Southern English English

Southern English English is a phrase given to describe the different dialects and accents of English English spoken in southern England.

South East England and the Home Counties

South East England and the Home Counties (the counties bordering London) tend to reflect the interface between London and non-London regional accents. Affluent districts are associated with a slightly "" (RP) accent, reflecting their traditional popularity with middle-class and upper-class residents as desirable semi-rural areas within commuting distance of London. Less affluent areas have London-like accents that grade into southern rural outside urban areas.

London

The accents of this region are uniformly nonrhotic, that is, the sound IPA| [ɹ] occurs only before vowels. Before consonants and in word-final position it is dropped, for example "far" IPA|/fɑː/, "farm" IPA|/fɑːm/.

Some characteristics of a London accent include:
* diphthongal realization of IPA|/iː/ and IPA|/uː/, for example "beat" IPA| [bɪit] , "boot" IPA| [bʊʉt]
* diphthongal realization of IPA|/ɔː/ in open syllables, for example "bore" IPA| [bɔə] , "paw" IPA| [pɔə] versus a monophthongal realization in closed syllables, for example "board" IPA| [boːd] , "pause" IPA| [poːz] . But the diphthong is retained before inflectional endings, so that "board" and "pause" can contrast with "bored" IPA| [bɔəd] and "paws" IPA| [pɔəz] .
* lengthening of IPA|/æ/ in a few words such as "man", "sad", "bag" etc., leading to a split of IPA|/æ/ into two phonemes IPA|/æ/ and IPA|/æː/, as in Australian English. See bad-lad split.
* an allophone of IPA|/əʊ/ before "dark L" IPA|( [ɫ] ), namely IPA| [ɒʊ] , for example "whole" IPA| [hɒʊɫ] versus "holy" IPA| [həʊli] . But the IPA| [ɒʊ] is retained when the addition of a suffix turns the "dark L" clear, so that "wholly" IPA| [hɒʊli] can contrast with "holy".

It is also common to hear young Londoners drop "(to) the" from sentences related to going places (such as: Do you want to go cinema?/Do you want to go West End?).

Cockney

Cockney, the working-class accent of London, is characterized by a number of phonological differences from RP, most of which are highly stigmatized:
* The dental fricatives IPA| [θ, ð] are replaced with labiodental IPA| [f, v] , for example "think" IPA| [fɪŋk]
* The diphthong IPA|/aʊ/ is monophthongized to IPA| [æː] , for example "south" IPA| [sæːf]
* H-dropping, for example "house" IPA| [æːs]
* Replacement of IPA| [t] in the middle or end of a word with a glottal stop; for example "hit" IPA| [ɪʔ]
* Diphthong shift of IPA| [iː] to IPA| [əi] (for example "beet" IPA| [bəiʔ] ), IPA| [eɪ] to IPA| [aɪ] (for example "bait" IPA| [baɪʔ] ), IPA| [aɪ] to IPA| [ɒɪ] (for example "bite" IPA| [bɒɪʔ] ), and IPA| [ɔɪ] to IPA| [oɪ] (for example, "boy" IPA| [boɪ] .
* Vocalisation of IPA| [ɫ] (dark L) to IPA| [ɯ] , for example, "people" IPA| [pəipɯ]

Jamaican-London

The speech of Jamaicans, or children of Jamaican parents, in London shows interesting combinations of the Jamaican accent with the London accent. For example, in Jamaican English, IPA| [θ] is replaced by IPA| [t] , for example "both" IPA|/boːt/. In London, word-final IPA| [t] is replaced by IPA| [ʔ] , as mentioned above. In Jamaican-London speech, glottalization of [t] applies also to [t] from IPA| [θ] , for example "both of them" IPA| [bʌʊʔ ə dem] . Hypercorrections like IPA|/fʊθ/ for "foot" are also heard from Jamaicans. John C. Wells' dissertation, "Jamaican pronunciation in London", was published the Philological Society in 1973.

Essex

Essex, is usually associated with Estuary English, mainly in urban areas receiving an influx of East London migrants. The non-urban Essex accent, generally found in the north of the county, is more closely related to those of East Anglia. Essex is traditionally split north-south, with the northern part being thought of as East Anglian, while the southern is in the Home Counties.

Estuary

Estuary English is the name given to an accent (or group of accents) that may informally be considered a compromise between Cockney and RP. It avoids some of the most stigmatised aspects of Cockney speech, such as H-dropping and the replacement of IPA| [θ, ð] with IPA| [f, v] , while retaining others, such as replacement of IPA| [t] with IPA| [ʔ] (the glottal stop) in weak positions, the vocalisation of IPA| [ɫ] (dark L) to IPA| [o] , and yod coalescence in stressed syllables (for example, "duty" IPA|/dʒuːti/).

Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire varies: the east Herts accent is akin to the native Essex, while west Herts and neighbouring Bedfordshire shares elements with West Country accents and south Midlands accentsndash again with strong influences from London accents thanks to the influx of post-WW2 migrants from London.

Jafaican

Jafaican also known as Tikkiny or less commonly "Hood-Chat" is part accent, part dialect, from around the mid-1990s, and influenced not only by British black urban culture, but by rap music. This variant is used by the youth of all races as a 'street' patois, with clear American influences (such as the greeting "Yo!"), but also Caribbean patterns such as "arks" (rather than "ask"). This dialect is used by all races. It can be heard in many parts of England, but especially the south.

outhern Rural and West Country accents

This family of similar strongly rhotic accentsndash now perceived as ruralndash originally extended across much of southern England south of the broad A isogloss, but are now most often, (but not always) found west of a line roughly from Shropshire to Hampshire via Oxfordshire. Their shared characteristics have been caricatured as Mummerset.

They persist most strongly in areas that remain largely rural with a largely indigenous population, particularly the West Country. In many other areas they are declining due to immigration by RP and Estuary speakers; for instance, strong Isle of Wight accents tend to be more prevalent in older speakers.

As well as rhoticity, common features of these accents include
* The diphthong IPA|/aɪ/ (as in "price") realised as IPA| [ʌɪ] or IPA| [ɔɪ] , sounding more like the diphthong in Received Pronunciation "choice".
* The diphthong IPA|/aʊ/ (as in "mouth") realised as IPA| [ɛʊ] , with a starting point close to the vowel in Received Pronunciation "dress".
* The vowel IPA|/ɒ/ (as in "lot") realised as an unrounded vowel IPA| [ɑ] , as in many forms of American English.
* In traditional West Country accents, the voiceless fricatives IPA|/s/,/f/,/θ/,/ʃ/ (as in "sat, farm, think, shed" respectively) are often voiced to IPA| [z] , [v] , [ð] , [ʒ] , giving pronunciations like "Zummerzet" for "Somerset", "varm" for "farm", "zhure" for "sure", etc.
* In the Bristol area a vowel at the end of a word is often followed by an intrusive dark l, IPA| [ɫ] . Hence the old joke about the three Bristolian sisters Evil, Idle, and Normal (written Eva, Ida, and Norma). L is pronounced darkly where it is present, too, which means that in Bristolian rendering, 'idea' and 'ideal' are homophones.

East Anglian English

Features which can be found in East Anglian English (especially in Norfolk) include:
* Yod-dropping after all consonants: "beautiful" may be pronounced IPA| [bʉːʔɪfəl] , often represented as "bootiful" or "bewtiful", "huge" as IPA| [hʉːʤ] , and so on. [There are more details on [http://www.norfolkdialect.com/trudgill.html] , written by Norfolk-born linguist Peter Trudgill]
* Absence of the long mid merger between Early Modern English IPA|/oː/ (as in "toe, moan, road, boat") and IPA|/ɔʊ/ (as in "tow, mown, rowed"). The vowel of "toe, moan, road, boat" may be realised as IPA| [ʊu] , so that "boat" may sound to outsiders like "boot".
* Glottal stop frequent for IPA|/t/.
* The diphthong IPA|/aɪ/ (as in "price") realised as IPA| [ɔɪ] , sounding more like the diphthong in Received Pronunciation "choice".
* The vowel IPA|/ɒ/ (as in "lot") realised as an unrounded vowel IPA| [ɑ] , as in many forms of American English.
* Merger of the vowels of "near" and "square" (RP IPA|/ɪə/ and IPA|/ɛə/), making "chair" and "cheer" homophones.
* East Anglian accents are generally non-rhotic.

There are differences between areas within East Anglia, and even within areas: the Norwich accent has distinguishing aspects from the Norfolk dialect that surrounds itndash chiefly in the vowel sounds. The accents of Suffolk and Cambridgeshire are different from the Norfolk accent. [Some examples of the Norfolk accent (with dialectal words thrown in) at [http://www.norfolkdialect.com] ]

Differences between dialects

Several differences between dialects in Southern England exist and also differ within the English of New England. This includes well-known features such as rhoticity. The Southwest constituted a large part of the English settlers in America.

References