Yerevan State University Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures Department of English Language

YEAR PAPER Theme: Peculiarities of British Dialects

Written by Mghdsyan Meline Student of the group 4

Research Adviser Petoyan Tatev

Yerevan 2012
INTRODUCTION Language is the most important means of human being. Many peoples on the Earth have no means of representing their speech in the form of writing. In fact, some authorities estimate that there are more than two thousand languages in the world which have never been reduced to writing. Writing, therefore, must be considered a secondary manifestation of language. Likewise, other such representations and devices exist, some rather crude and some more elaborate; gesture, facial expressions, code signals, weather- vanes, and road signs are among them. The variety of languages is as great as variety of the peoples. Some languages have much in common they belong to one family, other languages differ much and it seems that they have nothing in common but the thing that brings together all of them is that people use it to communicate with each other. One and the same language may differ in different regions of the country. The most widespread reason is the influence of the other cultures. Such form of a language which is spoken only in one area, with words or grammar that are slightly different from other forms of the same language is called the dialect1. Dialects are such varieties of a language that contrast in pronunciation, grammatical patterns, and vocabulary and that are associated with geographic area and social class. The two main types of dialects are the geographical dialect-spoken by people of the same area or locality and the social dialect-used by people of the same social class, educational level, or occupational group. The development of dialect variations clearly shows that language is continually evolving. Sometimes, when varieties of a language change to the point that they are mutually incomprehensible, the dialects become languages in their own rights. This was the case with Latin, various dialects of which evolved into French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, and their various dialects. Although the term "dialect" is used popularly to refer to vernacular (i.e., nonstandard) language varieties, linguists use the term in a neutral sense to refer to any variety vernacular or standard. Years of sociolinguistic research have shown that dialects are merely different from each other. Our aim is to show this difference. There are 2.5 thousand of languages, if not to take in consideration the distinctions between dialects. If we take dialects as separate languages their number will amount to 5 thousands. The whole amount of population in the world already has past 5 billions of people, it means that on average there is one language (or dialect) to million of people. Its impossible to learn all of them.
1

Dictionary of contemporary English, Longman

For implementation of contacts between nations and states there are such people as interpreters. English language is the most prevalent and universally recognized. 402 million people all over the world speak English. It is widely spoken on six continents. In the British Isles, North America and Australia, where English is spoken as the primary language, the English-speaking population is fairly stable. In Africa, the Indian subcontinent and South-east Asia, where English is used as a secondary language, its future is uncertain. English speakers fall into three groups: those who have inherited it as their native language, those who have acquired it as their second language in a society that is largely bilingual, and those who have learned it as a necessary medium of their education or profession. In the entire world, one person in seven now belongs to one of these groups. Almost every language has different variants of pronunciation thats why its no wonder that there are: British, American, Australian or Canadian English. The linguistic variations of one and the same language differ from its dialects. These variations of English already are independent languages but its dialects will never become independent. The reason why we have chosen this theme is that of enlargement of our knowledge of English language, of penetration in its historical past. These materials will help us to evaluate and understand the peculiarities of foundation and development of this language, its dialects and accents. Our aims are: to examine the most prevalent British dialects;

to compare their lexis (the word stock of the dialect), grammar and phonetics with those of Standard English ones, and to clarify what is the difference between them; to show the peculiarities of British dialects; The subject of British dialects is very topical nowadays because the English language develops and changes and the dialects are forgotten. New words constantly replace the old ones. The old generations sometimes cant understand the young because of the distinctions in their speech; their language is the same but the words are different. Our work will consist of 2 chapters. The 1st part will include mostly the theory, i.e. the history and development of the English language because its very important for us to know the prerequisites of the appearing of the dialects. Also in this chapter we will examine the concept of dialect in general, the difference between standard dialects and non-standard dialects, between the dialect and the accent. We will trace how a variety of speech (on the example of Moldovan) was deliberately changed to serve political purposes. Also here we will examine what dialects exist in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. 3

The second chapter of our work we will dedicate to the analysis of British dialects (using the comparative and statistical methods) and to their peculiarities more minutely. Dialects of English language have some divergences from rules of pronunciation and grammar. The learning of these divergences will help to understand the dialects better. We will know how the meaning of words was formed and developed. As all languages change over time and vary according to place and social domain we should ascertain why it happens. There is such point of view that dialects - is a "vulgar speech" that is used by uneducated strata of society. However this statement is wrong because the literary norm is formed on the bases of one or more local dialects and linguistic features of any local dialect are determined by strict historical regularities. For profound understanding of etymology, history and theory of English language we should study territorial dialects. Henry Sweet predicted in 1877 that within a century, American English, Australian English and British English would be mutually unintelligible, but it may be the case that increased worldwide communication through television, the Internet, or globalization has reduced the tendency to regionalisation. This can result either with some variations becoming extinct (as, for instance, apartment has been gradually displacing flat in much of the world) or that wide variations are accepted as "perfectly good English" everywhere. In addition to its use in English-speaking countries, English is used as a technical language around the world, in medicine, computer science, air traffic control, and many other areas. Like all languages, English is constantly changing. Some changes spread out to cover the whole country; others spread only so far, leading to dialect differences between areas. The spread of changes may be caused by physical barriers to communications. The Fens is one such important boundary, with pronunciation in Norfolk of laugh /la:f/ and butter /b and in Lincolnshire of t/, /lf/ and /bt/. The Norfolk pronunciations are newer forms which never made it across the Fens into Lincolnshire. Language change can sometimes be explained by external factors e.g. the wholesale adoption into English of many French words following the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. If we look far enough back in time, we can see that the impulse for change in language has led to the growth of different languages. 2000 years ago, the following languages were all part of the same language: Swedish, Dutch, Norwegian, Icelandic, German, English. We now call these the Germanic language family, and they are descended from a common ancestor of which we have no records. In spite of common ancestor an English speaker cannot understand Dutch or Norwegian without studying them. 1000 years ago they probably could. The same applies to English. The English language was brought to Britain by Germanic-speaking invaders about 1500 years ago. 4

Over the intervening centuries the language has changed enormously with the result that the Old English or Anglo-Saxon as written by King Alfred is no longer comprehensible to the Englishes, and the Middle English of Geoffrey Chaucer is by no means easy to read and even harder if they just hear it. The main peculiarity of British English is that in contrast to other languages it has always been, and continues to be, a language of dialects. "There are no really sharp dialect boundaries in England, and dialects certainly do not coincide with counties. Yorkshire Dialect, for instance, does not suddenly change dramatically into Durham Dialect as you cross the County Durham boundary. Indeed, the dialects of northern Yorkshire are much more like those of County Durham than they are like those of southern Yorkshire. Dialects form a continuum, and are very much a matter of more-or-less rather than either / or. There is really no such thing as an entirely separate, selfcontained dialect.2" (Trudgill 1990: 6) Wherever one goes in England or elsewhere in Britain, there are very obvious differences between the ways in which people speak in different places. It is so with the words used, with the grammar or the way in which words are organized, and very noticeably with pronunciation or dialect. Everyone in Britain seems to be aware of this variety to some extent, and most of them take this diversity for granted much of the time. Paradoxically, variation in dialect, and especially in pronunciation, is a subject about which most people when pressed, and many people without requiring any invitation, are quite prepared to express an opinion. Stop anyone in the street and ask what their words is, for example, for the soft shoe that is worn when playing sports, or what their opinion is of a Geordie or a Brummie or a Cockney dialect, and you can almost guarantee an interested and an interesting response. There are four major divisions of dialects in Britain: Northern English, Midlands English, Southern English and Scottish English and in this work well try to analyse them. Well distinguish between their vocabulary, grammar and phonetics. The rich variety of dialects in England can in large measure be attributed to the simple fact that English has been spoken in the country for upwards of 1,500 years. Even in North America, where English has been in use for some 400 years, there has been insufficient time for fragmentation of the language to occur on the scale to which it has occurred in England, although many regional varieties have transplanted to the New World. Yet it is not the time-scale alone that has resulted in such a wealth of dialect. Language, like a culture, is always changing, becoming the property of succeeding generations who alter it to suit their own purposes. To understand the dialect situation in England we must look not only at the number of years that the language has
2

Trudgill, P. (1990) The dialects of England, Oxford: Blackwell.

existed there but also at what has taken place with regard to the language during those years. Forces may have acted, and indeed have acted, to suppress the trend towards dialectal development. That these forces were weaker than the forces working for the growth of dialect is an important feature of the history of the language at various stages of its evolution. There are no sharp distinctions between dialects but the style that people use to communicate is different. Some dialects, for instance, are known for the ability of their speakers to conduct conversations containing quickfire wit and repartee e.g. Merseyside and Cockney. In others, such as East Anglia, slower speech styles and more sardonic wit is appreciated. This leads to stereotyping of speakers as having certain characteristics. Cockneys are valued in London as amusing, but seen in East Anglia as arrogant and dominant; whilst East Anglians are perceived as taciturn and unfriendly by Londoners.

I. General notions of British dialects In order to understand the nature and origin of conditions prevailing in dialects today we must learn to understand the circumstances which fostered them. And first of all we want to start from history of the English language. English is descended from the language spoken by the Germanic tribes (the Frisians, Angles, Saxons, and Jutes) that migrated to the land that would become known as England. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, around 449 AD, Vortigern, King of the British Isles, issued an invitation to the "Angle kin" (Angles, led by Hengest and Horsa) to help him against the Picts. In return, the Angles were granted lands in the southeast. Further aid was sought, and in response "came men of Ald Seaxum of Anglum of Iotum" (Saxons, Angles, and Jutes). The Chronicle 6

documents the subsequent influx of "settlers" who eventually established seven kingdoms: Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Kent, Essex, Sussex, and Wessex. These Germanic invaders dominated the original Celtic-speaking inhabitants, the languages of whom survived largely in Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, and Ireland. The dialects spoken by these invaders formed what would be called Old English which was a very similar language to modern Frisian which was also strongly influenced by yet another Germanic dialect, Old Norse, spoken by Viking invaders who settled mainly in the North-East. English, England, and East Anglia are derived from words referring to the Angles: Englisc, Angelcynn, and Englaland. For the 300 years following the Norman Conquest in 1066, the Kings of England spoke only French. A large number of French words were assimilated into Old English, which also lost most of its inflections, the result being Middle English. Around the year 1500, the Great Vowel Shift transformed Middle English to Modern English. Modern English began its rise around the time of William Shakespeare. Some scholars divide early Modern English and late Modern English at around 1800, in concert with British conquest of much of the rest of the world, as the influence of native languages affected English enormously. Increasing democratization of society in the XIX century, together with improved communications, began the slow process of exposing everyone to the rich variety of regional dialects existing in the country. On the other hand, the same developments spread the powerful influence of the standard form of the language, and progress in education, in the professions, and in society continued to depend on the possession of an acceptable accent and a grasp of the "correct" grammar and vocabulary. In the course of time the British Broadcasting Corporation would come to select its announcers and newsreaders on considerations of accent which went far beyond the dictates of intelligibility. Yet with their roots firmly fixed in the history of the language, the dialects of England have persisted through the generations. Whatever was useful in each new age has been added to local speech as well as to the standard "supra-dialect": Scandinavian and French words through invasion; Classical and Romance words in the Renaissance; words from many other languages through colonization and trade; continuous changes in pronunciation. Thus English belongs to the western sub-branch of the Germanic branch of the IndoEuropean family of languages. The closest undoubted living relatives of English are Scots and Frisian. Frisian is a language spoken by approximately half a million people in the Dutch province of Friesland, in nearby areas of Germany, and on a few islands in the North Sea. After Scots and Frisian, the next closest relative is the modern Low Saxon language of the eastern Netherlands and northern Germany. Other less closely related living languages include Dutch, Afrikaans, German and the Scandinavian languages. English speakers understand many French words, as English absorbed a tremendous amount of vocabulary from the Norman language after the Norman conquest and from French in further centuries; as a result, a substantial part of

English vocabulary is quite close to the French, with some minor spelling differences (word endings, use of old French spellings, etc.), as well as occasional differences in meaning. Unlike other languages English is analytic (i.e., relatively uninflected). Over thousands of years English has lost most of its inflexions, while other European languages have retained more of theirs. Indeed, English is the only European language in which adjectives have no distinctive endings, except for determiners and endings denoting degrees of comparison. Another characteristic is flexibility of functions. This means that one word can function as various parts of speech in different contexts (ex: the word "walk" can be used both as a noun and a verb). Another feature is openness of vocabulary that allows English to admit words freely from other languages and to create compounds and derivatives. English is a strongly stressed language with 4 degrees of stress: primary, secondary, tertiary and weak. A change in stress can change the meaning of a sentence or a phrase. In comparison with other languages English stress is less predictable. The English vocabulary has changed continually over more than 1,500 years of development. The most nearly complete dictionary of the language, the Oxford English Dictionary, contains more than 600,000 words, including obsolete forms and variant spellings. It has been estimated, however, that the present English vocabulary consists of more than 1 million words, including slang and dialect expressions and scientific and technical terms, many of which only came into use after the middle of the XX century. The vocabulary is approximately half Germanic (Old English and Scandinavian) and half Italic or Romance (French and Latin), with copious borrowings from Greek in science and borrowings from many other languages. The English adopted the 23-letter Latin alphabet, to which they added the letters W, J, V. For the most part English spelling is based on that of the XV century. Pronunciation, however, has changed greatly since then. During the XVII and XVIII centuries fixed spellings were adopted, although there have been a few changes since that time. Numerous attempts have been made to reform English spelling, many during the XX century. The English vocabulary is more extensive than that of any other language in the world, although some other languagesChinese, for examplehave a wordbuilding capacity equal to that of English. I.1. Dialect In order to begin the classification of British dialects we should clarify what the dialect is. A dialect (from the Greek word ) is a variant, or variety, of a language spoken in a certain geographical area. The number of speakers, and the area itself, can be of arbitrary size. It follows that a dialect for a larger area can contain plenty of sub-dialects, which in its turn can contain dialects of yet smaller areas, etc. A dialect is a complete system of verbal communication (oral but not necessarily written), with its own vocabulary, grammar, and syntax. Two dialects that share enough similarities may be said to belong to the same language (or two dialects of one language). We may distinguish between standard dialects and non-standard dialects. A standard dialect or standardized dialect (or "standard language") is a dialect that is supported by institutions. Such institutional support may include government recognition or designation; 8

presentation as being the "correct" form of a language in schools; published grammars, dictionaries, and textbooks that set forth a "correct" spoken and written form; and an extensive formal literature that employs that dialect (prose, poetry, non-fiction, etc.). There may be multiple standard dialects associated with a language. For example, Standard American English, Standard British English, and Standard Indian English, may all be said to be standard dialects of the English language. A non-standard dialect, like a standard dialect, has a complete vocabulary, grammar, and syntax, but is not the beneficiary of institutional support. For example, Black English Vernacular may be said to be a non-standard dialect of the English language. The concept dialect is distinguished from sociolect, which is a variety of a language spoken by a certain social stratum, from standard language, which is standardized for public performance (e.g. written standard), and from jargon and slang which are characterized by differences in vocabulary (or lexicon according to linguist jargon). Varieties, such as dialects, idiolects and sociolects, can be distinguished not only by their vocabulary, but also by differences in grammar, phonology and prosody. Now lets try to find out what is the difference between the dialect and the language. There are no universally accepted criteria for distinguishing languages from dialects, although a number of paradigms exist, which render sometimes contradictory results. The exact distinction is therefore a subjective one, dependent on the user's frame of reference. Language varieties are often called dialects rather than languages solely because they are not (or not recognized as) literary languages, because the speakers of the given language do not have a state of their own, or because their language lacks prestige. Anthropological linguists define dialect as the specific form of a language used by a speech community. In other words, the difference between language and dialect is the difference between the abstract or general and the concrete and particular. From this perspective, no one speaks a "language," everyone speaks a dialect of a language. Those who identify a particular dialect as the "standard" or "proper" version of a language are in fact using these terms to express a social distinction. Often, the standard language is close to the sociolect of the elite class. In groups where prestige standards play less important roles, "dialect" may simply be used to refer to subtle regional variations in linguistic practices that are considered mutually intelligible, playing an important role to place strangers, carrying the message of wherefrom a stranger originates (which quarter or district in a town, which village in a rural setting, or which province of a country); thus there are many apparent "dialects" of Navajo and Apache, for example, geographically widespread North American indigenous languages, by which the linguist simply means that there are many subtle variations among speakers who largely understand each other and recognize that they are each speaking "the same way" in a general sense. 9

Modern day linguistics knows that the status of language is not solely determined by linguistic criteria, but it is also the result of a historical and political development. Political factors Max Weinreich3 has provided this definition: "A language is a dialect with an army and a navy". However, this also leads to inconsistencies and controversies, as political frontiers do not neatly follow lines of linguistic usage or comprehensibility. Depending on political realities and ideologies, the classification of speech varieties as dialects or languages and their relationship to other varieties of speech can be controversial and the verdicts inconsistent. There have been cases of a variety of speech being deliberately altered to serve political purposes. The example is Moldovan. No such language existed before 1945, and most nonMoldovan linguists remain sceptical about its classification. After the Soviet Union annexed the Romanian province of Bessarabia and renamed it Moldavia, Romanian, a Romance language, was transposed into the Cyrillic alphabet and numerous Slavic words were imported into the language, in an attempt to weaken any sense of shared national identity with Romania. After Moldavia won its independence in 1991 (and changed its name to Moldova), it reverted to a modified Latin alphabet as a rejection of the perceived political connotations of the Cyrillic alphabet. In 1996, however, the Moldovan parliament, citing fears of "Romanian expansionism," rejected a proposal from President Mircea Snegur to change the name of the language back to Romanian, and in 2003 a Romanian-Moldovan dictionary was published, purporting to show that the two countries speak different languages. Linguists of the Romanian Academy reacted by declaring that all the Moldovan words were also Romanian words. Even in Moldova, the head of the Academy of Sciences' Institute of Linguistics, Ion Brbu, described the dictionary as a politically motivated "absurdity". I.2. British Dialects The size of the British Isles often leads people to assume that the language spoken in its countries of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland is somewhat homogeneous and first time visitors are often surprised to find that they have difficulty in understanding the accents and dialects of certain regions. Even within the country of England alone there is great diversity of dialect both regionally and socially. The term "British English", when used by British speakers, often refers to the written Standard English and the sociolect known as Received Pronunciation (RP). The written Standard English dates back to the early XVI century in its current form. It is primarily based on dialects from the South East of England and is used by newspapers and official publications. RP is the most extended and socially accepted pronunciation (accent) which is used by educated people in London and the South of England. A possible reason for this phenomenon is the support for its use by the
3

In 1945 the Yiddisch linguist Max Weinreich formulated the much quoted metaphor in "YIVO and the problems of our time," _Yivo-bleter_, 1945, vol. 25, no. 1, p. 13.

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most prestigious public schools (Winchester, Eton, Harrow, Rugby, etc.) and the old universities (Oxford, Cambridge). It should be emphasized that only 3-5 % of the population of England speak RP. RP is also known as Queens English or BBC English. Standard English is considered to be the model for educated people but what is it exactly nobody knows. There are many approaches to the understanding of what the Standard English is: 1. Some lexicologists consider Standard English as the official language of Great Britain taught at schools and universities, used by the press, the radio and the television and spoken by educated people. It may be defined as that form of English which is current and literary, substantially uniform and recognized as acceptable wherever English is spoken or understood. Its vocabulary is contrasted to dialect words or dialectisms belonging to various local dialects. Local dialects are varieties of the English language peculiar to some districts and having no normalized literary form. Regional varieties possessing a literary form are called variants. Dialects are said to undergo rapid changes under the pressure of Standard English taught at schools and the speech habits cultivated by radio, television and cinema. 2. According to P. Trudgill4 Standard English is not "a language" in any meaningful sense of this term. He says that SE is less than a language because its only one variety of English among many. 3. There is also another point of view that SE has nothing to do with pronunciation also. It is widely agreed that while all RP speakers also speak Standard English, the reverse is not the case. But RP is standardized accent of English and not SE itself. To sum up all aforesaid wed like to emphasize that at least most British sociolinguists are agreed, that Standard English is a dialect. As we mentioned above SE is just one variety of English. It is a sub-variety of English. Sub-varieties of languages are usually referred to as dialects, and languages are often described as consisting of dialects. The development of dialects in Britain we can trace from the ancient times. The various Germanic tribes (Angles, Saxons, and Jutes) who invaded Britain after 437 AD brought with them their own dialects of West Germanic. These formed the basis for the appearance of later dialect areas. The language itself, as spoken by these people after they arrived in Britain, is sometimes called Anglo-Saxon but nowadays more usually Old English. The submergence of the various British Celtic languages (of which Welsh is the only modern survivor) also lead to innovations in British English. The Viking invasions resulted in more Norse influence in the north than in the south, thereby contributing another layer to the existing dialects. Moreover, the Norman French invaders influenced the south more than the north, which came to be more conservative linguistically. The Great Vowel Shift of the 1500's didn't affect northern English dialects, which came to be called Scots English. Because of the long history of dialect creation in the English
4

Hughes, A. and Trudgill, P. (1996) English Accents and Dialects: An Introduction to Social and Regional Varieties of British English, Third Edition, London: Arnold.

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speaking areas of Great Britain, there are more dialects of English in Britain than in America, Canada, and Australia combined. In spite of the fact that Great Britain is not such a big country there is a great variety of different dialects on its territory. During the centuries, English language has changed enormously in different ways in every part of Great Britain. Nowadays it is almost impossible to find out how many dialects exist in England and classify them because they change gradually from one part of the country to another creating a kind of "continuum". Significant changes in dialect (pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary) may occur within one region. The four major divisions are normally classified as: Southern English dialects Midlands English dialects Northern English dialects Scottish English and the closely related dialects of Scots and Ulster Scots (varieties of Scots spoken in Ulster). There is also Hiberno-English (English as spoken in Ireland) and the form of English used in Wales. The various English dialects differ in the words they have borrowed from other languages. The Scottish and Northern dialects include many words originally borrowed from Old Norse; the Scottish dialects include words borrowed from Scots and Scottish Gaelic. Hiberno-English includes words derived from Irish. There are many differences between the various British dialects. These can be a major obstacle to understanding between people from different areas. However, modern communications and mass media have reduced these differences significantly. In addition, speakers of very different dialects may modify their pronunciation and vocabulary, towards Standard English. The classification of modern British dialects presents serious difficulties as their boundaries are instable. England Northern English Northumberland (Geordie, Pitmatic) Durham (Mackem) Cumbrian Yorkshire Lancashire Merseyside (Scouse)

Midlands English East Derbyshire Nottingham Lincolnshire 12

 West East Anglia

Leicestershire Black Country (Yam Yam) Birmingham (Brummie)

Norfolk (Broad Norfolk) Southern English Estuary English Cockney (London) Somerset Devon Cornwall Scotland Scottish English (Scots) Highland English Wales Wenglish Pembrokeshire Northern Ireland Mid Ulster English Hiberno-English

On the map below we can discern dialects and languages on the territory of British Isles.

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This map shows only some dialects; lets say "the most popular". As to the languages we can say with confidence that the United Kingdom has no official language. English is the main language and the de facto official language, spoken monolingually by an estimated 95% of the UK population. However, some nations and regions of the UK want to speak and to promote their own languages. In Wales, English and Welsh are both widely used by officialdom, and Irish and Ulster Scots enjoy limited use alongside English in Northern Ireland, mainly in publicly commissioned translations. Additionally, the Western Isles region of Scotland has a policy to promote Scottish Gaelic. Under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, which is not legally enforceable, the UK Government has committed itself to the promotion of certain linguistic traditions. Welsh, Scottish Gaelic and Cornish are to be developed in Wales, Scotland and 14

Cornwall respectively. Other native languages afforded such protection include Irish in Northern Ireland, Scots in Scotland and Northern Ireland, officially known as "Ulster Scots" or "Ullans" in Northern Ireland but in the speech of users simply as "Scotch" or "Scots", and British Sign Language. Nevertheless lets return to the dialects. The conservatism is one of the main features of the modern English territorial dialects. Some deviations from literary standard mostly are conditioned not on evolution but on its absence: many linguistic phenomena from different periods of the language history are preserved in dialects.

Map from Pictures of England5 County Key: Yorks = Yorkshire, Wars = Warwickshire, Leics = Leicestershire, Mancs = Manchester, Lancs = Lancashire, Derbys = Derbyshire, Staffs = Staffordshire, Notts = Nottinghamshire, Shrops = Shropshire, Northants = Northamptonshire, Herefs = Herefordshire, Worcs = Worcestershire, Bucks = Buckinghamshire, Beds = Bedfordshire, Cambs = Cambridgeshire, Herts = Hertfordshire.
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http://www.picturesofengland.com 15

II. The classification of British dialects according to their location In this chapter we want to classify the British dialects according to places where they are spoken, i.e. England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The dialects of England differ sharply from all other dialects. Why is it that people in different parts of the country speak differently? Trudgill (1994:5-7) thinks that English is constantly changing, and that different changes take place in different parts of the country, or the spread of changes will be halted by barriers to communication such as countryside which is difficult to cross. 1. ENGLAND As England is a big country, the dialects there seize 3 territories: Northern, Midlands and South. In these territories the dialects are spoken differently because of the influence of different languages and cultures. Linguists agree that about 900 English words of Scandinavian origin, including get, hit, leg, low, root, skin, same, want and wrong. It is impossible to prove that these words could not have existed in the ancient English language long before the Scandinavian invasion. While most people in Central England say "boy and girl," a huge northern area uses "lad and lass." This area coincides with the distribution of "lug" instead of 'ear,' etc. The words lad, lass and lug and similar basic dialectal words are the last remnants of a sunken language, the peaks of an iceberg that was not originally English in its vocabulary. It indicates that the majority of the speakers of their core area once consisted of foreigners, whether Picts, Goths or Scandinavians. 1.1. Northern English Various names have been proposed for the speech of the industrial North of England: 'Geordie', 'Pitmatic', 'Durham English', 'Mackem', 'Cumbrian', 'Scouse', etc. All Northern English seems a truer echo of Old English (Anglo-Saxon) than Southern English - especially in its vowel sounds. It retains a great number of Norse-based words than Southern English, but shares with it an admixture of words derived from Norman-French in the feudal era. Like every other dialect, the speech of the North has interacted with 'Standard English', with increasing convergence in recent centuries. Northern English dialects include such counties as: Northumberland, Durham, Cumbria, North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Lancashire, Manchester, East Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, Lancashire, Merseyside, Cheshire. The counties of northern England are not far from the Scottish border, so the influence of Scottish English is noticeable, though there are of course many features only of northern English regions. The Northern dialect closely resembles the southern-most Scottish dialects. It retains many old Scandinavian words, such as bairn [b ] for 'child'. The most n outstanding version is Geordie, the dialect of the North East and namely of the Newcastle area. It has much in common with Mackem the dialect of Durham. The term "Mackem" is used to describe someone native to the city of Sunderland (an industrial city and port in the English county of Tyne and Wear). Alternatives include 'Makem' or 'Mak'em'. The term was coined by shipyard workers in the XIX century in Newcastle to describe their Wearside counterparts. The Geordies 16

would 'Take' the ship to be fitted out that the Mackems 'Made', hence 'Mackem and Tackem' ("make them" and "take them"). The term came into increasing use during the late 1980s and early 1990s, partly due to the labelling of Sunderland people as 'Mackems' by 'Geordies' and partly by Sunderland people themselves who did not want to be identified as Geordies. GEORDIE Geordie is a term used to describe a person originating from Tyneside (the city Newcastle-uponTyne and its surrounding area) and the former coal mining areas of northern County Durham and the dialect spoken by such people. The villages around Newcastle, until recently depending largely on the coal industry, are home to many of the broader dialect speakers. There are a number of rival theories to explain how the term came about, though all accept that it derives from a familiar diminutive form of the name "George". In recent times Geordie has also started to mean a supporter of Newcastle United football club no matter where their origin often including people from well outside the traditional area. This movement is opposed by traditional geordies however both due to their wanting to seem unique and the fact that many of them are supporters of the rival football club Sunderland. The word "Geordie" is said to date from the early XVIII century, when Newcastle people declared support for the English kings George I and II, in opposition to the rest of the population of Northumberland, who supported the Scottish Jacobite rebellions. Although the name is localised to the Newcastle area, the dialect here merges gradually into the Northumbrian and Scottish dialects to the north and to a lesser extent into Durham and Yorkshire varieties to the south. Geordie derives much less influence from French and Latin than does Standard English, being substantially Angle and Viking in origin. The relationship between the local dialect and Standard English, like in other parts of Britain, has not always been comfortable. Non-standard pronunciation and grammatical forms have been widely proscribed in school classes, and speakers of the dialect themselves will often express a view that their language is substandard or bad. Until very recently, there has been no educated role model on radio or television, and many people from the area feel that they are discriminated against on the basis of the way they speak. An alternative (and more likely) explanation for the name is that local miners used "Geordie" safety lamps designed by George Stephenson, rather than the "Davy Lamps" designed by Humphry Davy which were used in other mining communities. This is the version that is generally preferred by the Geordies themselves. Distinctively Geordie words are more than 80 % Angle in origin, compared to Standard English, where the figure is less than 30 %. Modern English words by comparison are predominantly of Latin origin because modern English derives from the dialects of southern 17

England which were continuously influenced by the Latin and Norman French favoured by the educated classes of Oxford, Cambridge and London. Geordie words should not be seen as sloppy pronunciation or a poor use of language, as they are in fact of great antiquity. Indeed many old words and phrases commonly used in the old works of Chaucer and Shakespeare which are no longer used in other parts of Britain have survived as common usage in the North East. Many educated Geordies, especially in the urban area, have a wider degree of competence in both standard and non-standard speech so that, depending on context; they have a range of forms at their disposal. Generally, the more informal the context, the greater the number of dialect features. There are also signs of a growing pride in the distinctive nature of the dialect, with Geordie dictionaries, versions of bible stories and so on, appearing on the market. There are also bumper stickers with humorous messages such as Divn't dunsh us, I'm a Geordie! , 6! (Don't bump into me, I'm a Geordie!). Vocabulary. People in the North-east believe that a lot of Geordie words come from "Scandinavian". There is a strong link with the language of the Anglo-Saxon immigrants of the first millennium, particularly those from the Angle areas of what is now southern Denmark. Words such as lop , 'flea, louse or its egg' ("The penny lop was the local cinema which was full of people with fleas"7), hoppings - 'fairground', ket - 'rubbish' and worm 'monster' ("the name given to the legendary monsters described in so many ballads. The Lambton Worm is the best known. But there was the Laidley Worm of Spindleston Heugh near Bamburgh, and the "Dragon-Worm" of Sockburn in Durham") have been suggested as Anglo-Saxon survivals. Invaders from further north, known popularly as "Vikings", probably had a greater influence on the language further south in Durham and Yorkshire. Geordie language is, in fact, quite closely allied to Lowland Scottish, although the exact etymology of many words of the area is still not fully understood. Varnigh is in common use, meaning 'almost' - , or 'very nearly' . Other dialect words such as penker - - 'marble' and plodge 'wade through mud, wade in water with bare feet' may have an onomatopoeic element, while a Romani origin has been suggested for some words such as gadgie -'chap' and baari - 'excellent' - . Geordie also has a large amount of vocabulary not seen in other English dialects. Words still in common use today include canny for 'pleasant' ("an embodiment of all that is kindly, good, and gentle. The highest compliment that can be paid to any person is to say that he or she is canny"), hyem, yearm for 'home' - (Im gannin hyem - 'Im going home'), divn't (divvent) for 'don't', hacky for 'dirty' (Hacky-dorty - 'very dirty' ), and
6 7

Frank Graham (1998) The New Geordie Dictionary

18

howay meaning something like 'Come on!' ! or 'Well done' ! When a Geordie uses the word larn for 'teach' - , it is not a misuse of the English word 'learn'; the word is derived from the Anglo Saxon word 'laeran', meaning 'to teach'. Some words do appear to have currency further north into the Scottish Lowlands. These are: bonny 'pretty' , (is usually used like canny to describe character as well as looks. A bonny bairn - 'a good looking child' . A bonny singer - 'an accomplished singer' ), burn 'stream' /, muckle 'very' - , cuddy 'small horse, donkey' / (He's a greet sackless cuddy - 'He's a big stupid donkey'), spuggy 'sparrow' - , hadaway 'go away/begone' ! or 'you're kidding' !, sackless 'stupid, useless' /, cushat 'wood pigeon' . Other typical Geordie words are also found further south, and appear to be part of a general Northern English lexicon: aye 'yes' (why aye - 'of course' - ), gob 'mouth' - , give over 'stop it' !, chuffed 'happy' - , wisht 'be quiet' !, nowt 'nothing' - , nigh on 'nearly' - , na 'no' - . The following words can be considered truly Geordie words: pet 'term of address for females' (e.g. "thanks, pet"), bullets 'sweets' (so called from the shape of a bullet. The best known are black bullets. A black bullet consists of a dark brown peppermint flavoured spherical boiled sweet. They contain only 3 ingredient's: sugar, glucose and peppermint oil), marra 'friend, mate' /, bait 'food' (bait-poke or bait-can - 'a metal container to carry food to work'), lowp 'to jump' - , ten o'clock 'morning snack' / (He' ye had yor ten o'clock yit?), get 'stupid person' , netty 'toilet/lavatory' /, cree '(bird) cage' , hoy 'throw' / (to hoy a stone - 'to throw a stone'), deek 'see, look at' / , dunsh 'push, bump' //, toon 'Newcastle' - , gannin 'going', weees 'who is' - , ooot 'out' // -, the neet 'tonight' , morrer 'tomorow' (see yer the morrer- 'see you tomorrow') . In Newcastle there are such common phrases and greetings: Hoo ye gannin? or Hoo's ya fettle? 'How are you?' ? Champion. 'Very good, very well' Bonny day the day. 'It's nice weather' Whey aye, man. 'That's right' - Give ower, y'a kiddin. 'Come on, you're joking' , ! Hadaway man. 'I'm still not convinced' Ya taakin shite. 'I really disagree with that' 19

Tara now, pet. 'Goodbye (to female)' () Wee's yon slapper? 'Who's the young lady?' (derogatory) ? Grammar. Probably the most noticeable feature of Geordie grammar is a confusing difference in pronoun forms. The term us is used to indicate a singular 'me' - , while the plural form for 'us' is wu or even wuz. So give us it means 'give me it' ( ) and give wu it means 'give us it' ( ). Yee means 'you' - , Geordies use youse for plural 'you' (.), me for 'my' /. 'Our/my' (/) is pronounced wor. Typical members of the family thus include: wor lass my 'wife' , wor kid 'my younger brother' , wor fatha 'my father' , etc. The plural form yous is also in use, and possibly appeared due to influence from the large influx of Irish people to Tyneside in the second half of the nineteenth century. The negative form of the verb "to do" is divvent instead of "don't" and there are distinctive past tense forms of verbs such as tell (telt), forget - (forgetten) and put (putten). For example: I telt you to give us a one, but you've forgetten. If you divvent give us it noo, I'm gannin yearm. ('I told you to give me one, but you've forgotten' - , . 'If you don't give me it now, I'm going home' , ). The example above also shows the common combination 'give me one' as in give us a one. In many cases, what is the simple past form in Standard English is also used as a participle in the Geordie variety. For example, in Standard English you say 'I took' but 'I have taken' and 'I went', but 'I have gone'. However, in broad Geordie, I've took one and He's never went there may be used. This feature has long been stigmatised as "bad English" but it is actually a consistent part of the grammar. Another notable grammatical feature is a combination of certain words such as 'might' and 'could' which are not allowed together in most standard varieties. It is possible to say, for example: He might could come tomorrow . Often, quantity expressions such as five year ( ) and ten pound ( ) are used without a plural -s. A common feature is the use of the word man to indicate rather more than reference to a male person. For example, in ye cannet, man 'you really can't' ( ), the word man acts as a final particle emphasising the impossibility of the action. Another final particle mar has a similar function of emphasis, as in it's cowld the day, mar 'it is really cold today' 20

( ), while the end of the sentence as in who says, like? or it's not my fault, like may request or provide exemplification. Another difference from Standard English in the grammar is that but can occur at the end of a sentence. For example: It'll be dark, but You might could lose it, but Also, the object pronoun can be used at the end of a sentence for emphasis: I really love chips me I cannet understand it, me Phonetics. In Geordie most consonant sounds are similar to those of Standard English. The most notable exception is the famous "burr" or uvular r sound, roughly similar to the French pronunciation of "r". This is by no means universal on Tyneside, but more common in mining communities further north. It has received a lot of interest from linguists, although its use appears to be declining today. Unlike many English dialects, initial "h" is not dropped from the beginning of words, but wordfinal -ing is usually pronounced as -in. The most notable feature of the consonants occurs in the sounds in the middle of words like "bottle". In Geordie, the t sound is not replaced completely. Rather, it is half replaced so that there's a glottal stop and the t pronounced at the same time. There may also be a "v" sound inserted in some sequences, such as give it tiv us - 'give it to me' ( ) or A sez tiv im - 'I said to him' . It is the vowel sounds that really give Geordie speech its distinctive character. On the end of words "er" becomes "a" ("father" is pronounced "fatha", both "a" sounds as []). Many [a] sounds become more like [e]: "hev" for "have". Double vowels are often pronounced separately: "boat" becomes "boh-ut". Some words acquire extra vowels ("growel" for "growl", "cannet" for "can't"). The "or" sound in words like "talk" becomes "aa", while "er" sounds in words like "work" becomes "or". The "oo" in words like "cook", "book" or "look" becomes "uu". Like other northern dialects, the u vowels tend to be short, so that the vowel sounds in the words 'foot' and 'bus' are the same. Final vowels are usually given rather greater stress than in Standard English, so that words like "fighter" and "mother" sound like "faita" and "mutha". Some vowels involve the combination of two different vowels, such as those in "eight" and "throat" which sound more like "ee-ut" and "throw-ut". These are the real shibboleths of Geordie speakers. There are some more extreme variants too, for example, 'take' may be pronounced tek and 'face' fyes. The vowel in 'town' is typically pronounced toon. Fanatical followers of Newcastle United Football Club are well

21

known as the Toon Army. Similarly, 'brown', 'about', 'pound' and so on are pronounced broon, aboot and poond. The position of the vowels as in the Standard English "shore" and "bird" is rather more complex. There are two separate Geordie vowels equivalent to the "shore" vowel in Standard English. Words spelled with an "l" such as "walk" are pronounced with a distinctive lengthened a sound usually written "waak" in dialect writing. Those without "l" such as "board" are roughly the same as Standard English. The standard "bird" vowel is usually rendered as the sound in "chalk", so that "heard" becomes indistinguishable from "hoard" and "bird" from "board". This sound confusion is the basis for a well-known Geordie joke: Workman visiting doctor: Me leg's bad, man, can ye give us a sick note? Doctor: Can you walk? Workman: Work? Y'a kiddin' man, A cannet even waak! Also in Geordie, 'blow' becomes blaa and 'cold' cowld, but in other words such as 'flow' and 'slow' the vowels are not changed in the same way. A number of words are said to have pronunciation indicating a possible survival from earlier periods of English, such as gan 'go', lang 'long' (), aks 'ask' (/) and deed 'died' (). The word 'can't' is usually pronounced cannet. Intonation patterns in Geordie are quite distinctive, with a rising intonation at the end of declarative sentences (statements), but the issue is complex and no definitive studies have been done. YORKSHIRE

Yorkshire is still England's biggest county. Once it was the heart of the Danelaw, the Viking kingdom in Britain. To this day, the lexicon of dialect speakers in the North and East Ridings of Yorkshire retains many words that derive from Old Norse. Scandinavian influence on the language does not stop with the end of the Danelaw, however: in the 19th and 20th centuries maritime trade and commerce in the North Sea and the Baltic brought many Danes, Norwegians and Swedes to ports like Hull and Newcastle. The West Riding also has a large corpus of words of Old Norse origin. The Norwegian influence is stronger here, whereas Danish is more influential in the East Riding - there are more "Norwegian" forms than the "Danish" of, say, the East Riding. There is a historical explanation in the trade routes from Dublin, via the north-west coast of England, over the Pennine uplands to York, capital of the Danelaw. We see an illustration of this in the place-name

22

ending -thwaite, of Norwegian origin, which is common in West Yorkshire, Lancashire and the Lake District, but rare east of the Pennines, where the Danish cognate -thorpe is far more common. Vocabulary. Trudgill8 remarks on the prodigious variation in vocabulary arising from both the historical settlement patterns of the various European invaders and the later linguistic changes following settlement. The examples below are from the lexicon of Yorkshire dialect speakers. Nouns Attercop: spider (Old English "poisonous spider") Backend: autumn - Bairn: child - (Also used in Scotland and Northumberland) Blaeberry: bilberry - Blain/blen: sore/swelling/boil // (Old English) Dale: valley , Foss, force: waterfalls, rapids , Goodies/spice: sweets , Gowk: cuckoo - Kelter/kelterment: junk/rubbish/litter / Kittling: kitten - Lug/tab: ear - Nowt: nothing (Rhymes with "stout" or "coat". Literally "Naught") Owt: anything - (Rhymes with "stout" or "coat". Literally "Aught") Urchin: hedgehog - (this sense is preserved in sea-urchin). Varmint: vermin ()/ (Old form surviving in America and Yorkshire) Yam: home - (Compare modern Norwegian hjem, sounded as "yem".) Yat: gate - Yatstead: threshold Yoon: oven - Pronouns Nay: no Verbs Addle: to earn - (From Old English via Old Norse) Ban: to curse, to swear
8

Trudgill, P. (1990) The dialects of England, Oxford: Blackwell.

23

Dee: to die - Lap: to cover/wrap up - / Laik/lark: to play/laze / (Old Norse) Mash: to brew, as in tea or beer / Putten: past tense of the verb to put - Puther: to make clouds of smoke or dust / Rick, reek: smoke, to smoke , / Sile: to rain heavily Skell: To tip or spill - // (Old Norse) Thoil/thole: to tolerate/put up with/stand/bear - /// (Old English) Adjectives Backendish: autumnal Blake: sallow, yellow , , (usually in relation to someone's complexion) Cat Hawed: drunk (pronounced "cattored") Gloppened, glottened: astonished, surprised, flabbergasted , , Mafted: very hot or breathless , Nesh: weak, feeble , , (Old English) Nithered: (past participle) cold/shivering - / (Old Norse) Slape: slippery - Wick: lively , (Relates to quick, originally meaning "alive") Forms like mafted and nithered come from verbs that have passed out of use. Adverb Appen: perhaps , (like Shakespeare's haply) Some words in Yorkshire dialect at first sight seem to be Standard English but, as Kellett9 points out, "they do not mean what they appear to mean". He gives the following examples: Flags - not banners to be waved, but paving stones , Gang - not a group of people, but the verb to go , "" Real - a description of something good or outstanding, not genuine - , Starved - relating to feeling cold rather than a state of hunger ,
9

Kellett, A. (1992) Basic Broad Yorkshire, Revised Edition, Otley: Smith Settle.

24

Sharp - used in the sense of quickly rather than having a point or edge , Right - employed not only to indicate direction but as an intensifier in the sense of very , "" Yorkshire dialect is rich in idiomatic expressions. The following examples are taken from Kellett: Allus at t last push up - always at the last moment Nobbut a mention - just a small amount Its nut jannock - its not fair e wor ard on - he was fast asleep Livin tally / ower t brush - living together as man and wife but not married Tek a good likeness - be very photogenic It caps owt - it beats everything Goin dahn t nick - ill and not going to get better A reight gooid sooart - a really kind person / Ah wor fair starved - I really was cold Grammar. All the following examples of Yorkshire dialect grammar are taken from Arnold Kelletts "Basic Broad Yorkshire"10. The text below contains only a small example of basic grammar and it does not include all the varieties of form and construction. Verbs Present tense The following examples show verb formation together with examples of personal pronouns. to laik (play) Ah/Aw (I) Tha/Thoo (You) e (He) Shoo/sher/sh (She) Future tense Indicated by bahn or off ti. For example: Ahm bahn ter side them pots
10

laik laiks laiks laiks

Wer/wi (We) Yer/Yo(u) (You) Thet/ther/the (They)

laik laik laik

es off ti shut t yat 25

Kellett, A. (1992) Basic Broad Yorkshire, Revised Edition, Otley: Smith Settle.

Im going to put those dishes away Past Tense

Hes going to shut the gate

Some of the participles used in the formation of the past tense are a retention of earlier forms of English: gat/getten Got frozen putten frozen put fahned/fan/fun Found Negatives Nut and nooan are the equivalents of not Yorkshire speech: Thooll nut finnd owt Youll not find anything Ahm nooan bahn yonder Im not going there

Double negatives are quite common in dialect: e nivver said nowt neeaways ti neean on em He never said anything at all to anybody Possessive pronouns Possessive pronouns do not differ greatly from those of Standard English: mi/ma thi/thy is er wer/ahr oor yer ther my your his her our our your their mine/mahne thine is ers ahrs oors yours theirs Plurals Plural forms are not normally used when referring to periods of time or to quantities: six pund six pounds childer two week owd two weeks old hosen stockings () 26 mine yours his hers ours ours yours theirs

Plurals of some nouns exist in their older form. For example: children ()

spice

sweets ()

shoon/shooin Prepositions

shoes ()

Some prepositions differ very much from those of Standard English: aboon afooar baht above (, ) before (, ) without () behunt/behint fra/frev ter/tul/tiv behind (, ) from (, ) to (, )

Demonstrative Adjectives When used in dialect the demonstratives (that, this) are normally accompanied by theeare (there) or ere (here): that theeare pig that pig Phonetics. Trudgill11 considers that one of the most important features of this dialect is the fact that such words as long, wrong, strong, etc are pronounced with a short <a> instead of an <o>, (i.e. Lang, wrang, strang, etc.) and that find, blind, etc. are realized with a short <i> (finnd, blinnd, etc.). Such pronunciations, he says, link back to the original Anglo-Saxon realizations. Similarly, the employment of a monophthong (i.e. a pure vowel) by Northern speakers in such words as house, out, and cow (i.e. hoos, oot and coo) is the retention of the original medieval pronunciation. Trudgill further observes that, in some areas of the North, a modified version of the Anglo-Saxon long <a> is preserved in such words as home and stone, their pronunciations being hee-am and stee-an. Likewise, spoon, fool, etc. are realized as spee-oon, fee-ool, and so on. Other important features of Yorkshire dialect are: -ing which is pronounced as -in' (e.g. walkin', talkin', etc.); the use of the short <a> (as in cat) in words like bath and dance; and the dropping of word-initial <h> (e.g. 'appy, 'orrible, etc.). Kellett remarks that the er sound is modified so that thirst, for example, becomes thust or thost. Diphthongs aa ooa ow thus naame (roughly nay-em) for name (roughly oo-er) so that words such as floor, door and afore become flooar, dooar and afooar as in browt, owt and nowt (i.e. brought, anything and nothing). The realization of this sound is not equivalent to the Standard English pronunciation of now but more like aw-oo oi used in such words as coit, throit and 'oil (i.e. coat, throat and hole) eea
11

this ere cannle this candle

appears in words like again, death and street (pronounced ageean, deeath and streeat)

Trudgill, P. (1990) The dialects of England, Oxford: Blackwell.

27

SCOUSE

Scouse is the dialect of English found in the northern English city of Liverpool and adjoining urban areas of Lancashire and the Wirral region of Cheshire. "The Beatles" made this dialect famous. The adopted Merseysider and language expert Fritz Spiegl once described the Liverpool dialect as "onethird Irish, one-third Welsh and one-third catarrh". The dialect of Merseyside is highly distinctive, and wholly different from those of neighbouring regions of Lancashire and Cheshire. The word Scouse was originally a variation of lobscouse -the name of a traditional dish of mutton stew mixed with hardtack eaten by sailors. The influence of immigrants from Ireland, Wales, the Isle of Man, Scotland, other parts of northern England, and the Caribbean in the XVIII and XIX centuries was very strong. The characteristic features of Scouse are: A fast, highly inflected manner of speech, with a range of rising and falling tones not typical of most of northern England. The final letters of many words are often lost in a glottal stop: 'get' becomes gerr The tongue tends to be swallowed, cutting off nasal passages and making it sound as if the speaker has a cold. Irish influences include the pronunciation of the letter 'h' as 'haitch' and the plural of 'you' as 'yous'. The pronunciation of 'th' as 'd' ('there' becomes dere), and the 'ere' sound in 'there' as 'urr', are encountered in Northern Ireland. The dropping of the 'g' sound at the end of 'ing', hence 'doing' becomes 'doin' is also commonplace in Dublin. There are also idioms shared with HibernoEnglish, such as "I know where you're at" ("I know who you are"). Welsh influences include the distinctive rolling 'ck' sound, pronounced as in the Scots 'loch'. The letter 'r' is rolled, similar to Scots. Expressions include 'la' that is equal to lad , , , e.g. "Yer arright den, la'?" ("You all right then, lad?"). The interjection 'eh!' is equivalent to 'hey!' or 'oi!' in other parts of the UK. There are a few features of southern dialects, e.g. using a "f" or "v" sound instead of "th", as in "bruvver" brother and "baf" - "bath". The vocabulary of this dialect is quite numerous and differs from others, e.g. Baird girlfriend, wife , Boss excellent , Blower telephone - Burr'I . But I - .... To buzz to ring ("Give us a buzz" - Ring me) Carzy/crapper/bog toilet , Char tea 28

Cop shop police station Do party Gunnite good night Last awful Moby mobile phone Nimps easy Pezzie gift, present Tirraah Good bye Ullo Hello Yeared? Have you heard? ? 1.2. Midlands English Midlands English includes dialects of: Derbyshire, Nottingham, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Black Country, Birmingham, Norfolk, etc. 1.2.1. East Midlands The East Midlands is famous for its distinctive dialects from the Derbyshire drawl to Nottingham's no-nonsense style of talking. Despite the fading of old traditions and huge shifts in how people communicate globally, it appears that dialects are still going strong in the East Midlands. Much of the dialects developed in rural communities and in the industrial heartlands of the region. Mining communities in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire were renowned for their use of dialects. At a time when regions are losing some of their traditional dialect, the East Midlands is keen to retain its cultural identity and linguistic style. Although some words are dying out, East Midlanders are keen to celebrate their local language. Here are some phrases of East Midlanders: It's black uvver Bill's mother's - it looks like rain Coggie - swimming costume Croaker doctor - Duck's necks - bottle of lemonade Gorra bag on - in a bad mood Laropped drunk - Nesh cold - Old cock friend, mate , Skants pants , The rally - the railway line In Lincolnshire, local people are going back to the classroom to reclaim their linguistic roots. Words like "sneck" (a metal hook ), "blather" (mud on clothing 29

 ), "dowking" (wilting vegetation ), "wozzle" (root vegetable - ), "noggin'" (lump of land ) were dying out, but not now. Some scientists blame tractors and modern farm machines for the demise of the Lincolnshire dialect. When the machines replaced horses, many words and terms associated with the animals became redundant. They also blame the moving population and "frim folk" (people from other areas ) who have come into the county. This has resulted in a mixture of voices and the dilution of the Lincolnshire dialect. The farmers of Derbyshire are proud of retaining their heritage, and are keen to preserve their local dialect. Here are some features of Derbyshire dialect: the use of words like "thee" and "thou" the shortening of words for more economical speech the use of very unusual words like "scratin'" (crying - ) deriving from old Norse or Viking Some words and phrases of Derbyshire dialect: ganzi - pullover or sweater , ; Gerraht! - Get out! !; gone-aht surprised ; namor - no more , ; wang - to throw , ; Some language experts recently declared Leicester the birthplace of modern Standard English. Academics claim that the culturally diverse mix of settlers to the East Midland a thousand years ago helped to shape the future of the English language. Anglo Saxons and Vikings lived side by side, sharing their customs and languages. Today Leicester has one of the most culturally diverse populations in the country, with Asian and Afro-Caribbean influences now filtering through. At the City of Leicester School, the pupils of all backgrounds find themselves using Leicester dialect. Traditional words like my yard (my house ), chuddie (pants , ), gis a gleg (give me a look at it ), ow a ya?- (how are you? ?), worro (hello - ), wassup? (What is going on? ?), snitch (tale teller ), oakey (an ice-cream ) are in common usage, together with new expressions like "24/7" (, ; , ) derived from popular culture. This is then combined with words and expressions picked up from American culture and rap artists such as Eminem. Nottingham is also renowned for its dialect and foreign nurses at the city's hospitals have trouble grappling with 'Ay up mi duck' (Hello there - ) and other expressions like "corshucan" (of course you can ). Nottinghamshire has many dialect words heard only within its borders. Many of these words originate from close European neighbours. During mediaeval times, Nottingham was a huge trading centre and merchants from France, Denmark and the Low Countries set up businesses in Nottingham and foreign communities grew around these businesses and some of their language was absorbed into the local dialect. For example: Gizza glegg (May I see that ?); from the Danish glegg (to look), jitteh (an alleyway, cut-through between houses , ) 30

- from the colloquial French 'jetez' (a small step, short cut ). 'Rammel' Anglo-Saxon meaning waste from a building site ( ) - now used to mean rubbish generally. There are many other examples of foreign words which have been adapted for local use, but one whose origin is unable to find is 'mazzgi,' a dialect word for a domestic cat . 1.2.2. West Midlands There are two dialects in West Midlands: Black Country dialect and Birmingham dialect. These dialects have much in common with Old English, many features peculiar to Old English remain there. BLACK COUNTRY The dialect of the Black Country area remains perhaps one of the last examples of early English still spoken today. The region was described as 'Black by day and red by night' by Elihu Burritt, the American Consul to Birmingham in 1862 due to the amount of foundries, lime kilns, collieries that went on there. It's known as the 'Black Country' due to the colour of the ground that is black because of large quantity of coal. One of the most famous features is the 'yam yam' sound when saying certain phrases. 'You are' is pronounced yo'am and 'are you' is pronounced am ya. Thats why this dialect if also called Yam Yam. The Black Country dialect has its own vocabulary as well as grammatical differences, and quite a lot of it has similarities with Old English. It still contains words (Thee you - , Thy - your and Thou you ) widely used by Shakespeare or Chaucer. Vocabulary. Nouns Ackidock - aqueduct Babby baby , Beezum - a broom of birch; a pert young woman ; Blether - a bladder Breffus breakfast Cag-mag gossip Chops/ gob mouth Clobber clothes Dishle - cup of tea Dollop - large quantity (usually of food) ( ) Donny/'Ond - hand Fai(r)ther father Fittle - food, victuals , Flics cinema Gob - a piece of something - 31

Lezzer - a meadow Nuss nurse , Ooman woman Opple apple Owern - my husband, my son, my daughter (often used by women to denote member of family) , , ( ) Puss purse Suck sweets , Sussifikut certificate , Tai(tay) tea Wench - girl (commonly used by parents towards daughters) - Wum(Whum) home Yed - head Pronouns Aither either - Anny(Onny) any - Ar our e he im him Nairun - none, not one Naither neither - Yer - your Yow you , Verbs Aks(axe) to ask , Bamfoozle to puzzle; to bemuse ; Bin(ben) - been, have been, are, have ("I bin" - affirmative reply to question) Caw(cor) - cannot ("I cor goo the'er terday" I cant do there yesterday ) Coddin joking ("Goo on, yum coddin me" Go on, you joking me , ) Coost - could you? ?, also negative "thee coosnt" you couldt Cost - can you ? ?, also negative "I cosn't" - I cannot Day(day) - did not ("I day see 'im comin" I did not see him coming ) Doe - do not (as in reply to question: "I doe" I dont ...) Ivver-ovver hesitate Ketch catch Mo - must not , 32

Mun must Node - known ("I've nowd 'im for 'ears" Ive known him for years ) Ood/Oot - would you/will you Soople - to soften, make supple - Tek to take Tek after - to resemble - Trussen - to trust Adjectives Aud(oud) old - Chuffed pleased - Joobus - suspicious, dubious , Lickle little - Natty - tidy, neat , Noo new - Adverb Agen again - Forby nearby - Terday yesterday - Wurse(Wuss) worse Conjunction Lief - as soon as

Grammar. The grammar of this dialect is quite different from Standard one. They use 's'- inflexion for the first person singular present simple: I looks, I comes, I misses, etc. For plural form of the noun they have ending en instead of s: housen houses . Phonetics. Instead of initial W they usually use OO. In the closed syllable a is pronounced as [o]: apple [opl]. Consonants in the centre of words sometimes are doubled: Tummy a snack , Thissen this one , Kissa face , etc. The dropping of the 'g' sound at the end of 'ing' is usual. Vowels are also often changed. When people greet each other they use the phrase 'Yow awight' meaning 'you alright'. 33

BRUMMIE

Brummie (or Brummy) refers to things connected with the city of Birmingham in England: particularly its people, known as Brummies, and their accent and dialect of the English language. The word is derived from Brummagem (commonly shortened to Brum) which is a local name for the city. A large number of local words and phrases exist derived from the mixture of various cultures and dialects. Brummie should not be regarded as the only dialect of the Midlands or West Midlands, although the term is often used by outsiders to refer to all dialects of the region. For example, speakers from the Black Country have a dialect which is very different from Brummie in many respects. A large number of local words and phrases exist derived from the amalgamation of various cultures and dialects which have combined to produce an unusual but familiar voice. Some claim that 'old' Brummie is the most likely accent that William Shakespeare would have used, at that time Birmingham would have been in Warwickshire. Some words are simple variations of those used elsewhere, such as mom for instead of Standard English mum, while others are unique to Birmingham. The older generation sometimes use words like bab when referring to a spouse or female. A saying that is not often heard anymore is it's lookin a bit black over bills mothers, this referred to the prospect of rain . Keep away from the 'oss road was often said as a warning to children who were thinking of playing on the busy tracks frequented by horses, carts, trams and early cars , . Another old phrase that is sometimes used today is o'rite our kid or simply ows it goin kid which is another way of asking how you are ? You got a beak on ya en ya was a term used against someone that was nosey without reason , . Our nip was another word for younger brother . You talkin to me or chewin a brick was a confrontational term when you thought someone was being aggressive verbally (it was usually followed up with, Cause' either way you're gonna get your teeth smashed in!') - . He's ded yampee was a term for Scatty , . You ad your eyeful was used to deter someone staring in your direction for too long , ( ) - . Got a face like a bosted arse was a way of saying someone looked in a bad mood , . Giz a rock meant 'can I have a sweet' (a rock was often used as an alternative to sweet) ()? Got a face as long as Livery Street that one was a way of saying that someone looked miserable , (). The term bostin was sometimes used as an alternative to brilliant - . All these examples are still used in Birmingham but not so often as the following, which are more recent: O'rite - alright Man - mate - 34

Sound/sweet/mint' excellent , , Outdoor - off-licence , Have a doss - laze about , Fair play - well done , Buzz bus - Def it out! - Leave it alone! ! Soz - 'Sorry' Also, many younger Brummies have adopted the Caribbean pronunciations of 'this' and 'that' - 'dis' and 'dat'. Phonetics. In such combination as "al+consonant" letter l usually is not pronounced and a sounds as [o:]. 1.2.3. East Anglia East Anglia is a region of eastern England, named after one of the ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. Its boundaries are not rigidly defined, but it includes the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, with part or all of Cambridgeshire and Essex, and a small part of southern Lincolnshire bordering The Wash. East Anglia has its own dialect - Norfolk, perhaps because of the fact that the impact of Scandinavian tribes, Teutonic tribes and other early European cultures, was greater upon East Anglia than upon the rest of England. There are aspects of the dialect that still reflect the influence of early, dominant European languages. NORFOLK

The Norfolk dialect, also known as Broad Norfolk, is a dialect that was once spoken by those living in the county of Norfolk in England. Much of the distinctive vocabulary of Broad Norfolk has now died out and only the older generations use the fullest amount, so the speech of most of Norfolk is now more an accent than a dialect. There have been attempts to revive the Norfolk dialect. The Friends of Norfolk Dialect (FOND) is a group which formed in 1999 with the aim of preserving and promoting Broad Norfolk. The group campaigns for the recognition of Norfolk as a dialect, and for the teaching of "Norfolk" in schools. Vocabulary. Afront - in front - Ahind behind - Atwin between Bishy barney bee ladybird Bor neighbour/boy / Dickey donkey 35

Dodman snail - Dudder - to shiver Gret - great, big, or significant , Harnser heron - Hold yew hard! - Hang on a moment! ! Loke lane, alley , Lummox - clumsy or ungainly person , Mavish thrush - Mawkin scarecrow , Mawther girl/young woman / Old years nyte -New Year's Eve Rum - curious, strange, funny , , Titty - totty - very small Warmint - varmint or vermin, troublesome person , Zackley - exactly - Many words beginning with V take a W start in Norfolk - warmint and willage among them. There are also examples of the letter being changed in the middle of the word i.e. aggravating becomes aggraweartin (, ). Do is characteristically used in the sense of "otherwise" ("Dont you take yours off, do youll get rheumatism") and time is used to mean "while" ("Go you and have a good wash time I git tea ready").

Phonetics. Norfolk is popularised as a yod-dropping dialect where /ju:-/ is pronounced /u:-/ . Other features of Norfolk are that "here" and "hair" (and "hare") are homophones while "daze" /de:z/ and "days" /diz/, "nose" /nu:z/ and "knows" /nuz/ are not. In such combination as a+nd vowel is pronounced as [o:], e.g. candle [ko:ndl], land [lo:nd]. The initial "h" is dropped from the beginning of words. 1.3. Southern English Such dialects as: Estuary English, Cockney, Somerset, Devon, Cornwall, etc. represent a group of Southern English. ESTUARY ENGLISH 36

"Estuary English" is a term coined in 1984 by British linguist, David Rosewarne12. It is widely spoken in and around London and, more generally, in the southeast of England and along the river Thames and its estuary. Most people consider EE to be a variant (accent) of Standard English that is rapidly spreading in England. Crystal13 (1995: 327) argues, "the variety is distinctive as a dialect not just as an accent" because apart from pronunciation, what distinguishes EE speakers from others are grammatical and lexical features (an essential condition for a variety to be called a dialect). David Britain14 (2003b) calls Estuary English "a relatively new regional dialect of the south-east of England" because of its geographical distribution. The Sunday Times, one of Britains most famous newspapers, has described it as a dialect existing between "Cockney and the Queen" and the Tory (Conservative) Minister of Education condemned it as a "bastardized version of Cockney dialect". Estuary English, as the advanced speech of the young, has been characterised by the older generation as slovenly and debased. Vocabulary. Rosewarne sees certain lexical changes within EE pronunciation. Cheers is often used in place of "thank you" (), but its also possible for it to mean "good-bye" ( ). The word basically is used frequently in conversation. An increased use of Americanisms can also be seen in EE and evidenced by such examples: There you go being used in place of the more standard "Here you are" (, , , ) and There is acts as an invariable form of usage in both singular and plural contexts. In addition, "sorry" () is often replaced with excuse me and engaged, in the context of the telephone it has been replaced by the word busy. Grammar. Certain negative forms, such as never referring to a single occasion (I never did, No I never). Less likely is the use of the double negative, which is still widely perceived as uneducated. The omission of the -ly adverbial ending, as in You're turning it too slow or They talked very quiet for a while. Certain prepositional uses, such as I got off of the bench or I looked out the window. Generalization of the third person singular form (I gets out of the car), especially in narrative style; also the generalized past tense use of was, as in We was walking down the road. Some of these developments are now increasingly to be heard in the public domain, such as on the more popular channels of the BBC, and some have even begun to penetrate into the British

12

Rosewarne, David, 1984 Estuary English. Times Educational Supplement, 19 (October 1984). Crystal, David 1995 The Cambridge Encyclopedia of The English Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 14 Britain, David 2003b Dialectology.
13

37

Establishment. Glottalization, for example, will be heard on both sides of the House of Commons, and has been observed in the younger members of the royal family. Phonetics. L-vocalization, pronouncing the l-sound in certain positions almost like [w], so that "milk bottle" becomes 'miwk bottoo', and "football" becomes 'foo'baw'. [j]-yod-dropping even before a stressed /u:/ (Chooseday Tuesday) Glottalling, using a glottal stop [?] instead of a t-sound in certain positions, as in take it off , quite nice . This is not the same as omitting the t-sound altogether, since "plate" [plei?] still sounds different from "play" [plei]. Nevertheless, authors who want to show a non-standard pronunciation by manipulating the spelling tend to write it with an apostrophe: take i' off, qui'e nice. The positions in which this happens are most typically syllable-final -- at the end of a word or before another consonant sound. London's second airport, Gatwick, is very commonly called "Ga'wick". HappY-tensing, using a sound more similar to the [i:] than to the [i] at the end of words like happy, coffee, valley. In strong syllables (stressed, or potentially stressed) it is crucial to distinguish [i:] from [i], since "green" must be distinct from "grin" and "sleep" from "slip". But in weak syllables this distinction does not apply - the precise quality of the final vowel in "happy" is not so important. H-coalescence, using [t] (a ch-sound) rather than [tj] in words like "Tuesday", "tune", "attitude". This makes the first part of "Tuesday" sound identical to "choose", [tSu:z]. The same happens with the corresponding voiced sounds: the RP [dj] of words such as "duke", "reduce" becomes Estuary [d], making the second part of reduce identical to "juice" [du:s]. At the beginning of words h isnt replaced, its simply dropped ('and on hand on, 'eart - heart) Th-fronting (think [fik], mother [m v]). 'Vowel fronting' means producing some vowels and diphthongs differently to RP, which can lead to homophones like: way = why , say = sigh, pulls pools. Sounding the diphthong vowel sounds of words like "I" as [], the diphthong in words like "brown" as [], and the diphthong in words like "face" as []. COCKNEY

One of the best known Southern dialects is Cockney, the regional dialect of London. A Cockney, in the loosest sense of the word, is a working-class inhabitant of the East End of London. According to one old tradition, the definition is limited to those born within earshot (generally taken to be three miles) of the Bow bells, i.e. the bells of St Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside. Cockney is also an old rhyming slang dialect, which originated from the East end of London. According to the Oxford English Dictionary the first use of the word in its accepted meaning was in 1521, by a 38

writer Whittington. Cockney speakers have a distinctive accent and dialect, and frequently use Cockney rhyming slang. Although no one speaks fluent Cockney any more, residents in this area of London still use a lot of words. But many Cockney words have slipped into the English language and are used in everyday speech all over England. The etymology of Cockney has long been discussed and disputed. One explanation is that Cockney literally means cocks egg, a misshapen egg such as sometimes laid by young hens. During the 1700s the term, used by country folk, was applied to towns folk who were considered ignorant of the established customs and country ways. This term in due course became synonymous with working class Londoners themselves and has now lost its once denigrating qualities. Despite the current definition of a Cockney, to most outsiders a Cockney is anyone from London itself. Natives of London, especially in its East End use the term with respect and pride. Cockney is lively and witty and its vocabulary imaginative and colourful. Its specific feature not occurring anywhere else is the so-called rhyming slang, in which some words are substituted by other words rhyming with them. Boots, for instance, are called daisy roots. Vocabulary. Adam and Eve to believe - Almonds socks - Apples and pears - stairs Barnet fair hair - Bees and Honey money - Bird prison (from bird lime = time) Boat race face - China - mate/friend / (from China plate = mate) Dickie bird word - Dog and bone phone - Dustbin lids - kids/children - Elbows and knees trees Elephant's trunk drunk Jam jar car Loaf of bread head Mince pies eyes - North and south mouth Pigs ear beer - Plates - feet (from plates of meat = feet) Pride and Joy boy Rabbit and pork to talk - 39

Rosie Lea tea - Skin and blister sister- Trouble wife (from trouble and strife = wife) Imagine a conversation like: "Got to my mickey, found me way up the apples, put on me whistle and the bloody dog went. It was me trouble telling me to fetch the teapots." which really means, "Got to my house (mickey mouse), found my way up the stairs (apples and pears), put on my suit (whistle and flute) when the phone (dog and bone) rang. It was my wife (trouble and strife) telling me to get the kids (teapot lids)." - " , , , . . ". Grammar. The grammar of Cockney is almost unchanged. Use of ain't instead of "isn't" or "am not". Use of multiple negation, e.g. I aint never done nothing Another form of reflexive pronouns, e.g. E'll urt isself or Thats yourn. Use of adverbs without ly, e.g. Trains are running normal. The possessive pronoun my is changed to me, e.g. Wheres me bag? Phonetics. The Cockney dialect involves very little lip movement. Some features: The pronunciation of the letter t as d (the // becomes /d/). The pronunciation of the letter l as w (all /:l/ becomes /:w/). The omission of the letter h (his /hiz/ becomes /iz/, house becomes /aus/). Diphthongs change, sometimes dramatically: time /toim/, brave /braiv/. there are also an amazing number of glottal stops and swallowed syllables in the dialect, e.g. Waerloo - Waterloo, Ciy - City, A li'le bi' of breab wiv a bi' of bu'er on i' - A little bit of bread with a bit of butter on it, Sco'land Scotland, sta'emen statement, nework network. Another very well known characteristic of Cockney is th-fronting, e.g. fin thin, bruvver brother, free three, barf bath. Vowel lowering, e.g. dinna dinner, marra marrow. Very often letter a is pronounced as [ (cat /k apple / ] t/, pl/). The inflexion ing is pronounced as [in] or [n] rather than []. CORNWALL 40

The dialect of Cornwall is named Cornish. This dialect differs very much from the other British dialects. The Cornish dialect is usually spoken, not written, and the spellings in the following vocabulary are the pronunciations. Vocabulary. Alantide - AII Saints Day Allish pale - All-on-a-nupshot - in a great hurry - Ampassy etcetera Arry any - Avise/advise good Bamfer - to worry - Barning - phosphorescent ("The sea is barring"- ) - , Bearn - a child - Bender - very large Betwix between - Biskey - a biscuit - Brush - a nosegay Bucca/buckaboo - a ghost/hobgoblin/scarecrow // Buddy - friend - Bye lonely - Carrots - nickname for red-haired person - Cats and dogs - the catkins of the willow Centry - church or glebe Chets kittens - Criss-cross/row - the alphabet - Dido - a noise; row or fuss ; Ear year - Fower four - Fuzzy-pig - the hedgehog - Game - go on - Giglet/giglot - a giddy girl Hilla nightmare - Horse-adder - the dragonfly - Mate meat - Night t'ee - goodnight to you - Riders circus - 41

Tantarabobus - the devil - Tie bed - Tribe family - Yet gate - Grammar. Study reveals that Cornish dialect not only has a sound system far removed from Modern English, but also has its own grammar. Flexible word order gives a range of meaning and subtleties that can be difficult to comprehend. Dialect eez sum maezd and sum maezd ee ez both translate as he is very perplexed ( ) but the first emphasises the person while the latter emphasises his state. A preposition combines with a personal pronoun to give a separate word form. For example, gans (with, by) + my (me) -> genef; gans + ef (him) -> ganso. In Cornish there is no indefinite article: Cath means "a cat" (there is, however a definite article: an gath means "the cat"). Phonetics. Cornish Dialect has a vowel system similar to Old English: aa - this sound does not exist in English, as in Cornish tan fire, e.g. aant aunt. a - as in English pan, e.g. pezak rotten () and stank stamp. ae - this sound does not exist in English, as in Cornish men stone, e.g. aeven throwing e - as in English pen, e.g. fesh fish and glaazen staring (). i - as in English pin, e.g. dipa small pit ( ) and pindee gone off. ee - as in English preen, e.g. morgee dogfish () and geek a peek ( ). oa - this sound does not exist in English, as in Cornish mos to go, e.g. troaz noise and noa no. o - as in English upon, e.g. porvan wick (). u - as in English pun, e.g. durns door frame and un him, it. oo - as in English poo, e.g. gook bonnet () and fooch a pretence (). 2. SCOTTISH ENGLISH Scots dialect is the speech of those who live in the northern part of the island of Britain, more-orless defined as north of Hadrian's Wall. The Scottish has a special linguistic status as compared with dialects because of the literature composed in it. The name of Robert Burns, the great national poet of Scotland, is known all over the world. A few line from R.Burnss poem dedicated to his friend James Smith will illustrate the general character of Scottish: To James Smith Dear Smith, the slee'st, pawkie thief, That e'er attempted stealth or rief ! Ye surely hae some warlock-brief 42

Owre human hearts; For ne'er a bosom yet was prief Against your arts. For me, I swear by sun an' moon, An' ev'ry star that blinks aboon , Ye've cost me twenty pair o' shoon , Just gaun to see you; An' ev'ry ither pair that's done, Mair taen I'm wi' you Here slee'st means slyest ; pawkie cunning, sly - ; e'er ever -; or ere, before ; rief robbery, plunder , ; hae have - ; warlock-brief wizards contract (with the devil) ; owre over - ; prief proof - ; an' and - ; blinks looks smiling ; aboon above , ; o' of ; shoon shoes ; gaun going - ; ither other - ; mair more - ; taen taken - ; wi' with - . Vocabulary. Aye - yes Bonnie - good, nice, beautiful , Dee do Down South England - Mannie - a man , Messages - the shoppings (usually food) () Mind - remember , Pinkie - little finger - Poppy money - Wee small - Wind-ee/wind-ay window -

Grammar. Scots tend to say "nae" for "not." So, instead of the word "cannot" the Scots would say "cannae". Similarly, "do not" becomes "dinnae" and so forth. Instead of the word "understand" Scots use the word "ken". This word is also occasionally used to substitute for "know" as in "I dinnae ken where the fellow be". 43

Where an Englishman might say "lad" or "lass" a Scot will use the diminutive "laddie" or "lassie". A Scot might use these terms for adults, as well. Scots will also use "ye" instead of "you". Scots will use the word "wee" for "little" or "small".

Phonetics. The realisation [x] for "ch" in loch, patriarch, technical, etc. In length and 'strength [n] not []. Wednesday is pronounced /wdnzde/. The following may occur in colloquial speech, usually among the young, especially males. The use of glottal stops for [t] between vowels or word final after a vowel, as in butter /b? / and cat /ka?/. The realisation of the nasal velar in "-ing" as a nasal alveolar "in'", as in talking /t:kin/. They usually distinguishes between [ur] and [ur], in flour and flower. The 'r' is normally rolled at the front of the mouth so 'car' is pronounced as carrrr. Some words are shortened, losing bits that slow their roll off the tongue, so 'awfully' becomes offy and 'cannot' becomes canny.

3.WENGLISH Welsh English or Wenglish is the dialect of English spoken in Wales by Welsh people. The dialect is significantly modified by Welsh grammar and contains a number of unique words. Vocabulary. Aim to throw - Ambarg handbag - Aye eye - Bar except , Belfago loudly - Blacklead pencil - Carn cant Credit to believe - Easy certainly , Feeling sympathetic - Flag an unreliable person 44

Glad and Sorry - on the "never-never" (glad to have it, sorry to have to pay for it) Grizzle - to complain - In a (like a) winky very quickly Losins/loshins sweets - Mamgu/myngu (usually pronounced /mungee/) grandmother - On the trot consecutively , Pat cockroach - Rainin(g) nasty - raining very heavily Salty expensive - Suck-in disappointment - Taffy toffee - Yarn - a good joke () Phonetics. Some of the features of Welsh English are Use of /x/ in loch, Bach, technology etc. Dropping of h in some varieties, house sound like ouse. Distinction of /w/ and /W/ in wine and whine. Distinction of ck and k, i.e. /x/ vs. /k/ in yack and yak. Use of the Welsh ll sound /K/ (a voiceless 'l') in Llwyd, llaw etc. There is no contrast between [ and []: rubber [rb]. ] In words like tune, few, used we find [iu] rather than [ju:]: tune [tiun]. When the preceding vowel is short consonants are doubled:city [sitti:]. 4. HIBERNO-ENGLISH Hiberno-English is the dialect of the English language used in Ireland. It is also called Anglo-Irish or Irish English. The basis for the type of English spoken in Ireland is said to be a mixture of the language of Shakespeare and the Irish of the Gaelic earls. The standard spelling and grammar are the same as British English, but especially in the spoken language, there are some unique characteristics, due to the influence of Irish on pronunciation. Vocabulary. The vocabulary of Hiberno-English to this day includes many words that are no longer in general use in British English. Delph is still used for crockery ( ), shore for a sewer (), mitch for playing truant (), bring for take (), galluses for 45

braces ( ), and so forth. Interestingly though, some words which were last in general use in British English centuries ago are still current in Ireland, even among the younger generation. A good example of this is the noun bowsie meaning a disreputable drunkard, a lout, a quarrelsome alcoholic (, , ), which is still in use by all ages. In addition to words classified as obsolete or dialectal Hiberno-English includes many words taken from Irish, for example, a fool is called an ommadhawn (Irish amadn), or a left-handed person is called a kithouge (Irish ciatg). Often the Irish diminutive suffix -een is attached to a word, for instance, girleen (a little girl).

Grammar derived from Irish. People in rural Ireland have a tendency to avoid the use use of "yes" or "no" when speaking English, e.g: "Are you finished debugging that software?" "I am" " ? " " ". "Is your mobile charged?" "It is" " ?"", ". Irish verbs have two present tenses, one indicating what is occurring at this instant and another used for continuous actions. Rural Irish speakers of English use a "does be/do be" (or "bes", although less frequently) construction to indicate the continuous present: "They do be talking on their mobiles a lot" Mirroring the Irish language and almost every other European language, the plural 'you' is distinguished from the singular, normally by using the otherwise archaic English word 'ye': "Did ye all go to see it?" ? They like to use "'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?" , ? Irish English also always uses the "light l" sound, and the pronunciation of the letter 'h' as 'haitch' is standard. Somebody who can speak a language, 'has' a language - a very rural construction: "She doesn't have Irish" - . Turns of phrase. 46

"Am not" is abbreviated amn't by analogy with "isn't" and "aren't" ("Aren't I" would be considered ungrammatical in Ireland). 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" .

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" - .

Yoke is typically used in place of the word "thing", for instance, "gimme that yoke there" .

CONCLUSION The most widespread language in the world is English, which is considered to be the international language. During many centuries English was exposed to the influence of different cultures and underwent many changes. Thats why this is not surprising that British English has so many dialects. Dialect is a complete system of verbal communication (oral or signed but not necessarily written) with its own vocabulary and/or grammar. It is used by people from a particular geographical area the size of which can be arbitrary. It follows that a dialect for a larger area can contain plenty of (sub-) dialects, which in turn can contain dialects of yet smaller areas, etc. Our work embraces the majority of British dialects, i.e. Geordie, Yorkshire, Scouse, Derbyshire, Nottingham, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Black Country, Brummie, Norfolk, Estuary English, Cockney, Cornwall, Scottish, Wenglish and Hiberno-English. The information about all of them was taken from magazines, newspapers, books, scientific works and websites. The main source of information was Internet because of the lack of information in libraries. According to the studied materials we can make such conclusions:

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The concept dialect should be distinguished from accent. The term dialect refers to a

specific variety of a language, which differs systematically from other varieties in terms of pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary, but which is still generally comprehensible to speakers of other dialects within that language. Varieties of dialects can be distinguished not only by their vocabulary and grammar, but also by differences in phonology. If the distinctions are limited to phonology, one may use the term accent. Accent refers simply to different pronunciation patterns and, despite popular belief to the contrary everybody speaks with an accent. In other words, dialect is an umbrella term for a variety of linguistic features, one of which is accent - the sound patterns of a specific dialect. Thus, within England, a northerner using naught to mean nothing is an example of lexical variation, but a Liverpudlian pronouncing the word nothing differently from the way a Londoner might say it is a difference in accent. People from different geographical places clearly speak differently, but even within the same small community, people might speak differently according to their age, gender, ethnicity and social and educational background. There are two types of dialects: geographical and social. Geographical are used by people of

some particular territory. Social are used in one and the same social class or educational group. One should distinguish between standard dialect and non-standard dialect. Standard dialect

is such a dialect that is supported by institutions in the state. It may be approved by government and presented as a "correct" form of a language in schools. Non-standard dialect isnt supported by institutions. Each culture made a lot of changes during the development of English language. Thats why, for example, Brummie has some unusual tones which are similar to Scandinavian, Cornish trace its roots back to Celtic tribes, Geordie reflects old Anglo-Saxon pronunciations, etc. There is a great difference between Standard English and dialect speech. Thus two people from different counties of one and the same country cant understand each other in spite of the fact that their native language is English. Some words and constructions of sentences are absolutely incomprehensible. From all British dialects 76% accounts for dialects of England; 8% - for Scotland and the last 16% - for Wales and Northern Ireland. The phonetics also plays a very important role. The way individuals pronounce certain words is often a good clue to their background. Speakers who do not pronounce the initial h in the word house, for instance, immediately reveal something about themselves. Perhaps the most salient feature of pronunciation in Great Britain is the distinction between speakers in the north who generally pronounce words such as bath, grass and dance with a short vowel rather like the 48

vowel in the word cat and those in the south, who use a long vowel for these words rather like the sound you are asked to produce when a doctor examines your throat. Thus one can immediately deduce something about a person who pronounces baths to rhyme with maths or pass to rhyme with mass. Grammar refers to the structure of a language or dialect. A grammar describes the way individual words change their appearance, such as when the word walk becomes walked to indicate an event in past time and also the way in which words are combined together to form phrases or sentences. In Yorkshire dialect, for instance, a speaker might mark the past tense of to be by saying I were, you were, he, she and it were, we were, they were whereas speakers of other dialects might differentiate by using I was and he, she and it was. You should avoid the temptation to draw misguided conclusions about what is correct and incorrect grammar, however: the Yorkshire pattern is in fact more regular and indeed mirrors the model for every other verb in English I played, you played, I went, you went and so on. Instead you should make a distinction between standard and non-standard grammar, where standard grammar refers to a variety that has become widely acknowledged as a prestigious form, mainly due to its use by people in positions of authority and because of its universal acceptance as the written norm. Just as speakers with a broad accent do not reflect their pronunciation in writing, most people whose speech is characterised by features of non-standard grammar, consciously switch to more standard forms in writing. However, there is a great deal of difference between written and spoken language, both in terms of purpose and audience and this is reflected in their different grammars.

Language by its very nature is dynamic and constantly evolving, new words and expressions are almost daily being absorbed and some older words are falling into disuse. With communication and travel nowadays being so easy and fast, language is evolving more rapidly now than at any other time and some people are commuting daily over greater distances than they would have considered travelling for an annual holiday 50 years ago. People are moving house more often, they settle in new areas and thus the regional lines are becoming blurred. In the course of time dialects are mixing and their number reduces progressively. But this doesnt mean that dialects will die out someday. They will continue to exist and develop with peoples help. Thats why its very important to study British dialects.

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