idiot), howay (come on), netty (toilet), haddaway (go away)...

-Scottish English: is different form Gaelic Scots which is another language. It has influences os Scots, Geordie and Ulster Irish. Most vowels become longer before r or voiced fricative, rhotic and post alveolar approximants are often als well as trill /r/ and phoneme /x/ in /ch/, past tenses always pronunced /t/ it has got unique vocabulary: greeting (crying), dreich (dull), stooshie (fuss), swithering (uncertain), provost (major), kirk (church), cowp (pill), fankle (mess), numpty (idiot), muckle (big), spail or skelf (splinter), lass/ie (woman or girl), braw or bonnie (beautiful), drookit (wet), ken (know), bleth (chat), scran (food), drothy (thirsty), sybbed (tired), dreich (drizzling), clarty (dirty), aye (yes)...

-Northern Irish English: influenced by lowland Scots language, Belfastl Londonderry and Ulster. It has affirmative sentences rising intonation at the end, retroflex syllable -codes, lowering of kit/trap vowels and intervocalic T-flapping and uses exaggerated "r" at the end of sentences.

-South Western Irish English: mainly from the counties of Cork, Limerick, Kerry and Mayo, its influenced by Gaelic and vaguely Canadian and seem musical. The pronunciation goes back and lowers to the mouth , it uses "do" massively evein in affirmatives, it emphasizes 1st clauses to give emphasis on them, it is non rhotic because first "r" are dropped. There is vocabulary such as asthone (darling), smatch (discipline), yoke ( object), moryah (interjection of doubt), hames (mess), craic (funny), camogie...