A dialect is considered as a branch of a language that can be specific to a particular region or group. Dialects are usually formed around particular regions. However, they can also be used within certain groups of people in a different form. Even, the foods are the most common terms to change within a dialect. What one dialect might call shrimp, another might call crawfish and crawdads. Language and dialects are considered as the unique cultural elements of a certain place. These groups refer themselves or are defined by others by different extra-linguistic factors such as age, ethnicity, gender or socioeconomic status. Whereas dialect denotes regional variation, the language varieties characteristic of different social groups are referred to as social dialects or sociolects. Sociolects are types of varieties which came from the social background of the speaker, i.e. by the aforementioned extra-linguistic factors. Many gives upper-class speech in the UK and youth language as examples of sociolects. While dialect implies lexical, grammatical and pronunciation differences, accent is restricted to pronunciation features alone.

An accent can affect only the phonological levels of a linguistic variety. When we say that someone speaks with an accent such as foreign or regional accents, we refer to the person’s individual way of pronouncing style. When we say, however, that person uses a dialect, we refer not only to his or her pronunciation but also to this person’s use of grammar and vocabulary factors. In linguistics, ‘dialect’ is used as a neutral term to refer the lexical, grammatical, phonological differences between two or more linguistic varieties. However, in non-academic contexts this differs a lot. Dialect often carries negative connotations and is perceived as vulgar forms of speech with low status and prestige. Many cultures use various words or pronunciations for the American English thing. Unique pronunciations may help a culture to give its identity. Many times, exact translations are impossible. One language may have a specific word for something, while another does not, as an example. If each language were standardized with the American English set of words and pronunciations, cultures would lose their identities. Neologism spreads freely throughout different cultures thanks to world travelling and the internet usages. In the modern world, everyone can travel to experience new impressions. By learning new languages and dialects, a person can expand his or her outlook. Opening one’s mind promotes creativity. The free exchange of ideas leads to creativity. Therefore, the more we interact internationally, these exchanges lead to the more innovative ways and new future ideas. It is believed from the history that all languages are descended from one original human language. It’s possible to consider every language on the planet to be a dialect, in some sense, of this initial tongue, but if it is true, how have we ended up with so many different languages and dialects today? There are between 6,500 and 7,000 languages in use around the world and countless more dialects (Tirosh, 2020). Over time, communities that speak the American English language but which are separated from each other will develop their own speech patterns and accents, as well as their own words.

Dialects can also be related to not only certain social class, but also particular geographical area. London has a great example of this with its Cockney dialect which is traditionally considered to be a native of East London who was born within earshot of the Bow Bells that is the bells of the church of St Mary-le-Bow in the city’s Cheapside area. The term then American English to incorporate all those within London’s East End and, later, the city’s entire working class. 

Examples of the connection between dialects and social classes can be found across the world. This is usually noticeable in large urban areas, while more rural areas tend to be less diverse in the range of dialects in use. There are so many dialects as the languages in the globe. If we take the English language as an example, there are a lot of varieties according to geographical areas of the language together with dialects. Before the beginning to talk about British English, we should differentiate it with American English at first. It is written that the British society actually introduced the language to the American English when they reached these lands by sea between the 16^th and 17^th centuries. At that time of history, the spelling of this language had not been standardized yet, but it firstly took the writing of the initial dictionaries to set in stones how these words appeared. However, in the UK, the first dictionaries were compiled by London-based scholars at that time.

Tottie (2002) explains how grammar, as opposed to vocabulary, does not have to change in order to reflect a changing reality. He said that when new vocabulary is coined and borrowed in response to new circumstances and new phenomena, the changes in grammar have been relatively few even though there are differences between American English and British English. However, the grammatical examples which used to give are general for either British English or American English, thus variations in dialects and circumstantial usage, such as in conversation, fiction, academic writing, might differ in terms of their constructions of grammatical features. He gives the general rule for how the s-genitive is used in both American English and British English. Initially, that animate nouns, particular in the singular, are constructed with the s-genitive, as in the girl’s parents, while other nouns are constructed with the of-construction, as in the color of my car. However, in past years there had been noticeable changes in the usage of s-genitives in American English accent. The development can be shown in abstract nouns, such as swimming and jumping. Tortie also claimed the differences in verb morphology between two versions of English. With regular verbs the dental suffix is normally realized as [t] after a voiceless consonant, and [d] after a voiced consonant, as in mailed, and as [ɪd] after a dental consonant, as in ended and wanted. There are various features of both endings in both American and British English accents.

Modiano (1996) states that most observers of the English language recognize the differences between American English and British English to be found in pronunciation, vocabulary and spelling. However, while punctuation seems to be insignificant, grammatical and stylistic differences are more extensive and important than most observers initially recognize. Some structures could be promoted in one variety of English while it is claimed ungrammatical in the other, although such grammatical difference rarely impedes communication. Seemingly, minor differences cause any disruptions, but these factors are directly interlinked with the synthesis of lexical choices, pronunciation, spelling, which allows communication to proceed without misunderstandings. Gelderen (2006) explains how differences in spelling between American English and British English occur for external reasons – the conscious decisions of editors, educators and politicians. The slight spelling differences can be understood by both American English and British English speakers; hence, the relatively standard English may be responsible for keeping the varieties mutually understandable. In both English varieties have their own differences and similarities. Accidentally using one instead of the other will not automatically lead to miscommunication that both Americans and Brits can easily communicate with each other without too much difficulty.

As the known fact, United Kingdom covers four countries of the world which are Scotland, Wales, England and Northern Ireland areas. Although they are considered as one country in the world, involving their own dialects in each of the parts. We have already introduced with the British English and the history of English dialects enough. Now, we will begin to introduce all main British English dialects according to the map which is given in the figure 1. Let’s begin with the dialects of Scotland. Scotland has three main dialects including Highland Scottish, Lowland Scottish and Glaswegion. The English language was used in the areas of the Scottish Highlands where Gaelic was spoken until the late 19th century. The language varieties of these two countries have also been distinguished as Highland English and Hebridean English. In the late 17^th century, the majority of the inhabitants of the Highlands and Islands learned Standard English, mostly from Gaelic-speaking Highland or Hebridean teachers. The consequent influence of Gaelic is widespread, but most strongly marked among the bilingual speakers of this Isles. It varied in details with the underlying Gaelic dialect and was also influenced from Lowland Scots. Lowlands scots had its historical roots in the same Germanic source of languages as English and seemed to have diverged from Northumbrian Middle English after the 14th century. Lowland is generally seen as a dialect of English. Lallans, namely lowlands can be read and understood fairly easily by English speakers. However, it was the variety used when Scotland was an independent nation and has a historic and literary heritage from Middle English onwards. David Crystal (2015) says that of all the regional varieties of English, “there are none more distinctive or more divergent from Standard English than some of those associated with Scotland.” He neatly bypasses the question of whether Lallans is a dialect or a separate language by describing Lallans as a “dialect island.” He summarizes the issue: “The situation, in short, is complex and unclear. However, even those scholars who debate whether to call Scots a language or a dialect end up recognizing its special status” He might have added that the language is linked to the identity of Scots, though this is arguably a social feature rather than a linguistic one. If we look to the map we can see that Northern Ireland has six main dialects including Hiberno-English, Dublin, South and Mid-Ulster, Belfast and Ulster Scots. We will learn them one by one. Hiberno-English is considered as a variety of English in Ireland, used mainly by less educated speakers whose ancestral tongue was Irish Gaelic. It is strongest in and around the Gaeltachts and in rural areas. It preserves certain Gaelic features in pronunciation, syntax, and vocabulary while at the same time many of its speakers approximate to the Anglo-Irish or Ulster Scots norms of the area in which they live. So Eastern South Welsh English is the dialect closest to received pronunciation and Standard English. It is one of the Welsh English dialects which shows the less Welsh substratum.

Figure 1.

There are two main factors on influences on Welsh English. First of all, the original mother tongue of the Welsh people, Welsh that one can make out Welsh influences on English in syntax, loanwords and pronunciation. The following influence on Welsh English is the multitude of English varieties which is spoken in the counties bordering Wales. These are mainly the varieties of South-West England. In Wales itself Welsh English or a Welsh accent has a high covert prestige, especially in the South. This is for the accent is associated with national pride and “Welshness” (Coupland, 1990). Cardiff English is the regional accent of English, and a variety of Welsh English, as spoken in and around the city of Cardiff, and is somewhat distinctive in Wales, compared with other Welsh accents. Its pitch is described as somewhat lower than that of Received Pronunciation, whereas its intonation is closer to dialects of England rather than Wales. It is estimated that around 500,000 people speak Cardiff English (Lewis, 2010).

The accent is generally limited to inside the city’s northern boundary, rather than extending to the nearby South Wales Valleys where the spoken variety of English is different. However, the accent area spreads east and west of the city’s political borders, covering much of the former counties of South Glamоrgan and south-west Gwent, including Newport and coastal Mоnmоuthshirе. The dialect developed distinctively as the city grew in the nineteenth century, with an influx of migrants from different parts of Britain and further afield. The Cardiff accent and vocabulary has been influenced in particular by those who moved there from the English Midlands, the West Country, other parts of Wales, and Ireland. The Survey of English Dialects did not cover Cardiff but it did survey nearby Newport and six small villages in Monmouthshire. Manx English has become much closer to Standard English. The West Country includes the dialects of Gloucestershire, Dorset, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall. The dialect is the closest to the old British language of Anglo-Saxon, which was rooted in Germanic languages – so, true West Country speakers say I be instead of I am, and Thou bist instead of You are, which is very close to Ich bin (I am) and Du bist (You are) in modern German. This county’s dialect is so distinct, you can immediately tell if someone comes from Essex. They’ll pronounce words like no dropping the [th] sound from words like think, so they’d say fink instead. It’s also became common to drop words like to and the in statements like “Let’s go shops”. It’s been much more well-known thanks to reality shows starring people from Essex, much to everyone else’s chagrin. Norfolk vowels dictate that a pair, a pear and Cromer pier all sound exactly the same. Eating a pair of pears on the pier may be taking your dedication to talking local a step too far. If something is described as being on the huh in Norfolk, it means that the object in question isn’t level, or is on a slant. Norwich Market is, for instance, on the huh so will you be if you have one too many gin and tonics. The technical definition of jargon is a hybrid language or dialect.

East Anglia includes Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex dialects. The Suffolkdialect is a dialect spoken in the East Anglian County of Suffolk. Like many English dialects, it is rapidly disappearing, due to the advent of increasing social and geographical mobility and the influence of the media. Despite this, there are still many people who profess some knowledge of Suffolk dialect, and there is an increasing number of young speakers who have a distinctive Suffolk accent, if not a dialect. This dialect has several characteristics which are closely related to Norfolk dialect neighboring in the north, yet it retains many specific and unique terms and phrases which are distinctively recognizable. A closely relаted accent called the Essex dialect can still be heard in the speech of older people in Colchester and its surrounding towns in the northern pаrts of its corresponding county, where it has not yet quite been displaced by Estuary English or Cocney. In south of the country there are South East, Kentish, London, Coсkney, Sussex and Estuary dialects. Coсkney represents the basileсtal end of the London аcсent and can be considered the broadest form of London local accent. It traditionally refers only to specific regions and speakers within the city. While many Londoners may speak what is referred to as “popular London” they do not necessarily speak Coсkney. The popular Londoner accent can be distinguished from Cockney in a number of ways, and can also be found outside of the capital, unlike the true Cockney accent. However, the London dialect somehow differs. For example, A London accent does not use the sound /h/ at all. This is a really noticeable aspect of London accent, change your /t/ for a glottal stop when it comes after a vowel. If /l/ appears at the end of the syllable, it is pronounced like a /w/ or /ʊ/ and others (Hudson, 2016).

The Sussex dialect is a dialect that was once widely spoken by those living in the historic county of Sussex in southern England. The Sussex dialect is a subset of the Southern English dialect group. Historically, there were three main variants to the dialect: west Sussex, mid Sussex and east Sussex. There were also differences between downland and Wealden communities. In particular, the people of the Weald were thought to have the most impenetrable accents. The Sussex dialect shows remarkable continuity: the three main dialect areas reflect the historic county’s history. The west and mid dialect areas reflect the ancient division of Sussex between East and West, which until the creation of the rape of Bramber in the 11th century lay along the river Adur. The eastern dialect area reflects the unique history of the Hastings area, which was home to the kingdom of the Haestingas until the 8th century (Wales, 2000). Midlands include West Midland, Brummie, Coventry, Potteries, East Midland and South-East Midland dialects. Certain areas of the West Midlands are stereotyped as having stronger accents than others, Dudley in the Black Country being an example. There are some local phrases in the Black Country that are renowned. People do tend to substitute a reply of “arr” for “yes”. Generally, most words are shortened, most commonly being “I haven’t” to “I-ay”. In the south of the West Midlands, the accent is more similar to the general southern accent (Kerswill, 2003).

 East Midlands English is a traditional dialect with modern local and social variations spoken in those parts of the Midlands loosely lying east of Watling Street separating it from West Midlands English, north of a variable isogloss of the variant of Southern English of Oxfordshire and East Anglian English of Cambridgeshire and south of another that separates it from the Yorkshire dialect. The Brummie dialect is called formally the Birmingham dialect. It is spoken by many people in Birmingham in England and some of its surrounding areas. “Brummie” is also a demonym for people from Birmingham. It is often erroneously used in referring to all accents of the West Midlands, as it is markedly distinct from the traditional accent of the adjacent Black Country but modern-day population mobility has tended to blur the distinction. Coventry looks to both the east of the East Midlands and the west of the West Midlands, and that is why it has its own sound, distance but the separation of the settlements meant that Coventry wasn’t close enough to have the same accent as Birmingham. If we look at the map (Figure 1) we can know that Northern England covers Cumbrian, Northumbrian, Geordie, Potteries, Mackem, Teesside, Yorkshire, Lancashire, Scouse English dialects. The Cumbrian dialect is a local English dialect spoken in Cumbria in northern England, not to be confused with the extinct Celtic language Cumbric that used to be spoken in Cumbria. As in any county, there is a gradual drift in accent towards their neighbors. Cumbria is a large area with several relatively isolated districts, so there is quite a large variation in accent, especially between north and south or the coastal towns. Geordie is a dialect spoken by many people in the northeast corner of England, particularly Newcastle and the Tyneside area. The word also refers to the people of that area. Despite several theories, nobody really knows why this region’s people and their way of speaking are called Geordie. Some suggest the name George, locally popular in the 18th century, figured in several popular ballads. It’s the oldest English regional dialect still spoken and if you’re not a Geordie, it’s also probably the hardest for you to understand.

 Phonological aspects of dialects are also important in linguistics. Kroch (1978) argued that the public prestige dialect of the elite in a stratified community differs from the dialects of the non-elite strata" in resisting normal "ease of articulation-type processes of phonetic conditioning. “Non-prestige dialects tend to be articulatorily more economical” he argues “than the prestige dialect”. The main point of interest, however, is Kroch’s explanation for this phenomenon. His claim is that this differentiation is due to ideology and to the prestige group’s desire to mark themselves off not only as distinctive but also as superior. From the perspective of dialect typology, however, we can question whether ideology is the whole story, and at least some of the facts. Let us first consider consonantal simplifications and vowel mergers, taking examples from the English dialects of England. Because of the British prestige accent RP has resisted a number of mergers that have taken place, the processes included the merger of vowels before /l/, as in the lexical sets of doll and dole; the merger of /f/, as in fin and thin; and the loss of /h/. An examination of other dialects of English quickly shows, however, that the tendency of RP to resist such changes is not only shared but considerably surpassed by regional dialects in the more geographically peripheral areas of the country. It is in these, periphera1 areas, for example, where, in modern dialects, /h/ is preserved, as in RP; where /hw/ and /w/, as in which and witch, now merged in RP, are preserved as distinct; where non-prevocalic /r/ as in cart, which has been lost by RP, is preserved; and where Middle English /ou/ and /o:/ as in mown and moan, which have been merged in RP, are preserved as distinct. One probable conclusion that can be drawn here is that those dialects which most strongly resist the processes which Kroch discusses are not prestige varieties such as RP at all, but varieties which are in some way peripheral, in this case geographically so. The varieties which most strongly resist mergers and simplifications are those which have been least subject to dialect contact. The specific features of Scottish dialects could be given that the opposition between voiced and voiceless stops in English, Gaelic opposes voiceless unaspirated to voiceless aspirated stops, and lacks voiced consonants opposed to /s/ and /ʃ/. This has led to ‘reversal of voicing’, as in ‘chust’ for just, ‘pleashure’ for pleasure, ‘whateffer’ for whatever, ‘pring‘ for bring, and more rarely the converse, as in ‘baratice’ for paradise. These usages are shibboleths of Gaelic-influenced speech such as the same consonants were aspirated word-initially: ‘p^hig’ for pig, ‘t^hake’ for take, ‘k^heep’ for keep (Scot, 1920).

Many speakers pronounce vowels long that are short in Scottish English generally. In bad, father, parlour, psalm, brainy, make, table, equal, heat, leak, weak, boat can be given as an instance. As in the Lowlands and Ireland, some speakers realize such words as film and worm with epenthetic vowels: ‘fillum’ and ‘wurrum’.

In Hiberno-English such words as cat and garden sound like ‘kyat’ and ‘gyarden’: initial /k/ and /g/ with a following semivowel /j/. Such names as Hugh and Hughes sound as if they began with a ‘ky’ and the words as true, drew sound like ‘threw’ and ‘dhrew’: dental rather than alveolar realizations of /t, d/. In the certain words as pine, time, come, the opening consonant is aspirated, the /t/ in time sounding like a cross between t and the /th/ in three: aspiration of syllable-initial /p, t, k/ (Hickey, 2005). In Dublin dialect proununciation of the diphthong in words centralized like mouth or mound. Hence mouth can sound a bit like “maith” or “moyth” to a British. As in other Irish accents the dipthongs in face and goat tend to be monophthongized (Hickey, 2005). Furthermore, the “oo” sound in “goose” used to pronounce very far in the front of the mouth. The Belfast dialect became more frequently heard in towns and villages whose inhabitants traditionally spoke with a distinctively rural accent. In Belfast, in Mid- and South Ulster, the opposition between /ɔ/ and /ɒ/ was maintained than in other parts of Ulster, though it is restricted to only a few environments. For instance, stock [stɒk - stɑk - sta̠k] is distinct from stalk [stɔ(ː)k] (Heggarty, 2013). The /aʊ/ phoneme is used to pronouncing as [əʉ] in most of Ulster, but in Belfast it is extremely variable. Pronunciations with a relatively front first element, [ɛ̈] or fronter, are working class. Middle class speakers prefer back [ɑ] or even [ɔ] (Hickey, 2004). South Ulster English’s phonology is markedly different from Ulster Scots and majority Ulster English in several aspects, including preservation of dichotomous pattern of phonemic vowel length seen in Middle English. Another feature of South Ulster English is the drop in pitch on stressed syllables.

Pronunciation is the main difference between Welsh English and Standard English, as the grammar is for some exception close to Standard English. In Northern Welsh English there are all diphthongs monophthongised. Where in the Southern dialect /eı/ and /ou/ remained the same as in RP, in the Northern dialect they become monophthongised, too. So words like /eıt/ eight and /soul/ soul become /e:t/ and /so:l/. In Welsh English the /æ/-sound becomes a short open /a/ and are pronounced /trap/ and /man/. The central open short /ʌ/ sound becomes a mid-central /ə/ (Ritter, 2004). Norfolk dialect is generally non-rhotic, so /r/ is only pronounced when a vowel follows it. Unlike other regional English accents, Norfolk does not exhibit H-dropping. The phoneme /h/ is generally pronounced in ‘hat’, ‘ahead’ by most, though not all, Norfolk speakers. Norfolk speech has a distinctive rhythm due to some stressed vowels being longer than their equivalents in Received Pronunciation, as well as some unstressed vowels being much shorter. The distinction between /ʊ/ and /ʌ/, often known as the foot–strut split is developed; the quality of /ʌ/ (‘strut’) is more back and close than that of contemporary RP (Wells, 1982). It is explained as a centralized mid-back unrounded vowel [ɤ̞̈]. A similar vowel, though somewhat lower [ʌ̈] can be heard from older RP speakers. Yod-dropping is common between consonants and /uː,ʊ, u, ʊə/ resulting in pronunciations such as /muːzɪk/ for ‘music’ and /kuː/ for ‘cue’ (Trudgill, 2003).Suffolk dialect is non-rhotic. The ‘r’ in “hard” and similar words is not pronounced, unlike West Country English, as an example. Suffolk dialect also have strong usages of the glottal stop and it is usually common for "that" to replace “it”.