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Tasks: The Origins of British Accents

A map of Britain showing its different dialect groups — Dialects in Britain. Bilde: Kimwonjin3 / CC BY-SA 4.0

Word origin:

Test yourself: where do you think these words are from?

Listening exercise:

Work together in pairs or small groups. Listen to the recordings that we have chosen for you and discuss how the accents differ.

Of course, you don’t have to listen to the entire recording. Try, however, to pay attention to the following:

the intonation of the dialect: the rise and fall of the voice, especially at the end of sentences.
Is there a distinct use of vowels or consonants?
Are there any specific words that stand out? Any words that are non-standard?
Is it a rhotic or non-rhotic dialect? Is the /r/ always pronounced or only in some positions of a word?
Which ones are the easiest and most difficult dialects to understand? Why?
Is it a rhotic or non-rhotic dialect? Is the /r/ always pronounced or only in some positions of a word?

Rhotic: /r/ can be heard in all the places where it is found in the spelling, e.g. 'car', 'park', 'farmer' - /r/ is pronounced.
Non-rhotic: /r/ is only pronounced if the next sound is a vowel, and never at the end of words, e.g. 'car', 'park', 'farmer' - /r/ is not pronounced.

Audio recordings of different accents.

Link to audio recording of Received Pronunciation
Link to audio recording of the Glaswegian accent (Glasgow, Scotland)
Link to audio recording of the Orcadian accent (Orkney Island)
Link to audio recording of the Scouse accent (Liverpool)
Link to audio recording of the Edinburgh accent (Scotland)
Link to audio recording of the Derry accent (Northern ireland)
Link to audio recording of the Geordie accent (Newcastle)
Link to audio recording of the Brummie accent (Birmingham)

If you want to listen to other British dialects and English accents from around the world you will find more here: IDEA (International dialects of English Archive)

Dig deeper:

Make a presentation about one of the British dialects in the list below. We have provided you with two articles that could be useful for each dialect, but you should also try to find your own sources.

Your presentation should include information about the origin of the dialect and where it is spoken. Also include information about intonation, vocabulary, and grammatical structures that are unique to your dialect.