The distinction betweenbroad and general accents is asocio-economic-linguistic contrast made between differentaccents of the same language, typically spoken in a single geographical location and perceived by the language users themselves:
The capitalized term "broad" to refer to a dialect is commonly placed before a place name in the United Kingdom, such as "Broad Lancashire" or "Broad Yorkshire".[2] The supposed mainstream English accent of the United States has been called "General American" since the early-mid 20th century.
Broad andgeneral are not definitively established terms inphonology andphonetics, and thus other terms are commonly used to make the same basic distinction. Irish linguist Raymond Hickey, for example, has classified the broad traditional accent ofDublin as "local" and more general mainstream accents of Dublin collectively as "non-local". He has also referred to a particular general and non-local accent common throughout Ireland as "supraregional".[3]
Sometimes a third category is also distinguished: acultivated accent that is considered particularly cultured, stylish, affluent, or even contrived, associated with the educatedupper class of a given region. All three distinctions (cultivated, general, and broad) are well studiedvarieties withinSouth African,New Zealand, andAustralian English phonology. The same three basic concepts also commonly characterize scholarly discussions of the dialects of southeastern England (particularly aroundLondon) in the 21st century—namely:Received Pronunciation (cultivated),Estuary English (general), andCockney orMulticultural London English (broad).