Varieties of English

The Northern Hemisphere

    1 England and Wales
    2 Scotland
    3 Ireland
    4 USA and Canada
    5 The Caribbean

The Southern Hemisphere

    6 South Africa
    7 South Atlantic
    7 Australia and New Zealand
    8 The Pacific
    9 New Englishes

1 England and Wales

The British Isles consist of the islands of Britain and Ireland. Britain is divided into three countries, England, Wales and Scotland. Dialectally, Scotland is quite separate and is dealt with at another point in this module. England is traditionally divided into two parts, the south and the north. The dividing line runs approximately from Manchester in the west to The Wash in the east. There are obvious pronunciation differences between north and south, two of which are the lack of lowered and unrounded /ʊ/ in the north, e.g. but is [bʊt] and not [bʌt] and the lack of low vowel lengthening before voiceless fricatives, e.g. path is [paθ] and not [pɑ:θ].

1.1 Received Pronunciation

The reference accent of England, the standard in pronunciation if you like, is what is termed Received Pronunciation (a term deriving from the phonetician Daniel Jones at the beginning of the 20th century) and labelled RP for short. Looser terms such as Queen’s English, BBC English, Oxford English are also found but are quite inaccurate and should be avoided in linguistics. The features of RP are those described in any English introduction to the phonetics of English and it is the guideline used for pronunciation in major English dictionaries. RP is spoken natively by only a small percentage of people in England and by virtually none in other parts of the British Isles, let alone in the rest of the anglophone world.

1.2 Cockney English

Cockney is the vernacular of London, the popular speech of the city. Because London is the capital of England, it has a special relationship to the standard, Received Pronunciation. The features of RP, notably vowel values, have been continued in Cockney, so that for instance the diphthong in the word lake has been lowered from [leɪk] to [lɛɪk]. This is part of a general shift so that the vowel in nine [naɪn] has been retracted to [nɑɪn], etc. You will notice in the sound sample that the speaker has a number of non-standard features in his English, e.g. he uses a glottal stop intervocalically as in water [wɔ:ʔə] (this feature is spreading to general usage in the south-east of England, often known as Estuary English). The speaker also shows the Cockney shift of [θ] to [f] as in three [fri:].

1.3 Northern English

The north of England is somewhat more conservative in its phonology compared to the south and has not gone through many of the changes found in the latter area. The two most obvious of these are (1) the lowering of early modern English /u/ to /ʌ/, i.e. northern speakers pronounce cut as [cʊt], (2) the lengthening of low vowels before voiceless fricatives, i.e. northern speakers say [pas] for [pɑ:s] pass.

1.4 Welsh English

Although it is a Celtic country with more speakers of a Celtic language than any other such country, the English of the Welsh is remarkably standard when compared to Irish or Scottish English (in the north-west of Scotland). The most salient feature of Welsh English is the intonation which is similar to that of the Welsh language. People from Wales also tend to have a low central vowel in a word like bad [bad] rather than [bæd].

2 Scotland

2.1 Scottish English, broad

English in Scotland has two main sources: (1) a continuation of the north Anglian dialect of Old English and (2) a language-shift variety of English which stems from the Gaelic speakers who switched to English in the Highlands and Islands over the past few centuries. The former variety has a distinctive morphology and in pronunciation is quite unlike other varieties of British English. Vowel length is not distinctive and is determined by the phonological environment in which vowels occur. Like Ulster English, it has a high mid vowel in the GOOSE lexical set and a retroflex [ɻ]. The vowel of the TRAP lexical set is a long low vowel, i.e. trap is [tra:p].

2.2 Scottish English, moderate

More moderate accents of Scottish English tend to retain the high mid vowel [ʉ] in the GOOSE lexical set and to be rhotic, i.e. /r/ in syllable-final position is pronounced, e.g. card [kaɻd]. Vowel length and quality tends to be much closer to more mainstream varieties of English.

3 Ireland

3.1 Southern Irish English

English in Ireland has resulted from a language shift from Irish to English over the past few centuries. Many of its features are due to the influence of Irish, particularly in phonology and syntax. There are also some retentions from more conservative varieties of English taken to Ireland. In pronunciation one can mention the fricative t at the end of words, e.g. cat [kæṱ], and the stop realisation of dental fricatives, e.g. think [ṯɪŋk]. Vowels are also different: there is much less diphthongisation and the vowel in cancel is central and not retracted, i.e. [ka:nsḷ].

3.2 Dublin English, broad

English has existed in Dublin since the late 12th century. This vintage has meant that the popular variety of English in the city is quite far removed from other varieties on the British mainland. Noticeable in this sound file are (1) [ʊ] in the STRUT lexical class, (2) glottalisation of /t/ or shift to [h], (3) an open diphthong in GOAT, i.e. [gʌʊʔ], (4) a fronted onset in MOUTH, i.e. [mɛʊt]. Note also the lengthening and breaking of long vowels, e.g. mean [mijən] and very open realisation of back vowels, e.g. lot [lah]. Dublin English is furthermore only weakly rhotic.

3.3 Dublin English, new

In the past ten to fifteen years the pronunciation of English in the capital Dublin has undergone considerable changes. Noticeable in this respect is the raising of low back vowels, e.g. bought [bɔ:ṱ], and the retraction of diphthongs, e.g. time [tɑɪm], and the use of a retroflex r, e.g. card [kɑ:ɻd], as well as a velarised l in syllable-final position, e.g. field [fi:ɫd]. This new pronunciation is spreading rapidly to the rest of southern Ireland due to the prestige of fashionable Dublin English.

3.4 Northern Irish English

English in northern Ireland (in the province of Ulster) has three main sources: (1) settlement before 1600 which survives in the speech of people in the west of the province and which has been influenced by Irish, (2) Ulster Scots which is a distinct variety of English brought over from Lowland and Western Scotland from the 17th century onwards and (3) general northern English which was part of the English settlement, especially in the centre of the province, again from the 17th century onwards.

Northern Irish English is clearly recognisable by its intonation and by a variety of segmental features such as a retroflex [ɻ] and a high mid vowel [ʉ] in words like fool [fʉˑl]. Note that vowel length is not always distinctive, especially in Ulster Scots.

4 The New World: USA and Canada

Although Christopher Columbus landed on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean in 1492 and although John Cabot (for the English) landed on Newfoundland in eastern Canada in 1497, the English concern with the New World and the beginning of English settlement there did not start in earnest until around 1600. Sir Humphrey Gilbert reinforced the English claim to eastern Canada by travelling to Newfoundland in 1583, English settlements arose along the eastern coast of what was later to become the United States, e.g. at Jamestown in Virginia in 1607. Finally the English established a bridgehead in the Caribbean with the settlement of Barbados in the south-east of this region in 1627.

The 17th century brought a considerable expansion of the English presence in the New World, often to the detriment of claims by other European powers, e.g. England took Jamaica from the Spanish in 1660 and obtained New York (then New Amsterdam) from the Dutch in 1664. They furthermore competed with the French for hegemony in Canada throughout the 17th and 18th centuries.

The original settlement of the United States was motivated by the flight from religious persecution, perceived or real, in the early 17th century by the Puritans in New England and in the 18th century by the Scots and Ulster Scots Presbyterians who settled in Pennsylvania and the lower Appalachian area, somewhat inland from the south-east coast of America. Later emigration, i.e. after the 18th century, was motivated by economic necessity as with the large exodus of southern Irish who went to the United States in the second half of the 19th century.

4.1 Canadian English, general

English in Canada is very similar to American English and is becoming increasingly so, at least in pronunciation (there are some lexical differences, however). The main phonetic feature which distinguishes Canadians from Americans is the centralised onset of the diphthongs /ai/ and /au/ when followed by a voiceless segment, e.g. like [ləɪk] and about [əˡbəʊt]. This centralisation is not found before voiced segments, e.g. tide [taɪd] and loud [laʊd].

4.2 Canadian English, Newfoundland

The maritime provinces of eastern Canada were settled much earlier than central and western Canada and they experienced migration from specific areas of the British Isles, notably south-west England and south-east Ireland. For this reason traditional speech in the area, especially in Newfoundland, is quite different from central Canada and much more reminiscent of regional English from the areas of the British Isles just mentioned.

4.3 United States English, general

Anglo-American varieties of English are remarkably uniform across the United States. In general three broad dialect areas are recognised: (1) Northern, including the area of original settlement, New England, (2) Southern, including the original area of African American English and (3) General, the large expanse in the centre and west of the United States in which the non-regional variety known as General American is spoken. Some authors distinguish a Midland region between the northern and southern areas in the eastern half of the country. In addition there are pockets of distinct speech in the United States, e.g. on the Outer Banks islands off North Carolina or in the Ozark Plateau region of Missouri. There are also remnants of a creole, known as Gullah, on the Sea Islands off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia. Some larger cities have recognisable vernacular forms of English, e.g. New York or Boston.

General American English is recognisable by certain features, such as a retroflex [ɻ], the tapping of intervocalic [t], as in water [wɒ:ſɚ], a long, slight nasalised realisation of the TRAP vowel and a possible lowering and unrounding of the vowel in the LOT lexical set. There are also grammatical features such as auxiliary verb contractions, e.g. gonna, or archaic verb forms, such as gotten. Many specific lexical items also exist, though the American words tend to spread to British English as well, e.g. garbage for rubbish. Differences in word stress are also obvious, e.g. American aˡdult, ˡaddress, ˡinquiry but British ˡadult, aˡddress, inˡquiry.

4.4 United States, African American English

African American Vernacular English, AAVE for short, is the form of English traditionally spoken by the descendants of black African slaves in the southern United States and now to be found in many urban centres throughout the United States. There are two views on its origin: (1) it is a de-creolised form of an earlier creole which had developed on the cotton plantations of the south, (2) it is basically a dialect of English with a combination of features not found elsewhere. It may well, of course, be a mixture of these two sources.

There are a number of salient features of African American Vernacular English. In phonology one could mention the r-lessness, seen in car [ka:] and party [pa:ti], the reduction of word final clusters, as in test [tes] and desk [des], the deletion of /l/ in final clusters, e.g. help [hep], the shift of interdental fricatives to stops, e.g. this [ḏɪdis], there [ḏɛ:]. In word-final position /θ/, /ð/ is frequently shifted to [f], [v](as in Cockney English), e.g. bath [ba:f], teeth [ti:f], brother [brʌvə].

In the area of morphology one can note that multiple negation is common, e.g. I ain´t goin´ to give nothin´ to nobody. Existential there can be replaced by it: It ain´t no football pitch at school. The genitive is not necessarily marked with /s/ (as position is sufficient to indicate this category): I drove my brother car. In syntax one finds such features as the omission of third person singular -s: She like my brother The copula is deleted in so-called equative sentences, i.e. those of the form X = Y: She a teacher. They workers in the factory. Like to has often the meaning of `almost´: She like to fell out the window. `She almost fell out of the window.´

Uninflected be functions as a marker of the habitual aspect: They be out on the street at night. ´They are always out on the street at night.´ A stressed form of been occurs to indicate the remote past: I ˡbeen travel to New York. ´I travelled to New York a long time ago.´ An intentional aspect is found with the particle a which precedes the verb form: I´m a gonna meet her. `I´m about to meet her.´ The unstressed past participle form of do, done [dʌn], is used to signal an action which has just occurred: The mirror done broke. `The mirror has just broken.´

5 The Caribbean

The term Caribbean is given to the large expanse of sea between the south of the United States and the north of South America. It contains many islands which fall into two broad groups, on the one hand the Greater Antilles which include Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola (consisting of Haiti and the Dominican Republic) and Puerto Rico and on the other hand the Lesser Antilles which is a long band of islands stretching in an arc on the east coast of the Caribbean from the British Virgin Islands in the north to Trinidad and Tobago in the south. In addition one should mention the Bahamas, a group of several small islands of the south-east coast of Florida, Turks and Caicos to the south of these (north of Hispaniola) and the Cayman Islands to the south of Cuba.

The anglophone settlement of the Caribbean begin in 1627 on Barbados. The first settlers included indentured servants and political exiles from Ireland. When Barbados quickly became overcrowded (with the advent of African slaves in the second half of the 17th century) people left and settled in other parts of the Caribbean including the northern coast of South America, in what is now called Suriname (former Dutch Guyana) and the southern coast of the later United States, along the coast of what is now South Carolina. Today only one of the Greater Antilles is English-speaking, namely Jamaica, but there is a considerable English presence on many of the smaller islands. On the Caribbean coast of Central America there are still some pockets of English speakers, e.g. on the Miskito Coast of Nicaragua and in Belize (former British Honduras).

5.1 Jamaican English

English in Jamaica goes back to the mid 17th century when the English seized the island from the Spanish. Later some English settled there, but much larger numbers of African slaves were transported to the island and many escaped from other parts of the Caribbean and sought refuge in the centre of the island. A creole developed in Jamaica which survives to this day. The basilectal form is quite distinct from standard English with its own morphology and syntax and is virtually incomprehensible to outsiders. In pronunciation, Jamaican English (on various levels) is syllable-timed, non-rhotic, has simplified consonant clusters and diphthongisation of mid front vowels, e.g. [fiəs] for face.

5.2 English on Trinidad and Tobago

Trinidad and Tobago is the southern most anglophone island group in the Lesser Antilles in the eastern Caribbean and the islands are only a short distance from mainland Venezuela. As with acrolectal English at other anglophone locations of the Caribbean one finds typical features such as the lack of syllable-final /r/, no vowel length distinctions and a shift of fricatives to stops in words like think and this (which have interdental fricatives in standard English).

The Southern Hemisphere

6 South Africa

As opposed to the New World, which was settled from the beginning of the 17th century onwards, the Southern Hemisphere was not populated with English settlers until the very end of the 18th century. There were many reasons for this, not least of which was the shorter range of ocean-going ships. With the opening up of South Africa, Australia and then New Zealand native-speaker English established itself at these locations. The conditions locally were different in each case, for instance in South Africa the region was already occupied by Dutch settlers from almost two centuries previously.

Varieties of English in the Southern Hemisphere sound fairly similar and can be distinguished from Northern Hemisphere varieties by (1) being non-rhotic, (2) having raised realisations of short front vowels in the TRAP, DRESS and KIT lexical sets and (3) by often having a lowered and retracted realisation of the diphthong in the FACE, PRICE and CHOICE lexical sets.

There are three major anglophone locations in the Southern Hemisphere, i.e. South Africa, Australia and then New Zealand, and two minor ones, i.e. the island of Tristan da Cunha in the central South Atlantic and the Falkland Islands.

6.1 South African English

English in South Africa stems from a first settlement in 1795 in the region of Cape Town and a more significant settlement in the eastern cape region (around Port Elizabeth) in the 1820’s. English has co-existed in South Africa with Afrikaans, the colonial form of Dutch, and many native languages of the Khoisan and Bantu families. A notable sub-variety of English is that spoken by descendants of the Indian population which was moved to KwaZulu-Natal between 1860 and 1911.

In general South African English is like other major varieties in the Southern Hemisphere and shares, for instance, the raising of short front vowels, e.g. [bɛd] for bad, [bɪd] for bed, with Australian and New Zealand English. A distinctive feature is the diphthong flattening in the PRICE lexical set, i.e. one has [prɑ:s] rather than [prɑɪs]. In addition there are features of morphology and syntax which can be traced to interaction with Afrikaans.

6.2 Black South African English

Since the end of apartheid in the early 1990’s English has expanded greatly in the black population of South Africa. The varieties which have arisen here show a considerable influence from the native background languages of speakers. For instance, typical features of Bantu languages emerge in Black South African English, e.g. syllable-timing, mid-length monophthongs and r-lessness. With the increasing consciousness of the blacks, this group of varieties may become more focussed and serve as a linguistic identification for the aspiring black section of the South African population.

7 South Atlantic

The English-speaking South Atlantic consists of three island locations: (i) St Helena, an island between Africa and South America, roughly on the latitude of the northern border of Angola with a population of about 4,250 and an area of 122 km; English has been spoken there since the 17th century. (ii) Tristan da Cunha, a volcanic island again between Africa and South America on a latitude somewhat below that of Cape Town, South Africa; the island has a population of just over 260 all of whom are native speakers of English; the island has been inhabited since the early 19th century when various European and American settlers came there. (iii) The Falkland Islands (Spanish: Las Malvinas) off the coast of south Argentina with an area of over 12,000 and a population of over 3,000; the islands have been inhabited by English speakers since the early 19th century despite the repeated attempts of Argentina to realise its assumed claim to them.

8 Australia and New Zealand

8.1 Australian English, general

English in Australia is the result of settlement which began in the late 18th century in the south-east of the country. For this reason many features of Australian English are reminiscent of southern British English, much more so than with English in the New World which was settled considerably earlier, from the early 17th century onwards.

Australian English shows a shift of diphthongs down and back in phonological space when compared with RP. In this respect is it similar to Cockney English, e.g. tray would be [trɛi] rather than [trei]. What is also typical is a raising of short front vowels so that bad sounds like bed and bed like bid. This may well be a feature of late modern English which was taken to the Southern Hemisphere but discontinued in Britain.

8.2 Australian English, broad

The features of broad Australian English are extensions and continuations of features and processes present in the more general form of English in this country. In particular the diphthong shift down and back is more pronounced, e.g. tray would be [træi] rather than [trɛi] (general Australian English). There are other features such as a tapped realisation of /t/ in intervocalic position, e.g. later [lɛiſə].

8.3 New Zealand English

The anglophone settlement of New Zealand only got under way after the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. The characteristics of New Zealand English are similar to southern British English and shows the same diphthong shift which is found in Australia. It is usually difficult to tell Australians and New Zealanders apart but the latter tend to have a schwa vowel in the KIT lexical set, i.e. kit is [kət]. They may also have a merger of pear and peer to [piə].

9 The Pacific

The anglophone Pacific consists of many islands, most of which are Polynesian in language and culture. The Hawaii archipelago (since 1959 a state of the United States) is the largest, but others in the south Pacific are also of considerable size, notably the Fiji archipelago. Many former islands colonies of Britain have assumed Polynesian names, e.g. Vanuatu (formerly the New Hebrides), or Polynesian pronunciations, e.g. Kiribati < Gilbert Islands. The English involvement with the south and south-west Pacific island nations began in the late 18th and 19th centuries although most of the islands were discovered earlier by European explorers. In Fiji there is a sizeable proportion of Indians in the population who were taken there to work as labourers on the plantations.

10 New Englishes

Since the early 1980’s the term New Englishes has been used for non-native varieties of English spoken in former colonies of England, chiefly in South-Asia, South-East Asia, West Africa and East Africa. The essential difference between these varieties and those in countries like the United States or Australia is that they do not derive from settler English, i.e. there has been no transmission of native-speaker English across the generations.

New Englishes show a strong influence of the background languages spoken in a region, e.g. of Hokkien Chinese, Malay or Tamil in Singapore. Due to language and educational policy, New Englishes have virtually become native-speaker varieties of Englishes, e.g. in Singapore, and will most probably continue to expand given the role of English on an international level and its role as a lingua franca in countries with many native languages which are mutually incomprehensible, e.g. in Nigeria or in India.

10.1 West Africa

The area of West Africa stretches from approximately Sierra Leone in the west to Cameroon in the east along the part of the continent known as the Bulge of Africa. It includes the largely anglophone countries of Liberia, Ghana and Nigeria.

10.1.1 English in Ghana

English in West Africa is present in different forms. There is a general pidgin form, known as West African Pidgin English, which is used as a basilect (most vernacular) form in countries like Ghana and Nigeria. There are also more acrolectal (more formal) varieties which belong to the set of New Englishes, non-native forms of English which have become established as independent varieties in countries which were formerly colonies of England. New English in Ghana is characterised by such features as the lack of syllable-final /r/, no vowel length distinctions, no diphthongisation of mid vowels, e.g. go [go], take [tek], and a general tendency to use syllable-timing (more or less equal length for all syllables in words, whether stressed or unstressed).

10.2 East Africa

East Africa is a loose geographical term which encompasses Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, three countries in which English is widely used. Swahili, a Bantu language with much Arabic vocabulary, is also used as a lingua franca in this region. Note that English is also spoken in countries further south, reaching down to South Africa, i.e. Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Botswana.

10.3 South Asia

This term is used nowadays in preference to the older term the Indian Subcontinent as it contains other countries apart from the largest, India. These are Pakistan in the north-west, Bangladesh (former East Pakistan) in the east, Nepal and Bhutan in the north-east and Sri Lanka (former Ceylon) in the south, off the south-east tip of India. It also includes the island republic of the Maldives off the south-west coast of India in the Arabian Sea.

10.3.1 India and Pakistan

English in India and Pakistan is used as a semi-official language alongside the two versions of the same native language, known as Hindi in India and Urdu in Pakistan. The latter form has been influenced, especially in its vocabulary, by Arabic because of Islam, the official religion of Pakistan. In its phonology English in both Pakistan and India is remarkable for its intonation and for the retroflexion of consonants (pronouncing the alveolar consonants of English with the tip of the tongue curved back towards the palate). Both these features derive from native background languages in the two countries in question. Furthermore, one should mention that English in Pakistan and India is rhotic and that vowels show much less diphthongisation than in southern British English. The style of English in South-Asia is remarkable for its decorative and somewhat archaic character, a style furthered both by the means of transmission of English, through linguistically conservative texts, and the conception of good style in the native languages of the region.

10.4 South-East Asia

The term South-East Asia refers to a large portion of mainland Asia and many island countries which lie between Asia and Australia. It can be taken to stretch from Malaysia in the west to the Philippines in the east and from China in the north to Indonesia in the south. In the centre of this large area is Singapore at the end of the Malay peninsula and Hong Kong further north on the coast of southern China.

10.4.1 English in East Asia

English in China - including Taiwan and Hong Kong - is non-native but is spreading rapidly due to the importance of English in international trade and as a lingua franca (this also applies to Japan). In this respect Chinese English is a New English, though the degree of competence of speakers varies greatly and is not anywhere near that found in other Anglophone locations of South-East Asia such as Hong Kong and the Phillipines. As is typical with New Englishes there is much phonetic interference from background languages. In the case of Chinese English, vowel length is not distinctive and consonant clusters are greatly simplified. In addition the intonation used is quite different from native forms of English, something which impairs comprehensibility.