Welsh, Scottish and Northern Ireland English

• Exoglossic


  A speech situation in linguistics where two languages coexist in a region
• English dominates over Welsh in urban Welsh areas, in the west and north-west of the country the balance being in favour of Welsh, where English is learnt at schools as a second language
• Most differences between Welsh and English English are found at the level of more localized dialects
• Principal phonological differences between Welsh English and Received Pronunciation


  • Vowels:
  • The distribution of [æ] and [a:] is as in the north of England
  • Unstressed orthographic "a" tends to be [æ] rather than [ə]
  • There is no contrast between [^] and [a]
  • [1] at the end is a long vowel
  • [iu] rather than [ju:] in words like tune, few, used
  • [ei], [3] may become monophthongs
  • The vowel [3:] as in girl is produced with rounded lips approaching [0:]
  • The vowels [iə], [uǝ] do not occur in many variants of Welsh English

  Consonants:

  • Welsh English is non-rhotic, [r] is a tap, or it is also called a flapped [r]
  • Consonants in intervocalic position, particularly when the preceding vowel is short are doubled
  • Voiceless plosives tend to be strongly aspirated
  • [1] is clear in all positions
  • Intonation in Welsh English is very much influenced by the Welsh language
• English has been spoken in Scotland for as long as it has been spoken in England
• 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
• At the moment there is currently a strong movement in Scotland for the revival of Scots
• Vowel features of Scottish English

  • Since Scottish English is rhotic, i.e. it preserves post-vocalic (r), vowels such as RP [iə], [3:], [ɛə], [Uǝ] do not occur
  • Length is not a distinctive feature of Scottish vowels
  • Monophthongs are pure, there is no trace of diphthongization with the exceptions of [ai-ci], [ausu] and [si]
  • The RP RP [da:ns]. e-a: (a)] distinction doesn't exist
  • [i]- [u]. [a], [a] may be central
  • In non-standard Scottish English accent [u:] often occurs when RP has [au]
  • [D] and [au] may be not contrasted
  • In very many regional accents do, to are pronounced as [da], [to]
  • In some accents words such as arm, after, grass may have [e] rather than [a:]
• Consonant features of Scottish English

  • Scottish English consistently preserves a distinction between [M] and [w]
  • Initial [p, t, k] are usually non-aspirated
  • [r] is most usually a flap
  • Non-initial [t] is often realized as glottal stop [?]
  • [1] is dark in all positions
  • The velar fricative [x] occurs in a number of words
  • -ing is [in]
  • [h] is present
  • A specific Scottish feature is the pronunciation of [or] as [r]
• The differing English pronunciation standards in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Eire stem from historical influences: Southern Ireland's English was introduced from the West and West Midlands of England, while Northern Ireland's English, especially around Belfast, has roots in seventeenth-century Scottish settlers, leading to varying Scots influence in the region
• Vowel features of Northern Ireland English

  • The vowel system is similar to that of Scottish accents, post- vocalic retroflex frictionless sonorant [r] being used as in Scotland
  • In words like bay, say the vowel is a monophthong [e], preconsonantally it may be a diphthong of the type [ca]
  • [i], [u] are fairly central
  • [5] and [3] contrast only before [p, t, k]
  • [ai], [au] are very variable
  • Realization of [a:] may vary considerably
• Consonant features of Northern Ireland English

  • [1] is mainly clear
  • Intervocalic [t] is often a voiced flap [d]
  • Between vowels [8] may be lost
  • [h] is present
• With some local exceptions, /r/ occurs postvocally, making most Hiberno-English dialects rhotic. The exceptions to this are most notable in Dublin
• In Dublin English, a retroflex [1] is used (much as in American English). This has no precedent in varieties of southern Irish English and is a genuine innovation of the past two decades
• Mainstream varieties still use a non-retroflex [1] (as in word-initial position)
• The distinction between w/w/ and wh/hw/, as in wine vs. whine, is preserved
• There is some variation with the consonants that are dental fricatives in other varieties (/9/ and //)