Yorkshire Accent
The Yorkshire Accent is the name generally given to the group of English accents used by the majority of people in the English county of Yorkshire.
The characteristic features of the accent of the region include
- A flat, uninflected manner of speech, with less tonal variation than Standard English.
- The "u" sound is pronounced like the standard English "oo", so "luck" is pronounced (in SAMPA) "lUk". The difference between the Yorkshire Pronunciation of "look" and "luck" is difficult to hear, the "look" vowel being slightly longer in duration and tending towards the SAMPA lyk pronunciation.
- Shortening of "the" to "t", as in "I'm going down 't pub". Sometimes even the "t" is now omitted totally.
- Many dialect words, for example "owt" and "nowt" for "anything" or "nothing", "bevvy" for drink etc.
- Use of the singular second-person pronoun "thou" and "thee", largely in the southern parts of Yorkshire. These are often pronounced "thah" and "thi".
- In all cases of the past tense of "to be" is "were": "I were wearing t'red coat, but he were wearing t'green one".
- In the South-East of Yorkshire vowel shifts so "i" becomes "ee", and "ee" becomes "i", so "Where have you been last night" becomes "wherst tha bin last neet".
