Accent and Dialect

Midlands

The most famous of these dialects is 'brummie' (Birmingham English). The language is informal and doesn't conform to English standards that (for example) American's would expect. The accent can be heard to be quite deep as they often deeply express their vowels.

Traits of accent:

• The syllable in foot and could is pronounced with the same syllable as strut and fudge.
•  Vaguely reminiscent of Australian accents, with short i in kit sometimes verging toward IPA kit (“keet”) and extremely open “loose” dipthongs.
• Some East Midlands dialects still feature a variant of the word “thou!”

Aspects of dialect
Podging in - pushing in or jumping in a queue
Argy-bargy - expression for an argument
Lummock - large, clumsy, stupid person


South East
The Essex accent is the most commonly known of those in South East. Often said to be described as 'fake' or 'over exaggerative', it is a stereotype that people with the language often drag out their words. This is a common misconception which can be picked up from TOWIE stars however many do not use this. The speech is in fact now classed as Estuary English - a variety of modified regional speech, a mixture of non-regional and local south-eastern English pronunciation and intonation.
'Estuary is an accent derived from London English which has achieved a status slightly similar to “General American”  in the US. Features of the accent can be heard around Southeast England, East Anglia, and perhaps further afield'


Traits of accent:

• The shortening of certain elongated vowel sounds e.g. been > ‘bin’, seen > ‘sin’
• Dropping of Ls. E.g. old > ‘owd’
• Yod coalescence, using a ch-sound rather than a t-sound plus a y-sound in words like Tuesday, tune, attitude. E.g the first part of Tuesday sounds identical to choose and the second part of reduce becomes identical to juice

Aspects of dialect
Sick - a term to describe something as good, 'Last night was sick'
Proper - very, 'He is a proper dodgy man'
Bait - being obvious, 'It's so bait how much you like him'


London
The most popular of London accents is Cockney. Originated from East London, it shares many features from other dialects around that region.


Traits of accent

• London vowel shift: The vowel sounds are shifted around so that Cockney “day” sounds is pronounced close to American “die” and Cockney buy verges near close to American “boy”
• Glottal Stopping: the letter t is pronounced with the back of the throat in between vowels hence better becomes (sounds to outsiders like) “be’uh”
• Th-Fronting: The th in words like think or this are pronounced with a more forward consonant depending on the word. E.g, thing becomes “fing,” this becomes “dis,” and mother becomes “muhvah.”

Aspects of dialect (rhyming slang)
Pete Tong – wrong, 'It’s all gone Pete Tong'
Barney Rubble – trouble 'Are you making Barney Rubble again'
Pig’s ear - beer 'Anyone want a pig's ear'