7. South-East Midlands

england dialect dublin accent

The traditional dialects of Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire and south Northamptonshire are closer to Received Pronunciation than any other dialects in Britain. This is because the upper-class who migrated into London during the 15th century were mostly from the counties just north of London. However, there are still a number of differences between their dialects and R.P.:

? This area traditionally used /a/ in words where an was followed by /f/, /s/ or /?/. Younger speakers in the area are more likely to use the R.P.

? The isogloss for the vowel in cup, strut, such, etc. is another traditional north-south marker, but the isogloss is slightly further south for this. Much of the area uses . Some parts of this area, such as Peterborough, would use the southern pronunciation for "bath" but the northern pronunciation for "suck".

? The TRAP vowel (corresponding to RP /?/) is realised as [a], as is the case in all of England except the south-east and East Anglia.

? In common with the south-east, the vowel in about, pound, sound, etc. may be rather than /a/.

? It is common for residents of this area to pronounce the -shire in county names as /?/ rather than the more common /?/, which is used in the Oxford Dictionary.

? In some areas, an /ai/ can turn into an [oi] sound. For example, nineteen ninety-five would be said as noineteen noientee foive.