Hiya everyone, welcome back to Pronunciation with Emma. In this video you're gonna (going to)
hear that I sound a little bit different, that's because I'm gonna be switching to my
northern accent. As you know I'm from the North of England, so I'm gonna be talking
about 10 ways to sound a little bit more Yorkshire. [intro] Now the first thing you'll notice
is that my voice becomes a little bit deeper, it does sound a little bit manly, don't worry
I've not got a cold or out (anything), I'm absolutely fine. It's just the way that I
speak normally. Now I'm just gonna give you a little backstory. I'm from York originally,
until I was about 8 years old I moved to a small town in East Riding with my family.
The accent is a little bit different, you know, I mean in Yorkshire there are so many
different accent, so you can travel 20 minutes t'next town and the accent's completely different.
Just to demonstrate I had some friends who went to a college just a bus ride away and
because of the way that they said "no" they got laughed at quite a lot because in this
other town they said "no". Which is considered a little bit posh in this town where I grew
up. So my point is that there are so many different accents in Yorkshire, but hopefully
with this video you'll be able to just train your ear, get a little bit more used to it,
especially if you're someone who's gonna be moving up north sometime soon. So the first
thing is the ʌ vowel, this doesn't exist up north, I had to learn it personally when
I started teaching, so I know exactly what it's like when you guys are trying to improve
your pronunciation. So this vowel actually gets changed to an ʊ sound. For example,
[listen to Emma]. The next one is where the ʌ sound appear again, we replace it with
another sound. This time, have a listen to these words, how do I pronounce that vowel?
[listen to Emma]. So you'll see that that ʌ sound changes to an ɒ sound. This only
appear in certain words, so it's not really a set rule in this case. The next one is the
trap and bath split, you'll notice that I say these two words the same, so you're probably
thinking "how's that a split? How are these vowels different?" that's because up north
we don't actually distinguish between trap and bath, however, in the south they do. They
would say trap and bath. So this only appears in certain words, like, for example [listen
to Emma]. So you'll notice that in the north it's a very open æ sound and very short,
and in the south it's a long ɑː sound. If you look in t'dictionary you'll see that both
varieties are accepted, so just pick your favourite one. It doesn't mean that you're
gonna sound more northern if you say "grass" instead of "grass", I mean, I still say "grass"
and no one has ever complained about it, so pick your favourite one, it doesn't matter.
Another one is that the diphthong eɪ changes to the monophthong eː. For example [listen
to Emma]. You'll sometimes see that some words with the spelling "-ake" at the end are sometimes
pronounced with an /ek/ instead of an /eɪk/. This only appears with certain words like
[listen to Emma]. However you wouldn't say with something like "cake" and "cake". You
would never say that. So it only appears in certain words. Another diphthong is əʊ this
gets changed to oː, for example [listen to Emma]. Now in some parts of South Yorkshire,
remember I said that in Yorkshire we have different Yorkshire accents, well in the south
[of Yorkshire] they do something very particular. With the diphthong aʊ it sometimes gets changed
to an aː sound. For example [listen to Emma]. Now they would remove the "h" there, we're
gonna get to that one. Now in Hull and parts of East Yorkshire, the diphthong aɪ changes
to an aː sound. This normally happens when you have the vowel aɪ before a [voiced] consonant
sound in a word like prize, for example. You would say "praze". However, in a word like
"price" people would still say "price", they wouldn't say "prase". Now one big thing that
gives me away, and makes people think that I'm definitely from the North, even though
I'm probably speaking with a fairly neutral accent is that way that I say these words.
Have a listen. [listen to Emma]. So that schwa at the beginning of the "con" actually changes
to an ɒ sound up north, and I still just, you know, I cannot get this out of my system
when I teach, it's really hard. It's like, stuck in my brain. It's "con". I just can't
seem to change it to "con". The next one we're gonna go back down to South Yorkshire again,
back to Sheff, Sheffield, whatever you wanna call it, and we're gonna be looking at a particular
vowel sound there. So what do you notice about these two words, how I say them. I'm gonna
say them in the southern [RP] variety, and then I'm gonna switch to the more northern
variety. What's the difference? [listen to Emma]. So besides that glottal stop which
we've got in "city", you'll notice that the end vowel changes, from an i: so an e sound.
This is quite typical of South Yorkshire, we don't do that in all parts of Yorkshire.
The last sound that I wanna (want to) talk about is the sound "aitch", you'll notice
that northerners sometimes say "Haitch" as well when we're giving it as a spelling, but
what we sent to do is remove it, completely. Especially in informal speech, you'll hear
it removed quite a lot. So have a listen to these words [listen to Emma]. And we remove
the 't' at the end. The ts normally at the end are glottalised, so it's something to
be aware of. And that's it. That's how you sound a little bit more Yorkshire, so if you're
interested in improving your pronunciation, doesn't matter whether it's Yorkshire or not,
I don't always talk like this, but I know that a lot of you guys have been requesting
it, and some of you have even been following me because you've been waiting for me to do
a Yorkshire video, so here we go, don't worry I'll be switching back to my normal teaching
accent in future videos, but I hope you enjoyed it. Tell me down in the comments, what do
you think of the Yorkshire accent? Is this something you would like? Do you find it difficult
to understand? Tell me what your opinions are down in the comments. I'm curious to know.
Don't forget to like this video if you've learnt summert (something) new and also subscribe
for weekly videos. I normally talk about pronunciation, not with this accent, don't worry. But I normally
also slip in a couple of grammar videos from time to time as well. Until next time, guys.
Have a lovely week.