World English Voices: Analyzing Cockney, Yankese, and Aussie Rhythms
One language, over one billion speakers, and countless ways to speak it. You guessed it. We’re talking about the fascinating English language . So the big question is: with so many speakers, how many English accents are there?
Well, somewhere over40 english accents in the United Kingdom , but worldwide we can’t know for sure. As the saying goes “so many countries, so many customs”, so it’s fairly difficult to point the finger at one number. Maybe even you have your own English accent. But that doesn’t stop us from putting together a list of the most notable English accents of the worl…uhm, universe. From British to American and even Aussie accent, let’s make theEnglish accents inventory and find out how many ways of speaking English are there (at least roughly).
What is an accent?
Lexico explains that an accent is “a distinctive way of pronouncing a language, especially one associated with a particular country, area, or social class”. Interesting, isn’t it? That is why you and maybe some of your friends in a particular area can create a newEnglish accent of your own.
But chances are that one’s already used. As you probably already know, England isn’t short on accents. Travel north to south and it’ll give you the impression locals are speaking a whole new language.
Before moving to our actual introduction to various English accents and dialects , take a few moments to think about which one is your favorite? Have you always dreamed of speaking English like the Queen of the United Kingdom? Or maybe like rugged Mr. Jamie Fraser from Outlander? Or are you a more American-oriented person and would go for a Matthew McConaughey-Texan style accent? So many fascinating choices!
British Accent
Oh, the Brits! Judging by theBritish English accent you think they use, they are so royal, so sophisticated – or as they would presumably say – so_posh_ . But in reality, things are not entirely so. As we already hinted, the UK is incredibly rich in accents. Not everybody speaks British English like Benedict Cumberbatch or Martin Freeman. No, sir. A single British accent does not exist.
Lucky for you, the British Library is an incredible resource for people such as yourself who are interested in English accents and dialects. Here you’ll be able to search by country or by the map and even listen to how Britons speak all over the country. After just a quick search, I found no less than 77 audios of speakers from across the UK, chosen to represent different accents and dialects in England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. That’s pure gold,lad ! Enjoy!
Let’s get down to work and review some of the most notable British accents you need to know from the British Isles and Ireland.
If you are not a Brit but tried to put on aBritish accent at some point, the RP accent is most certainly what you were going for. Also known as the Queen’s/Kings’s English or Oxford English, RP is the closest you can get to a “standard accent” in the UK.
The most important features of Received Pronunciation are non-rhoticity – meaning that the “r” at the end of the word isn’t pronounced and “mother” will sound like “muhthuh” – and trap-bath split. In broad terms, this means that certain words like “chance”, “bath”, “can’t”, and “dance” are pronounced with the long A as in “father”.
To hear RP in action, watch a lot of BBC or travel to Oxford, Cambridge, or Brighton and chat with the locals.
Additionally, there’s even a heightened version of RP which is only really spoken in television or film. Think of Downton Abbey for reference.
Cockney Accent
Cockney is perhaps the second most famous British English accent after RP. Born as the dialect of the working classes in the East End of London, Cockney is well-known for cockney rhyming slang which is… fairly difficult to understand by outsiders.
Still regarded as a marker of “true” East End London heritage, Cockney accent is characterized by the glottal stop where the letter “t” is pronounced with less intensity, so words like “better” sound more like “be’uh”, and the tendency to swap the “th” sound for “f”, drop the “h” in front of words like “head” and elongate vowels like “a” and “e”.
To hear the Cockney accent in action, watch the movie Snatch – specifically Jason Statham’s character.
Brummie Accent
Awww, doesn’t “Brummie” sound really cute?
Made famous worldwide “by order of the fo**ing Peaky Blinders”, the Brummie accent, or more formally the Birmingham dialect, was actually one of the most ridiculed English accents in the United Kingdom. Can you believe it?
But I guess it’s true what they say: he who laughs last, laughs best. Now the Brummie accent has millions of fans all over the world because everybody wants to speak – and dress – like Tommy Shelby.
Scottish Accent
Born from the language contact between Scots and the Standard English of England in the late 1700s, the Scottish accent is a rhotic accent. This means that the “r” is pronounced and rolled. Additionally, this accent is also characterized by elongated vowel sounds and the glottal stop (the letter “t” is not pronounced between vowels).
To hear the Scottish accent in action, you can take a trip to Edinburgh, Glasgow, or watch the animated movie Brave which features multiple types of Scottish accents.
The Yorkshire dialect (also known as Yorkie or Yorkshire English) is an English accent of Northern England spoken in Yorkshire, the largest county in the UK.
Home to Leeds, York, and Sheffield, the Yorkshire accent is characterized by a different pronunciation of the letter “u”. Rather than pronouncing it “uh”, you’ll say “ooo”, so “blood” is pronounced “blohd” and “cut” – “coht”.
Additionally, words that end in “ee” are pronounced ‘eh’, for example, “happy” will sound more like “happeh” with the Yorkshire accent.
Because this accent has roots in Old English and is influenced by Old Norse, the language of the Vikings , you’ll hear it used in many fantasy TV shows such as Game of Thrones.
Northern Irish Accent
If you watched at least one episode of Outlander, the Northern Irish accent will probably be your favorite on this list. Once you get to know Jamie Fraser and his lads, you can’t help but try to imitate their way of speaking.
Distinctive thanks to its often funny slang (“wee” means “small”, “lassie” means “young girl”), Northern Irish was influenced by the lowland Scots language and is characterized by an exaggerated “r”, especially at the end of some sentences.
Title: World English Voices: Analyzing Cockney, Yankese, and Aussie Rhythms