The document discusses British dialects and accents, focusing on Cockney dialect spoken in East London. It provides examples of phonetic rules in Cockney pronunciation compared to Received Pronunciation (RP). It also discusses the play and film My Fair Lady, where Henry Higgins teaches Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle to speak like a lady by training her to use RP. The document defines characteristics of Cockney dialect and other regional accents in the UK.

1. Accents &
Dialects
Studying UK
Dialects, Actors,
and Play
PLAY:
MY FAIR LADY
MOTION PICTURE
MUSICAL (1964)
Pygmalion (1913) by George Bernard Shaw 1
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2. Accents & Dialects
COCKNEY
DIALECT
Some Dialect Rules
Rhyming Slang
Use of Ain’t, Me/My,
Double Negatives
Consonants
Glottal Stop
• Drop H
• Drop J
• Drop T and D (end words)
• Drop R (end words)
Vowels
Diphthongs (closing)
• /a/ with ah
• /i/ is /ei or /ai/
• /ai/ is /ae/
• -er is /ə / and /ɐ /
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3. Accents & Dialects
Henry Higgins
Simple
phonetics.
The Science
of Speech.
You see this creature with her curb-stone
English; the English that will keep her in
the gutter to the ends of her days? Well,
sir, in six months I could pass her off as a
duchess at the Embassy Ball.
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4. Accents & Dialects
Henry Higgins
A woman who utters
such depressing and
disgusting noises has
no right to be
anywhere – no right to
live. Remember that
you are a human being
with a soul and the
divine gift of articulate
speech.
DIALECT:
RP - POSH
*QUEENS ENGLISH
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5. Accents & Dialects
I ain’t done nothin’
wrong by speakin’ to
the gentleman. I’ve a
right to sell flowers if I
keep off the
kerb.
DIALECT: COCKNEY ELIZA DOOLITTLE
Th-fronting: /θ/ “th” sound becomes ”f” as
in /nəfin/
T-glottalization: /t/ and /k/ and /p/
“speakin’” might become /spe’in/ where the
/k/ and ending ing is dropped
“They” or “the” becomes /dæɪ/
“ain’t” becomes /æɪn/
Alveolar stops: /t/ and /d/ are often omitted
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6. Accents & Dialects
The rain in Spain stays
mainly on the plain. But
in Hartford, Hereford and
Hampshire hurricanes
hardly ever happen.
DIALECT: COCKNEY ELIZA DOOLITTLE
Vowel Diphthongs
[æɪ]
Cockney
Rain /Spain / Main / plain
/ræɪn/, /spæɪn/, /mæɪn/ , /plæɪn/
Hartford / Hereford /Hampshire
/artvord /, /erevord/, / ampshir/
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7. Accents & Dialects
DIALECT: RP
(Received Pronunciation)
ELIZA DOOLITTLE
I should never have
known how ladies
and gentlemen
behave if it hadn’t
been for Colonel
Pickering. He always
showed me that he
felt and thought
about me as if I were
something better
than a common
flower girl.
RP English
“Perfectly charmed. Thank you.”
/pɜːfɪktli/ /ʧɑːmd / / θæŋk ju/
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8. Accents & Dialects
ACCENT:
COCKNEY DIALECT
Region:
East End London
Class:
Working Class Londoners
Etymology:
“small cock’s egg” OED, Middle
English Late 14th Century
16th Century, “Bow- Bell area”
“permanent resident of London”
(Etymology Online, n.d.)
Eliza, you are to stay
here for the next six
months learning how
to speak beautifully,
like a lady in
a florist’s shop.
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9. Accents & Dialects
Geordie
Northeast England
Cockney
East London
Brummie
Birmingham
Yorkshire
North England, County of York
MLE
Multicultural London
English
Posh – RP
Upper Class
Received Pronunciation
Scott - Glaswegian
Scottish Standard English
(Wales)
Scourse
Liverpool, Merseyside
The UK has over 40 dialects
(Accents Continuum)
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10. West Country
Cockney
East End London
Posh - RP
Oxfordshire
*Queens English
Estuary English
London (Thames)
Hiberno English
Ulster English
Ireland
Harry Potter Cast Dialect
Diversity
Each character speaks a different
dialect representing regions in the UK
Accents & Dialects
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11. Accents & Dialects
Works Cited
Simple
phonetics.
The Science
of Speech.
Dashakub. (2014, March 25). The cockney dialect. StArt Linguistics.
https://startlinguistics.wordpress.com/2014/03/25/the-cockney-dialect/.
Etymology Online. N.D. Retrieved from: https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=Cockney
Wikipedia. N.D. Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockney
Tom, F. (2020, February 20). 10 British dialects you need to know.
https://www.ef.com/wwen/blog/language/british-dialects-you-need-to-know/.
Warner Bros. Pictures. (1964). My Fair Lady. United States.
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