English language in England
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English language in England refers to the
English language as spoken in England.
There are many different accents and dia-
lects throughout England and people are of-
ten very proud of their local accent or dia-
lect, but there are many associated preju-
dices— illustrated by George Bernard Shaw’s
comment:
It is impossible for an Englishman to
open his mouth without making some
other Englishman hate or despise him.[1]
Other terms used to refer to the English lan-
guage as spoken in England include: English
English, [2][3] Anglo-English, [4][5] English in
England. [6] The related term British English
has "all the ambiguities and tensions in the
word "British" and as a result can be used
and interpreted in two ways, more broadly or
more narrowly, within a range of blurring
and ambiguity"[7] but is usually reserved to
describe the features common to English
English, Welsh English, Scottish English, and
Hiberno-English.
General features
For the English language in England ("Eng-
lish English"), three major dialect groupings
are recognized: Southern English dialects,
Midlands English dialects, and Northern Eng-
lish dialects. The most prominent isogloss is
the foot-strut split, which runs roughly from
mid-Shropshire (on the Welsh border) to
south of Birmingham and then to The Wash.
South of the isogloss, in the Midlands and
Southern dialects, the Middle English phon-
eme /ʊ/ split into /ʌ/ (as in cut, strut) and /ʊ/
(put, foot); this change did not occur north of
the isogloss.
The accent best known to many people
outside the United Kingdom as English Eng-
lish, is that of Received Pronunciation (RP).
Until recently, RP English was widely be-
lieved to be more educated than other
accents and was referred to as the Queen’s
(or King’s) English, or even "BBC English"
(because for many years of broadcasting it
was rare to hear any other