British Accents

You may hear someone talking about doing a ‘British accent’, but what does this mean? The UK (or, to give it its full title, The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) is made up of four countries and many, many regional accents. There is certainly no one ‘British accent’ and each accent has its own distinct sound and tonality. This performance guide aims to help you understand the differences between the most common accents found in the UK and how to reproduce an authentic regional accent.

We will compare accents using a short excerpt from the nursery rhyme, “Mary Had a Little Lamb”.

Terminology

• Dialect: A particular form of language, which is associated with a specific region.
• Digraph: Two letters that make one sound e.g., “sh” or “ay”.
• Intonation: Intonation is the rise and fall of the voice when speaking.
• Midlands: A band of counties across the center of England, consisting of the East and West Midlands.
• North-East England: Located south of the Scottish border, north-east England consists of the counties of Tyne and Wear, County Durham, Northumberland and a small part of North Yorkshire.
• Received Pronunciation (RP): Sometimes also known as the “Queen’s English”. Clear, precise diction without any regional quirks or dialects.
• Scouse: An accent associated with the city of Liverpool and surrounding areas.
• Trigraph: A single sound represented by three letters e.g., “igh”.
• United Kingdom: The United Kingdom consists of four countries: England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.
• West Country: A loosely defined grouping of the south-west counties of England, including Devon, Cornwall, and Somerset.
• Yorkshire: A northern county in England.