The Scottish Type of English Pronunciation

The main distinctions of this type of pr-n, as compared to RP, are as follows:

(a) /: / is not used in the Scottish type of pr-n, instead of RP /: / they use the sequences / ir/, /er/ or / r/ (e.g. “bird” -/ bird /, “heard”- / herd /, “word”- / w rd /, “beard”, “there”, “pure”, “poor”, “ sure”, etc).

(b) / u / is used instead of /a / (e.g. “down”- /dun /).

(с) The Scottish pr-n does not distinguish between / æ/ & /a:/ words like “bad”, “path”, ”grass”, “dance”, ”half”, “part” are pronounced with / æ/ & /a:/ or /ә/.

(d)All vowels are short. There is no distinction in the length of the vowels in words like “pull”, “pool”, “cot” & “caught”.

(e) / r / is not between or before vowels, as in “hurry ” & “brown”, but also after vowels as in “word”, “born”.

(f) A voiceless fricative / / is used to distinguish between “which” & “witch”, “whine” & “wine”.

(g) A backlingual fricative / x / is used (e.g. “loch”).

One should distinguish between RP & “educated” regional type of pr-n (such as Southern, Northern & Scottish types of English pr-n), on the one hand, & local dialects, on the other.

One of the best examples of a local dialect is Cockney. It is used by the less educated in the region of London. Cockney has not been fully investigated, but there are certain striking peculiarities:

(a) In Cockney the nucleus of the diphthong / ei / is an almost open vowel, so that it reminds of / ai / (e.g. “take”, “lake ”).

(b) / æ / sounds like / / (e.g. “bag”)

(c) / o / is / / (e.g. “potatoes” - / p ә'tai æ z /).

(d) A nasalised / ai/ is used for /ai / (e.g. “Buy potatoes & cabbages”- / bai p ә'tait æ z n' k b әd iz/).

(d) / p, t, k / are heavily aspirated.

(e) / h / does not occur; it may appear only in stressed position (“his”, “her’, “happened’).

(f) The final / n / sounds like / n / (e.g. “something”, “evening”).

(g) / / & / / do not occur, / f /, / v / or / d / are used instead (e.g. «thin»

/ fin/, «father» -/ fa:vә/, “this” -/dis/).

/ fin /, “father”- / fa:v ә/, “this” -/dis/).

(i) The glottal stop is often heard instead of /p/, /t/, /k/ & between vowels (e.g. “I hope so”- / aiæ? s /, “back door” - /b?do ә/, “thirty” -/fә:?i).