The map above created by Starkey Comics shows just how many different dialects you can find in the UK. And even then, I’m sure there are many people who will disagree with them.
As someone not from the UK, but now lives here, I can say that in London your class as much as your location determines your accent.
For example, I hear both Multicultural London English and more posh sounding accents spoken on a daily basis.
And as the map makes clear, there are a range of London dialects. As Ryan Starkey the map’s author notes:
While most dialects can be described as regional, spoken mainly in one area, that isn’t always the case. London is the prime example of this: my map cops out with “London Dialects” (plural), because in reality London is incredibly diverse, and deserves its own map to show that complexity. Except no, nobody will ever map that map, because more than anywhere geography is not how London dialects are arranged. Cultural and socioeconomic background is a much bigger deciding factor, and dialects like Multicultural London English aren’t found in one area, but all across London.
Other examples of dialects hat aren’t in this image because they aren’t specifically regional include Received Pronunciation, the “standard” prestige dialect spoken across the southern Britain; and Pitmatic, a dialect spoken by scattered coal-mining towns across the northeast of England.
So yes, this map may be unsatisfying, arbitrary, and unfinished, and no amount of work on it will really change that. It exists mainly as a testament to the huge dialectal diversity of the English language within the UK, and as a way for me to express my fascination and love for that diversity.
And he also states that:
I have tried to capture as much nuance as possible. I’ve spent the last few years pooling together every study, survey, map, and database I can find, and then subjecting my image to several rounds of peer feedback. The members of my Facebook group, “Ah yes, the British accent”, were also a huge help in trying to make these borders as accurate as possible. The end result is an image which is, to my knowledge, the most detailed map of British dialects ever made. But it is still very much unfinished, and it always will be.
If you enjoy this sort of thing, I’d strongly urge you to read the whole post explaining the map in more detail. He also has a Patreon Account and Facebook page.
What’s your favourite British English Dialect?
Frank Cranmer says
When speaking English, do people really have the same accent in Lewis and Harris? Their spoken Gaelic sounds quite different.