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English in Southern England (also, rarely, Southern English English; Southern England English; or in the UK, simply, Southern English) is the collective set of different dialects and accents of Modern English spoken in
Southern England Southern England, or the South of England, also known as the South, is an area of England consisting of its southernmost part, with cultural, economic and political differences from the Midlands and the North. Officially, the area includes G ...
. As of the 21st century, a wide class of dialects labelled "
Estuary English Estuary English is an English accent associated with the area along the River Thames and its estuary, including London. Phonetician John C. Wells proposed a definition of Estuary English as "Standard English spoken with the accent of the southea ...
" is on the rise in
South East England South East England is one of the nine official regions of England at the ITL 1 statistical regions of England, first level of International Territorial Level, ITL for Statistics, statistical purposes. It consists of the counties of england, ...
and the
Home Counties The home counties are the counties of England that surround London. The counties are not precisely defined but Buckinghamshire and Surrey are usually included in definitions and Berkshire, Essex, Hertfordshire and Kent are also often inc ...
(the counties bordering London), which was the traditional interface between the London urban region and more local and rural accents. Commentators report widespread homogenisation in South East England in the 20th century (Kerswill & Williams 2000; Britain 2002). This involved a process of
levelling Levelling or leveling (American English; American and British English spelling differences#Doubled in British English, see spelling differences) is a branch of surveying, the object of which is to establish or verify or measure the height of sp ...
between the extremes of working-class
Cockney Cockney is an accent and dialect of English, mainly spoken in London and its environs, particularly by working-class and lower middle-class Londoners. The term "Cockney" has traditionally been used to describe a person from the East End, or b ...
in inner-city London and the careful upper-class standard accent of Southern England,
Received Pronunciation Received Pronunciation (RP) is the Accent (sociolinguistics), accent traditionally regarded as the Standard language, standard and most Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestigious form of spoken British English. For over a century, there has been ...
(RP), popular in the 20th century with upper-middle and
upper-class Upper class in modern societies is the social class composed of people who hold the highest social status, usually are the wealthiest members of class society, and wield the greatest political power. According to this view, the upper class is gen ...
residents. Now spread throughout the South East region, Estuary English is the resulting mainstream accent that combines features of both Cockney and a more middle-class RP. Less affluent areas have variants of Estuary English that grade into southern rural England outside urban areas. Outside of South East England,
West Country English West Country English is a group of English language varieties and accents used by much of the native population of South West England, the area sometimes popularly known as the West Country. The West Country is often defined as encompassin ...
(of South West England) and
East Anglian English East Anglian English is a dialect of English spoken in East Anglia, primarily in or before the mid-20th century. East Anglian English has had a very considerable input into modern Estuary English, which has largely replaced it. However, it has r ...
survive as traditional broad dialects in Southern England today, though they too are subject to Estuary English influence in recent decades and are consequently weakening.


London and Estuary English

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
and greater
Thames Estuary The Thames Estuary is where the River Thames meets the waters of the North Sea, in the south-east of Great Britain. Limits An estuary can be defined according to different criteria (e.g. tidal, geographical, navigational or in terms of salini ...
accents are
non-rhotic Rhoticity in English is the pronunciation of the historical rhotic consonant by English speakers. The presence or absence of rhoticity is one of the most prominent distinctions by which varieties of English can be classified. In rhotic varieti ...
: that is, the consonant (phonetically ) occurs only before vowels. General characteristics of all major London accents include: * diphthongal realisation of and , for example ''beat'' , ''boot'' (this can also be a monophthong: ) * diphthongal realisation of in open syllables, for example ''bore'' , ''paw'' versus a monophthongal realisation in closed syllables, for example ''board'' , ''pause'' . But the diphthong is retained before inflectional endings, so that ''board'' and ''pause'' often contrast with ''bored'' and ''paws'' . * lengthening of in words such as ''man'', ''sad'', ''bag'', ''hand'' (cf. ''can'', ''had'', ''lad''): split of into two phonemes and . See bad–lad split. * an
allophone In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is a set of multiple possible spoken soundsor ''phones''or signs used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, (as in ''s ...
of before "dark L" , namely , for example ''whole'' versus ''holy'' . But the is retained when the addition of a suffix turns the "dark L" clear, so that ''wholly'' can contrast with ''holy''. Features of working- or middle-class Estuary English, spoken in the counties all around London in the 21st century, include: * Not as much ''h''-dropping as Cockney, but still more than RP * Increased amount of ''th''-fronting, like Cockney * fronting to * can take the more RP variant of * has a low-back onset, , or the lowered/unrounded from , or or * can have an onset lower that RP but higher than Cockney: * fronted to * fronted * lowers and backs, different from both RP and Cockney It retains some aspects of Cockney, such as the vocalisation of (
dark L The voiced alveolar lateral approximant is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents dental, alveolar, and postalveolar lateral approximants is , and the equ ...
) to , and ''yod''-coalescence in
stress Stress may refer to: Science and medicine * Stress (biology), an organism's response to a stressor such as an environmental condition * Stress (linguistics), relative emphasis or prominence given to a syllable in a word, or to a word in a phrase ...
ed
syllable A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological "bu ...
s (for example, ''duty'' ) and replacement of with (the
glottal stop The glottal plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages, produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract or, more precisely, the glottis. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents thi ...
) in weak positions, or occasionally with d). Wells notes traditional aspects of rural South East speech as lengthened in ''trap'' words and use of or in ''mouth'' words.


Cockney

Cockney is the traditional accent of the working classes of the areas immediately surrounding the
City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...
itself (most famously including the East End). It is characterised by many phonological differences from RP: * The dental
fricatives A fricative is a consonant produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate in t ...
are replaced with
labiodental In phonetics, labiodentals are consonants Place of articulation, articulated with the lower lip and the upper teeth. Labiodental consonants in the IPA The labiodental consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are: The IPA c ...
, for example ''think'' * The
diphthong A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech o ...
is monophthongized to , for example ''south'' * ''H''-dropping, for example ''house'' * Replacement of in the middle or end of a word with a glottal stop; for example ''hit'' *
Diphthong A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech o ...
shift of to (for example ''beet'' ), to (for example ''bait'' ), to (for example ''bite'' ), and to (for example, ''boy'' . * Vocalisation of (dark L) to , for example, ''people''


Multicultural London English

Multicultural London English (abbreviated MLE), colloquially called Blockney or Jafaican, is a
dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of Linguistics, linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety (linguisti ...
(and/or
sociolect In sociolinguistics, a sociolect is a form of language ( non-standard dialect, restricted register) or a set of lexical items used by a socioeconomic class, profession, an age group, or other social group. Sociolects involve both passive acquisi ...
) of
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
that emerged in the late 20th century. It is spoken mainly by
youths Youth is the time of life when one is young. The word, youth, can also mean the time between childhood and adulthood (Maturity (psychological), maturity), but it can also refer to one's peak, in terms of health or the period of life known as b ...
in
multicultural The term multiculturalism has a range of meanings within the contexts of sociology, political philosophy, and colloquial use. In sociology and in everyday usage, it is a synonym for "Pluralism (political theory), ethnic pluralism", with the tw ...
parts of working-class London. The speech of
Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...
ns, or children of Jamaican parents, in London shows interesting combinations of the Jamaican accent with the London accent. For example, in
Jamaican English Jamaican English, including Jamaican Standard English, is a variety of English native to Jamaica and is the official language of the country. A distinction exists between Jamaican English and Jamaican Patois (or Creole), though not entirely a ...
, is replaced by , for example ''both'' . In London, word-final is realised as , as mentioned above. In Jamaican-London speech, glottalization of applies also to from , for example ''both of them'' .
Hypercorrection In sociolinguistics, hypercorrection is non-standard use of language that results from the over-application of a perceived rule of language-usage prescription. A speaker or writer who produces a hypercorrection generally believes through a mi ...
s like for ''foot'' are also heard from Jamaicans.
John C. Wells John Christopher Wells (born 11 March 1939) is a British phonetician and Esperantist. Wells is a professor emeritus at University College London, where until his retirement in 2006 he held the departmental chair in phonetics. Career Wells ea ...
's dissertation, ''Jamaican pronunciation in London'', was published by the Philological Society in 1973.


Berkshire and Hampshire English

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...
and
Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...
are on the modern-day border between Estuary English and
West Country English West Country English is a group of English language varieties and accents used by much of the native population of South West England, the area sometimes popularly known as the West Country. The West Country is often defined as encompassin ...
. Berkshire is predominantly non-rhotic today, but traditional accents may still be found across the county. Parts of
West Berkshire West Berkshire is a local government district in Berkshire, England, administered from Newbury by West Berkshire Council. History The district of Newbury was formed on 1 April 1974, as a merger of the borough of Newbury, Bradfield Rural Distric ...
may still be rhotic or variably rhotic, though this feature is quickly becoming even less frequent. In country areas and Southampton, the older rhotic accent can still be heard amongst some speakers, for example by
John Arlott Leslie Thomas John Arlott, OBE (25 February 1914 – 14 December 1991) was an English journalist, author and cricket commentator for the BBC's ''Test Match Special''. He was also a poet and wine connoisseur. With his poetic phraseology, he bec ...
,
Lord Denning Alfred Thompson "Tom" Denning, Baron Denning (23 January 1899 – 5 March 1999) was an English lawyer and judge. He was called to the bar of England and Wales in 1923 and became a King's Counsel in 1938. Denning became a judge in 1944 when ...
and
Reg Presley Reginald Maurice Ball (12 June 1941 – 4 February 2013), known professionally as Reg Presley, was an English singer and songwriter. He was the lead singer with the 1960s rock and roll band the Troggs, whose hits included " Wild Thing" (#1 on th ...
. Since the 1960s, particularly in Andover and Basingstoke, the local accent has changed reflecting the arrival of East Londoners relocated by London County Council. It can be argued that Hampshire is a borderline county moving East, linguistically. "Estuary-isms" can be found in
Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...
or "Pompey" English, some of which may actually originate from Portsmouth rather than London.


West Country English

South West England or "West Country" English is a family of similar strongly rhotic accents, now perceived as rural. It originally extended an even larger region, across much of South East England, including an area south of the "
broad A Broad(s) or The Broad(s) may refer to: People * A slang term for a woman. * Broad (surname), a surname Places * Broad Peak, on the border between Pakistan and China, the 12th highest mountain on Earth * The Broads, a network of mostly nav ...
"
isogloss An isogloss, also called a heterogloss (see Etymology below), is the geographic boundary of a certain linguistic feature, such as the pronunciation of a vowel, the meaning of a word, or the use of some morphological or syntactic feature. Major d ...
, but the modern West Country dialects are now most often classified west of a line roughly from
Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...
via
Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...
. Their shared characteristics have been caricatured as
Mummerset Mummerset is a fictional English dialect supposedly spoken in a rustic English county of the same name. Mummerset is used by actors to represent a stereotypical English West Country accent while not specifically referencing any particular county. ...
. They persist most strongly in areas that remain largely rural with a largely indigenous population, particularly the
West Country The West Country (occasionally Westcountry) is a loosely defined area of South West England, usually taken to include all, some, or parts of the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Bristol, and, less commonly, Wiltshire, Gloucesters ...
. In many other areas they are declining because of RP and Estuary accents moving to the area; for instance, strong Isle of Wight accents tend to be more prevalent in older speakers. As well as rhoticity, here are common features of West County accents: * The diphthong (as in ''price'') realised as or , sounding more like the diphthong in
Received Pronunciation Received Pronunciation (RP) is the Accent (sociolinguistics), accent traditionally regarded as the Standard language, standard and most Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestigious form of spoken British English. For over a century, there has been ...
''choice''. * The diphthong (as in ''mouth'') realised as , with a starting point close to the vowel in
Received Pronunciation Received Pronunciation (RP) is the Accent (sociolinguistics), accent traditionally regarded as the Standard language, standard and most Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestigious form of spoken British English. For over a century, there has been ...
''dress''. * The vowel (as in ''lot'') realised as an unrounded vowel , as in many forms of
American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lan ...
. * In traditional West Country accents, the voiceless
fricative A fricative is a consonant produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate in t ...
s (as in ''sat, farm, think, shed'' respectively) are often voiced to , giving pronunciations like "Zummerzet" for ''Somerset'', "varm" for ''farm'', "zhure" for ''sure'', etc. * In the
Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...
area a vowel at the end of a word is often followed by an intrusive dark l, . Hence the old joke about the three Bristolian sisters Evil, Idle, and Normal (written Eva, Ida, and Norma). ''L'' is pronounced darkly where it is present, too, which means that in Bristolian rendering, 'idea' and 'ideal' are homophones. * ''H''-dropping in
South Devon South Devon is the southern part of Devon, England. Because Devon has its major population centres on its two coasts, the county is divided informally into North Devon and South Devon.For exampleNorth DevonanSouth Devonnews sites. In a narrower se ...
and
Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...
, "''Berry 'Aid''" for
Berry Head Berry Head is a coastal headland that forms the southern boundary of Tor Bay in Devon, England. Lying to the east of the town of Brixham, it is a national nature reserve and a local nature reserve. Berry Head To Sharkham Point is a Site of Sp ...
(in
Brixham Brixham is a coastal town and civil parish, the smallest and southernmost of the three main population centres (the others being Paignton and Torquay) on the coast of Torbay in the county of Devon, in the south-west of England. Commercial fish ...
, South Devon) In traditional Southern rural accents, the voiceless
fricative A fricative is a consonant produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate in t ...
s always remain voiceless, which is the main difference from West Country accents.


East Anglian English

Features which can be found in
East Anglia East Anglia is an area in the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, a people whose name originated in Anglia, in ...
n English (especially in
Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...
) include: * ''Yod''-dropping after all consonants: ''beautiful'' may be pronounced , often represented as "bootiful" or "bewtiful", ''huge'' as , and so on. * Absence of the long mid merger between
Early Modern English Early Modern English or Early New English (sometimes abbreviated EModE, EMnE, or ENE) is the stage of the English language from the beginning of the Tudor period to the English Interregnum and Restoration, or from the transition from Middle E ...
(as in ''toe, moan, road, boat'') and (as in ''tow, mown, rowed''). The vowel of ''toe, moan, road, boat'' may be realised as , so that ''boat'' may sound to outsiders like ''boot''. *
Glottal stop The glottal plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages, produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract or, more precisely, the glottis. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents thi ...
frequent for . * The diphthong (as in ''price'') realised as , sounding very much like the diphthong in
Received Pronunciation Received Pronunciation (RP) is the Accent (sociolinguistics), accent traditionally regarded as the Standard language, standard and most Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestigious form of spoken British English. For over a century, there has been ...
''choice''. * The vowel (as in ''lot'') realised as an unrounded vowel , as in many forms of
American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lan ...
. * Merger of the vowels of ''near'' and ''square'' ( RP and ), making ''chair'' and ''cheer'' homophones. * East Anglian accents are generally
non-rhotic Rhoticity in English is the pronunciation of the historical rhotic consonant by English speakers. The presence or absence of rhoticity is one of the most prominent distinctions by which varieties of English can be classified. In rhotic varieti ...
. There are differences between and even within areas of East Anglia: the Norwich accent has distinguishing aspects from the
Norfolk dialect East Anglian English is a dialect of English spoken in East Anglia, primarily in or before the mid-20th century. East Anglian English has had a very considerable input into modern Estuary English, which has largely replaced it. However, it has r ...
that surrounds itchiefly in the vowel sounds. The accents of
Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...
and
Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...
are different from the
Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...
accent.


19th-century Essex, Kent, Sussex, and Surrey English

The region largely south of London, including Surrey, Sussex, and once even Kent, used to speak with what today would be lumped under a South West England or "West Country" dialect. In all these counties plus Essex, front , front , and high vowels predominated in the 19th century. Modern Essex, Kent, and Sussex English is usually associated with non-rhotic Estuary English, mainly in urban areas receiving an influx of East London migrants since World War II. However, rhoticity used to characterize the traditional rural accents in Kent, Surrey, and Sussex, though it has long been a recessive feature. Still, it is possible that some Sussex and Kentish rhoticity lasted until as recently as the early 21st century in certain pockets. The vowel (as in ) is very occasionally used for the vowel, normally ; it has been reported as a minority variant in Kent and Essex. Certain features associated with rural
East Anglian English East Anglian English is a dialect of English spoken in East Anglia, primarily in or before the mid-20th century. East Anglian English has had a very considerable input into modern Estuary English, which has largely replaced it. However, it has r ...
were once common in this region as well: the rounding of the diphthong of (''right'' as ''roight''). In the 18th and 19th centuries, in Essex, Kent, and east Sussex, plus several other South East areas including London, Suffolk, and Norfolk, was pronounced as in pre-vocalic position: thus, ''village'' sounded like ''willage'' and ''venom'' like ''wenom''. In the 19th century, across all of Southern England, ''arter'' without an ''f'' (non-rhotically, ) was a common pronunciation of ''after''. The pattern of speech in some of
Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...
' books pertain to Kentish dialect, as the author lived at Higham, was familiar with the mudflats near
Rochester Rochester may refer to: Places Australia * Rochester, Victoria Canada * Rochester, Alberta United Kingdom *Rochester, Kent ** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area ** History of Rochester, Kent ** HM Prison ...
and created a comic character Sam Weller who spoke the local accent, principally Kentish but with strong London influences. Modern Estuary dialect features were also reported in some traditional varieties, including ''L''-vocalization e.g. ''old'' as ''owd'', as well as
yod-coalescence The phonological history of the English language includes various changes in the phonology of consonant clusters. H-cluster reductions The H-cluster reductions are various consonant reductions that have occurred in the history of English, inv ...
in Kent.


Essex

The East Anglian feature of ''yod''-dropping was common in Essex. In addition,
Mersea Island Mersea Island is an island in Essex, England, in the Blackwater and Colne estuaries to the south-east of Colchester. Its name comes from the Old English word ''meresig'', meaning "island of the pool" and thus is tautological. The island is s ...
(though not the rest of Essex) showed some rhoticity in speakers born as late as the early 20th century, a feature that characterised other rural dialects of South East England in the 19th century.
Th-fronting ''Th''-fronting is the pronunciation of the English "th" as "f" or "v". When ''th''-fronting is applied, becomes (for example, ''three'' is pronounced as ''free'') and becomes (for example, ''bathe'' is pronounced as ''bave''). (Here "fron ...
, a feature now widespread in England, was found throughout Essex in the 1950s
Survey of English Dialects The Survey of English Dialects was undertaken between 1950 and 1961 under the direction of Professor Harold Orton of the English department of the University of Leeds. It aimed to collect the full range of speech in England and Wales before loca ...
, which studied speakers born in the late 1800s. Many words are unique to 19th-century Essex dialect, some examples including ''bonx'' meaning "to beat up batter for pudding" and ''hodmedod'' or ''hodmadod'' meaning "snail". Several nonstandard grammatical features exist, such as irregular plural forms like ''housen'' for "houses".


Surrey

A unique dialect existed as recently as the late 19th century in the historic county of
Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...
, in western
Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
, and in parts of northern
Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...
,Davis, Graeme, ''Dictionary of Surrey English'' (2007), p.30 though it has now almost entirely died out. It was first documented by Granville W. G. Leveson Gower (1838–1895), of
Titsey Place Titsey Place is an English country house near Oxted in Surrey, England. It was successively the family seat, seat of the Gresham Baronets, Gresham and Leveson-Gower families and is now preserved by a charitable trust for the nation. The house ha ...
, during the 1870s and first published by him in ''A Glossary of Surrey Words'' in 1893. Gower was first made aware of the dialect after reading a letter in a local newspaper. Following that, and after his own enquiries, he expressed a fear that improved transport and the spread of education would cause such local dialects to disappear and be forgotten despite the fact that, in his words, "Old customs, old beliefs, old prejudices die hard in the soil of England".Gower, Granville, ''A Glossary of Surrey Words'', (1893), Oxford University Press Gower described certain standard English words with nonstandard pronunciations in the Surrey dialect: Gowers mentions:
''Acrost for across; agoo for ago; batcheldor for bachelor; brownchitis (or sometime brown titus) for bronchitis; chimley or chimbley for chimney; crowner for coroner; crowner's quest for coroner's inquest; curosity and curous for curiosity and curious ; death for deaf; disgest for digest, and indisgestion for indigestion; gownd for gown; scholard for scholar; nevvy for nephew; non-plush'd for non-plussed; refuge for refuse; quid for cud, " chewing the quid; "sarment for sermon; varmint for vermin; sloop for slope; spartacles for spectacles; spavin for spasms. I knew an old woman who was constantly suffering from "the windy spavin;" taters for potatoes; wunstfor once; wuts for oats, etc., etc."''
Syntax of the Surrey dialect included: * The Old and Middle English prefix of "a-" is used generally before substantives, before participles and with adjectives placed after nouns, e.g., a-coming, a-going, a-plenty, a-many. * Double negatives in a sentence are common, "You don't know nothing", "The gent ain't going to give us nothing" * "be" is common for "are", e.g., "How be you?" is noted, to which "I be pretty middlin', thank ye" was the usual answer. * Superlatives (+est) were used in place of the word "most", e.g., "the impudentest man I ever see" * "You've no ought" was the equivalent of "you should not" * "See" was used for saw (the
preterite The preterite or preterit (; abbreviated or ) is a grammatical tense or verb form serving to denote events that took place or were completed in the past; in some languages, such as Spanish, French, and English, it is equivalent to the simple pas ...
usually
past simple The simple past, past simple or past indefinite, sometimes called the preterite, is the basic form of the past tense in Modern English. It is used principally to describe events in the past, although it also has some other uses. Regular English ...
) of see * "Grow'd," "know'd," "see'd," "throw'd," and similar were however also used both for the perfect and participle passive of the verbs, e.g., "I've know'd a litter of seven whelps reared in that hole" * Past participle takes more complex forms after common consonants "-ded," "-ted," e.g., attackted, drownded, "Such a country as this, where everything is either scorched up with the sun or drownded with the rain." * The pleonastic use of "-like" denoting "vaguely", e.g. comfortable-like, timid-like, dazed-like, "I have felt lonesome-like ever since." * "all along of" meaning "because of" Phonological features included long-standing
yod-coalescence The phonological history of the English language includes various changes in the phonology of consonant clusters. H-cluster reductions The H-cluster reductions are various consonant reductions that have occurred in the history of English, inv ...
, now typical of dialects throughout England, as well as the increasingly disappearing feature of rhoticity. * bait – an afternoon meal about 4 pm * bannick – a verb meaning to beat or thrash * baulky – is said of a person who tries to avoid you * beazled – tired * beatle – a mallet * befront – in front of * beleft – the participle of "believe" * bettermost – upper-class people * bly – a likeness, "he has a bly of his father" * burden – a quantity * comb – the moss that grows on church bells * clung – moist or damp grass * dryth – drought * fail – a verb meaning to fall ill * fly-golding – a
ladybird Coccinellidae () is a widespread family of small beetles ranging in size from . They are commonly known as ladybugs in North America and ladybirds in Great Britain. Some entomologists prefer the names ladybird beetles or lady beetles as they ...
* foundrous – boggy or marshy * gratten – stubble left in a field after harvest * hem – a lot or much * hot – a verb meaning to heat something up, "hot it over the fire" * innardly – to talk innardly is to mumble * leastways – otherwise * lief – rather, "I'd lief not" * lippy – rude * market fresh – drunk * messengers – small clouds (also called "water dogs") * middlin – reasonable or average * mixen – a heap of dung or soil * mothery – mouldy * notation – making a fuss * nurt – a verb meaning to entice * ornary – being unwell (the word means "ordinary") * peart – brisk or lively * picksome – pretty or dainty * platty – uneven * quirk – a faint noise indicating fear * runagate – good for nothing * sauce – vegetables, e.g. "green sauce", pronounced "soss" * scrow – a verb to scowl * shatter – sprinkling * shifty – untidy * shuckish – unsettled, showery weather * snob – shoemaker * spoon meat – soup * statesman – landowner * stood – stuck * swimy – giddy * the smoke – London * tidy – adjective meaning good or well * timmersome – timid * uppards – towards London or in the north * venturesome – brave * welt – scorched * wift – quic


Sussex

In addition to the above features, namely rhoticity, the traditional Sussex accent showed certain other features, like an extremely narrow vowel and
th-stopping ''Th''-stopping is the realization of the dental fricatives as stops—either dental or alveolar—which occurs in several dialects of English. In some accents, such as of Indian English and middle- or upper-class Irish English, they ...
.
Reduplicated plural A reduplicated plural is a grammatical form achieved by the superfluous use of a second plural ending. In English the plural is usually formed with the addition of 's': e.g. one cat, two cats; one chair, two chairs. In the Sussex dialect, howev ...
forms were a grammatical feature of the Sussex dialect, such as ''ghostses'' in place of the standard English ''ghosts''. Many old Sussex words once existed, thought to have derived from Sussex's fishermen and their links with fishermen from the coasts of France and the Netherlands. A universal feminine gender pronoun was typical, reflected in a joking saying in Sussex that 'Everything in Sussex is a she except a tomcat and she's a he.'


See also

*
South African English South African English (SAfrE, SAfrEng, SAE, en-ZA) is the set of English language dialects native to South Africans. History British settlers first arrived in the South African region in 1795, when they established a military holding op ...
*
Australian English Australian English (AusE, AusEng, AuE, AuEng, en-AU) is the set of varieties of the English language native to Australia. It is the country's common language and ''de facto'' national language; while Australia has no official language, Engli ...
*
Zimbabwean English Zimbabwean English (ZimE; en-ZIM; en-ZW) is a regional variety of English found in Zimbabwe. While the majority of Zimbabweans speak Shona (75%) and Ndebele (18%) as a first language, standard English is the primary language used in education, ...
*
New Zealand English New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...
*
Falkland Islands English Falkland Islands English is mainly British in character. However, as a result of the isolation of the islands, the small population has developed and retains its own accent/dialect, which persists despite many immigrants from the United Kingdo ...
*
Regional accents of English Spoken English language, English shows great variation across regions where it is the predominant language. For example, the United Kingdom has the largest variation of accents of any country in the world, and therefore no single "British accen ...


References

* {{English dialects by continent English language in England .