User:Garik/Welsh English/Regional Welsh accents draft

Regional accents within Wales
There is a very wide range of regional accents within Wales.

General South Wales
The 'sing-song' Welsh accent familiar to many English people is generally associated with South Wales and the South Wales Valleys of the old South Wales Coalfield. Somewhat reduced  South Wales accents can be heard from serious Shakespearian theatre actors Richard Burton and Anthony Hopkins, or on recordings of Dylan Thomas. Such accents are prominent in the film Twin Town and heard from Tom Jones and Catherine Zeta-Jones. An online survey for the BBC, reported in January 2005, placed the Swansea accent in the bottom ten accents likely to help a career, although "Cardiff folk ranked only a few places higher".

Cardiff
The Cardiff accent and dialect is somewhat distinctive in Wales. People associated with the accent include Charlotte Church, Colin Jackson, Shirley Bassey, and local broadcaster and folk singer, Frank Hennessy. In colloquial language, Cardiffians tend to use a 3rd person singular verb conjugation when referring to the 1st person singular or plural. For example, I knows it/We knows it rather than I know it/We know it. A more general and distinguishing feature is the pronunciation of /ɑː/ as /æ/. Taking this into account with the general Welsh English feature of pronouncing /ɪ/ as /ɛ/, Cardiffians would say they're from Cah-deff. Furthermore, there is a tendency to use the present indicative form of a verb when the imperfect form is required, such as I come in and sit down rather than I came in and sat down.

The city itself has different dialects, with people from the eastern and western districts of the city having a stronger and broader accent than those living in north Cardiff. They also tend to pronounce here as yur and all right as orraye. Informal Cardiff vocabulary includes the word lush to mean great, fabulous or attractive, and the word cracking to mean good or cool.

The accent is so broad that a speech software company worked with Cardiffians to improve such software. Although based in nearby Barry, accents heard in the sitcom Gavin & Stacey are not Cardiff or Barry accents, with the exception of the character Nessa, played by Ruth Jones.

Newport
The accent of Newport is quite similar to that of Cardiff and has some of the influence of rural Monmouthshire, i.e. some Newportonians going shopping go "down town", which may be pronounced as "Dewn tewn", for 'into town'. An influx of Midlanders 100 years ago, when the Lysaghts steelworks was opened, has also had some effect. Many aspects of the accent are clearly discernible in songs by Newport-based satirical rap group Goldie Lookin Chain. "Come here" is often given as come by yer. "I saw you" is often given as I seen you.

North East Wales
In North East Wales, the accent can sound like those of Cheshire and Merseyside (the latter most evident in Flintshire). Towns nearer the border or with substantial populations tend to have Scouse-like accents, due to the preference of the urban youth and Liverpudlians living there, as well as the high population of families having moved there from the Liverpool area in recent centuries. It is not unusual to find that someone whose first language is Welsh speaks English like a Liverpudlian. More 'sing-song' accents are often found in Welsh speakers in the Northeast. However, some linguists believe there is some evidence to suggest that a massive movement of Welsh speakers to Liverpool, Birkenhead and Chester between 1800 and 1950 (100,000 Welsh speakers in Liverpool in 1901) influenced the dialect of "scouse" in a Welsh direction, particularly in use of the word "mam" and the sound.

Wrexham
The Wrexham accent is a mixture of the border accent found in nearby Flintshire and the strong south walian accent found in the valleys of Glamorgan. This maybe down to the influences of a south Walian influx of mining workers to the area during its mining heyday between 1900 and the 1980s. Instead of using My people in Wrexham and surrounding areas are more likely to use Me for instance 'Me sister is over there'. Often there is little emphesis on the H in words 'its over 'ere' or 'thats me 'ouse'. People from Wrexham have their own that often replace words for instance 'annoy' becomes 'Moider' in a sentence it could be 'Stop Moidering me' and 'broke' is replaced by 'skint'. There expressions used for things like 'I seen me own arse about that' instead of 'Im embarressed/annoyed about that' and 'Half soaked' instead of 'forgetful/stupid'.

West Wales
In the South of Pembrokeshire, the accent is similar in some respects to Cornish speech patterns. Certain Welsh words such as 'crwt' (boy) and 'pwdu' (in a mood) are used, despite the low number of Welsh speakers in the area(14% in Little England beyond Wales according to the 2001 census). Conversely, the Somerset expression 'why aye' is heard in South Pembrokeshire. Owing to the high number of English migrants to the area, South Pembrokeshire is sometimes claimed to have an almost English accent; however, this is incorrect.. There is a distinct South Pembrokeshire accent and terminology used, although this is now in retreat.

Accents in Wales vary even over relatively short distances. The Neath accent is different again. Within Carmarthenshire, there is a noticeable difference between the Carmarthen, Llanelli and Ammanford accents. As in many other areas of Britain, the strength of different south-Walian accents is frequently related to social class, with the pronunciation of more educated speakers often closer to RP.