English of Northern England

The English of northern England consists of many varieties. Famous ones include Liverpool and Manchester. Nevertheless, the accent of northern England is distinct from that of the south.

The following is typical of the English of northern England:

The trap-bath split of southern England is not observed. The words cat and cast both have a front vowel. However, the words calf, can't, half and master have a back vowel, unlike in American English.

The vowel of cat is pronounced with a central vowel rather than a front vowel. The front vowel is common in southern England. In words such as cart, palm and tomato the vowel is also central but longer than in words such as cat, man and past.

The foot-strut split is absent in northern England. The result is that but and cut rhyme. In some varieties, words such as book and look have the vowel of blue. This pronunciation is also common in Scottish English.

The diphthongs of day and snow are often pronounced as monophthongs. However, this varies across the region.

In words such as best, dress and pet, the vowel is usually lower than in southern England. The final vowel of words such as city and happy is pronounced with a lax vowel rather than a tense one by most speakers. Liverpool is a notable exception.

The north of England lacks a clear distinction between the velarized and non-velarized lateral. In the north, most speakers pronounce lake and well with a velarized lateral. The English of Manchester uses only the velarized /l/. However, in Northumberland, the /l/ is never velarized. This is also typical of Irish English.

Northern England has many varieties of  English. The pronunciation varies from one region to another. However, a number of pronunciation features serve to distinguish the English of the north from that of the south.