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Scouse Accent (Liverpool)

The summary provides an overview of the key aspects of the Scouse (Liverpool) accent in 3 sentences: The Scouse accent originated from Liverpool's position as a port city, with major influences coming from Irish and Welsh immigrants. It is characterized by distinctive consonant sounds including affricated /t/ sounds, fricative /k/ sounds, and tapped /r/ sounds. Scouse vowels are also distinctive, with fronted vowel positions in words like BIT, SIR, and WHY, as well as different realizations of diphthongs like the front starting /ʌɪ/ sound.

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1K views5 pages

Scouse Accent (Liverpool)

The summary provides an overview of the key aspects of the Scouse (Liverpool) accent in 3 sentences: The Scouse accent originated from Liverpool's position as a port city, with major influences coming from Irish and Welsh immigrants. It is characterized by distinctive consonant sounds including affricated /t/ sounds, fricative /k/ sounds, and tapped /r/ sounds. Scouse vowels are also distinctive, with fronted vowel positions in words like BIT, SIR, and WHY, as well as different realizations of diphthongs like the front starting /ʌɪ/ sound.

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Mary
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Scouse accent(Liverpool)

History
'Scouse' is the local accent of Liverpool and the surrounding area. It comes from
a local dish called 'lobscouse'.
~The Scouse accent like much else in the city owes its roots to Liverpool's
position as a port.
~The major influence comes from the influx of Irish and Welsh into the city.
~Every tide brought ashore a new imported verb and many stuck becoming part
of everyday language.

Consonant Sounds:
A Scouse accent has three very distinctive consonants: ‘t’s (TAKE WHAT?),
‘k’s (BACKTRACK) and ‘r’s (RARITY). You’ll also find – g-dropping
(NOTHIN’ DOIN’), h-dropping (HARD HAT) and plosive ‘th’ sounds
(THOSE THINGS). Here they are in more detail:

1) /t/ [t͡s] TART “Time is taking its toll on Terry.”


/t/ is pronounced with /s/ to make an
affricate [t͡s] in Scouse: TEA, TALK,
PART, WITTY.

2) /t/ [h] IT “You’re not that good you know!”


In short words ending /t/ like IT, “You what?”
THAT, NOT the final /t/ can be [h]:

3) /k/ [x] BACK “Rick’s always on a break, he’s never


When /k/ appears in the end of a working!”
syllable in Scouse, it can be “Look who’s talking!”
pronounced as a fricative [x] KICK,
ROCK, BACKGROUND, BLOKE.

4) /r/ [ɾ] RIGHT “It’s rubbish! And very wrong of


When you say a Scouse ‘r’ it’s Rachel to write that.”
pronounced as a voiced tap [ɾ] RING,
ARROW, FERRY, RIVAL – the
tongue-tip touches the roof of the
mouth behind the teeth very quickly:

5) /θ/ [t̪ ] THANK, /ð/ [d̪] THIS “I think that’s their brother.”
The ‘th’ sounds can be pronounced as
a dental [t̪ ] and [d̪] in Scouse,:
THINK, THEATRE, THOSE,
BOTHER instead of dental
fricatives /θ/ and /ð/:

6) Other Consonant Sound Features


● g-dropping in ‘ing’ endings: WORKIN’, HAPPENIN’.
● A lot of Scouse speakers drop all their ‘h’s: HOUSE, HORRIBLE,
HAPPY.
● Scouse is non-rhotic, so ‘r’ is silent except when followed by a vowel
sound: BIRD, TOUR, MINDER.
● Scouse speakers use glottal stops [ʔ] for /t/ in connected speech:
DON’T GO.
● If /t/ appears between two vowel sounds it can be pronounced as a
voiced tap [ɾ] – the same sound found in Scouse ‘r’: GETTING, LOT
OF.

Vowel Sounds:
The clearest feature of Scouse vowel sounds is the front tongue position in BIT,
SIR, NO, BAR and WHY. As with other northern accents, there’s no /ʌ/ – so
LOVE is made with /ʊ/, and words like BATH have a short /a/. Here are the
details:

1) /əː/ [œː] SIR “Bernard was the first person to learn


The vowel sound in BIRD is made the words.”
with the tongue further forward and
the lips a bit rounded in Scouse [œː]:
SHIRT, SIR, TURN, WORLD.

3) /əʊ/ [ɒʊ,ɛʊ] GO “Don’t you know the road to Dover?”


Some scousers make this sound
starting with the tongue to the back
[ɒʊ]: GO, NO, BOAT, ALONE.
Others start with the tongue to the
front [ɛʊ]: GO, NO, BOAT, ALONE,
but both are different from the central
tongue position in GB /əʊ/.

4) /ʌɪ/ [aɪ] WHY, [aː] SIGN “Try reciting this in time.”


In Scouse, this diphthong starts at the
front of the mouth FLY, BUY,
TIGHT, though if the word ends in a
voiced consonant it can also be
pronounced [aː] MINE, SIDE,
TIMING.

5) /ɪ/ BIT “This film’s a bit silly.”


The vowel sound in BIT, WITH,
BUSY is made with the tongue
further forward in Scouse. It’s a
subtle difference from GB, but it’s a
very common vowel sound, so it’s
pretty noticeable:

6) /iː/ [ɪi] SEE, /uː/ [ɪu] POOL “It’s free to see the new zoo in
In words ending with the long vowel Liverpool.”
sounds /iː/ or /uː/, the sound starts
with an [ɪ]: BEE, FLEE, NEW,
TRUE. This also occurs before /l/, so
LIVERPOOL has a distinctive [ɪu]
sound in the last syllable.

7) Other Vowel Sound Features


● Like other Northern English accents, /ʌ/ is not used at all, so FUN,
SHUT, BLOOD, SON are made with /ʊ/.
● Scouse doesn’t have the trap-bath split, so words like BATH, STAFF,
MASTER and GLASS are pronounced with short /a/ instead of a long
[aː].
● The schwa sound /ə/ is made to the front like [e] if it’s at the end,
FATHER, BIGGER, WATER.
● Endings containing a weak /ɪ/ sound can drop to schwa /ə/, CHICKEN,
WORKING, TRYING.
● The 2 distinct vowel sounds /əː/ and /ɛː/ in GB are pronounced in the
same way for a lot of Scouse speakers [œː], so word pairs in GB like
STIR and STAIR sound the same: [stœː]

Intonation:
● Scouse intonation is clearly different from both GB and other Northern
accents. As with many regions, it has more rising tones than GB:
“She’s called Barbara.”
“It’s cold.”
“What time?”
● But the really distinct feature is the Scouse melody which has a wide
pitch range and a lot of high, flat tones after the main stresses.
“It’s cold outside.”
“She’s called Barbara you know?”
“What time is it?”

Grammatical features:
~The use of me instead of my was also attributed to Irish English influence: for
example:
" That's me book you got there " for " That's my book you got there ".
~An exception occurs when " my " is emphasised, for example:
" That's my book you got there " ( and not his ).

Examples of Scouse:
Text: Paul McCartney interview :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u97_inloBmY

'- We say to people that, out of I think(/θ/ -[t̪ ])(/k/ -[x]) it's about 300 songs
that(/ð/-[d̪]) John and I wrote (tap [ɾ]) together(non-rhotic, silent 'r'), we never
had(‘h’dropping) a dry(tap [ɾ]) session. We'd always come in and we
never(silent 'r') went away from(tap [ɾ]) the session going 'Couldn't get it today'.
"I lost my little gir(l/əː/ [œː])" is the first(/əː/-[œː])(silent 'r') song I wrote(tap
[ɾ]) that was very(tap [ɾ]) simple, three chords(tap [ɾ]), or four (silent 'r'), chords,
and yeah, that(final /t/- [h]) was real early(silent 'r'), little kinda(/ʌɪ/-[aː])
rock(/k/-[x])(tap [ɾ]) n roll thing(/θ/ -[t̪ ]). I got a guitar(silent 'r') when I was
early teens and I learned a couple of chords, I learned(silent 'r') a G and a g7, C
and an F. And we're using those chords I made up this little song called " I lost
my little girl(/əː/-[œː])". People asked me whether it was about losing my
mother(silent 'r') at that early age. Which I don't know, like a psychiatrist(tap
[ɾ]) might have(‘h’dropping) a field day with that(/ð/-[d̪])(final /t/-[h]), but I
certainly didn't think it was at the time. Itfinal(/t/-[h]) could have(‘h’dropping)
been.

Other examples:
https://www.uv.es/anglotic/accents_of_english/01/examples_of_scouse.html

1.Pure buzzin’ off ‘im. (Really (pure) making fun of him) //phjaː ˈbʊzɪn ɒf ɪm//
2. Alright, lid! (Alright, lad)
//ɔːlraɪt/lɪd/

3.Let's go for a bevvie. (Let’s go for a drink.)


//lets goʊ fəɾə ˈbevi//

4.You're doin' me nut in. (You're driving me crazy. = Getting on my nerves)


//jə ˈdʊɪn mi nʊt ɪn//

5.Me da works in the offie. (My dad works in the off-licence.)


//mi daː wɜːks ɪn ði ˈɒfi//
In most non-Standard British accents my is pronounced something like /mi/. An
off-licence is a place where you can buy alcohol.

6.I'm from Liverpool.


//aːm fɾəm ˈlɪvəpuːl//
In most non-standard accents I'm is pronounced with a long vowel /aː/ instead
of a diphthong /aɪ/.

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