English accents

1
English accents

• 6. Historical change (i)

2
final g after ?
compare
s??g 's??g??g 's??g?
'f??g?
g retained in northwest England, lost elsewhere
3
the sound x
loch l?x, l?k
The phoneme /x/ remains in Scottish English but
has disappeared from English English
Bach b??x, b??k (German bax)
though sometimes used in foreign words
4
loss of x
x ? f
cough, rough, laugh
high, bough, daughter
x ? zero
Loughborough 'l?fb?r?
x ? ?
Keighley
Greenhalgh
x ? ?
5
long mid mergers
pane pe?n pain pe?n
fall together
late le?t eight e?t
toe to? tow to?
fall together
nose no?z knows no?z
distinction remains in parts of Wales and the
north of England
6
long mid diphthonging
face fe?s ? fe?s day de?
goat go?t ? go?t (? g??t)
monophthongs remain in parts of the north of
England, and in Wales, Scotland and Ireland also
in the Caribbean, and in Indian and African
English
7
FOOT-STRUT split
put p?t cut k?t ? k?t
full f?l dull d?l ? d?l
Except in the north of England, /?/ and /?/ have
become separate phonemes
8
(No Transcript)
9
strong short vowel systems

• typical northern system (5 vowels)

• typical southern system (6 vowels)

? ? e ?
æ ?
? ? ?
TRAP a ? LOT
KIT
FOOT
KIT
FOOT-STRUT
DRESS
STRUT
DRESS
TRAP
LOT
10
NURSE merger
serve s?rv ? s??v (? s??v) curve k?rv ? k?rv
? k??v (? k??v)
These vowels remain distinct in Scottish and some
Irish English
pearl p?rl ? p??l curl k?rl ? k??l