Навчальний посібник для студентів ос «Бакалавр» галузі знань 03 «Гуманітарні науки»

Chapter 11 
British accents and dialects
 
To speak of the British accent, in most parts of the world, means to speak of 
an extremely formal type of English known as Received Pronunciation (RP) 
or “The Queen’s English”. What may come as a surprise to those visiting the 
UK for the first time is how uncommon this accent is amongst the British 
population, including those in positions of authority. Indeed, there are an 
incredible number of different British accents on this small island, indicating 
not only which part of the country the speaker is from, but also providing 
some idea of their upbringing and social class. For people outside of the UK 
some regional accents will be almost impossible to understand and it is quite 
useful for anyone studying English to gain as much exposure to different 
types of British accent as possible; this is particularly true if you aim to study 
or work here. 
The difference between British accents and dialects
It is useful to first distinguish between accent and dialect. When we talk about 
accent, we are focusing on pronunciation. Dialect concerns not only 
pronunciation, but also expressions and phrases exclusive to certain regions. 
For an idea of the variations in dialect vocabulary one only has to consider the 
fifteen different names for the humble bread roll. This can prove confusing 
even for the native population. Indeed, anyone hoping for a sweet treat rather 
than a sandwich should avoid asking for a “barm cake” or “stottie cake” in the 
North of England. 
Whilst it is 
usually
possible for a native British English speaker to understand 
the accent of someone from another part of the country, particularly strong 
regional accents will sometimes be accompanied by subtitles- even in 
documentaries broadcast to a UK audience. It could be argued that dialects 
present a greater barrier to understanding than accents on their own. Although 

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people encounter a variety of different British accents simply by watching 
television, their exposure to regional dialects is less. 
Many Youtube users from the UK (and all around the world!) have uploaded 
videos of themselves reading from a list of words and answering a few simple 
questions to provide others with an idea of both pronunciation and dialect in 
their region. Check out a couple of examples from Liverpool in the 
north and Bristol in the south of England. 

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