BBC - Voices - Language Lab

Bradford has a pretty typical \"North of England\" accent. You have a short-sounding \"bath\" in Bradford, and if you \"cut\" your \"foot\", at least those words rhyme. get up in th e mornin get them bathd

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Speaking "Scottish English" isn't the same as speaking "Scots". Scots can claim to be a different language. In Edinburgh they usually say "house" not "hoos". But you"ll hear plenty of rolled "R"s, even in "cuRl" and "squiRm".

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Norwich speech is bootiful; moosic to the ears. It's also where you hear lots of glottal stops, instead of the "t" sound in "better" and "lot of" and "right". Some people disapprove, but it's how the accent system works, for more and more English speakers.

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Words that have a "th" spelling in the middle are often said without any consonant sound at all in Belfast. Try saying "mother" and "father" without middle consonants. Can you get your mouth round it? Or is that your "moyth" "roynd" it?

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The written letter "s" doesn't always sound like an "s". What sounds do you use for the two "s" letters when you say "houses"? In Bangor, people usually do use the "s" sound in each case. SurpriSing.

Click here to listen to the last clip again.
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Why doesn't "singer" rhyme with "finger"? For lots of Birmingham speakers, called "Brummies", these words do in fact rhyme. And "know" almost sounds like "now".

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There's an "l" at the end of "Bristol". But did you know that some Bristol speakers put an "l" after words like "area", making this word sound just like "aerial"?

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Speaking "Scottish English" isn't the same as speaking "Scots". Scots can claim to be a different language. In Edinburgh they usually say "house" not "hoos". But you"ll hear plenty of rolled "R"s, even in "cuRl" and "squiRm".

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Bradford has a pretty typical "North of England" accent. You have a short-sounding "bath" in Bradford, and if you "cut" your "foot", at least those words rhyme.

Click here to listen to the last clip again.

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Words that have a "th" spelling in the middle are often said without any consonant sound at all in Belfast. Try saying "mother" and "father" without middle consonants. Can you get your mouth round it? Or is that your "moyth" "roynd" it?

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Liverpudlians, or "Scousers", often pronounce the "ck" in "chicken" like the sound at the end of the Scottish word "loch". And "great" sometimes sounds as if it has added an s at the end.

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The written letter "s" doesn't always sound like an "s". What sounds do you use for the two "s" letters when you say "houses"? In Bangor, people usually do use the "s" sound in each case. SurpriSing.

Click here to listen to the last clip again.
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English has been the main language of Cardiff, the capital of Wales, for centuries (but Welsh is making a come-back). Cardiff speech isn't much like the speech of other parts of Wales. Some say "Cardiff" should be spelled "Cairdiff". You knows it!

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Distinctively London speech, traditionally called "Cockney", is centred on South-East London areas like Peckham. But quite a few London speech features, like saying "fin" for "thin" and "bruvver" for "brother", are rapidly spreading out into other British accents.

Click here to listen to the last clip again.

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Norwich speech is bootiful; moosic to the ears. It's also where you hear lots of glottal stops, instead of the "t" sound in "better" and "lot of" and "right". Some people disapprove, but it's how the accent system works, for more and more English speakers.

Click here to listen to the last clip again.

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Liverpudlians, or "Scousers", often pronounce the "ck" in "chicken" like the sound at the end of the Scottish word "loch". And "great" sometimes sounds as if it has added an s at the end.
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Distinctively London speech, traditionally called "Cockney", is centred on South-East London areas like Peckham. But quite a few London speech features, like saying "fin" for "thin" and "bruvver" for "brother", are rapidly spreading out into other British accents.

Click here to listen to the last clip again.
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Why doesn't "singer" rhyme with "finger"? For lots of Birmingham speakers, called "Brummies", these words do in fact rhyme. And "know" almost sounds like "now".

Click here to listen to the last

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Words that have a "th" spelling in the middle are often said without any consonant sound at all in Belfast. Try saying "mother" and "father" without middle consonants. Can you get your mouth round it? Or is that your "moyth" "roynd" it?

Click here to listen to th
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All accents change across the generations. For older speakers in Newcastle "face" sounds like "fierce", but younger speakers pronounce it in a more general North-of .England way. You might think that a "Geordie" speaker who says "Can I have a shirt?" is asking you for a tot of whisky!