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].^[3] In Cardiff, bag is pronounced with a long vowel [aː].^[4] In Mid-Wales, a pronunciation resembling its New Zealand and South African analogue is sometimes heard, i.e. trap is pronounced /trɛp/^[5]
• The vowel of end /ɛ/ is a more open vowel and thus closer to cardinal vowel [ɛ] than RP^[3]
• In Cardiff, the vowel of "kit" /ɪ/ sounds slightly closer to the schwa sound of above, an advanced close-mid central unrounded vowel [ɘ̟]^[3]
• The vowel of "bus" /ʌ/ is pronounced [ɜ]^[6] and is encountered as a hypercorrection in northern areas for foot.^[5] 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.^[5]
• 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/^[4]

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/.^[7]

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]^[8] and more often as a long open front unrounded vowel /aː/^[5]
• 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]^[9]
• 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]^[10]
• In northern varieties, /əʊ/ as in coat and /ɔː/ as in caught/court may be merged into /ɔː/ (phonetically [oː]).^[4]

Diphthongs

• Fronting diphthongs tend to resemble Received Pronunciation, apart from the vowel of bite that has a more centralised onset [æ̈ɪ]^[10]
• Backing diphthongs are more varied:^[10]
  • 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 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).^[11]
• 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^[12] and accents influenced by Welsh^[12]
• Some gemination between vowels is often encountered, e.g. money is pronounced [ˈmɜn.niː]^[13]
• In northern varieties influenced by Welsh, pens and pence merge into /pɛns/ and chin and gin into /dʒɪn/^[13]
• In the north-east, under influence of such accents as Scouse, ng-coalescence does not take place, so sing is pronounced /sɪŋɡ/^[14]
• 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^[12]
• Some first-language Welsh speakers in north-west Wales and in west and south-west Wales lack the voiced alveolar fricative /z/ which is replaced with the voiceless alveolar fricative /s/ in words like cheese and thousand.^[15]
• 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^[13]