118
nian accent is the over-enunciation of vowel sounds when com-
pared to the flattened sounds of neighbouring areas. This is also
noticeable with words ending in
such as tenner. Tradition-
ally, the Manchester area was known for glottal reinforcement of
the consonants /k/, /p/ and /t/, similar to modern speech in
the north-east of England.
John C. Wells observed the accents of Leeds and Manches-
ter. He found them to be similar despite the historic divide be-
tween the two sides of the Pennines. His proposed criteria for
distinguishing the two are that Mancunians avoid Ng-
coalescence, so singer rhymes with finger /
ˈ
s
ɪ
ŋ
ɡə
/ and king, ring,
sing, etc. all end with a hard
ɡ
sound, and also that Leeds resi-
dents employ "Yorkshire assimilation", by which voiced conso-
nants change into voiceless consonants in words such as Brad-
ford /
ˈ
bratf
ə
d/, subcommittee /s
ʊ
pk
əˈ
m
ɪ
t
ɪ
/ and frogspawn
/
ˈ
fr
ɒ
ksp
ɔː
n/.
The Mancunian dialect may have originally developed from
the old Lancastrian dialects and could have been affected by the
vast influx of immigrants introduced to the city during the Indus-
trial Revolution, when the cities of Salford and Manchester be-
came a port due to the building of the Manchester Ship Canal.
Immigrants moved to the city for work opportunities from many
parts of Europe, most notably Ireland.
/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_dialect/
The Yorkshire dialect refers to the varieties of English
used in the Northern England historic county of Yorkshire.
Those varieties are often referred to as Broad Yorkshire or Tyke.
The dialect has roots in older languages such as Old Eng-
lish and Old Norse; it should not be confused with modern
slang. The Yorkshire Dialect Society exists to promote use of the
dialect in both humour and in serious linguistics; there is also an
East Riding Dialect Society.
Yorkshire is generally not as stigmatised as other dialects,
and has been used in classic works of literature such as Wuther-
ing Heights. Studies have shown that accents in the West Riding