Social and Territorial Varieties of English Pronunciation/British Dialects

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Cockney is probably the second most famous British accent. Cockney English refers to the accent or dialect of English traditionally spoken by working-class Londoners.

  • Non-rhoticity
  • Raised vowel in words like trap and cat so these sounds like “trep” and “cet.”
  • Trap-bath split
  • London vowel shift
  • Glottal Stopping
  • L-vocalization
  • Th-Fronting



Estuary English is an accent derived from London English which has achieved a status slightly similar to “General American”.

  • Non-rhoticity
  • Wholly-holy split
  • T-glottalisation
  • L-vocalisation



West Country (Southwest British) refers to a large swath of accents heard in the South of England, starting about fifty miles West of London and extending to the Welsh border.

  • Rhoticity
  • /aɪ/, as in guide or life, more precisely approaches [ɒɪ] or [ɑɪ]
  • /aʊ/, as in house or cow, more precisely approaches [æy] or [ɐʏ]
  • The trap-bath split's



Midlands English divides into East Midlands and West Midlands, but there are no much differences between them.

  • The foot-strut merger
  • is firmly rhotic
  • In some areas, words like "roof" and "root" are pronounced with the FOOT vowel /ʊ/



Northern England English is a group of related dialects in cities like Manchester, Leeds, and Liverpool.


  • The foot-stut merger
  • Non-rhoticity
  • do not have the trap–bath split



Geordie refers to both the people and dialect of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, in Northeast England.

  • The foot-stut merger
  • Non-rhoticity
  • Yod-coalescence in both stressed and unstressed syllables
  • T-glottalization


Welsh English refers to the dialects of English spoken in Wales by Welsh people.

  • Usually non-rhotic.
  • In northern accents, /l/ is frequently strongly velarised [ɫː]
  • Some dialect words imported from the Welsh language.



Scottish English is spoken in the country of Scotland.


  • Rhotic, with trilled or tapped r’s.
  • Glottal stopping of the letter t when in between vowels.
  • has no /ʊ/, instead transferring Scots /u/