Http://www.Bl.Uk/learning/langlit/sounds/case-studies/received-pronunciation/ Received Pronunciation
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This topic is discussed in the following articles:
Educational level distinction
English language: Phonology
British Received Pronunciation (RP), traditionally the usual speech of educated people living in London and southeastern England, is one of many forms (or accents) of standard speech throughout the English-speaking world. Other pronunciations, although not standard, are entirely acceptable in their own right and are increasingly heard in the public domain. Less than 3 percent of the population...
English language: British English
The abbreviation RP ( Received Pronunciation) denotes the accent of educated people living in London and the southeast of England and of other people elsewhere who speak in this way. Because of its association with education rather than region, it is the only British accent that has no specific geographical correlate: it is not possible, on hearing someone speak RP, to know which part of the...
Jones’s pronouncing dictionaries
Dictionary: Specialized dictionaries
...“most usually heard in everyday speech in the families of Southern English persons whose men-folk have been educated at the great public boarding-schools.” Although he called this the Received Pronunciation (RP), he had no intention of imposing it on the English-speaking world. It originally appeared in 1917 and was repeatedly revised during the author’s long life. Also strictly...
Sociolinguistics
Linguistics: Social dimensions
...not only where he comes from but what class he belongs to. In some instances social dialects can transcend regional dialects. This is notable in England, where standard English in the so-called Received Pronunciation (RP) can be heard from members of the upper class and upper middle class in all parts of the country. The example of England is but an extreme manifestation of a tendency that... http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/493380/Received-
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/493380/Received-Pronunciation
GLOBAL ENGISH
A great deal has been written about English, nowadays it’s a global language. It is a national language in different countries, in some countries it is considered to be second language. It is taught and it is continuing its spread across the world.
English is spoken today on all five continents as a result of colonial expansion in the last four centuries or so. The colonial era is now definitely over but its consequences are only too clearly to be seen in the presence of English as an official and often native language in many of the former colonies along with more or less strongly diverging varieties which arose in particular socio-political conditions, so-called pidgins which in some cases later developed into creoles. Another legacy of colonialism is where English fulfils the function of a lingua franca. Many countries, like Nigeria, use English as a lingua franca (a general means of communication) since there are many different and mutually unintelligible languages and a need for a supra-regional means of communication.
English has also come to play a central role as an international language. There are a number of reasons for this, of which the economic status of the United States is certainly one of the most important nowadays. Internal reasons for the success of English in the international arena can also be given: a little bit of English goes a long way as the grammar is largely analytic in type so that it is suitable for those groups who do not wish to expend great effort on learning a foreign language.
Kachru has discussed the power of English in many of his writings (e.g. Kachru 1986c). Bolinger (cited in Kachru 1986c: 121) has used a metaphor the loaded weapon to characterize language. According to Kachru, questions about language and power go beyond linguistics into history, sociology, attitude studies, politics and economic considerations. The power of language is intimately connected with societal power. It can be manifested by using persuasion, regulation, inducement or force to add a code to a speech community or by the suppression of a particular language variety and the elevation of another.
There are two hypotheses concerning language power: the intrinsic-power hypothesis and the acquired-power hypothesis. The first one claims that English would intrinsically possess certain linguistic characteristics which would make it a preferred language for international purposes (e.g. Jespersen 1905, quoted in Kachru 1986c). This position can, according to Kachru, to some seem similar to claims of racial superiority. The second hypothesis emphasizes the ways in which a language acquires power, and thus it is also easier to understand.
A fact is that English has spread as a result of exploitation and colonisation. It s notable that, especially in many ex-colonies of Britain, English is still the language of an exclusive social elite. Cheshire, for instance, has discussed this (Cheshire 1991: 6).
Kachru (1986c: 128-129) has given various reasons for which languages are used in a society. They can be used to expand the speech community, as a vehicle of cultural or religious enlightenment to deculturize people from their own tradition (to the "civilizing process" also belonged distancing from native cultures: the colonizers wanted to introduce European literature to the natives, at the same time remaining ignorant of their indigenous literatures), to gain economic advantage, to control domains of knowledge and information, and for deception. The following statement by Charles Grant clearly demonstrates the attitudes of the British Raj in India (1831-1832; quoted in Kachru 1986c: 128):
The Hindoos err, because they are ignorant and their errors have never fairly been laid before them. The communication of our light and knowledge to them would prove the best remedy for their disorders.
The most important reason for the success of English is, according to Kachru (1986c:129-132), naturally the historical role of England as a colonial power. In India, for example, the political power naturally attributed a power to the language of the Raj (called the linguistic elitism strategy), and it also became a symbol of political power. English came to be the language of the legal system, higher education, pan-regional administrative network, science and technology, trade and commerce - either because the indigenous languages were not equipped for these roles and English provided for a convenient vocabulary, or because the use of English was considered prestigious and powerful. English became gradually a major tool for acquiring knowledge in the sciences and the humanities. It has come to represent modernization and development, and, as a link language, it has acquired intranational roles over the years.
Linguistic power can be manifested by using one of the following power strategies: persuasion, regulation, inducement and force. Kachru (1986c:123-127) has listed as examples of linguistic power suppression of a particular language (variety) and the elevation of another. Strategies can include crude linguistic power (e.g. the imposition of Japanese on the Koreans and the Malays during World War II), indirect psychological pressure (e.g. claims of "Other-World" power) and pragmatic power.
Kachru (1987:222) lists also some other reasons for the dominance of English around the world: its propensity for acquiring new identities, its power of assimilation, its adaptability to "decolonization" as a language, its manifestation in a range of lects, and its provision of a flexible medium for literary and other types of creativity across languages and cultures. http://www.postcolonialweb.org/india/hohenthal/2.2.html
From the seventeenth century onwards, the English began to extend their language over the world. It is due to so important factors as the power of the British Empire, the importance in the Industrial revolution taking place in England for the first time or the supremacy of America in all over the world. Moreover, we all know that English has become a global language in the last fifty years, being the official language of the international and multinational companies and industries, and the language of Internet.
It is important to have in mind how and why English has spread across the globe the way it has:
Date |
Facts |
17th and 18th centuries |
English spread as a result of British colonialism |
18th and 19th centuries |
English spread as the language of British leadership in the Industrial Revolution |
Late 19th and early 20thc. |
English spread as the language of American economic superiority and political leadership. |
Second half of 2th c. |
English spread as a consequence of American technological domination. |
a) British Colonialism
We all know that long before this expansion of English as a global language, there were other minor spreads of the language, as for instance the spread of English to Scotland because of the military escapades of William the Conqueror (11th century) or to Ireland with the Anglo-Norman troops sent by Henry II.
But in global terms, the spread of English began in 16th century, when the language became a tool of imperial expansion, and end up by gaining a special place in the history of a significant number of countries. This was what happened in USA, but also in other colonial areas. You have here a table in which you can find how English spread took place in different territories conquered by the English.
Place |
Facts |
Canada |
French were present in Canada from 1530, and vied with Britain for domination. Finally, French defeated by Britain. French and English languages there, but French-speakers remained in the East when process of English colonization began. English in contact with native languages, but the former predominated. However, the French of Quebec remained. |
The Caribbean |
The most spoken language is Spanish, but there are also other European languages (complex colonial history). African slaves in this area, they developed creoles as a means of communicating among themselves. It gained societal status. However, no creole has gained enough status to be accepted as a national language. Nowadays, English and Spanish are the official languages. |
Australia |
Discovered by Captain James Cook in 1770, it served as the first penal colony. British prisons were overcrowded and convicts were sent to Australia. By 1900 it had 4 million inhabitants from British Isles. Contact between indigenous and colonizers led to borrowing items. English as the official language. There has been American English influence, and vocabulary has been affected. |
New Zealand |
No convicts in New Zealand, and slow settlement. It became an official colony in 1840. By 1900, it has a quarter of million people. People there are more inclusive of the indigenous population and it is one reason why the language contains a large number of Maori words, in contrast to Australian English. They reject American English in favor of British English. |
South Africa |
British control in 1806, and settlement from 1820 onwards, when Englishmen got lands there. English became the official language of the region in 1822 and by the end of 19th c., there were half a million immigrants there, most of them spoken English. Afrikaans-speakers used English as a second language, and nowadays English is one of the 11 official languages in South Africa. |
South Asia |
About 40 million users of English, the 3rd-larger English using area after USA and Great Britain. English developed as a medium of control –administration, education, etc.- in the period of the British Raj (1765-1947), creating an English-based subculture in the subcontinent. The basis for the subculture was the English language –as language is equated with power. |
Former Colonial Africa: West Africa |
Bu the 19th c., the increase in trade and activities in opposition to slave trade brought English to the entire West African coast, and several English-based pidgins and creoles developed. English is still taught and used, being an official language there. British varieties of English develop in 6 particular countries, which have English as an official language: Sierra Leone, Ghana, The Gambia, Nigeria, Cameroon and Liberia. |
East Africa |
Visited by English in the 16th century, it was not explored until 1850s. The Imperial East Africa Company was founded in 1888, and a series of colonial protectorates was established. There are 6 main states with a history of British rule that gave English official status when they gained their independence: Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. |
South-East India and South Pacific |
There is a mixture of English and Australian English, and American influence increased in the 1940s. The British influence there began with Captain James Cook and English become rapidly an influential language in the British territories of South Pacific. And because of the very different cultural circumstances in different parts of the region, no one South Asian English variety has emerged. |
b) Industrial Revolution
As we can imagine, British colonialism was the first step of the expansion of English across the world. But it is also very important the Industrial Revolution in terms of the spread of English. Britain was the leader of the Industrial Revolution, and large-scale manufacturing and production machinery were just some of the major technological advancements being pioneered there. Countries which needed this new industrial knowledge could access it via the medium of English, something which made powerful again the language internationally.
And the development of technology was side by side with the spread of English. For instance, English was the language in which the system of telegraph was developed, and English became the international language of all telegraph operators.
c) American Economic superiority and Political Leadership.
Although Britain had been the greatest political, economic and industrial power in the world in the 18th century, by the end of the 19th and the early 20th centuries USA emerged as an economic and political superpower. During this time, the countries if the world began to came together in international organizations, and they need to be able to communicate. However, it was very expensive to run multilingual operations, so they decided that English would be the language used in their international interactions. Moreover, The League of Nations was created after the World War I, but then it was replaced by the United Nations, which ends up in New York. Thus, the world´s focus shifted to the United States.
The influence of United States combined then the economic and political factors and the huge seize of its population: The United States has 70 per cent of all native speakers of English in the world.
d) American Technology Leadership.
After the World War II and particularly in the 1980s and 1990s, the computer revolution began all over the world. It was due to the American technology and the American know-how. So, it is logic that the language of the computers is English. The main reason why it is like this is the fact that, although it could be designed with languages of one own country, this process it very expensive.
e) Other factors.
- Advertising: During the 19th century the use of advertisements in publication increased, especially in more industrialized countries, due to the fact that there was more money and also more people interesting on them. In USA, however, they realized that if they put advertisements in their magazines, they could put lower the price of their magazines, something which led them to sell more and more of them. And as the international market grew, the media spread to all parts of the world, and became one of the most noticeable global manifestations of English language use. American English ruled.
- Broadcasting: As it has been already mentioned, the invention and use of telegraph supposed a very great impulse to English language. Britain was the pioneer in the use of telegraph, and all communications were made in English, having being necessary that all telegraph operators spoke English. So, it was one of the most important fact in the spread of English though the world.
- Motion pictures: The new technologies altered the way of public entertainment, and it also serves as a thrust of the English language. The development of the cinema was made initially by France and England, but the years during the World War I supposed a kind of blockage of cinema, and then American began to dominate it. Moreover, when the sound was added to the films, it was the spoken English which came to the movies. And although the film industry was developed also in other countries, it is still English language the dominant medium, maybe because the main studio, Hollywood, is in an English-spoken area.
- Popular music: The other important entertainment technology was the recording industry, and also here the English language had the dominance. All the major recording companies in popular music had English-language origins, and when popular music arrived, it was in English scene mostly. The pop groups of English-speaking nations dominated the recording world: Elvis Presley in USA or the Beatles and the Rolling Stones in UK. No other single source has spread English around the world so rapidly.
- International travel and safety: The medium in transportation and accommodation is English. Equally, English instructions about safety on international flights and sailings and indications about emergency procedures are in English. English then has become the international language. “Airspeak”, the language of international aircraft control, emerged after the Second War World, and it was decided that English would be the international language of aviation.
- Education: Internationally, areas as science and technology have the medium of English language to spread over the world their ideas. It is the main reason why many countries have adopted English as the chief foreign languages in schools. It is obvious that people all over the world have to know English if they are students, as most of the important words in the field of education are written in English. http://historialenguainglesa.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-spread-of-english-across-globe.html
Present-day geographical distribution English is spoken on all five continents. With regard to numbers of speakers it is only exceeded by Chinese (in its various forms) and Spanish. But in terms of geographical spread it stands at the top of the league. The distribution is a direct consequence of English colonial policy, starting in Ireland in the late 12th century and continuing well into the 19th century, reaching its peak at the end of the reign of Queen Victoria and embodied in the saying ‘the sun never sets on the British Empire’. For the present overview the varieties of English in the modern world are divided into four geographical groups as follows.
The two main groups are Britain and America. For each there are standard forms of English which are used as yardsticks for comparing other varieties of the respective areas.
In Britain the standard is called Received Pronunciation. The term stems from Daniel Jones at the beginning of the present century and refers to the pronunciation of English which is accepted - that is, received - in English society. BBC English, Oxford English, Queen’s English (formerly King’s English) are alternative terms which are not favored by linguists as they are imprecise or simply incorrect.
In America there is a standard which is referred to by any of a number of titles, General American and Network American English being the two most common. There is a geographical area where this English is spoken and it is defined negatively as the rest of the United States outside of New England (the north east) and the South. General American is spoken by the majority of Americans, including many in the North-East and South and thus contrasts strongly with Received Pronunciation which is a prestige sociolect spoken by only a few percent of all the British. The southern United States occupy a unique position as the English characteristic of this area is found typically among the African American sections of the community. These are the descendents of the slaves originally imported into the Caribbean area, chiefly by the English from the 16th century onwards. Their English is quite different from that of the rest of the United States and has far more in common with that of the various Anglophone Caribbean islands.
Those varieties of English which are spoken outside of Britain and America are variously referred to as overseas or extraterritorial varieties. A recent practice is to use the term Englishes (a plural created by linguists) which covers a multitude of forms. The label English World-Wide (the name of an academic journal dedicated to this area) is used to refer to English in its global context and to research on it, most of which has been concerned with implicitly comparing it to mainland varieties of Britain and America and then with trying to determine its own linguistic profile. Extraterritorial varieties are not just different from mainland varieties because of their geographical distance from the original homeland but also because in many cases a type of suspension has occurred vis à vis changes in point of origin, i.e. in many respects the overseas varieties appear remarkably unchanged to those from the European mainland. This phenomenon is known as colonial lag. It is a term which should not be overworked but a temperate use of the term is appropriate and it can be cited as one of the features accounting for the relative standardness of overseas varieties, such as Australian or New Zealand English with regards to British forms of English.
The varieties of English both in Europe and overseas tend to show variation in certain key features, for instance special verbal structures to express aspectual distinctions are common to nearly all varieties in the developing world. Pronunciation and morphology features can equally be classified according to frequency of variation in non-standard forms of the language. To facilitate orientation in this sphere a table of those features is offered below which typically vary among both mainland and extraterritorial forms of English. Note that the variation in the area of lexis (vocabulary) tends to be restricted to two types. The first is the presence of archaic words no longer found in mainland Britain, e.g. the use of bold in the sense of misbehaved or wench as a non-derogative term for woman. The second type contains flora and fauna words. Obviously those speakers of English who moved to new environments were liable to borrow words from indigenous languages for phenomena in nature which they did not know from Europe, thus Australian English has koala, kangaroo, New Zealand English kiwi, etc.
Checklist of non-standard features of English
In the development of the language English has shown variation with a number of features on different linguistic levels. In those cases where the variation has been between dialects and/or sociolects and the arising standard the features in question have become indicators of non-standardness. Consciousness of this is frequently present with speakers and it forms part of what is sometimes called ‘panlectal’ knowledge of language, i.e. part of the awareness of inherent variation in a language which people acquire with their particular variety of the language in question. In English the indicators of non-standardness are chiefly phonological but there are also morphological and syntactical features, the most salient of which are indicated below. The standard referred to here is Received Pronunciation and the variation applies chiefly to forms of British English.
https://www.uni-due.de/SVE/VARS_Intro.htm
SCOTTISH ENGISH
Historical outline https://www.uni-due.de/SVE/VARS_Varieties.htm
Of the three Celtic areas left in present-day Britain, Scotland is definitely the one with the oldest tradition of English, both spoken and written. While in Ireland a literature in Irish arose in the Old English period which was to have an influence even on continental Europe, writing in English only developed slowly at the end of the Middle English period. In Scotland, however, English became firmly established in the early part of the Middle English period spreading northwards from the dialect area known as Northumbrian in the Old English period (i.e. the geographical area north of the river Humber and south of the Cheviot hills which forms the natural boundary between England and Scotland.
The term Scotland comes from Latin Scotii which was originally a term for the Irish, who settled the western coast of Scotland and Christianised it before England was converted from the south with the mission of Saint Augustine at the end of the 6th century. The adjective Scottish has two further variants Scots and Scotch which may be used with different meanings, for instance Scots is used to refer to the particular variety of English spoken natively in Scotland and Scotch is nowadays almost solely confined to the country’s type of whiskey.
The advance of English in Scotland was at the cost of Gaelic which was pushed back out of the Lowlands into the Highlands north of the Firth of Forth.
The variety of English which established itself at this early stage later on developed into what is called Lallands (< ‘lowlands’) and has kept its identity as a distinct variety – Scots – even to the present-day. The speakers of English in this initial period were very often English settlers who had been invited by the Scottish king to settle and render arable the plains of the Lowlands.
Through mixed marriages and gradual assimilation of the Gaelic speaking community in the lowland area, Gaelic became weaker and weaker. By the Early Modern English period (in the Elizabethan era) Gaelic was only spoken by monolinguals in the Highlands and Islands (i.e. on the large islands on the west coast of Scotland). A further language, Norn, which was a remnant of Old Norse spoken on the Orkney and Shetland islands, disappeared finally in the 18th century.
For the 20th century one must distinguish at least four distinct varieties of Scottish English: 1) Lallands, the most original of all varieties of Scottish English, 2) Contact English which is that spoken by speakers of both Scottish Gaelic and English and 3) Standard Scottish English which is a locally flavoured version of mainland British English (derived ultimately from Received Pronunciation), 4) more recently developed urban varieties spoken chiefly in Edinburgh and Glasgow. In addition there are affected accents close to Received Pronunciation which are known by the middle-class suburbs of the two main cities in Scotland where they occur profusely, Morningside and Kelvinside (in Edinburgh and Glasgow respectively).
In the area of phonology the indigenous Scottish varieties show strong deviations from Southern British English. Syntactic peculiarities are to be found above all in the contact varieties of English where the syntax of Gaelic has lead to a variety of constructions which have no parallels in Southern British English. Here the position is like that of Irish English: a certain number of syntactic characteristics have been retained from contact speech, even with those speakers who no longer have a command of Gaelic. Examples of such contact phenomena are 1) the use of a durative tense as I do be in the office of a Tuesday, 2) the formation of a kind of imperfective which may contrast with a simple past tense as Have you read ‘Ulysses’? versus Have you ‘Ulysses’ read? or He is after eating his dinner versus He has eaten his dinner and 3) the use of a dative of relevance as in The fire went out on me or The soup boiled over on her.
Phonology
The speech of the middle classes in Scotland tends to conform to the grammatical norms of the written standard, particularly in situations that are regarded as formal. Highland English is slightly different from the variety spoken in the Lowlands in that it is more phonologically, grammatically, and lexically influenced by a Gaelic substratum. Similarly the English spoken in theNorth-East of Scotland tends to follow the phonology and grammar of Doric.
Although pronunciation features vary among speakers (depending on region and social status), there are a number of phonological aspects characteristic of Scottish English:
Scottish English is a rhotic accent, meaning /r/ is pronounced in the syllable coda. The phoneme /r/ may be an alveolar approximant [ɹ], like in Received Pronunciation, but speakers have also traditionally used for the same phoneme an alveolar tap [ɾ] or the alveolar trill [r][citation needed] (hereafter, ⟨r⟩ will be used to denote any rhotic consonant).
Although other dialects have merged /ɛ/, /ɪ/, /ʌ/ before /r/, Scottish English makes a distinction between the vowels in herd, bird, and curd.
Many varieties contrast /o/ and /ɔ/ before /r/ so that hoarse and horse are pronounced differently.
/or/ and /ur/ are contrasted so that shore and sure are pronounced differently, as are pour and poor.
/r/ before /l/ is strong. An epenthetic vowel may occur between /r/ and /l/ so that girl and world are two-syllable words for some speakers. The same may occur between /r/and /m/, between /r/ and /n/, and between /l/ and /m/.
There is a distinction between /w/ and /hw/ in word pairs such as witch and which.
The phoneme /x/ is common in names and in SSE's many Gaelic and Scots borrowings, so much so that it is often taught to incomers, particularly for "ch" in loch. Some Scottish speakers use it in words of Greek origin as well, such as technical, patriarch, etc.;(Wells 1982, 408) that is not precisely a hyperforeignism, because the chirepresented by the "ch" in these words is in fact pronounced /x/ in Modern Greek and even in Late Koine Greek, but was pronounced /kʰ/ in the Ancient Greek from which the words or their roots are borrowed.[citation needed]
/l/ is usually velarised (see dark l) except in borrowings like "glen" (from Scottish Gaelic "gleann"), which had an unvelarised l in their original form. In areas where Scottish Gaelic was spoken until relatively recently (such as Dumfries and Galloway) and in areas where it is still spoken (such as the West Highlands), velarisation of /l/ may be absent in many words in which it is present in other areas, but remains in borrowings that had velarised /l/ in Gaelic, such as "loch" (Gaelic "loch") and "clan" (Gaelic "clann").
/p/, /t/ and /k/ are not aspirated in more traditional varieties,[16] but are weakly aspirated currently.
Vowel length is generally regarded as non-phonemic, although a distinctive part of Scottish English is the Scots vowel length rule (Scobbie et al. 1999). Certain vowels (such as /i/, /u/, and /æ/) are generally long but are shortened before nasals and voiced plosives. However, this does not occur across morpheme boundaries so that crudecontrasts with crewed, need with kneed and side with sighed.
Scottish English has no /ʊ/, instead transferring Scots /u/. Phonetically, this vowel may be pronounced [ʉ] or even [ʏ]. Thus pull and pool are homophones.
Cot and caught are not differentiated in most Central Scottish varieties, as they are in some other varieties.[17]
In most varieties, there is no /æ/-/ɑː/ distinction; therefore, bath, trap, and palm have the same vowel.[17]
The happY vowel is most commonly /e/ (as in face), but may also be /ɪ/ (as in kit) or /i/ (as in fleece).[18]
/θs/ is often used in plural nouns where southern English has /ðz/ (baths, youths, etc.); with and booth are pronounced with /θ/. (See Pronunciation of English th.)
In colloquial speech, the glottal stop may be an allophone of /t/ after a vowel, as in [ˈbʌʔər]. These same speakers may "drop the g" in the suffix -ing and debuccalise /θ/ to [h]in certain contexts.
/ɪ/ may be more open [ë̞] for certain speakers in some regions, so that it sounds more like [ɛ] (although /ɪ/ and /ɛ/ do not merge). Other speakers may pronounce it as [ɪ], just like in many other accents, or with a schwa-like ([ə]) quality. Others may pronounce it almost as [ʌ] in certain environments, particularly after /w/ and /hw/.
Monophthongs of Scottish English (fromScobbie, Gordeeva & Matthews (2006:7))
-
Correspondence between the IPA help key and Scottish English vowels (many individual words do not correspond)
Pure vowels
Help key
Scottish
Examples
/ɪ/
/ɪ/ ~ /ɪ̈/ ~ /ë̞/
bid, pit
/iː/
/i/
bead, peat
/ɛ/
/ɛ/
bed, pet
/eɪ/
/e/
bay, hey, fate
/æ/
/ä/
bad, pat
/ɑː/
balm, father, pa
/ɒ/
/ɔ/
bod, pot, cot
/ɔː/
bawd, paw, caught
/oʊ/
/o/
beau, hoe, poke
/ʊ/
/ʉ/
good, foot, put
/uː/
booed, food
/ʌ/
/ʌ/
bud, putt
Diphthongs
/aɪ/
/ae/ ~ /əi/
buy, ride, write
/aʊ/
/ɜʉ/ ~ /əʉ/
how, pout
/ɔɪ/
/oi/
boy, hoy
/juː/
/jʉ/
hue, pew, new
R-coloured vowels (these do not exist in Scots)
/ɪr/
/ɪr/
mirror (also in fir)
/ɪər/
/ir/
beer, mere
/ɛr/
/ɛr/
berry, merry (also in her)
/ɛər/
/er/
bear, mare, Mary
/ær/
/är/
barrow, marry
/ɑr/
bar, mar
/ɒr/
/ɔr/
moral, forage
/ɔr/
born, for
/ɔər/
/or/
boar, four, more
/ʊər/
/ur/
boor, moor
/ʌr/
/ʌr/
hurry, Murray (also in fur)
/ɜr/ (ɝ)
/ɪr/, /ɛr/, /ʌr/
bird, herd, furry
Reduced vowels
/ɨ/
roses, business
/ə/
/ə/
Rosa’s, cuppa
/ər/ (ɚ)
/ər/
runner, mercer
The most archaic varieties of Scottish English (i.e. the lowland varieties) have not gone through the Great Vowel Shift. The diphthong which one nowadays has in words like down is still represented by a monophthong /u:/ while the but sound is still an unshifted /u/. In addition, a number of specifically Scottish characteristics are to be found. Most noticeable of these in the area of phonology are 1) a strongly retroflex if not rolled /r/, 2) the lack of vowel length contrasts so that words like full and fool are homophones, 3) the retention of the wh sound in words like which, whale, 4) the presence of /ei/ for English /o:/ as in the Scottish pronunciation of words like home, ghost, 5) there is a distinction between front and back short vowels before /r/ as in germ /džɛrm/ and burn/bʌrn/ and 6) the inherited sound /x/ is still found in traditional varieties and initial /h/ as well as [ʍ] for /hw/, wh- are common almost everywhere. In some words the lack of palatalisation of /k/ is still to be seen, this having been carried out in practically all other varieties of English: kirk for church, rigg for ridge.
The aspect of Scottish English which has attracted most attention from linguists recently is the so-called Scottish Vowel Length Rule or Aitken’s Law, after the linguist who first described it linguistically, which specifies that vowels are lengthened (normally they are short in Scottish English) before voiced fricatives, /l/ and /r/. Here one has a case of phonetic conditioning for lengthening as a following voiced sound often causes a vowel preceding it to be realised as long, cf. the vowel in standard English bad [bæ:d] vs. bat [bæt].
Grammar
Different types of Scottish English show different degrees of grammatical deviation from southern British English. For instance the modal will tends to stand for both shall and may, the passive is often formed with get: I got told off; it is often used for compulsion: You’ve got to speak to her; must is used in an epistemic sense in positive and negative: She musn’t be Scottish for She can’t be Scottish; the pronoun with -self is used non-reflexively: Himself isn’t at home yet for The man of the house is not at home yet; the abbreviated form of am + not is amn’t as in Amn’t I right?; generic pronominal references tend to use -one rather than -body: Someone has to do the work (all features found in Irish English as well). Future negation is formed with independent not rather than the clitic form of a modal and not: She’ll not go home for She won’t go home.
Lexis