British accents

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Hello,
I have noticed that in some British accents, especially those around London I think, /i/ tends to be replaced with /ɪi/ or /ei/, but not always. I have noticed the same seems to be true about /aɪ/ changing to something like /ɔɪ/ or /ɒɪ/.
It doesn't seem consistent to me, but I would like someone to confirm this. In other words, it's like these diphthongs are allophones, so you might hear them all from the same person:
PEOPLE = /pipəl/ or /pɪipəl/ or /peipəl/
SHE = /ʃi/ or //ʃɪi/ or /ʃei/
DIE = /daɪ/ or /dɔɪ/ or /dɒɪ/
I = /aɪ/ or /ɔɪ/ or /ɒɪ/

and so on.

Does this really happen? Can anyone tell me more? Thanks.

I get the impression some British dialects are not consistent, and have a lot of allophonic variations. Like there are a lot of possible phonetic features, and they are all used here and there, but not consistently. One example I have in mind is that of a guy that said "voters" two times in the same sentence, and the first time he used a glottal stop for the T, but he didn't for the second.

So what I am saying is that I think I hear the same words or phonemes pronounced differently by the same person, basically randomly, as if there is more than one way to pronounce the same phoneme (and therefore word).
Just to be clear.

I've already heard this in England and don't find it so inconsistent.
The type of accent depends on the type of social class;what you mention is quite frequent in Cockney English for instance. And indeed, /aɪ/ tends to become /ɔɪ/ (with /ɒɪ/ in intermediate position) and /i:/ tends to become /ʃei/ (with /ʃɪi/ in intermediate position). It is consistent first in that it is only the first par of the diphthong that changes, and in that the second part, which does change, is just a relatively small alteration of the "normal" value: /a/ is not so far from /ɒ/ and then /ɒ/ is not so far from /ɔ/. That's a matter of gradation. That type of accent sound very working class but I think they may control themselves when trying to speak with a more RP-style accent. It's quite funny to hear people from Birmingham as concerns the type of vocalic alterations you mention (no offence lol I do love to hear the Brummie accent).

I really don't like American accent, it sounds just like some birds are singing loudly.

I remember someone telling me about when their gran moved from the north west to the south east and was utterly perplexed when the milkman asked her if she wanted 'a pie to die', eventually she realized that he had actually said 'to pay today'!

I want to know why people from the UK can fake an Amerian accent, yet we can't seem to fake theirs...
Is ours just that easy? Or theirs just that hard? :-)

That's because Americans are stupid.

In addition, they probably have less exposure to British accents than Brits have to the American accent.

Most people can't fake either accent convincingly. Only some actors who have spent considerable time mastering it can do it. And not just any actor--most do a horrible job of it. But it doesn't really matter. Why not just do a Mid-Atlantic accent that is indistinguishable from an American accent to a Brit, and indistinguishable from a British accent to an American?

I think some fake that kind of news anchor American accent well- I think people tend to get screwed when they fake more of specific accent.
I hate hearing people try to talk like they are southern. *shudders*
How would the British have more exposure to ours? Because our pop culture is what dominates?

Thanks, but this discussion is off-topic. The topic is "inconsistencies in British accents". For example the same person saying one phoneme in more than one way. Maybe I was mistaken, but might try to find an example on youtube.

Johnny - you are referring to accents in Britain - in Britain! - a country where hardly anything is consistent except, as the saying goes, the certainty of taxes and death - and the likelihood of rain within the space of a few days at the most for the most part, but putting all that kind of thing to one side I'll just point out to you something which you may well know already anyway - that consistency is hardly a feature of any British accent really, and there are many to choose from.

"Those around London" accents is a wee bit of a confusing thing to say for anyone not familar with the native British accents scene in the UK - the "London accents" mainly fall into three categories -

1 The Standard RP (the "poshest and more educated sounding basic form" if you want to put it that way -

2 The similar but with a hint of an Estuariased strain in evidence and more common among younger people

3 The much more Estuarised Cockney type of London speech much more widespeared among the "less educated more street-wise*" sections of the London populace.

If you want to take an audio tour round the entire UK accents scene then simply log into the following website and wait a second or two for the whole of the UK to break out into a rash of green spots as if it was suffering from some horrible disease. Let your cursor do the travelling and each green spot will indicate a location in the UK which will then allow you to follow links enabling you to hear people local to the area chatting away in their normal everyday accents.

You can surely judge consistency or inconsistency in phonemes and goodness knows what else besides for yourself then, as a non British person, which is what I assume you are.

I have posted this website in this Forum several times before in the past, but I notice now that it is no longer being updated.

Anyway, take a free all espenses paid Round Britain Tour to hear practically all of our many accents and dialects, mostly "inconsistent" as I say. My Mum back home up in Edinburgh for one is "inconsistent" - she really does have a weird "telephone" voice depending of course on who is at the other end of the line....she spends too much time in Morningside....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/voices/recordings/

Or go more definitively local.....to the area of England called Humberside - the area around the estuary of the River Humber, which flows into the North Sea on England's east coast, covwering parts of East Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire, and centred on the city of Hull (or Kingston Upon Hull to give it its official title).

The police officers shown are with the Humberside Police Force and the gobby scally they have arrested and dealing with in true British style is from Liverpool - obviously a Liverpool footie supporter following his team playing "away" but who is arrested for "possession and intoxication".

The bladdered lad's accent is recognisably Scouse (Liverpool/Merseyside), his vocabulary colourful. The PCs sound as if they are from the East Yorkshire / North Lincolnshire area, but done quote me on that - I am a Scot after all....but in any case certainly Northern English.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KABKiabeI58

Notice any inconsistencies?

Here we have two lads from Cambridge (the original one, the real one, the English English one full of uni colleges and guys punting punts on the Cam and not some copy cat Cambridge in some foreign field far, far away.

The lads are proving one thing for sure - that rap in a British accent doesn't really work somehow......it really IS best left to the Americans to perform, as is the use of the word used by them to refer to our national beverage*.......I think this particular word sounds more appropriate in an American accent and preferably uttered on American soil. ;-)

*National beverage - tea? That's debatable - a wee bit of an age divide here in the UK I reckon........I'm surprised these two lads are such ardent devotees of teas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2l1F6BmKbO0

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