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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:

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

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

  3. /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/).

  1. /p, t, k/ are heavily aspirated.

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

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

  4. / / & / / 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 ?doә/, “thirty” -/fә:?i).