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]).