Manchester Accent

From RedCafe.net

Obviously, there's a whole load of different accents, ranging from a sort of soft generic Lancashire to that grating Stretford one that sounds halfway to Scouse

I'm interested in this sort of thing, so I'm gonna describe the Manc accent I know best - North Manc/Salford... Cheetham, Broughton, Prestwich sort of thing. You cnuts can correct me if I'm wrong and tell me variations.

I'm going to keep the technical terms to a minimum... if someone wants to add them in, link to definitions.

Vowels

The long 'a' of BBC English, as in 'bath', is pronounced short and quite closed, the same as in 'bat'

Long 'a' compensating for a missing 'r', as in 'large', is pronounced long, but is a more closed sound than in BBC English, closer to a long 'a' in Italian or French

The diphtong 'ai' has lost some of the 'i', it's still there, but the sound is closer to a long 'a' than in BBC English, where it's a pure "ai", and in some varieties of Midland, Cockney and Southern English where it veers towards "oi"

Short unstressed 'e' is pronounced like BBC 'i', eg 'Manchister'

'ee' at the end of words is often shortened to 'i', and some even pronounce it as a short 'e' - as immortalised in 'Citeh'

In the long 'o' of 'road', there's a lot of divergence. In BBC English it's a diphthong composed of a short neutral "uh" (like the 'er' in badger), followed by a short 'u' (as in 'put'). My Manc relatives do the same, I think, but with a more extended first 'uuh'. But I've also heard it as a long closed vowel, a bit like the 'aw' in 'lawn', or a long version of the French 'au'. But my hunch is that's more of a Bolton thing.

'u' (as in 'cnut', not as in 'United') is pronounced like the 'u' in 'put'. I don't think you get the long 'oo' (as in 'spook') there until you get much further North, towards Blackburn

Consonants

Initial 'h' is often dropped

There's a glottal stop for 't' in the middle of and sometimes at the end of words, as in "ba'er" (batter), "wen' " (went). Not sure if the same thing happens to 'p' after a rounded vowel, as it does in some Cockney accents ("su'ermarket", "su'agoaws")

The 'g' in 'ng' is often pronounced as a separate consonant on the end of the 'ng' - "I thought she was ming-ging-g if I'm honest"

In general, consonants are similar to most other accents as far as I can make out - unlike Scouse, which among other things turns final 'k' to 'ch'/'h' (A'll do i' nechst fuchin weeh!), turns some 't's into 's's and 'r's "Iss gerrin berrer all the time (berrer, berrer, be-e-rrer)")

Non-Mancs may wish to learn from this BBC programme (click on the link on the site for audio)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/manchester/cont..._feature.shtml