Regional accents of English

The regional accents of English speakers show great variation across the areas where English is spoken as a first language. This article provides an overview of the many identifiable variations in pronunciation, usually deriving from the phoneme inventory of the local dialect, of the local variety of Standard English between various populations of native English speakers. Local accents are part of local dialects. Any dialect of English has unique features in pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar. The term "accent" describes only the first of these, namely, pronunciation. See also: List of dialects of the English language.

Non-native speakers of English tend to carry over the intonation and phonemic inventory from their mother tongue into their English speech. For more details see Non-native pronunciations of English.

Among native English speakers, many different accents exist. Some regional accents, such as Pennsylvania Dutch English, are easily identified by certain characteristics. Further variations are to be found within the regions identified below; for example, towns located less than 10 miles (16 km) from the city of Manchester such as Bolton, Oldham and Salford, each have distinct accents, all of which form the Lancashire accent, yet in extreme cases are different enough to be noticed even by a non-local listener. There is also much room for misunderstanding between people from different regions, as the way one word is pronounced in one accent (for example, petal in American English) will sound like a different word in another accent (for example, pearl in Scottish English).

For a summary of the differences between accents, see International Phonetic Alphabet chart for English dialects.

Overview

Varieties of Standard English and their features
Phonological features	United States	Canada	Republic of Ireland	Northern Ireland	Scotland	England	Wales	South Africa	Australia	New Zealand
/æ/ rather than /ɑː/ in can't	+	+
father–bother merger	+	+
consistent intervocalic alveolar-flapping	+	+
unrounded [ɑ] in pot	+	+	+
syllabic [ɹ̩] in bird	+	+	+	+
cot-caught merger	+	+		+	+
pool-pull merger				+	+
bath with /ɑː/			+			+	+	+	+	+
non-rhotic	±					+	+	+	+	+
monophthongal /aɪ, aʊ/, close vowels for /æ, ɛ/								+	+	+
front [aː] for /ɑːr/									+	+

English accents are typically divided into two groups: the English of England (BrEng), and English in North America (AmEng).

Dialects and open vowels

word	RP	GA	Can	sound change
THOUGHT	/ɔ/	/ɔ/	/ɑ/	cot–caught merger
CLOTH	/ɒ/			lot–cloth split
LOT		/ɑ/		father–bother merger
PALM	/ɑː/
PLANT		/æ/	/æ/	trap–bath split
BATH
TRAP	/æ/

Dialects differ greatly in their pronunciation of open vowels. In Received Pronunciation, there are four open back vowels, /æ ɑː ɒ ɔː/, but in General American there are only three, /æ ɑ ɔ/, and in most dialects of Canadian English only two, /æ ɒ/. In addition, which words have which vowel varies between dialects. Words like bath and cloth have the vowels /ɑː ɒ/ in Received Pronunciation, but /æ ɔ/ in General American. The table above shows some of these dialectal differences, and gives the names for the mergers and splits that created them.

Great Britain

Main article: British English

Accents and dialects vary widely across the United Kingdom; as such, a single "British accent" does not exist, but someone could be said to have an English, Welsh, or Scottish accent although these all have several different sub-types.

England

There is considerable variation within the accents of English across England.

Two main sets of accents are spoken in the West Country: Cornish shows some internal variation and is spoken by locally born people who make up varying proportions of the population, while West Country is spoken primarily in the counties of Devon, Somerset, Gloucestershire, Bristol, Dorset (not as common in east Dorset), and Wiltshire (again, less common in eastern Wiltshire), as well as East Cornwall. However, a range of variations can be heard within different parts of the West Country; the Bristolian dialect is distinctive from the accent heard in Gloucestershire (especially south of Cheltenham), for example.

The accents of Northern England are also distinctive, including a range of variations: Northumberland, County Durham, Teesside, Newcastle upon Tyne, Sunderland, Cumbria, and Lancashire, with regional variants in Barrow-in-Furness, Bolton, Burnley, Blackburn, Manchester, Preston, Fylde, Liverpool and Wigan. Yorkshire is also distinctive, having variations between the three historic ridings (North Riding of Yorkshire, West Riding of Yorkshire and East Riding of Yorkshire).

While many of the Lancashire accents may sound similar, the difference is the 'Scouse' accent, as spoken in Liverpool. Prior to the Irish Famine of the 1840s the Liverpool accent was not dissimilar to others in Lancashire, except that with Liverpool being close to Wales, there were some Northern Welsh inflections. However, Liverpool's population of around 60,000 in the 1840s was swelled by the passage of around 300,000 Irish refugees escaping the Famine. Liverpool had this influx due to being England's main Atlantic port and a popular departure point for people seeking to embark for a new life in America. So, while many of the Irish refugees moved on to other parts of Britain and further afield, many remained in Liverpool and the local accent became changed forever over the succeeding years. Today, the Scouse accent is completely distinct from others in the North West of England and bears little resemblance to them. Many Liverpool families can trace their lineage back to refugees escaping the potato famine. The connection between Liverpool and Ireland was recognized by John Lennon in his final interview – with the BBC disc jockey Andy Peebles – on 6 December 1980 (two days before his assassination) when he described Liverpool as "an Irish place".

Other accents include a range of accents spoken in the West Midlands (in the major towns and conurbations (The Black Country, Birmingham, Coventry, Stoke-on-Trent and Wolverhampton) and in rural accents (such as in Herefordshire and south Worcestershire)); the accents of the counties comprising the East Midlands (Derby, Leicester and Rutland, Lincoln, Northampton, and Nottingham), East Anglia (Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire) and the Home Counties (typically Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Essex, Berkshire, Middlesex, Surrey, Kent, Hampshire.)

There is also great variation within greater London, with various accents such as Cockney, Estuary English, Multicultural London English and Received Pronunciation being found all throughout the region and the Home Counties.

Scotland

The regional accents of Scottish English generally follow a similar pattern to that of the dialects of Modern Scots:

The Hebrides islands for the most part do no fall into what is now considered a typical Scottish accent, here the linguistic heritage is Gaelic and Old Norse resulting in an accent that is frequently considered to sound more Irish or Welsh than stereotypically Scottish.

• Insular Scots – Orkney and Shetland.
• Northern Scots – north of the Firth of Tay.
  • North Northern – Caithness, Easter Ross and the Black Isle.
  • Mid Northern (also called North East and popularly known as the Doric) – Moray, Buchan and Aberdeenshire.
  • South Northern – Dundonian, Angus and the Mearns.
• Central Scots – the Central Lowlands and Southwest Scotland.
  • North East Central – north of the Forth, in south east Perthshire and west Angus.
  • South East Central – in the Lothians, Peeblesshire and Berwickshire
  • West Central – Dunbartonshire, Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, Ayrshire, on the Isle of Bute and to the southern extremity of Kintyre.
  • South West Central – west Dumfriesshire, Kirkcudbrightshire and Wigtownshire.
• Southern Scots – mid and east Dumfriesshire and the Scottish Borders counties Selkirkshire and Roxburghshire, in particular the valleys of the Annan, the Esk, the Liddel Water, the Teviot and the Yarrow Water. It is also known as the "border tongue" or "border Scots".

A number of pronunciation features set most Scots apart from neighbouring English dialects. The Scots pronunciation of come [kʌm] contrasts with [kʊm] in Northern English. The Scots realisation [kʌm] reaches as far south as the mouth of the north Esk in north Cumbria, crossing Cumbria and skirting the foot of the Cheviots before reaching the east coast at Bamburgh some 12 miles north of Alnwick. The Scots [x]–English [∅]/[f] cognate group (micht-might, eneuch-enough, etc.) can be found in a small portion of north Cumbria with the southern limit stretching from Bewcastle to Longtown and Gretna. The Scots pronunciation of wh as [ʍ] becomes English [w] south of Carlisle but remains in Northumberland, but Northumberland realises “r” as [ʁ], often called the burr, which is not a Scots realisation. Thus the greater part of the valley of the Esk and the whole of Liddesdale can be considered to be northern English dialects rather than Scots ones. From the nineteenth century onwards influence from the South through education and increased mobility have caused Scots features to retreat northwards so that for all practical purposes the political and linguistic boundaries may be considered to coincide.

Wales

Main article: Welsh English

The accent of English in Wales is strongly influenced by the phonology of the Welsh language, which more than 20% of the population of Wales speak as their first or second language. The North Wales accent is distinct from South Wales and north east Wales is influenced by Scouse and Cheshire accents. South Wales border accents are influenced by West Country accents. The Wenglish of the South Wales Valleys shows a deep cross-fertilisation between the two.

The Cardiff dialect and accent is also quite distinctive from that of the South Wales Valleys, primarily:

• Rounding of the second element of /ɪə/ to [jøː]
  • here /hɪə/ pronounced [hjøː] or [jøː] in broader accents
• A closer pronunciation of /ʌ/ as in love and other
• /ɑː/ is widely realised as [æː], giving a pronunciation of Cardiff /ˈkaːdɪf/ as Kahdiff [ˈkæːdɪf]

Northern Ireland

Main article: Hiberno-English

Ireland has several main groups of accents, including (1) those of Dublin and surrounding areas on the east coast where English has been spoken since the earliest period of colonisation from Britain, (2) the accents of Ulster, with a strong influence from Scotland as well as the underlying Gaelic linguistic stratum, which in that province approaches the Gaelic of Scotland, and (3) the various accents of west, midlands and south.

Ulster

The Ulster accent has two main sub accents, namely Mid Ulster English and Ulster Scots. The language is spoken throughout the nine counties of Ulster, and in some northern areas of bordering counties such as Louth and Leitrim. It bears many similarities to Scottish English through influence from the Ulster varieties of Scots. Some characteristics of the Ulster accent include:

• As in Scotland, the vowels /ʊ/ and /u/ are merged, so that look and Luke are homophonous. The vowel is a high central rounded vowel, [ʉ].
• The diphthong /aʊ/ is pronounced approximately [əʉ], but wide variation exists, especially between social classes in Belfast
• In Belfast, /eɪ/ is a monophthong in open syllables (e.g. day [dɛː]) but an ingliding diphthong in closed syllables (e.g. daze [deəz]). But the monophthong remains when inflectional endings are added, thus daze contrasts with days [dɛːz].
• The alveolar stops /t, d/ become dental before /r, ər/, e.g. tree and spider
• /t/ often undergoes flapping to [ɾ] before an unstressed syllable, e.g. eighty [ˈeəɾi]

Republic of Ireland

Connacht, Leinster, and Munster

The accent of these three provinces fluctuates greatly from the flat tone of the midlands counties of Laois, Kildare, and Offaly, the perceived sing-song of Cork and Kerry, to the soft accents of Mayo and Galway.

Historically the Dublin City and county area, parts of Wicklow and Louth, came under heavy exclusive influence from the first English settlements (known as The Pale). It remained until Independence from Britain as the biggest concentration of English influence in the whole island.

The Corkonian accent has a unique lyrical intonation. Every sentence typically ends in the trademark elongated tail-off on the last word. In Cork heavier emphasis yet is put on the brrr sound to the letter R.

Similar to the Cork accent but without the same unmistakable intonation, Kerry puts even heavier emphasis on the brrr sound to the letter R. For example: the word Forty. Throughout the south this word is pronounced whereby the r exhibits the typified Irish brrr. In Kerry however (especially in rural areas) the roll on the r is enforced with vibrations from the tongue (not unlike Scottish here). "Are you?" becomes a co-joined "A-rrou?" single tongue flutter (esp. in rural areas). This extra emphasis on R is also seen in varying measures through parts of West Limerick and West Cork in closer proximity to Kerry.

Another feature in the Kerry accent is the S before the consonant. True to its Gaelic origins in a manner similar to parts of Connacht "s" maintains the shh sound as in shop or sheep. The word Start becomes "Shtart". Stop becomes Shtop.

Irish Travellers

Irish Travellers have a very distinct accent closely related to a rural Hiberno-English, particularly the English spoken in Connaught from where they originate. Many Irish Travellers who were born in parts of Dublin or Britain have the accent in spite of it being strikingly different from the local accents in those regions. They also have their own language, which strongly links in with their dialect/accent of English, see Shelta.

North America

Main articles: North American English regional phonology and North American English

North American English is a collective term for the dialects of the United States and Canada; it does not include the varieties of Caribbean English spoken in the West Indies.

• Rhoticity: Most North American English accents differ from Received Pronunciation and some other British dialects by being rhotic; the rhotic consonant /r/ is pronounced before consonants and at the end of syllables, and the r-colored vowel [ɚ] is used as a syllable nucleus. For example, while the words hard and singer would be pronounced [hɑːd] and [ˈsɪŋə] in Received Pronunciation, they would be pronounced [hɑɹd] and [ˈsɪŋɚ] in General American. (Exceptions are certain traditional accents found in eastern New England, New York City, and the Southern United States, plus African American Vernacular English.)

• Mergers before /r/: R-coloring has led to some vowel mergers before historic /r/ that do not happen in most other native dialects. In many North American accents, Mary, merry and marry sound the same (Mary–marry–merry merger), but they have the vowels /ɛə/, /ɛ/, /æ/ respectively in RP. Similarly, nearer rhymes with mirror (mirror–nearer merger), though the two have different vowels in RP: /iː/ and /ɪ/. Other mergers before /r/ occur in various North American dialects.

• Mergers of the low back vowels: Other North American mergers that are absent in Received Pronunciation are the merger of the vowels of caught and cot ([kɔːt] and [kɒt] in RP) in many accents, and the merger of father (RP [ˈfɑːðə]) and bother (RP [ˈbɒðə]) in almost all.

• Flat a: Most North American accents lack the so-called trap–bath split found in Southern England: Words like ask, answer, grass, bath, staff, dance are pronounced with the short-a /æ/ of trap, not with the broad A /ɑ/ of father heard in Southern England as well as in most of the Southern hemisphere. (In North America, the vowel of father has merged with that of lot and bother, see above.)

• Flapping of /t/ and /d/: In North American English, /t/ and /d/ both become the alveolar flap [ɾ] after a stressed syllable and between vowels or syllabic consonants, making the words latter and ladder homophones, either as [ˈlædɚ] or [ˈlæɾɚ].

The United States does not have a concrete 'standard' accent in the same way that Britain has Received Pronunciation. Nonetheless, a form of speech known to linguists as General American is perceived by many Americans to be "accent-less", meaning a person who speaks in such a manner does not appear to be from anywhere. The region of the United States that most resembles this is the central Midwest, specifically eastern Nebraska (including Omaha and Lincoln), southern and central Iowa (including Des Moines), parts of Missouri, Ohio and western Illinois (including Peoria and the Quad Cities, but not the Chicago area).

Canada

Main article: Canadian English

Three major dialect areas can be found in Canada: Western/Central Canada, the Maritimes, and Newfoundland.

The phonology of West/Central Canadian English, also called General Canadian, is broadly identical to that of the Western US, except for the following features:

• The diphthongs /aɪ/ and /aʊ/ are raised to approximately [ʌɪ] and [ʌʊ] before voiceless consonants; thus, for example, the vowel sound of out [ʌʊt] is different from that of loud [laʊd]. This feature is known as Canadian raising.
• There is no contrast between the vowels of caught and cot (cot–caught merger, as above); in addition, the short a of bat is more open than almost everywhere else in North America [æ̞ ~ a]. The other front lax vowels /ɛ/ and /ɪ/, too, can be lowered and/or retracted. This phenomenon has been labelled the Canadian Shift.

The pronunciation of certain words shows a British influence. For instance, shone is /ʃɒn/; been is often /biːn/; lieutenant is /lɛfˈtɛnənt/; process can be /ˈproʊsɛs/; etc.

Words like drama, pyjamas, pasta tend to have /æ/ rather than /ɑ/~/ɒ/. Words like sorrow, Florida, orange have /ɔr/ rather than /ɑr/; therefore, sorry rhymes with story rather than with starry.

United States

Main articles: North American English regional phonology, North American English, American English, and General American

West Indies and Bermuda

For discussion, see:

• Bahamian English
• Bermudian English
• Caribbean English
• Jamaican English
• Trinidadian English

Southern hemisphere

Australia

Main article: Australian English

Australian English is relatively homogenous when compared to British and American English. There is however some regional variation between the states, particularly in regards to South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia.

Three main varieties of Australian English are spoken according to linguists: Broad Australian, General Australian and Cultivated Australian. They are part of a continuum, reflecting variations in accent. They can, but do not always reflect the social class, education and urban or rural background of the speaker.

• Australian Aboriginal English refers to the various varieties of the English language used by Indigenous Australians. These varieties, which developed differently in different parts of Australia, vary along a continuum, from forms close to General Australian to more nonstandard forms. There are distinctive features of accent, grammar, words and meanings, as well as language use.
• The furthest extent of the Aboriginal dialect is Australian Kriol language, which is not mutually intelligible with General Australian English.
• On the Torres Strait Islands, a distinctive dialect known as Torres Strait English is spoken.
• In Australian English, pronunciations vary regionally according to the type of vowel that occurs before the sounds nd, ns, nt, nce, nch, and mple, and the pronunciation of the suffix "-mand". In words like "chance", "plant", "branch", "sample" and "demand", the vast majority of Australians use the short /æ/ vowel from the word "cat". In South Australian English however there is a high proportion of people who use the broad /aː/ vowel from the word "cart" in these words.
• Centring diphthongs, which are the vowels that occur in words like ear, beard and air, sheer. In Western Australian English there is a tendency for centring diphthongs to be pronounced as full diphthongs. Those in the eastern states will tend to pronounce "fear" and "sheer" without any jaw movement, while the westerners would pronounce them like "fia" and "shia", respectively.
• Another distinction in Australian English is the i vowel in words such as sit, dinner, bin, and fish which in broader dialects can sound somewhat like seat, deena, been and feesh.

New Zealand

Main article: New Zealand English

The New Zealand accent is most similar to the Australian accent but is distinguished from the Australian one by the presence of two "clipped" vowels, slightly resembling South African English. Phonetically, these are raised or centralised versions of the short "i" and "e" vowels, which in New Zealand are close to [ɨ] and [ɪ] respectively rather than [ɪ] and [ɛ]. New Zealand pronunciations are often popularly represented outside New Zealand by writing "fish and chips" as "fush and chups", "yes" as "yiss", "sixty-six" as "suxty-sux". Scottish English influence is most evident in the southern regions of New Zealand, notably Dunedin. Another difference between New Zealand and Australian English is the length of the vowel in words such as "dog", and "job" which are longer than in Australian English which shares the short and staccato pronunciation shared with British English.

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 R is actually pronounced everywhere it appears. 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 without aspiration, striking other English speakers as similar to 'd' and 'g'. This is also encountered in South African English, especially among Afrikaans speakers.

South Atlantic

Falkland Islands

Main article: Falkland Islands English

The Falkland Islands have a large non-native born population, mainly from Britain, but also from Saint Helena. In rural areas, the Falkland accent tends to be stronger. The accent has resemblances to both Australia-NZ English, and that of Norfolk in England, and contains a number of Spanish loanwords.

Saint Helena

"Saints", as Saint Helenan islanders are called, have a variety of different influences on their accent. To outsiders, the accent has resemblances to the accents of South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand.

"Saint" is not just a different pronunciation of English, it also has its own distinct words. So 'bite' means spicy, as in full of chillies; 'us' is used instead of 'we' ('us has been shopping'); and 'done' is used to generate a past tense, hence 'I done gorn fishing' ('I have been fishing').

Television is a reasonably recent arrival there, and is only just beginning to have an effect. American terms are becoming more common, e.g. 'chips' for crisps.

Southern Africa

South Africa

Main article: South African English

South Africa has 11 official languages, one of which is English. Accents vary significantly between ethnic and language groups. Home-language English speakers (Black, White, Indian and Coloured or Cape Coloured) in South Africa have an accent that generally resembles British Received Pronunciation (modified with varying degrees of Germanic inflection due to Afrikaans).

The Coloured community is generally bilingual, however English accents are strongly influenced by primary mother-tongue (Afrikaans or English). A range of accents can be seen, with the majority of Coloureds showing a strong Afrikaans inflection. Similarly, Afrikaners (and Cape Coloureds), both descendant of mainly Dutch settlers, tend to pronounce English phonemes with a strong Afrikaans inflection. The English accents of both related groups are significantly different and easily distinguishable (primarily because of prevalent code-switching among the majority of Coloured English speakers, particularly in the Western Cape of South Africa). The range of accents found among English-speaking Coloureds (from the distinctive "Cape Flats or Coloured English" to the standard "colloquial" South African English accent) are of special interest. Geography and education levels play major roles therein.

Black Africans generally speak English as a second language, and accent is strongly influenced by mother-tongue (particularly Bantu languages). However, urban middle-class black Africans have developed an English accent, with similar inflection as first-language English speakers. Within this ethnic group variations exist: most Nguni (Xhosa, Zulu, Swazi and Ndebele) speakers have a distinct accent, with the pronunciation of words like 'the' and 'that' as would 'devil' and 'dust', respectively; and words like 'rice' as 'lice'. This may be as a result of the inadequacy of 'r' in the languages. Sotho (Tshwana, Northern Sotho and Southern Sotho) speakers have a similar accent, with slight variations. Tsonga and Venda speakers have very similar accents with far less intonation than Ngunis and Sothos. Some Black speakers have no distinction between the 'i' in determine and the one in decline, pronouncing it similarly to the one in 'mine'.

Black, Indian and Coloured students educated in former Model C schools or at formerly white tertiary institutions will generally adopt a similar accent to their white English-home-language speaking classmates. Code-switching and the "Cape Flats" accent are becoming popular among white learners in public schools within Cape Town.

South African accents also vary between major cities (particularly Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg) and provinces (regions). Accent variation are also observed within respective cities, for instance, Johannesburg, where the northern suburbs (Parkview, Parkwood, Parktown North, Saxonwold, etc.) tend to be less strongly influenced by Afrikaans. These suburbs are more affluent and populated by individuals with tertiary education and higher incomes. The accents of native English speakers from the southern suburbs (Rosettenville, Turffontein, etc.) tend to be more strongly influenced by Afrikaans. These suburbs are populated by tradesmen and factory workers, with lower incomes. The extent of Afrikaans influence is explained by the fact that Afrikaans urbanisation would historically have been from failed marginal farms or failing economies in rural towns, into the southern and western suburbs of Johannesburg. The western suburbs of Johannesburg (Newlands, Triomf, which has now reverted to its old name Sophiatown, Westdene, etc.) are predominantly Afrikaans speaking. In a similar fashion, people from predominantly or traditionally Jewish areas in the Johannesburg area (such as Sandton, Linksfield or Victory Park) may have accents influenced by Yiddish or Hebrew ancestry.

South African English accent, across the spectrum, is non-rhotic.

Examples of South African accents (obtained from http://accent.gmu.edu)

• Native English: Male (Cape Town, South Africa)
• Native English: Female (Cape Town, South Africa)
• Native English: Male (Port Elizabeth, South Africa)
• Native English: Male (Nigel, South Africa)
• Afrikaans (Primary): Female (Pretoria, South Africa)
• Afrikaans (Primary): Male (Pretoria, South Africa)
• Afrikaans (Primary): Male (Pretoria, South Africa)
• Northern Sotho (Primary): Female (Polokwane, South Africa)

Additional samples of South African accents and dialects can be found at http://web.ku.edu/~idea/africa/southafrica/southafrica.htm

Regardless of regional and ethnic differences (in accents), South African English accent is sometimes confused with Australian (or New Zealand) English by British and American English speakers.

Zimbabwe

In Zimbabwe, native English speakers (mainly the white and Coloured minority) have a similar speech pattern to that of South Africa. Hence those with high degrees of Germanic inflection would pronounce 'Zimbabwe' as zim-bah-bwi, as opposed to the African pronunciation zeem-bah-bweh. Zimbwabwean accents also vastly vary, with some Black Africans sounding British while others will have a much stronger accent influenced by their mother tongues, usually this distinction is brought about by where speakers grew up and the school attended. For example, most people that grew up in and around Harare have a British sounding accent while those in the rural areas have a more "pidgin-english" sort of accent

Example of a Zimbabwean English accent (obtained from http://accent.gmu.edu)

• Shona (Primary): Female (Bulawayo, Zimbabwe)

Namibia

Namibian English tends to be strongly influenced by South African English. Most Namibians that grew up in and around the capital city (Windhoek) have developed an English accent while those in the rural areas have an accent strongly influenced by they mother tongue particularly Bantu languages.

Asia

India and South Asia

Main articles: Indian English, Pakistani English, and Sri Lankan English

A number of distinct dialects of English are spoken in South Asia. There are many languages spoken in South Asia like Nepali, Hindi, Punjabi, Rajasthani, Sindhi, Balochi, Pashto, Marathi, Assamese, Bengali, Maithili, Gujarati, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, Tamil, Urdu and many more, creating a variety of accents of English. Accents originating in this part of the world tend to display several distinctive features, including:

• syllable-timing, in which a roughly equal time is allocated to each syllable. Akin to the English of Singapore and Malaysia. (Elsewhere, English speech timing is based predominantly on stress);
• "sing-song" pitch (somewhat reminiscent of those of Welsh English).

Philippines

Main article: Philippine English

Philippine English employs a rhotic accent that originated from the time when it was first introduced by the Americans during the colonization period to replace Spanish as the dominant language used in politics. However, there are no 'f' or 'v' sounds in the Tagalog language and 'f' is pronounced as a 'p' and 'v' as a 'b' so that the words fifty and five will be said pip-ty and pibe by a Filipino.

Apart from the inability to pronounce 'f' and 'v', in reality, there is no single Philippine English Accent. Many indigenous languages affect the English that is spoken throughout the Islands. For example, those from Visayas may generally interchange the /e/ and /i/ also the /o/ and /u/ as their distinction is not very pronounced in the Visayan languages.

Those coming from the North may pronounce the /r/ with a strong trill instead of the flap as it is one of the features of the Ilocano language. Some Ilocanos also pronounce the /ə/ better as there is a sound in their language that is close to this.

Hong Kong

Main article: Hong Kong English

The accent of English spoken in Hong Kong follows mainly British, with rather strong influence from Cantonese on the pronunciations of a few consonants and vowels, and sentence grammar and structure.

Malaysia

Main article: Malaysian English

Malay is the lingua franca of Malaysia, a former British colony. English is a foreign language with no official status, but it is commonly learnt as a second or third language.

The Malaysian accent appears to be a melding of British, Chinese, Tamil and Malay influences.

Many Malaysians adopt different accents and usages depending on the situation; for example, an office worker may speak with less colloquialism and with a more British accent on the job than with friends or while out shopping.

• syllable-timing, where speech is timed according to syllable, akin to the English of the Indian Subcontinent. (Elsewhere, speech is usually timed to stress.)
• A quick, staccato style, with "puncturing" syllables and well-defined, drawn out tones.
• Non-rhoticity, like most varieties of English language in England. Hence caught and court are homophonous as /kɔːt/ (in actuality, [kɔːʔ] or [koːʔ], see "Simplification" below); can't rhymes with aren't, etc.
• The "ay" and "ow" sounds in raid and road (/eɪ/ and /oʊ/ respectively) are pronounced as monophthongs, i.e. with no "glide": [red] and [rod].
• /θ/ is pronounced as [t] and /ð/ as [d]; hence, thin is [tɪn] and then is [dɛn].
• Depending on how colloquial the situation is: many discourse particles, or words inserted at the end of sentences that indicate the role of the sentence in discourse and the mood it conveys, like "lah", "leh", "mah", "hor", etc.

See also: Manglish

Singapore

Main article: Singapore English

Singapore is effectively a multi-lingual nation. The Singapore government recognises four official languages: English, Malay, Mandarin Chinese, and Tamil.

Students in Primary and Secondary schools learning English as the language of instruction also learn a second language called their "Mother Tongue" by the Ministry of Education, where they are either taught Mandarin Chinese, Malay or Tamil. A main point to note is while "Mother Tongue" generally refers to the first language (L1) overseas, in Singapore, it is used by the Ministry of Education to denote the second language (L2).

There are two main types of English spoken in Singapore – Standard Singapore English and Singlish. Singlish is more widely spoken than standard English. It has a very distinctive tone and sentence structure which are both strongly influenced by Malay and the many varieties of Chinese spoken in the city.

A 2005 census showed that around 30% of Singaporeans speak English as their main language at home.

There is a large number of foreigners working in Singapore. 36% of the population in Singapore are foreigners and foreigners make up 50% of the service sector. Therefore, it is very common to encounter service staff who are not fluent in English. Most of these staff speak Mandarin Chinese. Those who do not speak Mandarin Chinese tend to speak either broken English or Singlish, which they have learnt from the locals.

See also

• List of dialects of the English language
• International Dialects of English Archive
• IPA chart for English dialects
• Manglish
• Hinglish
• Koiné language

External links

• The Speech Accent Archive 1254 audio samples of people with various accents reading the same paragraph.
• Voices UK Directory of 118 British accents.
• Sounds Familiar? — Listen to examples of regional accents and dialects from across the UK on the British Library's 'Sounds Familiar' website
• 'Hover & Hear' Accents of English from Around the World, listen and compare side by side instantaneously.
• International Dialects of English Archive
• English Accents and Dialects Searchable free-access archive of 681 speech samples, England only, wma format with linguistic commentary
• Britain's crumbling ruling class is losing the accent of authority An article on the connection of class and accent in the UK, its decline, and the spread of Estuary English
• The Telsur Project Homepage of the telephone survey of North American English accents
• Pittsburgh Speech & Society A site for non-linguists, by Barbara Johnstone of Carnegie Mellon University
• Linguistic Geography of Pennsylvania by Claudio Salvucci
• Phillyspeak A newspaper article on Philadelphia speech
• J.C. Wells' English Accents course Includes class handouts describing Cockney, Scottish, Australian, and Scouse, among other things.
• Evaluating English Accents Worldwide
• Do You Speak American? A series of web pages by PBS that attempts to discuss the differences between dialects in the United States
• American Regional Accent Map A continuously-updating map based on users' responses to quizzes
• Language by Video Short videos demonstrating differences in English accents around the world.