Welsh English

Pronunciation

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Vowels

Short monophthongs

• The vowel of cat /æ/ is pronounced as a more central near-open front unrounded vowel [æ̈].^[4] In Cardiff, bag is pronounced with a long vowel [aː].^[5] In Mid-Wales, a pronunciation resembling its New Zealand and South African analogue is sometimes heard, i.e. trap is pronounced /trɛp/^[6]
• The vowel of end /ɛ/ is a more open vowel and thus closer to cardinal vowel [ɛ] than RP^[4]
• In Cardiff, the vowel of "kit" /ɪ/ sounds slightly closer to the schwa sound of above, an advanced close-mid central unrounded vowel [ɘ̟]^[4]
• The vowel of "bus" /ʌ/ is pronounced [ɜ]^[7] and is encountered as a hypercorrection in northern areas for foot.^[6] It is sometimes manifested in border areas of north and mid Wales as an open front unrounded vowel /a/ or as a near-close near-back rounded vowel /ʊ/ in northeast Wales, under influence of Cheshire and Merseyside accents.^[6]
• The schwa tends to be supplanted by an /ɛ/ in final closed syllables, e.g. brightest /ˈbrəitɛst/. The uncertainty over which vowel to use often leads to 'hypercorrections' involving the schwa, e.g. programme is often pronounced /ˈproːɡrəm/^[5]

Long monophthongs

Monophthongs of Welsh English as they are pronounced in Abercrave, from Coupland & Thomas (1990:135–136).

Monophthongs of Welsh English as they are pronounced in Cardiff, from Coupland & Thomas (1990:93–95). Depending on the speaker, the long /ɛː/ may be of the same height as the short /ɛ/.^[8]

Diphthongs of Welsh English as they are pronounced in Abercrave, from Coupland & Thomas (1990:135–136)

Diphthongs of Welsh English as they are pronounced in Cardiff, from Coupland & Thomas (1990:97)

• The vowel of car is often pronounced as an open central unrounded vowel [ɑ̈]^[9] and more often as a long open front unrounded vowel /aː/^[6]
• In broader varieties, particularly in Cardiff, the vowel of bird is similar to South African and New Zealand, i.e. a mid front rounded vowel [ø̞ː]^[10]
• Most other long monophthongs are similar to that of Received Pronunciation, but words with the RP /əʊ/ are sometimes pronounced as [oː] and the RP /eɪ/ as [eː]. An example that illustrates this tendency is the Abercrave pronunciation of play-place [ˈpleɪˌpleːs]^[11]
• In northern varieties, /əʊ/ as in coat and /ɔː/ as in caught/court may be merged into /ɔː/ (phonetically [oː]).^[5]

Diphthongs

• Fronting diphthongs tend to resemble Received Pronunciation, apart from the vowel of bite that has a more centralised onset [æ̈ɪ]^[11]
• Backing diphthongs are more varied:^[11]
  • The vowel of low in RP, other than being rendered as a monophthong, like described above, is often pronounced as [oʊ̝]
  • The word town is pronounced with a near-open central onset [ɐʊ̝]
  • Welsh English is one of few dialects where the Late Middle English diphthong /ɪu/ never /juː/. Thus you /juː/, yew /jɪʊ̯/, and ewe /ɪʊ̯/ are not homophones in Welsh English.

Consonants

• A strong tendency (shared with Scottish English, Northern English and some South African accents) towards using an alveolar tap [ɾ] (a 'tapped r') in place of an approximant [ɹ] (the r used in most accents in England).^[12]
• Rhoticity is largely uncommon, apart from some speakers in Port Talbot who supplant the front vowel of bird with /ɚ/, like in many varieties of North American English^[13] and accents influenced by Welsh^[13]
• Some gemination between vowels is often encountered, e.g. money is pronounced [ˈmɜn.niː]^[14]
• In northern varieties influenced by Welsh, pens and pence merge into /pɛns/ and chin and gin into /dʒɪn/^[14]
• In the north-east, under influence of such accents as Scouse, ng-coalescence does not take place, so sing is pronounced /sɪŋɡ/^[15]
• Also in northern accents, /l/ is frequently strongly velarised [ɫː]. In much of the south-east, clear and dark L alternate much like they do in RP^[13]
• As Welsh lacks the letter Z and the voiced alveolar fricative /z/, some first-language Welsh speakers replace it with the voiceless alveolar fricative /s/ in words like cheese and thousand, especially in north-west, west and south-west Wales.^[16]
• The consonants are generally the same as RP but Welsh consonants like [ɬ] and [x] are encountered in loan words such as Llangefni and Harlech^[14]