5. words that have «al» in spelling - talk, call, all, are pronounced with [a]: [ta:k], [ka:l], [a:l];

6. RP words with [3:] are pronounced with in a broad Tyneside accent: first [fist], shirt [f:t]; so first, forced; shirt, short are homonyms;

7. [ai] is [i]: right [rit];

8. words which in RP have [au] may have [it], e.g. about [abut].

In consonants

1. [1] is clear in all environments;

2. [h] is usually present in all positions;

3. - ing is [in]: shilling [ilin];

4. [p, t, k] between vowels are accompanied by glottal stop [?]: pity [pit? i:];

5. in parts of Northumberland and Durham [r] may be uvular (in its production the tongue and the uvular, not the tongue and the alveolar ridge take part),

Yorkshire accents

Yorkshire and Bradford accents are identical with northern vowel features in points 1, 3, 4 (only many speakers pronounce words which have «ow», «ou» in spelling with [au]: know [nau]; with northern con-sonant features in point 3.

Now having accomplished the description of regional non-RP ac-cents of England we would like to say that we didn't attempt to give a detailed account of all the regional differences in accents of remote ru-ral areas. Rather we concentrated on urban accents which can be heard when one travels throughout the country and which are most likely to be encountered by foreign tourists. International features were not dealt with.

Welsh English

As everyone probably knows Wales is a bilingual area. This speech situation in linguistics is known as exoglossic. In Wales English dominates over Welsh in urban areas, in the west and north-west of the country the balance being in favor of Welsh, where English is learnt at schools as a second language. At the moment nationalistic feelings are rather strong in Wales and we are witnessing a movement in favor of the revival of the Welsh language and its spread in all areas of Wales.

However, Welsh English at the level of educated speech and writing is not much different from that of English. Most differences are found at the level of more localized dialects.

In this chapter we shall give a brief outline of Welsh English pronunciation standard.

The principal phonological differences between WE and RP are the following:

In vowels

1. The distribution of [] and [a] is as in the north of England. Last, dance, chance, etc. tend to have rather than [a].

2. unstressed orthographic «a» tends to be [se] rather than [a], e.g.: sofa [so:f];

3. there is no contrast between [] and [a]: rubber [r?b?];

4. [i] at the end is a long vowel: city [siti:];

5. in words like tune, few, used we find [iu] rather than [ju:]: tune [tiun];

6. [ei], [] may become monophthongs: bake [b:k], boat [bo:t];

7. the vowel as in girl is produced with rounded lips approaching [o:];

8. the vowels [i?], [?] do not occur in many variants of Welsh English: fear is [fi:j?], poor is [pu-w?].

In consonants

1. W. Eng. is non-rhotic, [r] is a tap, or it is also called a flapped [r]. Intrusive and linking [r] do occur.

2. Consonants in intervocalic position, particularly when the preceding vowel is short are doubled: city [siti].

3. Voiceless plosives tend to be strongly aspirated: in word final position they are generally released and without glottalization, e.g. pit

4. [1] is clear in all positions.

5. Intonation in Welsh English is very much influenced by the Welsh language.

Scottish English

We must first make clear that the status of Scottish English is still debated. Some linguists say that it is a national variant. Others say that it is a dialect.

English has been spoken in Scotland for as long as it has been spoken in England. In the Highlands and Islands of northern and western Scotland, however, Gaelic is still the native language of thou-sands of speakers from these regions. A standardized form of this language, known as Scots, was used at the court and in literature until the Reformation. Then it was gradually replaced by English. Incidentally a number of writers and poets of the likes of R. Burns retained their native language.

Nowadays educated Scottish people speak a form of Scottish Standard English which grammatically and lexically is not different from English used elsewhere, although with an obvious Scottish accent. We must admit, however, that non-standard dialects of Scotland still resemble Scots and in many respects are radically different from most other varieties of English. It is very difficult to understand them for students who learn RP.

At the moment there is currently a strong movement in Scotland for the revival of Scots. Nevertheless Scottish Standard English is still more prestigious and in this book we concentrate on Scottish English as used and spoken by educated urban Scots.

As for the status of Scottish English, in this book it will be treated as a dialect though it is fair to say that there is much in favor of calling it a national variant of English.

Vowels

1. Since Sc. Eng. is rhotic, i.e. it preserves post-vocalic [r], vowels such as RP [i?], [3:], [?], [u?] do not occur:

2. Length is not a distinctive feature of Scottish vowels. So pairs like pool-pull, palm-pam, cot-caught are not distinguished. It should be noted, however, that vowels are longer in final stressed open syllables than elsewhere.

3. Monophthongs are pure, there is no trace of diphthongization with the exceptions of [ai - ei], [ao - eu] and [01].

4. The RP [a(a)] distinction doesn't exist: hat [hat], dance [da:ns].

5 - [i], [u], [] [?] may be central.

6. In non-standard Sc. Eng. accent [u:] often occurs when RP has [au]: house [haus-hu:s]

7. It is interesting to mention that [TO] and [su] may be not contrasted.

8. In very many regional accents do, to are pronounced as [d?], [t?].

9. In some accents words such as arm, after, grass may have [e] rather than [a:] after [ft?].

Consonants

1. Sc. Eng. consistently preserves a distinction between [w]: which [vit] - witch [wit].

2. Initial [p, t, k] are usually non-aspirated.

3. [r] is most usually a flap.

4. Non-initial [t] is often realized as glottal stop [?].

5. [fl is dark in all positions.

6. The velar fricative [x] occurs in a number of words: loch [lux].

7. - ing is [in].

8. [h] is present.

9. A specific Scottish feature is the pronunciation of [r] as [r]: through [ru;].

Northern Ireland English

It should be stated first of all that English pronunciation standards in Northern Ireland and in the Republic of Eire are different. The explanation lies in history.

In the Middle Ages almost the whole of Ireland was Irish speaking. Nowadays, however, native speakers of Irish are few in number and are confined to rural areas even though Irish is the official language of Ireland and is taught in schools. The English language in Southern Ire-land was originally introduced from the West and West Midlands of England and still shows signs of this today. This kind of English has spread to cover most of the Irish Republic. Naturally the pronunciation of these areas retains features of western parts of England.

The English of northern parts of the island with its centre in Belfast has its roots in Scotland, as large numbers of settlers came to this part from the south-west of Scotland from the seventeenth century onwards. Now speaking about Northern Ireland, it is true to say that English here is not homogeneous. Areas of the far north are heavily Scots-influenced. Other parts are marked by less heavily Scots-influenced varieties of English. It is, of course, obvious that the language distinction is not coterminous with the political division of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, some areas of the Republic, Donegal, for instance, speak N. Ir. Eng. (Northern Ireland English), while some of the northern provinces speak S. Ir. Eng. (Southern Ire-land English).

In this chapter we shall deal with Northern Ireland English pronunciation.

Vowels

The vowel system is similar to that of Scottish accents, post-vocalic retroflex frictionless sonorant [r] being used as in Scotland.

[i]: pit [pit], fir [fir], bird [bird], city [siti], fern [firn], fur [fir];

[i:] bee [bi:], beer [bi:r], seedy [si:di], meet [mi:t], meat [mil];

[e] pet [pet], bed [bed];

[] but [bt];

[a] pat [pat], bard [bard], hat [hat], dance [dans], half [haf];

[] put [pt], boot [bt], pull [pl], pool [pl], poor [pr];

[o] boat [bot], board [bord], pole [pol], knows [noz], nose [noz], pour [por], pore [por];

[?]: cot [k ? t];

[ai]: buy [bair], tide [taid];

[au]: bout [baut];

[oi]: boy [boi].

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