The Accents of Northern England

1 1 Introduction 1.1 English Accents British English is a language of accents. This apparently plain state- ment actually reveals what is often forgotten or dismissed in current gen- eral descriptions of British English. This partly explains the relative diffi- culty for a foreigner when faced with the varied reality of English as spo- ken in the British Isles. The average learner of the language, indeed, has been usually exposed to only one variety of it during his/her year(s) of study, namely what will be labelled from now onwards ‘neutral accent’ or ‘(current) RP’. This pronunciation system is everywhere adopted in the English- speaking world and elsewhere as a reference accent for native speakers as well as for learners of the language. Yet the accent taken as a model is actually one of the many accents spoken in Great Britain, differing from the others in having gradually gained social prestige as well as being used as a standard in the country. This notwithstanding, RP is not the system of pronunciation a foreigner is most likely to hear in Britain, its use