English language in northern England

For the Western Hemisphere term, see Northern American English.

Northern England English (or, simply, Northern English in the United Kingdom) is a group of related dialects of the English language found in Northern England. It includes the dialects of North East England (such as Tyneside's Geordie or Wearside's Mackem), Cumbria, Merseyside (Scouse), and Manchester, as well as the varieties of Yorkshire and Lancashire.

Northern English is one of the major groupings of England English dialects; other major groupings include East Anglian English, East and West Midlands English, West Country (Somerset, Devon, Cornwall) and Southern English.

History

Many northern dialects reflect the influence of the Old Norse language strongly, compared to other varieties of English spoken in England.

In addition to previous contact with Vikings, during the 9th and 10th centuries most of northern and eastern England was part of either the Danelaw, or the Danish-controlled Kingdom of Northumbria (with the exception of present-day Cumbria, which was part of the Kingdom of Strathclyde). Consequently, East Yorkshire dialects, in particular, are considered to have been influenced heavily by Old East Norse (the ancestor language of modern Danish).

However, Northumbrian Anglo-Saxon and Old West Norse (from which modern Norwegian is descended) have arguably had a greater impact, over a longer period, on most northern dialects than Old East Norse. While authoritative quantification is not available, some estimates have suggested as many as 7% of West Cumbrian dialect words are Norse in origin or derived from it.

Varieties

Northern English contains:

In some areas, it can be noticed that dialects and phrases can vary greatly within regions too. For example, the Lancashire dialect has many sub-dialects and varies noticeably from West to East and even from town to town. Within as little as 5 miles there can be an identifiable change in accent. The Yorkshire Dialect Society has always separated West Riding dialect from that in the North and East ridings.

Phonological characteristics

Red areas are where English dialects of the late 20th century were rhotic; in the North, only some of Lancashire is included.
Pronunciation of [ŋg] in the word tongue throughout England; the major Northern counties with this trait centre around where the North West and West Midlands meet.
Approximate positions of Northern English short monophthongs, from Lodge (2009:163)


There are several speech features that unite most of the accents of Northern England:[1]

Major distinctive sounds of Northern English[6][7][8]
English
diaphoneme
Example words Derbyshire Manchester Lancashire Yorkshire Cumbria Northumberland Scouse Geordie
/æ/ bath, dance, trap [æ̞~a~ä]  listen
/ɑː/ bra, calm, father [aː~äː]  listen [ɒː]  listen
/ɑːr/ car, heart, stark /ɑː/  listen [ɒː]  listen
// fight, ride, try
// brown, flautist, mouth [ɐʊ] [æʊ] [ɐʊ~u:]  listen
// lame, rein, stain [ɛɪ~e̞ɪ]  listen [eɪ]  listen [ɪə~e:]
/ɜːr/ first, learn, word [ɛ̝ː~e̞ː]  listen [øː~ʊː]  listen
/ər/ doctor, martyr, smaller
// beam, marine, fleece [ɪi] [i]  listen [ɪi~i]
unstressed word-final
/ɪ/ or /i/
city, honey, parties [i]  listen [ɪi~i] [i]
/ɔː/ all, bought, saw [ɔː]  listen [ɒː~ɔː]
English
diaphoneme
Example words Derbyshire Manchester Lancashire Yorkshire Cumbria Northumberland Scouse Geordie
// goal, shown, toe [ɔʊ~ɔo] [ɔu~ɜu~ɛʉ] [ʊə~oː]
/ʌ/ bus, flood, what
// food, glue, lose [ɵʏ] or [ɛʊ] [ʏː]  listen [ʉː]  listen [yː] [ʉː]  listen [ʉu~ʊu~ɵʊ]
intervocalic & postvocalic /k/ racquet, joker, luck [k] [k] or [k~x] [k]  listen [k~x]  listen or
[k~ç]  listen
[k]
initial /h/ hand, head, home [∅] or [h]
/l/ li.e., mill, salad [l]  listen
stressed-syllable /ŋ/ bang, singer, wrong [ŋg~ŋ] [ŋ]
post-consonantal & intervocalic /r/ current, three, pray [ɹ] [ɾ] [ɹ]
intervocalic, final
& pre-consonantal
/t/
attic, bat, fitness [ʔ] or [t(ʰ)] [θ̠]  listen or [ʔ] [ʔ] or [t(ʰ)]
English
diaphoneme
Example words Derbyshire Manchester Lancashire Yorkshire Cumbria Northumberland Scouse Geordie

Notes

  1. Wells & 1982a (section 4.4)
  2. 1 2 3 4 Wells (1982a:368)
  3. "The Phonology of English Dialects in the North of England" in Kortmann, B and Schneider, E. W. (eds.) A Handbook of Varieties of English, Volume I. Berlin: Mouton, 2004, 130.
  4. Hughes, Arthur, Peter Trudgill, and Dominic James Landon Watt. English Accents & Dialects : an Introduction to Social and Regional Varieties of English in the British Isles. 5th ed. London: Hodder Education, 2012. p. 116
  5. Cruttenden, Alan (March 1981). "Falls and Rises: Meanings and Universals". Journal of Linguistics Vol. 17, No. 1: Cambridge University Press. p. 83. "[T]he rises of Belfast and some northern English cities may sound perpetually surprised or sarcastic to southern Englishmen (the precise attitude imputed will depend on other factors like pitch height and the exact type of rise)".
  6. Heggarty, Paul et al, eds. (2013). "Accents of English from Around the World". University of Edinburgh.
  7. Collins, Beverley; Mees, Inger M. (2003). The Phonetics of English and Dutch (PDF) (Fifth Revised ed.). ISBN 9004103406.
  8. "English Accents & Dialects". google.com.

References

Further reading

See also

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