Northern English
Wells 1982: section 4.4
•
The foot-strut split is absent in Northern English, so that cut and put rhyme and are
both pronounced with /ʊ/. This has led to Northern England being described "Oop
North" /ʊp nɔːθ/. Some words with /ʊ/ in RP can have /uː/ – book is often
pronounced /buːk/ in Northern accents, while some conservative accents also
pronounce look as /luːk/.
•
The accents of Northern England generally do not use a /ɑː/. so cast is
pronounced [kast] rather than the [kɑːst] pronunciation of most southern accents:
palm, cart, start, tomato.
•
The vowel in dress, test, pet, etc. is slightly more open, transcribed by Wells as /
ɛ/ rather than /e/.
•
The "short a" vowel of cat, trap is normally pronounced [a] rather than
the [æ] found in traditional Received Pronunciation and in many forms of American
English.
•
In most areas, the letter y on the end of words as in happy or city is
pronounced [ɪ], like the i in bit, and not [i]. This was considered RP until the 1990s.
The longer [i] is found in the far north and in the Merseyside area.
•
The Received Pronunciation phonemes /eɪ/ (as in face) and /əʊ/ (as in goat) are
often pronounced as monophthongs (such as [eː] and [oː]).