Why does england have accents

People from Liverpool are called Scousers or Liverpudlians, and their dialect which, like Geordie, is very strong and instantly recognisable is called Scouse. Liverpudlians would say woss dtha? Bless them! Places you can visit to learn Scouse include Liverpool and nearby Manchester. One of the biggest counties in England, Yorkshire has a distinctive accent where one of the biggest pronunciation differences is on the letter U, which is spoken as ooo rather than uh — so cut is pronounced coht and blood is pronounced blohd.

They have brilliantly long and complicated words like Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, which is the name of a Welsh village and the second longest place name in the world. Possibly the cutest name on our list, this accent is actually one of the most ridiculed in the UK — which is quite mean, because clearly people from Essex have never heard themselves speak. The name is derived from Brummagem and Bromwichham, both historical alternate names for the large city of Birmingham, where people speak this dialect.

How weird! If you want to hear the accent in action, head to any of the major West Country cities, like Bristol or Bournemouth. Head to London to take a day trip to Essex and discover the accent. Perhaps the most famous British accent other than R. Like the Essex accent, Cockney swaps the th sound for f , drops the h in front of words like head , and elongates vowels like A and E. Bizarre, I know. Get the latest on travel, languages and culture with our newsletter.

We send it out once a month and you can opt out anytime. Home Welcome to EF. Our origins form an important part of a distinctive personality, which can become a group identity when we share these origins. More often than not, our use of language, especially our dialect, is an expression of that distinctiveness.

In addition to distinctive words and grammatical patterns, which may not follow the rules of Standard English , people have accents — many English language ones available to listen to here — related to their pronunciation when they speak which can articulate their identity.

Dialects and accents developed historically when groups of language users lived in relative isolation, without regular contact with other people using the same language. This was more pronounced in the past due to the lack of fast transport and mass media. People tended to hear only the language used in their own location, and when their language use changed as language by its nature always evolves their dialect and accent adopted a particular character, leading to national, regional and local variation.

Invasion and migration also helped to influence dialect development at a regional level. Just take the Midlands, for example. The East Midlands were ruled by the Danes in the ninth century. The Danes, however, did not rule the West Midlands, where the Saxons continued to hold sway, and words of Danish origin are largely absent from that region.

Dialects and accents are not restricted to UK English, of course. In the US, Australia and New Zealand, where English has been spoken for a much shorter period of time than in the UK, you would expect less variation as English has been spoken there for a shorter period of time.

But even there, dialects and accents occur and the linguistic influence of settlers who came from certain parts of the UK such as Scotland or Lancashire helped to determine local varieties.

Fascinatingly, though, dialects and accents will continue to evolve, and in areas sandwiched by more dominant localities — such as Swanage and Lymm, situated between Liverpool and Manchester — you will find what is called a dialect continuum.

There will be places that reflect more of a Liverpudlian sound and others that lean more towards Mancunian. Nevertheless, there are no boundaries, and accents and dialects will continue to merge into and out of each other gradually, over both space and time. When we're meeting someone for the first time, we generally want to make a positive lasting impression.

We may want to look and smell our best to present ourselves in the most positive way. But have you ever pondered whether you're also being judged once you open your mouth? Your subconscious does, which is why our diction and timbre may change when we go to a job interview or meet our partners' parents. What you have to remember is that all of this is completely socially constructed. No accent is better or worse from a linguistic point of view. Over time, society has given accents and dialects their relative prestige and this has developed into a self-fulfilling ideology.

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