SO-CALLED “SOUTHERN ENGLAND-ISH”

PRONUNCIATION

KEY CONSONANTS

MAGIC PHRASE: Smarties on a Tuesday… what a lot I got!

1a. /r/ – This accent is non-rhotic

  • /r/ is not pronounced postvocalically
(their huge queer forms)
  • when prevocalic, /r/ is realized as an alveolar approximant – [ɹ]
(rip at my breath, my courage fails)

All together now:

(a furious, hoarse voice whispers)

Practice Sentence: I’m running to the border to rally the Order.

1b. “Linking R”

  • when a postvocalic /r/ at the end of a word is made intervocalic by the word following it, that /r/ is then realized in the same way a prevocalic /r/ would be – [ɹ].
  • in other words: watch out for the /r/ phoneme at the end of words!
(father is mad as hell)

Practice Sentence: I’ve told you over and over – no wellies inside!

1c. “Intrusive R”

  • in some instances, the /r/ phoneme – realized once again as [ɹ] – may be inserted into words that do not have an <r> in the spelling.
  • this may happen when the phonemes /ə/, /ɪə/, /ɑː/, or /ɔː/ are followed by another vowel sound.
  • in such a case, the /r/ is placed intervocalically.
  • this is not a consistent insertion
(and now her poor paw-r– is hurt)

Practice Sentence: The idea-r-is simple, finish the draw-r-ing before the bell chimes!

2a. The realizations of /l/

  • when prevocalic, /l/ tends to be realized as a dental or alveolar lateral approximant – [l]
(flocks of trembling sparrows cluster about blood red barns)
  • when postvocalic, /l/ tends to be realized as a velarized alveolar lateral approximant – /ɫ/
(father is mad as hell)

Practice Sentence: What a lovely little garden, complete with a sun dial!

2b. L-Vocalization

  • in some instances, the postvocalic /l/ phoneme is subject to L-vocalization, and realized as [ʊ], [u̽] or [w]
  • it should be noted that this is not a consistent realization, only that it sneaks in every now and again – typically when the /l/ phoneme follows the vowels sounds: …?? (lay out rules)
(coal black mountains loom)

I invite you to watch our friend say the word “recall” (this clip is slowed down) – note the L-vocalisation

Practice Sentence: Be careful! Don’t fall!

3. The realizations of /t/

  • when pre and intervocalic, /t/ tends to be realized as a unvoiced alveolar plosive, often with slight aspiration – [tʰ]
(fighting a fog)
  • when postvocalic, /t/ tends to be realized as either: a slightly aspirated unvoiced alveolar plosive, an unvoiced glottal plosive, a weakly articulated voiced alveolar tap, or an unvoiced alveolar plosive with no audible release – [tʰ], [ʔ], [ɾ͉] or [t̚ ]
(the abbott liked to fish without a lure) – abbott: [tʰ]
(fighting a fog of sudden nightmare visions) – nightmare: [ʔ]
(that fluffy little kitten slashed the cotton sofa apart) – that: [ʔ] / little: [ɾ͉] / kitten: [t̚ ] / cotton [ʔ] / apart [tʰ]

Practice Sentence: Stop with your little jabs, I get it!

4. Yods + Yod Coalescence

  • when the phoneme /n/ is followed by the /u/ phoneme, many British speakers will realize a [j] between the two – [nju̟]
(he knew his duty)
  • historically, this /j/ would also be realized between the phonemes /d/ + /u/, and /t/ + /u/.
  • In this accent, however, Yod coalescence now occurs, and these clusters are realized as [dʒu̟] and [tʃu̟], respectively
(properly met students from all over the world)
(he knew his duty)

**There are other instances where a yod may be realized within/inserted into a cluster, but these are what I have found to be the most salient.

Practice Sentence: Of course the duke hates tuna, that’s old news!

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