English dialects

There may be distinguished 42 dialects:
- 9 in Scotland
- 3 in Ireland
- 30 in England and Wales

• English dialects are the result of 1500 years of linguistic and cultural development
• For the English language in England three major dialect groupings are recognized:
- Southern English dialects
- Midlands English dialects
- Northern English dialects
• The geographically located large groups of dialects consist of a number of regionally – fixed accents.
• The regional non – RP accents of England may be grouped like this:

I. Southern accents
1. Greater London, Cockney*, Surray, Kent, Essex
2. East Anglia accents (Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge shire)
3. South – West accents (Avon, Somerset, Gloucestershire)

II. Northern and Midland accents
1. Northern accents (Durham, Cleveland)
2. Yorkshire accents
3. North – West Accents (Lancashire, Cheshire)
4. West Midland (Birmingham, Wolverhampton)

Task 2. Listen and notice differences in pronunciation in these sentences, said first by a speaker of 'BBC English' and then by a speaker from the city of Birmingham in England.
Speaker 1(BBC English): See you tonight. Are those your brothers? She was smoking.
Speaker 2 (Birmingham): See you tonight. Are those your brothers? She was smoking.

*The Cockney accent is generally considered one of the broadest of the British accents and is heavily stigmatized. It is considered to epitomize the working class accents of Londoners and in its more diluted form, of other areas.