Types of English Pronunciation

Northern English Pronunciation

The Northern regional type of English pronunciation is characterized by features that are common to all the dialect used in the northern part of England.

The English language in Northern England has been shaped by the region's history , and today encompasses a group of related dialects known as Northern England English (or, simply, Northern English in the United Kingdom). Historically, the strongest influence on the varieties of the English language spoken in Northern England was the Northumbrian dialect of Old English, but contact with Old Norse during the Viking Age and with Irish English following the Great Famine have produced new and distinctive styles of speech. Some "Northern" traits can be found further south than others: only conservative Northumbrian dialects retain the pre-Great Vowel Shift pronunciation of words such as town (/tuːn/, TOON), but all northern accents lack the FOOT–STRUT split, and this trait extends a significant distance into the Midlands.

Scottish English Pronunciation

The Scottish type of English pronunciation is based on the dialects spoken in Scotland which vary among themselves in some respects.

Scottish English is the set of varieties of the English language spoken in Scotland. The transregional, standardised variety is called Scottish Standard English or Standard Scottish English (SSE). Scottish Standard English may be defined as "the characteristic speech of the professional class [in Scotland] and the accepted norm in schools".

In addition to distinct pronunciation, grammar and expressions, Scottish English has distinctive vocabulary, particularly pertaining to Scottish institutions such as the Church of Scotland, local government and the education and legal systems.

English is spoken not only in the British Isles. It is the national language in the USA, Australia, New Zealand, and of a great part of the population in Canada. Each of those national has its own orthoepic norm which exists a long side of regional types and numerous dialects.

Though those national languages have distinctive features of their own which differentiate them from British English and from each other, they have much more in common. That is why they are considered to be variants of the same language, the English language.

Australian English Pronunciation

Australian English is one of the literary national types used since the end of the eighteenth century. There are three types of pronunciation in Australia:

1 .Educated or Cultivated Australian English;

2. Broad Australian English;

3. General Australian English (GAu) which is regarded as a literary type.

The following simple vowels (monophthongs and diphthongized vowels) exist in GAu;

/i/ as in the word seat /sIt/

/ı/ » sit /sIt/

/ɛ/ » head /hɛd/

/æ/ » had /hæd/

/ʌ/ » father /ˈ fʌðƏ/

/ɔ/ » hot /hɔt/

/ɔ:/ » sort /sɔ:t/

/u/ » put /put/

/u:/ » boot /bu:t/

/ʌ/ » but /bʌt/

In principal the phonetic inventory of GAu does not differ much from RP but the distribution of phonemes is different in both literary types. There are also slight differences in word accentuation and intonation between GAu and RP. But in many cases GAu is much closer to the RP pronunciation than that of GA.