Accents of English: Volume 1 An Introduction

Accents of English is about the way English is pronounced by different people in different places.

Accents of English is about the way English is pronounced by different people in diffeent places. Volume I provides a synthesizing introduction, which shows how accents vary not only geographically, but also with social class, formality, sex and age; and in volumes 2 and 3 the author examines in greater depth the various accents used by people who speak English as their mother tongue: the accents of the regions of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland (volume 2), and of the USA, Canada, and West Indies, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Black Africa and the Far East (volume 3). Each volume can be read independently, and together they form a major scholarly survey of considerable originality, which not only includes descriptions of hitherto neglected accents, but also examines the implications for phonological theory.

Volume I: An Introduction: Preface; Typographical conventions and phonetic symbols; Part I. Aspects of Accent: 1. Linguistic and social variability; 2. Accent phonology; 3. How accents differ; 4. Why accents differ; Part II. Sets and Systems: 5. The reference accents; 6. Standard lexical sets; 7. Systems: a typology; Part III. Developments and Processes: 8. Residualisms; 9. British prestige innovations; 10. Some American innovations; 11. Some further British innovations; Sources and further reading; References; Index.

Accents of English is about the way English is pronounced by different people in different places. It looks at how accents vary not only geographically, but also with social class, formality, sex and age, and examines the various accents of English speakers throughout the UK and other English-speaking countries.