Yorkshire English

Introduction

The Yorkshire accent is stereotypically thought to be the accent of straight-talking people. It has a certain amount of prestige. There are many different accents in Yorkshire. The accent in the recordings could be described as urban Yorkshire. Many older rural speakers would have a very different accent from the young women in the examples to be found in the next section.

Vowels

Yorkshire English has many characteristics which are shared with many northern accents. For example, the TRAP and BATH words are BOTH pronounced with /a/ unlike RP in which the former are pronounced with / æ/ and the latter /ɑː/. The FACE and GOAT words are generally monophthongs /eː/ and /oː/ respectively. Yorkshire English is non-rhotic.

Vowel Chart

KIT	ɪ	FLEECE	iː	NEAR	ɪə
DRESS	ɛ	FACE	eː [ɛɪ] (1)	SQUARE	ɛː
TRAP	a	PALM	ɑː	START	ɑː
LOT	ɒ	THOUGHT	ɔː	NORTH	ɔː
STRUT	ʊ	GOAT	oː [ɔʊ]	FORCE	ɔː [ɔə]
FOOT	ʊ	GOOSE	uː	CURE	ʊə [ɔː]
BATH	a	PRICE	ɑɪ [ɑɛ]	happY	ɪ
CLOTH	ɒ	CHOICE	ɔɪ	lettER	ə
NURSE	ɜː	MOUTH	ɑʊ	commA	ə

Consonants

Consonants

Yorkshire English is non-rhotic. You will hear linking "r" between for and a in: go for a dance and for Easter.
H-dropping is also prevalent. See have a picnic , hate the rain and go home. In example 9, what sounds like to pub is actually to the pub.

The glottal stop /ʔ/ is a very common realization of /t/. The first example includes several instances.

The definite article is also often realized by a glottal stop /ʔ/. In the sentence I am going to pub, for example, there is actually a definite article after to. It is realized as a glottal stop: /am ˈgoːɪn təʔ pʊb/.

In example 10, the speaker says I were. This is common in many varieties of English.

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