English English
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English English is a term that has been applied to the English language as spoken in England. In English speaking countries outside the UK, the term "British English" is much more frequently used for this variety of English; however, Peter Trudgill in Language in the British Isles introduced the term English English (EngEng), and this term is now generally recognised in academic writing in competition with Anglo-English and English in England.
In this usage the term British English has a wider meaning, and is usually (but not always) reserved to describe the features common to English English, Welsh English, Hiberno-English, and Scottish English. According to Tom McArthur in the Oxford Guide to World English (p. 45), the phrase British English shares "all the ambiguities and tensions in the word British, and as a result can be used and interpreted in two ways, more broadly or more narrowly, within a range of blurring and ambiguity".
General features
The British Isles are one of the most linguistically diverse areas in the English-speaking world. Significant changes in dialect (pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary) may occur within one region. The four major divisions are normally classified as Southern English dialects, Midlands English dialects, and Northern English dialects, and Scottish English and the closely related dialects of Scots and Ulster Scots (varieties of Scots spoken in Ulster). There is also Hiberno-English (English as spoken in Ireland) and the form of English used in Wales. The various English dialects differ in the words they have borrowed from other languages. The Scottish and Northern dialects include many words originally borrowed from Old Norse; the Scottish dialects include words borrowed from Scots and Scottish Gaelic. Hiberno-English includes words derived from Irish.
An important feature of English regional accents is the bundle of isoglosses — geographically running roughly from mid-Shropshire to south of Birmingham and then to The Wash — separating Northern and Southern accents. This reflects the historical Danelaw division, which split England into Viking-controlled and Saxon-controlled areas.
Accents throughout Britain are influenced by the phoneme inventory of regional dialects, and native English speakers can often tell quite precisely where a person comes from, frequently down to a few miles. Historically, such differences could be a major impediment to understanding between people from different areas.
However, modern communications and mass media have reduced these differences significantly. In addition, speakers may modify their pronunciation and vocabulary towards Standard English, especially in public circumstances. In consequence, the accent best known to many people outside the United Kingdom as English English, is that of Received Pronunciation (RP).
Until recently, RP English was widely believed to be more educated than other accents and was referred to as the King's (or Queen's) English, or even "BBC English" (due to the fact that in the early years of broadcasting it was very rare to hear any other dialects on the BBC). However, for several decades, regional accents have been more widely accepted and are frequently heard. Thus the relatively recent spread of Estuary English is influencing accents throughout the south east.
Some of the features of English English are that:
- Most versions of this dialect have non-rhotic pronunciation, wherein r is not pronounced in syllable coda position. This pronunciation is also found in many other English dialects, including Australian English, Indian English, New Zealand English, and South African English. Parts of the Eastern United States settled by the English have non-rhotic pronunciation, most notably New England and New York City. Areas with rhotic accents are Scotland, Northumbria, the West Country, and parts of Lancashire--mostly areas with Old Norse influence.
- Northern versions of the dialect often lack the foot-strut split, so that there is no distinction between /ʊ/ and /ʌ/, making put and putt homophones as [pʊt].
- Many varieties undergo h-dropping, making harm and arm homophones. This is a feature of working-class accents across most of England, but is heavily stigmatised (a fact the comedy musical My Fair Lady was quick to exploit). See Trask (1999), pp104-106. The accents of Northumberland and Tyneside are an exception to this rule.
- The distinction between {{IPA in wine and whine is lost in most varieties.
- Most varieties have the horse-hoarse merger. However some northern accents retain the distinction, pronouncing pairs of words like for/four, horse/hoarse and morning/mourning differently. (Wells 1982, section 4.4)
- The consonant clusters [sj], [zj], and [lj] in suit, Zeus, and lute are preserved by some.
- The distinction between rood and rude, through and threw, shoot and chute, choose and chews, you and yew etc. is lost in most varieties.
- The distinction between {{IPA in pane and pain, daze and days etc. is preserved in some varieties.
- The distinction between {{IPA in moan and mown, toe and tow, sole and soul, throne and thrown etc. is preserved in some varieties.
- Some varieties lack the meet-meat merger, so that the distinction between pairs like meat and meet, sea and see etc. is preserved in some varieties.
- Many Southern varieties have the bad-lad split, so that bad /bæːd/ and lad /læd/ don't rhyme.
- Many Northern varieties lack the wait-weight merger, so that wait /weːt/ and weight /wɛɪt/ are not homophones.
- In the Southern variety, words like bath, cast, dance, fast, after, castle, grass etc. are pronounced with broad A (that is, [ɑː]) while in the Midlands and Northern varieties they're pronounced with the same vowel as trap or cat, usually [a], as they are in Scottish English.
- Generally speaking, the only vowel which is pronounced the same in every regional accent in England is the short "e" as in keg or deck.
Southern England
In general, Southern English accents are distinguished from Northern English accents primarily by the use of broad A (that is, words like "cast" and "bath" are pronounced /kɑːst/, /bɑːθ/ rather than /kæst/, /bæθ/. There are other peculiarities in specific regions. Accents originally from the upper-class speech of the London–Oxford–Cambridge triangle are particularly notable as the basis for Received Pronunciation,
Southern English accents have three main historical influences:
- The London accent, in particular, Cockney.
- Received Pronunciation ('R.P.').
- Southern rural accents, of which the West Country, Kent and East Anglian accents are examples.
After World War 2 around 1 million Londoners were relocated to new and expanded towns throughout the south east, bringing with them their distinctive London accent (and possibly sowing the seed of Estuary English).
Midlands
- As in the North, Midlands accents generally do not use a broad A, so that cast is pronounced [kast] rather than the [kɑːst] pronunciation of most southern accents. The northern limit of the [ɑː] in many words crosses England from mid-Shropshire to The Wash, passing just south of Birmingham.
- Midlands speech also generally uses the northern short U, so putt is pronounced the same as put. The southern limit of this pronunciation also crosses from mid-Shropshire to the Wash, but dipping further south to the northern part of Oxfordshire.
- The West Midlands accent is often described as having a pronounced nasal quality, the East Midlands accent much less so.
- Old and cold may be pronounced in the Midlands as "owd" and "cowd" (rhyming with "loud"), and in the northern Midlands home can become "wom".
- The best known accents in the West Midlands area are the Birmingham accents (see "Brummie") and the Black Country accent (Yam Yam).
- Dialect verbs are used, for example am for are, ay for is not (related to ain't), bay for are not, bin for am or, emphatically, for are. Hence the following joke dialogue about bay windows: "What sort of windas am them?" "They'm bay windas." "Well if they bay windas wot bin them?". There is also humour to be derived from the shop-owner's sign of Mr. "E. A. Wright" (that is, "He ay [isn't] right," a phrase implying someone is saft [soft] in the jed [head]). Saft also may mean silly as in, "Stop bein' so saft".
- The Birmingham and Coventry accents are quite distinct, even though the cities are not very far apart.
- The g sound may be emphatically pronounced where it occurs in the combination ng, in words such as ringing and fang.
- Around Stoke-on-Trent, the short i can sound rather like a short e, so milk and biscuit become something like "melk" and "bess-kit". Strong accents can even render the latter as "bess-keet".
- Herefordshire and parts of Worcestershire and Shropshire have a rhotic accent somewhat like the West Country.
- East Midlands accents are generally non-rhotic.
- Yod-dropping, as in East Anglia, can be found in some areas, for example new as /nuː/, sounding like "noo".
- The u vowel of words like strut is often [ʊ] and even shorter than in the North, with no distinction between putt and put.
- In Northamptonshire, crossed by the North-South isogloss, residents of the north of the county have an accent similar to that of Leicestershire and those in the south an accent similar to rural Oxfordshire.
- The town of Corby in Northamptonshire has an accent with some originally Scottish features, apparently due to immigration of Scottish steelworkers. [link]
- In Leicester, words with short vowels such as up and last have a northern pronunciation, whereas words with long vowels such as down and road sound rather more like a south-eastern accent.
- In Nottinghamshire north of the Trent, ee found in short words is pronounced as two syllables, for example feet being ['fijəʔ], sounding like "fee-yut" (and also in this case ending with a glottal stop).
- Mixing of the words was and were when the other is used in Standard English.
Northern England
- East Midlands accents are generally non-rhotic.
- Yod-dropping, as in East Anglia, can be found in some areas, for example new as /nuː/, sounding like "noo".
- The u vowel of words like strut is often [ʊ] and even shorter than in the North, with no distinction between putt and put.
- In Northamptonshire, crossed by the North-South isogloss, residents of the north of the county have an accent similar to that of Leicestershire and those in the south an accent similar to rural Oxfordshire.
- The town of Corby in Northamptonshire has an accent with some originally Scottish features, apparently due to immigration of Scottish steelworkers. [link]
- In Leicester, words with short vowels such as up and last have a northern pronunciation, whereas words with long vowels such as down and road sound rather more like a south-eastern accent.
- In Nottinghamshire north of the Trent, ee found in short words is pronounced as two syllables, for example feet being ['fijəʔ], sounding like "fee-yut" (and also in this case ending with a glottal stop).
- Mixing of the words was and were when the other is used in Standard English.
Northern England
General features
There are several accent features which are common to most of the accents of northern England.
- The "short a" vowel of cat, trap is normally pronounced [a] rather than the [æ] found in traditional Received Pronunciation and in many forms of American English.
- The accents of Northern England generally do not use a broad A, so cast is pronounced [kast] rather than the [kɑːst] pronunciation of most southern accents.
- Northern English tends not to have /ʌ/ (strut, but, etc.) as a separate vowel. Most words that have this vowel in RP are pronounced with /ʊ/ in Northern accents, so that put and putt are homophonous as /pʊt/. But some words with /ʊ/ in RP can have /uː/ in Northern accents, so that a pair like luck and look may be distinguished as /lʊk/ and /luːk/.
- The Received Pronunciation phonemes /eɪ/ (as in face) and /əʊ/ (as in goat) are often pronounced as monophthongs (such as [eː] and [oː]), although the quality of these vowels varies considerably across the region.
- In many areas, the letter y on the end of words as in happy or city is pronounced [ɪ], like the i in bit, and not [i].
See Yorkshire dialect and accent.
Some characteristics which can be found in Lancashire accents (other than Scouse) include:
- Lack of Ng coalescence, so that words like sing may have a hard [g] sound at the end.
- Rhotic accents may be found in some parts of Lancashire, for example around Accrington, Burnley and Bolton.
- In some words with RP /əʊ/ a sound more like [ɔɪ] may be used, for example, "hole" is pronounced (in IPA) [hɔɪl], "hoil", although is uncommon in newer generations.
- Merger of the vowels of nurse and square. For example fair and fur can sound exactly the same, in some areas.
- The use of owt and nowt (sometimes spelled as aught and naught) for "anything" or "nothing". Ewt and newt are also Lancashire variations thereof.
- The use of summat (sometimes spelled as summit or sommat) for something.
- Glottal stop frequent for /t/. Phrases like "to the" become [tɘʔ] "tert" (with to the pronounced with a schwa and a glottal stop). [tu̟ːʔ] "toot" and [tɘt] "tert" are never used.
- Use of the third person singular were (it were a big step for me).
- Use of the first person singular were (I were massive in them days).
- Use of a "z" sound for an "s" as in "bus" pronounced "buzz" for example in Darwen.
Lancashire also has many dialect words, and as in Yorkshire, reduction of the to t' may be found, or in some older generations, reduction of the to th. An example of the latter is in the place name "Back o'th Moss" (Back of the Moss) and "Hall i'th Wood" (Hall in the Wood).
- The Newcastle Upon Tyne/Tyneside dialect is known as Geordie whereas the dialect of neighbouring Sunderland/Wearside is Mackem. The two are broadly similar but do have slight differences in word usage and pronunciation. For example, with words ending -re/-er, such as culture and father, the end syllable is pronounced by Geordies as a short 'a', such as in 'fat' and 'back' therefore producing "cultcha" and "fatha" respectively. Natives of Sunderland (Mackems) pronounce the syllable much more closely to the standard English. Similarly, in Geordie "make" is pronounced in line with standard English e.g. to rhyme with take. However, a Mackem would pronounce "make" to rhyme with "mack" or "tack". For other differences see the respective articles. For an explanation of the traditional dialects of the mining areas of County Durham and Northumberland see Pitmatic.
Examples of accents used by public figures
- Received Pronunciation: The Queen has followed the changes of this accent over the years.
- Berkshire (a southern rural accent): poet Pam Ayres.
- Birmingham (Brummie): the rock musician Ozzy Osbourne (although he sometimes americanises his speech), Jasper Carrot. Mark Rhodes Pop Idol 2003. See Brummie for more examples.
- Bolton: comedian Peter Kay, McFly singer and guitarist Danny Jones and BBC Radio 1 DJ Vernon Kay.
- Coventry: the actor Clive Owen, in the films Sin City and King Arthur
- Bristol: Professor Colin Pillinger of the Beagle 2 project.
- Gloucestershire: Laurie Lee, ruralist
- Hampshire (a southern rural accent): the late John Arlott, sports presenter.
- London: listen to old recordings by Petula Clark, Julie Andrews, the Rolling Stones, and The Who (although many of these contain affected patterns). For a clear example see actor Stanley Holloway (Eliza Doolittle's father in My Fair Lady), or footballer David Beckham.
- *Cockney: the actor Bob Hoskins. More examples can be heard in the movies Snatch and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels.
- *Mockney: used by Guy Ritchie and many musicians, it is a variant of the London regional accent characterised by a non-standard mixture of linguistic and social class characteristics.
- *Estuary: the model Jordan (Katie Price).
- Liverpool (Scouse): recordings by The Beatles (George Harrison's accent was the strongest of the four), Gerry and the Pacemakers, Echo and the Bunnymen. Also the singer Cilla Black and the actors Craig Charles and Ricky Tomlinson.
- Manchester: Oasis members Liam and Noel Gallagher, Herman's Hermits, actor Christopher Eccleston, actor Dominic Monaghan.
- Northumberland/Tyneside (Geordie): the actor Robson Green, the footballer Alan Shearer, actor and singer Jimmy Nail, rock singer Brian Johnson and television personalities Ant and Dec
- Sunderland (Mackem): the accent of the rock group The Futureheads, is easily detected on recordings and live performanes
- West Midlands: Phil Drabble, presenter of One Man and His Dog.
- Yorkshire this accent can be detected in interviews with Melanie Brown of the Spice Girls and David Bradley in the 1969 film Kes, the lead character has a very broad Barnsley accent. Sam Nixon from Pop Idol 2003, Top Of The Pops Saturday and Reloaded and Level Up also has a Barnsley accent. Singer Gareth Gates has a Yorkshire accent as he is from Bradford. Actor Peter Sallis, of Last of the Summer Wine and Wallace and Gromit, speaks with the accent from the Holme Valley of Yorkshire.
Radio and TV featuring regional English accents
Misrepresentations can also appear in the media. The soap "Emmerdale" is set in Yorkshire, yet some of the actors have Lancashire accents. "Coronation Street" is set in Lancashire, yet some of the actors speak with Yorkshire accents. It's fair to say both programmes have actors from either side of the Pennines. "The Archers" has had characters with a variety of different West Country accents (see Mummerset). Also, CBBC show Byker Grove is set in Byker, Newcastle whereas the actors in recent series often have Sunderland accents.
The shows of Ian La Frenais and Dick Clement have often included a variety of regional accents, the most notable being Auf Wiedersehen Pet about working class men in Germany. Other programmes by them include Porridge featuring London and Cumberland accents, and The Likely Lads, featuring north east England.
The programmes of Carla Lane such as The Liver Birds and Bread also feature Scouse accents.
The film Brassed Off is known for being a terribly inaccurate representation of accents in the Barnsley area of Yorkshire.
In the 2005 version of the sci-fi show Doctor Who, various Londoners wonder that if The Doctor (played by Christopher Eccleston is an alien, how come he sounds like he comes from the North? (The usual response is "Lots of planets have a North!")
See also
References
- Peters, Pam (2004). The Cambridge Guide to English Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 052162181X.
- McArthur, Tom (2002). Oxford Guide to World English. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198662483 hardback, ISBN 0198607717 paperback.
- Trask, Larry (1999). Language: The Basics, 2nd edition. London: Routledge. ISBN 041520089X.
- Trudgill, Peter (1984). Language in the British Isles. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521284090.
- Wells, J. C. (1982). Accents of English 2: The British Isles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521285402.
External links
- [IANA language tag for eng-GB-oed]
- [British National Corpus]. (Official website for the BNC.)
- [English Accents and Dialects]: searchable free-access archive of 681 English English speech samples, wma format with linguistic commentary including phonetic transcriptions in X-SAMPA, British Library [Collect Britain] website.
- [Online British English and American English pronunciation courses]
- [The American·British British·American Dictionary]
- [BBC America's British American dictionary]
- [European Commission English Style Guide] PDF. (Advocates -ise spellings.)
- For the Yorkshire dialect, see http://www.yorksj.ac.uk/dialect/
- For Scottish English, see http://www.scots-online.org/grammar/sse.htm
- [World English Organization]
See Yorkshire dialect and accent.
Some characteristics which can be found in Lancashire accents (other than Scouse) include:
- Lack of Ng coalescence, so that words like sing may have a hard [g] sound at the end.
- Rhotic accents may be found in some parts of Lancashire, for example around Accrington, Burnley and Bolton.
- In some words with RP /əʊ/ a sound more like [ɔɪ] may be used, for example, "hole" is pronounced (in IPA) [hɔɪl], "hoil", although is uncommon in newer generations.
- Merger of the vowels of nurse and square. For example fair and fur can sound exactly the same, in some areas.
- The use of owt and nowt (sometimes spelled as aught and naught) for "anything" or "nothing". Ewt and newt are also Lancashire variations thereof.
- The use of summat (sometimes spelled as summit or sommat) for something.
- Glottal stop frequent for /t/. Phrases like "to the" become [tɘʔ] "tert" (with to the pronounced with a schwa and a glottal stop). [tu̟ːʔ] "toot" and [tɘt] "tert" are never used.
- Use of the third person singular were (it were a big step for me).
- Use of the first person singular were (I were massive in them days).
- Use of a "z" sound for an "s" as in "bus" pronounced "buzz" for example in Darwen.
Lancashire also has many dialect words, and as in Yorkshire, reduction of the to t' may be found, or in some older generations, reduction of the to th. An example of the latter is in the place name "Back o'th Moss" (Back of the Moss) and "Hall i'th Wood" (Hall in the Wood).
- The Newcastle Upon Tyne/Tyneside dialect is known as Geordie whereas the dialect of neighbouring Sunderland/Wearside is Mackem. The two are broadly similar but do have slight differences in word usage and pronunciation. For example, with words ending -re/-er, such as culture and father, the end syllable is pronounced by Geordies as a short 'a', such as in 'fat' and 'back' therefore producing "cultcha" and "fatha" respectively. Natives of Sunderland (Mackems) pronounce the syllable much more closely to the standard English. Similarly, in Geordie "make" is pronounced in line with standard English e.g. to rhyme with take. However, a Mackem would pronounce "make" to rhyme with "mack" or "tack". For other differences see the respective articles. For an explanation of the traditional dialects of the mining areas of County Durham and Northumberland see Pitmatic.
Examples of accents used by public figures
- Received Pronunciation: The Queen has followed the changes of this accent over the years.
- Berkshire (a southern rural accent): poet Pam Ayres.
- Birmingham (Brummie): the rock musician Ozzy Osbourne (although he sometimes americanises his speech), Jasper Carrot. Mark Rhodes Pop Idol 2003. See Brummie for more examples.
- Bolton: comedian Peter Kay, McFly singer and guitarist Danny Jones and BBC Radio 1 DJ Vernon Kay.
- Coventry: the actor Clive Owen, in the films Sin City and King Arthur
- Bristol: Professor Colin Pillinger of the Beagle 2 project.
- Gloucestershire: Laurie Lee, ruralist
- Hampshire (a southern rural accent): the late John Arlott, sports presenter.
- London: listen to old recordings by Petula Clark, Julie Andrews, the Rolling Stones, and The Who (although many of these contain affected patterns). For a clear example see actor Stanley Holloway (Eliza Doolittle's father in My Fair Lady), or footballer David Beckham.
- *Cockney: the actor Bob Hoskins. More examples can be heard in the movies Snatch and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels.
- *Mockney: used by Guy Ritchie and many musicians, it is a variant of the London regional accent characterised by a non-standard mixture of linguistic and social class characteristics.
- *Estuary: the model Jordan (Katie Price).
- Liverpool (Scouse): recordings by The Beatles (George Harrison's accent was the strongest of the four), Gerry and the Pacemakers, Echo and the Bunnymen. Also the singer Cilla Black and the actors Craig Charles and Ricky Tomlinson.
- Manchester: Oasis members Liam and Noel Gallagher, Herman's Hermits, actor Christopher Eccleston, actor Dominic Monaghan.
- Northumberland/Tyneside (Geordie): the actor Robson Green, the footballer Alan Shearer, actor and singer Jimmy Nail, rock singer Brian Johnson and television personalities Ant and Dec
- Sunderland (Mackem): the accent of the rock group The Futureheads, is easily detected on recordings and live performanes
- West Midlands: Phil Drabble, presenter of One Man and His Dog.
- Yorkshire this accent can be detected in interviews with Melanie Brown of the Spice Girls and David Bradley in the 1969 film Kes, the lead character has a very broad Barnsley accent. Sam Nixon from Pop Idol 2003, Top Of The Pops Saturday and Reloaded and Level Up also has a Barnsley accent. Singer Gareth Gates has a Yorkshire accent as he is from Bradford. Actor Peter Sallis, of Last of the Summer Wine and Wallace and Gromit, speaks with the accent from the Holme Valley of Yorkshire.
Radio and TV featuring regional English accents
Misrepresentations can also appear in the media. The soap "Emmerdale" is set in Yorkshire, yet some of the actors have Lancashire accents. "Coronation Street" is set in Lancashire, yet some of the actors speak with Yorkshire accents. It's fair to say both programmes have actors from either side of the Pennines. "The Archers" has had characters with a variety of different West Country accents (see Mummerset). Also, CBBC show Byker Grove is set in Byker, Newcastle whereas the actors in recent series often have Sunderland accents.
- The Newcastle Upon Tyne/Tyneside dialect is known as Geordie whereas the dialect of neighbouring Sunderland/Wearside is Mackem. The two are broadly similar but do have slight differences in word usage and pronunciation. For example, with words ending -re/-er, such as culture and father, the end syllable is pronounced by Geordies as a short 'a', such as in 'fat' and 'back' therefore producing "cultcha" and "fatha" respectively. Natives of Sunderland (Mackems) pronounce the syllable much more closely to the standard English. Similarly, in Geordie "make" is pronounced in line with standard English e.g. to rhyme with take. However, a Mackem would pronounce "make" to rhyme with "mack" or "tack". For other differences see the respective articles. For an explanation of the traditional dialects of the mining areas of County Durham and Northumberland see Pitmatic.
Examples of accents used by public figures
The shows of Ian La Frenais and Dick Clement have often included a variety of regional accents, the most notable being Auf Wiedersehen Pet about working class men in Germany. Other programmes by them include Porridge featuring London and Cumberland accents, and The Likely Lads, featuring north east England.
The programmes of Carla Lane such as The Liver Birds and Bread also feature Scouse accents.
The film Brassed Off is known for being a terribly inaccurate representation of accents in the Barnsley area of Yorkshire.
In the 2005 version of the sci-fi show Doctor Who, various Londoners wonder that if The Doctor (played by Christopher Eccleston is an alien, how come he sounds like he comes from the North? (The usual response is "Lots of planets have a North!")
See also
References
- Peters, Pam (2004). The Cambridge Guide to English Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 052162181X.
- McArthur, Tom (2002). Oxford Guide to World English. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198662483 hardback, ISBN 0198607717 paperback.
- Trask, Larry (1999). Language: The Basics, 2nd edition. London: Routledge. ISBN 041520089X.
- Trudgill, Peter (1984). Language in the British Isles. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521284090.
- Wells, J. C. (1982). Accents of English 2: The British Isles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521285402.
External links
- [IANA language tag for eng-GB-oed]
- [British National Corpus]. (Official website for the BNC.)
- [English Accents and Dialects]: searchable free-access archive of 681 English English speech samples, wma format with linguistic commentary including phonetic transcriptions in X-SAMPA, British Library [Collect Britain] website.
- [Online British English and American English pronunciation courses]
- [The American·British British·American Dictionary]
- [BBC America's British American dictionary]
- [European Commission English Style Guide] PDF. (Advocates -ise spellings.)
- For the Yorkshire dialect, see http://www.yorksj.ac.uk/dialect/
- For Scottish English, see http://www.scots-online.org/grammar/sse.htm
- [World English Organization]
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