you’ll hear a multitude of different accents

from Liverpool

to Scotland

from South Wales

to North East England

and Northern Ireland

In this video, we’ll explore some of the sounds that make these accents so distinctive

A [k] sound is known as a plosive,

because it stops the air and then releases it in an explosive manner

Speakers in Liverpool and the surrounding county of Merseyside

may not always pronounce /k/ as a plosive

Sometimes it turns into a fricative: [x]

Fricatives are sounds made with friction:

the air is squeezed through a small gap in the mouth

When I pronounce the word "brick", it ends in a plosive sound: [k]

But listen to this speaker from Merseyside pronounce "brick" with a fricative

This sound is typical of Scouse

which is the name given to the accent of Merseyside, including the city of Liverpool

Listen to some more speakers from this area pronouncing /k/ as a fricative

In my accent, words like "wear" and "where" sound the same

But some speakers in Scotland will make a difference

Whereas "w" is pronounced [w]

“wh” may be pronounced [ʍ]

In phonetic terminology, this is a voiceless labial-velar fricative

It sounds like you are blowing out a candle

Listen to how this speaker from Scotland pronounces "wear" and "where" differently

Here are some more speakers from Scotland pronouncing words with this [ʍ] sound

Linguists give vowels names to make it easier to talk about them

The vowel sound in "round", "owl", and "town" is known as the MOUTH vowel

In my accent, it has an [aʊ] sound

But it’s pronounced very differently by speakers in Northern Ireland.

One sound that is typical of the Geordie accent from Newcastle and other accents in North East England

is the [p]

Compare the difference between a speaker from the south of England and a speaker from the North East

In North East England, the [p] sound is sometimes pronounced with constriction in the larynx

This constriction might sound like a glottal stop or

“this type of sound”. which is called creaky voice

Here are some more speakers from Newcastle and other areas of North East England

Listen to the [p] sounds

The vowel in "turn" and "first" is known as the NURSE vowel

In my accent, the lips are relaxed for this sound

But some speakers in South Wales will round their lips

The word “year”, which has a different vowel in my accent

is often pronounced with this NURSE vowel in the south of Wales

Here are some more lip-rounded NURSE vowels from South Wales

I hope my accent videos have trained your ears to recognise the diverse sounds found across the UK

If you missed the first two videos in the series, check them out here

And if you’re an English learner who wants to improve your pronunciation,

then sign up for my British Council award-nominated course

It’s tailored to your native language

prioritises sounds that improve your clarity

and uses Standard Southern British English as its model

Click the link to find out more!

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