Northern England English
Northern English
Region	Northern England
Language family	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic Ingvaeonic Anglo-Frisian Anglic Anglian North Anglic Northern English Northern England English
Writing system	English alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	nort3299  Northern English
How the vowel sound insun varies across England. The thick lines areisoglosses. Northern English dialects have not undergone theFOOT–STRUT split, distinguishing them fromSouthern English andScottish dialects.[1]
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The spokenEnglish language in Northern England has been shaped by the region's history of settlement and migration, and today encompasses a group of relatedaccents anddialects known asNorthern England English orNorthern English.^[2][3]

The strongest influence on modern varieties of Northern English was theNorthumbrian dialect ofMiddle English. Additional influences came fromcontact withOld Norse during theViking Age; withIrish English following theGreat Famine, particularly in Lancashire and the south of Yorkshire; and with Midlands dialects since theIndustrial Revolution. All these produced new and distinctive styles of speech.^[2]

Traditionaldialects are associated with many of the historic counties of England, and include those ofCumbria,Lancashire,Northumbria, andYorkshire. Followingurbanisation in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, distinctivedialects arose in many urban centres in Northern England, with English spoken using a variety of distinctive pronunciations, terms, and expressions.^{[4]: 16–18} Northern Englishaccents are often stigmatized,^[5] and some native speakers modify their Northern speech characteristics in corporate and professional environments.^[6][7]

There is some debate about how spoken varieties of English have impacted written English in Northern England;^[8] furthermore, representing adialect oraccent in writing is not straightforward.^[9]

The varieties of English spoken across modern Great Britain form an accent and dialect continuum, and there is no agreed definition of which varieties are Northern,^{[4]: 8–14} and no consensus about what constitutes "the North".^{[10]: 3–9}

Wells uses a broad definition of the linguistic North, comprising all accents that have not undergone theTRAP–BATH andFOOT–STRUT splits. On that basis, theisogloss between North and South runs from theRiver Severn toThe Wash, and covers the entire North of England (which Wells divides into "Far North" and "Middle North") and most of the Midlands, including the distinctiveBrummie (Birmingham) andBlack Country dialects.^{[11]: 349–351}

In hisseminal study of English dialects,Alexander J. Ellis defined the border between the North and the Midlands as that where the wordhouse is pronounced withu: to the north.^[12] For Ellis, "the North" occupied the area northwards of a line running from theHumber Estuary on the east coast to theRiver Lune on the west (more recently, some linguists refer to theRiver Ribble, slightly further south).^[10]: 6

According to Wells, although well-suited to historical analysis, Ellis's line does not reflect everyday usage, which does not consider Manchester or Leeds, both located south of the line, as part of the Midlands.^{[11]: 349–350}

An alternative approach is to define the linguistic North as equivalent to thecultural area of Northern England – approximately the sevenhistoric counties ofCheshire,Cumberland,County Durham,Lancashire,Northumberland,Westmorland andYorkshire, or the three modernstatistical regions ofNorth East England,North West England andYorkshire and the Humber.^[4]: 1–8 This approach was taken by theSurvey of English Dialects (SED), which used the historic counties (minus Cheshire) as a basis, and groupedManx English with Northern dialects.^[13]: 13 Under Wells' scheme, the SED's definition includes Far North and Middle North dialects but excludes those of the Midlands.^{[11]: 349–351}

Scottish English is distinct from Northern English, although the two have interacted with and influenced each other.^[4]: 2

Many historical northern dialects reflect the influence ofOld Norse.^[14][15] In addition to previous contact withVikings, during the 9th and 10th centuries most of northern and eastern England was part of either theDanelaw or the Danish-controlledKingdom of Northumbria (except for much of present-dayCumbria, which was part of theKingdom of Strathclyde). Consequently, modernYorkshire dialects, in particular, are considered to have been influenced heavily byOld West Norse (the ancestor of Norwegian) andOld East Norse (the ancestor of Swedish and Danish).^[16]

In the 19th century, there was large-scale migration from Ireland to Northern England, particularly toLiverpool and itshinterland. Summarising the views of several scholars, Wales (2006) highlights some features of accents and dialects in the North West influenced byHiberno-English, such as thedental articulation ofdat ("that") andtree ("three"), and the usage ofyous as the second-person plural pronoun(see§ Pronouns, below).^[13]: 119

Varieties include:

• Cheshire dialect
• Cumbrian dialect
• Geordie – spoken inNewcastle andTyneside, which includes southern parts ofNorthumberland
• Lancashire dialect
• Mackem – inSunderland andWearside
• Mancunian – inManchester,Salford, various other areas ofGreater Manchester, and parts ofLancashire and easternCheshire
• Northumbrian dialect
• Pitmatic – two varieties: one in the former mining communities ofCounty Durham, the other inNorthumberland
• Scouse – inLiverpool andMerseyside, with varieties in westernCheshire and southernLancashire
• Smoggie – inTeesside
• Yorkshire dialect.

A survey published in 2022 found that compared to the findings of theSurvey of English Dialects carried out in the first half of the twentieth century, the edges of many dialect regions have shifted. Furthermore, there are transitional zones between dialects where towns, such as those between Manchester and Liverpool, may display considerable heterogeneity. The authors also found evidence of dialect regions crossing county boundaries.^{[17]: 50, 61, 62}

General Northern English (GNE) refers to a newer "pan-regional standard accent" emerging fromdialect leveling and the "reduction of accent variation" found in Northern England. GNE is associated with educated urbanites. A 2020 study sampling 105 accents from Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne and Sheffield discovered a "considerable degree of leveling, especially between Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield, although some differences persist."^{[6]: 1 [7]}

There are several speech features that unite most of the accents of Northern England and distinguish them from Southern England and Scottish accents.^{[11]: 349–351}

The accents of Northern England generally do not have thetrap–bath split observed inSouthern England English, so that the vowel inbath,ask andcast is the shortTRAP vowel/a/:/baθ,ask,kast/, rather than/ɑː/ found in the south. There are a few words in theBATH set likecan't,shan’t,half,calf,rather which are pronounced with /ɑː/ in most Northern English accents as opposed to/æ/ in Northern American accents. The/æ/ vowel ofcat, trap is normally pronounced[a] like in Standard Southern British English, rather than the[æ] found in traditional Received Pronunciation orGeneral American, while/ɑː/, as in the wordspalm,cart,start,tomato, may not be differentiated from/æ/ by quality, but by length, being pronounced as a longer[aː].^{[11]: 353–356}

Thefoot–strut split is absent in Northern English, so that, for example,cut andput rhyme and are both pronounced with/ʊ/; words likelove, up, tough, judge, etc. also use this vowel sound. This has led to Northern England being described "Oop North"/ʊpnɔːθ/ by some in the south of England. Some words with/ʊ/ inRP even have/uː/ – book is pronounced/buːk/ in some Northern accents (particularly in Lancashire, Greater Manchester and eastern parts of Merseyside where the Lancashire accent is still prevalent), while conservative accents also pronouncelook andcook as/luːk/ and/kuːk/.^{[11]: 351–353}

The Received Pronunciation phonemes/eɪ/ (as inface) and/əʊ/ (as ingoat) are often pronounced as monophthongs (such as[eː] and[oː]), or as older diphthongs (such as/ɪə/ and/ʊə/). However, the quality of these vowels varies considerably across the region, and this is considered a greater indicator of a speaker's social class than the less stigmatised aspects listed above.

In most areas,happy-tensing has not occurred; the unstressed vowel at the end of words suchhappy,coffee andtaxi is pronounced[ɪ], like thei inbit, and not[i]. This was also the norm in RP until the late 20th century.^[18] The tenser[i], similar to Southern England and Modern RP, is found throughout the North East fromTeesside northwards, and in theMerseyside andHull areas.^[19]

The/ɒ/ vowel ofLOT is a fully open[ɒ] rather than the open-mid[ɔ] of modern Received Pronunciation and Southern England English.^[11]: 356

The most commonR sound, when pronounced in Northern England, is the typical Englishpostalveolar approximant^ⓘ; however, analveolar tap^ⓘ is also widespread, particularly following a consonant or between vowels.^[11]: 368 This tap predominates most fully in theScouse accent. The North, like most of the South, is largely (and increasingly)non-rhotic, meaning thatR is pronounced only before a vowel or between vowels, but not after a vowel (for instance, in words likecar, fear, andlurk). However, regions that are rhotic (pronouncing allR sounds) or somewhat rhotic are possible, particularly amongst older speakers:^[11]: 368

• Lancashire andGreater Manchester areas north of thecity of Manchester may residually be rhotic or pre-consonantally rhotic (pronouncingR before a consonant but not in word-final position), for example, inAccrington andRochdale.

• Lincolnshire may weakly retain word-final (but not pre-consonantal) rhoticity.

• Uvular rhoticity, in which the sameR sound as in French and German is used, has been described as the traditional "burr" of rural, northernNorthumberland – possible as well, though also rare, inCounty Durham.

The North does not have the clear distinction between the"clearL"^ⓘ and"darkL"^ⓘ common to most other accents in England; most Northern accents pronounce allL sounds with a moderate amount ofvelarization. Exceptions to this are inTyneside,Wearside andNorthumberland, whereL is clear,^[20]: 42 and in Lancashire and Manchester, whereL is dark.^{[21]: 130 [a]}‍^[22]

Some northern English speakers have noticeable rises in theirintonation: to other speakers of English, they may sound "perpetually surprised or sarcastic."^[23]

In general, the grammatical patterns of Northern English are similar to those of British English. However, Northern English has several unique characteristics.^[32]

Under theNorthern Subject Rule, the suffix"-s", which in Standard English grammar only appears in thethird-person singular present, is attached to verbs in many present- and past-tense forms (leading to, for example, "the birds sings"). More generally, third-person singular forms ofirregular verbs, such asto be, may be used with plurals and othergrammatical persons; for instance "the lambs is out". In modern dialects, the most obvious manifestation is alevelling of the past-tense verb-formswas andwere. Either may dominate depending on the region andindividual speech patterns (so some Northern speakers may say "I was" and "You was", while others prefer "I were" and "You were"). Furthermore, in many dialects, especially in the far North,weren't is treated as thenegation ofwas.^[33]

The "epistemicmustn't", wheremustn't is used to markdeductions such as "This mustn't be true", is largely restricted within the British Isles to Northern England, although it is more widely accepted in American English, and is likely inherited fromScottish English. A few other Scottish traits are also found in far Northern dialects, such asdouble modal verbs (might could instead ofmight be able to), but these are restricted in their distribution and are mostly dying out.^{[34]: 26, 38}

While standard English now only has a single second-person pronoun,you, many Northern dialects have additional pronouns either retained from earlier forms or introduced from other variants of English.

The pronounsthou andthee have survived in many rural Northern dialects. In some case, these allow thedistinction between formality and familiarity to be maintained, while in othersthou is a generic second-person singular, andyou (orye) is restricted to the plural. Even whenthou has died out, second-person plural pronouns are common. In the more rural dialects and those of the far North, this is typicallyye, while in cities and areas of the North West with historical Irish communities, this is more likely to beyous.^{[35]: 85–86}

Conversely, the process of "pronoun exchange" means that many first-person pronouns can be replaced by the first-personobjective pluralus (or more rarelywe orwor) in standard constructions. These includeme (so "give me" becomes "give us"),we (so "we Geordies" becomes "us Geordies") andour (so "our cars" becomes "us cars"). The latter especially is a distinctively Northern trait.^{[35]: 84–85}

Almost all British vernaculars have regularisedreflexive pronouns, but the resulting form of the pronouns varies from region to region. In Yorkshire and the North East,hisself andtheirselves are preferred tohimself andthemselves. Other areas of the North have regularised the pronouns in the opposite direction, withmeself used instead ofmyself. This appears to be a trait inherited from Irish English, and like Irish speakers, many Northern speakers use reflexive pronouns in non-reflexive situations for emphasis. Depending on the region, reflexive pronouns can be pronounced (and often written) as if they ended-sen,-sel or-self (even in plural pronouns) or ignoring the suffix entirely.^{[35]: 85–86}

Very few terms fromBrittonic languages have survived, with the exception ofplace-name elements (especially inCumbria) and, by some accounts, theYan Tan Tethera counting system, traditionally used in counting stitches in knitting,counting-out games,nursery rhymes, and, reputedly, counting sheep.^[36] However, the most likely source for this isWales in thepost-medieval period.^[36][37]

In some Northern English dialects, the formsyan andyen used to meanone, as insomeyan ("someone") orthat yan ("that one"): Griffiths (2004) notes that "OE án (with long vowel) remained 'an' in the North, with the 'a' breaking to 'ia', 'ie', etc."^[38]

Acorpus study ofLate Modern English texts from or set in Northern England foundlad ("boy" or "young man") andlass ("girl" or "young woman") were the most widespread "pan-Northern" dialect terms. Other terms in the top ten included a set of threeindefinite pronounsowt ("anything"),nowt ("naught" or "nothing") andsummat ("something"), the Anglo-Scottishbairn,bonny andgang, andsel/sen ("self") andmun ("must"). Regional dialects within Northern England also had many unique terms, andcanny ("clever") andnobbut ("nothing but") were both common in the corpus, despite being limited to the North East and to the North West and Yorkshire respectively.^{[8]: 144–146}

• English language in Southern England
• Northern Subject Rule – Distinctive feature of Northern English and Scots
• Scottish English – Variety of English spoken in Scotland

• Laurel, MacKenzie; Bailey, George; Turton, Danielle (2022)."Towards an updated dialect atlas of British English"(PDF).Journal of Linguistic Geography.10 (1):46–66.ISSN 2049-7547. Presents the results of a large-scale dialect survey and hence the status of regional dialect variation, and draws comparisons with the findings of theSurvey of English Dialects carried out in the first half of the twentieth century.

• Wales, Katie (2006).Northern English: A Social and Cultural History.Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.ISBN 978-0-521-86107-6.OCLC 64313095. An account of Northern English that surveys its history, culture, and diversity.

• Edwin Waugh Dialect Society – Lancashire dialect
• Northumbrian Language Society – Northumbrian dialect
• Yorkshire Dialect Society – Yorkshire dialect

• English language in England
• North East England
• Yorkshire
• Lancashire
• Northern England

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