List of dialects of the English language

This is a list of dialects of the English language. Dialects are linguistic varieties which differ in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar from each other and from Standard English (which is itself a dialect).

Dialects can be usefully defined as "sub-forms of languages which are, in general, mutually comprehensible".^[1] British linguists distinguish dialect from accent, which refers only to pronunciation. Thus, any educated English speaker can use the vocabulary and grammar of Standard English, but different speakers use their own local words for everyday objects or actions, regional accent, or Received Pronunciation, which within the U.K. is considered an accent distinguished by class rather than by region. American linguists, however, include pronunciation differences as part of the definition of regional or social dialects. The combination of differences in pronunciation and use of local words may make some English dialects almost unintelligible to speakers from other regions. The major native dialects of English are often divided by linguists^{[citation needed]} into the three general categories of the British Isles dialects, those of North America and those of Australasia.

By continent

Europe

United Kingdom (British English)

• Black British English
• England (English language in England)
  • Northern In the far north, local speech is akin to Scots^[2]
    • Cheshire
    • Cumbrian (Cumbria including Barrow-in-Furness)
    • Geordie (Tyneside)
    • Lancastrian (Lancashire)
    • Mackem (Sunderland)
    • Mancunian-Salfordian (Manchester & Salford)
    • Northumbrian (rural Northumberland)
    • Pitmatic (Durham and Northumberland)
    • Scouse (Liverpool)
    • Yorkshire (also known as Broad Yorkshire) (Spoken in Yorkshire)
  • East Midlands
  • West Midlands
    • Black Country English
    • Brummie (Birmingham)
    • Potteries (north Staffordshire)
    • Telford accent
  • Southern
    • Received Pronunciation (also known as Queen's English (or King's English) or BBC English)
    • Cockney (East End of London)
    • East Anglian (Norfolk/Broad Norfolk, Suffolk and North Essex)
    • Estuary (Thames Estuary)
    • Kentish (Kent)
    • Multicultural London English (Inner London)
    • Sussex
  • West Country
    • Anglo-Cornish
    • Bristolian dialect
• Scotland
  • Scottish English
    • Highland English
    • Glaswegian
• Wales
  • Welsh English
    • Cardiff
• Northern Ireland
  • Mid Ulster English
    • Belfast
    • Derry
  • Ulster Scots
  • South Ulster English

Ireland

• Hiberno-English
  • Dublin
  • Cork
  • Kerry and Cork County
  • Connacht
  • Sligo Town
  • Galway City
  • Rural Munster (Tipperary, Limerick County, Clare, Waterford)
  • Limerick City
  • North Leinster (Louth and Meath)
  • South Leinster (Kilkenny, Laois, Longford, Offaly, Westmeath, Wexford, Wicklow)

Isle of Man

• Manx English

Channel Islands

• Guernsey English
• Jersey English

Malta

• Maltenglish

North America

• American English (AmE, AmEng, USEng)
  • Cultural
    • African-American Vernacular English (AAVE)
    • Chicano English
    • General American
    • New York Latino English
    • Pennsylvania Dutchified English
    • Yeshivish
    • Yinglish
  • Regional
    • Northeastern dialects
      • Boston English
      • Hudson Valley English (Albany)
      • Lake Dialect or Lake Talk
      • Maine-New Hampshire English
      • New York City Dialect, Northern New Jersey Dialect (New York metropolitan area)
      • Providence-area English
      • Vermont English
      • Philadelphia-area English
      • Pittsburgh English
      • Buffalo English
    • Inland Northern American English (includes western and central upstate New York)
      • Northeast Pennsylvania English (Scranton, Pennsylvania-area)
    • Mid-Atlantic dialects
      • Washington D.C. Metropolitan Area Accent (D.C. Slang)
      • Hillbilly (mostly in the Appalachian areas of Virginia, West Virginia, and the Carolinas)
      • Baltimorese
      • Tidewater accent
      • Virginia Piedmont
      • Virginia Tidewater ^[3]
    • Inland North American (Lower peninsula of Michigan, northern Ohio and Indiana, the suburbs of Chicago, part of eastern Wisconsin and upstate New York)
      • Buffalo English
    • North Central American English (primarily Minnesota, but also most of Wisconsin, the Upper peninsula of Michigan, and parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Iowa)
      • • Yooper dialect (the variety of North Central American English spoken in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and in some neighboring areas)
    • Midland American English
      • North Midlands English (thin swath from Nebraska to Ohio)
      • St. Louis dialect
      • South Midland (thin swath from Oklahoma to Pennsylvania)
      • Appalachian English
    • Southern English
      • Coastal Southeastern (Charleston, South Carolina, Savannah, Georgia area)
      • Cajun English
      • Harkers Island English (North Carolina)
      • Ozark English
      • Piedmont Dialect
      • Southern Highland English
      • Florida Cracker Dialect
      • Gullah or Geechee
      • Tampanian English
      • Texan
      • Yat (New Orleans)
      • Ocracoke
    • Western English
      • California English
      • Utah English
      • Wyoming English
      • Idaho English
      • Boontling
      • Hawaiian English
      • Pacific Northwest English
• Canadian English (CanE, CanEng)
  • Newfoundland English
  • Maritimer English
    • Cape Breton accent
    • Lunenburg English
  • West/Central Canadian English
    • Northern Ontario English
    • Quebec English
    • Ottawa Valley Twang
    • Pacific Northwest English
• Bermudian English
• Native American Englishes (Amerindian Englishes)
  • Mojave English
  • Isletan English
  • Tsimshian English
  • Lumbee English
  • Tohono O'odham English
  • Inupiaq English

Oceania

• Australian English (AusE, AusEng)
  • Cultural
    • General Australian
    • Broad Australian
    • Cultivated Australian
    • Australian Aboriginal English
  • Regional
    • South Australian English
    • Western Australian English
    • Torres Strait English
    • Australian Kriol language
    • Victorian English
    • Queensland English
    • Norfuk language
• New Zealand English (NZE, NZEng)
  • Maori English
  • Southland accent
• Pitkern

Central and South America

• Belizean English
• Bay Islands English
• Falkland Islands English
• Guyanese English

Caribbean

• Caribbean English
  • Anguillan English
  • Antiguan English
  • Bahamian English
  • Jamaican English
  • Trinidadian English
  • Vincentian English

Asia

• Burmese English
• Hong Kong English
• Pakistani English
• Tinglish
• Indian English
  • Hinglish
  • Punjabi/Delhi English
  • U.P/Bihari English
  • Bengali/Assamese English
  • Oriya English
  • Gujarati English
  • Maharashtrian English
  • Kannadiga English
  • Telugu English
  • Tamil English
  • Malayalee English
• Malaysian English (MyE)
• Philippine English (PhE)
• Singapore English
• Sri Lankan English (SLE)

Africa

• Cameroon English
• Liberian English
• Nigerian Standard English
• Malawian English
• South African English
• East African English
  • Ugandan English
  • Kenyan English

Constructed

See also: International English

• Basic English
• E-Prime
• European English
• Globish
• Newspeak
• Special English
• Simplified English

Manual encodings

Main article: Manually Coded English

• British Signed English
• US Signed Exact English (SEE)
• Australasian Signed English

These encoding systems should not be confused with sign languages such as British Sign Language and American Sign Language, which, while they are informed by English, have their own grammar and vocabulary.

Pidgins and creoles

The following are portmanteaus devised to describe certain local creoles of English. Although similarly named, they are actually quite different in nature, with some being genuine mixed languages, some being instances of heavy code-switching between English and another language, some being genuine local dialects of English used by first-language English speakers, and some being non-native pronunciations of English. A few portmanteaus (such as Greeklish and Fingilish) are transliteration methods rather than any kind of spoken variant of English.

• Anglish (English stressing words of Germanic origin)
• Arabish (Arabic English, mostly chat romanization)
• Benglish (Bengali English)
• Bislish (Bisaya English)
• Corsish (Corsican English)
• Chinglish (Chinese English)
• Czenglish (Czech English)
• Danglish (Danish English)
• Dunglish (Dutch English)
• Engrish/Japlish (Japanese English) - most popularly refers to broken English used by Japanese in attempts at foreign branding.
• Finglish (Finnish English)
• Franglais (French English)
• Denglisch/Germlish/Genglish/Ginglish/Germish/Pseudo-Anglicism (German English)
• Hebrish (Hebrew English, chat romanization) – also sometimes used to refer to English written with Hebrew characters
• Hinglish (Hindi English)
• Italgish (Italian English)
• Konglish (South Korean English)
• Manglish (Malaysian English)
• Malglish (Maltese English)
• Poglish/Ponglish (Polish English)
• Porglish (Portuguese English)
• Punglish (Punjabi English)
• Rominglish/Romglish (Romanian English)
• Runglish (Russian English)
• Serblish (Serbian English) and Cronglish/Croglish/Croenglish
• Sardish (Sardinian English)
• Siculish (Sicilian English)
• Singlish (Singapore English, multiple pidgins)
• Spanglish (Spanish English)
• Swanglish/Kiswanglish (Swahili English)
• Swenglish (Swedish English)
• Taglish (Tagalog English)
• Tinglish/Thailish (Thai English)
• Ukrainglish (Ukrainian English)
• Vinish (Vietnamese English)
• Wenglish (Welsh English)
• Yeshivish (Yeshiva English)

See also

• Survey of English Dialects
• Regional accents of English
• Regional accents of English speakers
• History of the English language
  • Old English
  • Middle English
  • Early Modern English
  • Modern English
• Anglish
• Macaronic language
• European English
• English-based creole languages
• List of Chinese dialects
• World Englishes

References

1. ^ Wakelin, Martyn Francis (2008. First published 1978). Discovering English Dialects. Oxford: Shire Publications. p. 4. ISBN 978-0-7478-0176-4. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=l_V9jb1rq4EC&printsec=frontcover&dq=English+Accents+OR+Dialects&lr=lang_en&as_drrb_is=b&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=1965&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=1980&as_brr=0&as_pt=BOOKS&source=gbs_book_other_versions_r&cad=2#v=onepage&q=&f=false. 
2. ^ JC Wells, Accents of English, Cambridge University Press, 1983, page 351
3. ^ "Virginia's Many Voices". Baconsrebellion.com. http://www.baconsrebellion.com/Issues05/05-09/Curious.htm. Retrieved 2010-11-29. 

External links

• Sounds Familiar? Listen to examples of regional accents and dialects from across the UK on the British Library's 'Sounds Familiar?' website
• English accents and dialects A browsable collection of recordings by the British Library
• Sound Comparisons – accents of English from around the world Hear and compare how the same 110 words are pronounced in 50 English accents from around the world – instantaneous playback online
• A national map of the regional dialects of American English
• Voices in your area--BBC (sound archive of local speech in the UK, Isle of Man and Channel Islands)
• whoohoo.co.uk British Dialect Translator Translate text into regional dialects from the British Isles
• IDEA – International Dialects of English Archive
• Runglish
• Speech accent archive
• Dialect poetry from the English regions
• American Languages: Our Nation's Many Voices: An online audio resource presenting interviews with speakers of German-American and American English dialects from across the United States
• The Dialect Dictionary Compilation of dialects from around the globe