List of dialects of the English language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is a list of varieties of the English language. Dialects are varieties differing in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar not to be confused with the regional accents of English speakers, which mark speakers as members of groups by their various pronunciations of the standard language.

International classifications

• International English or World English
• Commonwealth English
• Native American English
• North American English
• Mid-Atlantic English
• South Asian English
• East Asian English

Europe

• European English
• British English (BrE)
  • England (English English (EngEng))
    • Received Pronunciation (Queen's English, BBC English)
    • Northern English
      • Tees speak
      • Geordie (spoken in Northumberland)
      • Mackem (spoken in Sunderland)
      • Pitmatic (spoken in Durham)
      • Cumbrian
      • Tyke (Yorkshire)
      • Lancashire
      • Mancunian (or 'Manc')
      • Scouse (spoken in Merseyside)
    • East Midlands English
      • Derbyshire
      • Nottinghamshire
      • Lincolnshire
      • Leicestershire
    • West Midlands English
      • Black Country (Yam Yam)
      • Brummie (spoken in Birmingham)
      • Potteries (North Staffordshire)
      • Herefordshire
      • Warwickshire
      • Worcestershire
    • East Anglian English
      • Norfolk dialect (Broad Norfolk)
      • Suffolk dialect
    • South East England
      • Estuary English
      • Cockney (London)
    • West Country dialects
      • Somerset
      • Devon
      • Cornwall
      • Dorset
  • Scotland
    • Scottish English
    • Highland English
    • Glaswegian
  • Wales
    • Welsh English
    • North East English a toned down Scouse/Manchester accent due to English population
    • Pembrokeshire dialect
• Ireland (Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland)
  • Hiberno-English
  • Mid Ulster English
• Isle of Man
  • Manx English
• Channel Islands
  • Guernsey English

North America

• American English (AmE)
  • Spanglish
  • Cultural
    • African-American Vernacular English (AAVE)
    • Appalachian English
    • General American
    • Hawaiian Pidgin English
    • Chicano English
    • Native American English (Amerindian English) (see also subtypes below)
    • Pennsylvania Dutchified English
    • Yinglish
  • Regional
    • "General American"
    • Northeastern dialects
      • Baltimorese
      • Boston English
      • Northeast Pennsylvania English (Scranton, Pennsylvania-area)
      • Hudson Valley English (Albany, New York-area)
      • Maine-New Hampshire English
      • Philadelphia-area English
      • Pittsburgh English
      • Providence-area English
      • New York-New Jersey English
      • Nuyorican English
      • Vermont English
    • Mid-Atlantic dialects
      • Tidewater accent
      • Virginia Piedmont
      • Virginia Tidewater [1]
    • Midwest
      • Inland North American (Lower peninsula of Michigan, northern Ohio and Indiana, Chicago, part of eastern Wisconsin and upstate New York)
      • North Central American English (includes Minnesota, North Dakota and some of South Dakota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Iowa)
        • Yooper dialect (the variety of North Central American English spoken in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and in some neighboring areas)
      • North Midlands English (thin swath from Nebraska to Ohio)
      • St. Louis-area English
      • Wisconsin-Illinois dialect
    • Southern English
      • Appalachian English
      • Coastal Southeastern (Charleston, South Carolina, Savannah, Georgia area)
      • Cajun English
      • Harkers Island English (North Carolina)
      • Southern Highland English
      • South Midlands English (thin swath from Oklahoma to Pennsylvania)
      • Tampanian English
      • Texan
      • Yat (New Orleans)
    • Western English
      • California English
      • Boontling
      • Hawaiian English (Hawaiian Pidgin)
      • Utah English
      • Pacific Northwest English
• Bermudian English
• Canada
  • Canadian English (CaE)
    • Native American English (Amerindian English)
    • Quebec
      • Quebec English
    • Maritimes
    • Maritimer English
      • Cape Breton accent
      • Lunenburg English
    • West/Central Canadian English
      • Toronto English
      • Ottawa Valley Twang
      • Northern Ontario English
  • Newfoundland English (not a dialect of Canadian English)

• Native American English (Amerindian English)
  • Mojave English
  • Isletan English
  • Tsimshian English
  • Lumbee English
  • Tohono O'odham English
  • Inupiaq English

Caribbean

• Caribbean English
  • Anguillan English
  • Antiguan Creole
  • Bajan
  • Bay Islands Creole
  • Belizean Creole (Kriol)
  • Guyanese Creole
  • Jamaican English
  • Limón Coastal Creole
  • Miskito Coastal Creole
  • Saint Kitts Creole
  • San Andrés-Providencia Creole
  • Trinidadian English
  • Virgin Islands Creole

Asia

• Burmese English
• Hong Kong English
• Indian English
  • Punjabi/Delhi English
  • U.P/Bihari English
  • Bengali/Assamese English
  • Gujarati English
  • Maharashtrian English
  • Kannadiga English
  • Telugu English
  • Tamil English
  • Malayalee English
• Malaysian English (MyE)
• Philippine English
• Singapore English
• Sri Lankan English (SLE)

Africa

• Liberian English
• Malawian English
• Nigerian Pidgin English
• South African English

Oceania

• Australian English (AuE)
  • South Australian English
  • Western Australian English
  • Australian Aboriginal English
• Fijian English
• New Zealand English

Constructed

• Basic English
• E-Prime
• European English
• Globish
• Newspeak
• Special English

Manual encodings of English

Main article: Manually Coded English

• British Signed English
• US Signed Exact English (SEE)
• Australasian Signed English

These encoding systems should not be confused with sign languages such as British Sign Language and American Sign Language.

Pidgins and creoles

Main article: English-based creole languages

• Bislama
• Cameroonian Pidgin English
• Canton English
• Englog (English Tagalog Creole)
• Gullah
• Hawaiian Pidgin
• Sierra Leone Krio language
• Nigerian Pidgin
• Norfuk
• Shelta (Irish Traveller Cant)
• Tok Pisin
• Miskito Coastal Creole

The "Lishes"

The following are portmanteaus devised to describe certain local variants of English. Although similarly named, they are actually quite different in nature, with some being genuine mixed languages, some being instances of heavy code-switching between English and another language, some being genuine local dialects of English used by first-language English speakers, and some being non-native pronunciations of English. A few portmanteaus (such as Greeklish and Pinglish) are transliteration methods rather than any kind of spoken variant of English.

• Benglish (Bengali English)
• Chinglish (Chinese English)
• Czenglish (Czech English)
• Danglish (Danish English)
• Dunglish (Dutch English)
• Engrish (Japanese English)
• Finglish (Finnish English)
• Franglais (French English)
• Genglish/Ginglish/Germish/Pseudo-Anglicism (German English)
• Hinglish (Hindi English)
• Hunglish (Hungarian English)
• Italish (Italian English)
• Konglish (South Korean English)
• Manglish/Malaysian Colloquial English (Malaysian English)
• Pinglish (Polish English)
• Runglish (Russian English)
• Serblish (Serbian English)
• Singlish (Singaporean English)
• Spanglish (Spanish English)
• Swenglish (Swedish English)
• Taglish (Tagalog English)
• Tanglish (Tamil English)
• Tinglish/Thailish (Thai English)
• Vinish (Vietnamese English)
• Wenglish (Welsh English)
• Yeshivish (Yeshiva English)
• Yinglish (Yiddish English)

See also

• History of the English language
• Old English
• Middle English
• Early Modern English
• Modern English
• Regional accents of English speakers
• macaronic

External links

• English Accents and Dialects— a browsable collection of recordings by the British Library.
• American Dialects
• BBC sound archive of accents in the British Isles
• International Dialects of English Archive
• Runglish
• Regional Accents for the Non-Expert
• Speech Accent Archive
• |Dialect Poetry from the English regions