Cardiff English

Influence

Social variation

Phonetics and phonology

Consonants

• Strong aspiration or affrication of voiceless stops as or respectively, which occurs in initial position in predominantly stressed syllables. Sometimes, the stops may be realised as a pure fricative, such as realised as intervocallically. When not in initial position, these stops can also be glottalised in the manner of RP, although this becomes weaker in broader forms of the accent.
• * glottalisation of equivalent unstressed RP to. In RP, is glottalised only with. Furthermore, the final syllable of little is commonly pronounced as.
• Flapping of generally occurs between voiced phonemes. It can even be an approximant.
• Like RP, consistent yod-coalescence of .
• Fricative allophones for voiced stops in medial position, especially with turning to. Furthermore, they are noticeably devoiced in final position.
• The fricatives may have slightly sharper friction, especially before front vowels; on the other hand may lack labialisation found in other accents. Like the voiced stops, can be devoiced to.
• Realisation of more often as an approximant rather than a fricative, and undergoes elision as mentioned below.
• G-dropping is common. Despite carrying out mild stigma, it can still carry prestige as it is heard in middle-class varieties of the accent.
• * More common in younger working-class varieties, -thing is sometimes pronounced.
• H-dropping often occurs as the is only a marginal consonant in the dialect, being commonly dropped in the so-called 'weak forms'; pronouns and the modal auxiliaries had, has, have. Intervocallically, there is a voiced allophone such as ahead. Studies in the travel agency have been recorded that 'weak forms' are variably dropped, with these same group of people constantly dropping words like hotel, emphasising its French origins. It undergoes the same stigma as in.
• * In the broadest forms of the accent, is, commonly represented in the words huge and human. This is also found to a degree in Ireland and American cities influenced by these accents such as Philadelphia and New York City. However, higher-class speakers may pronounce similar to RP, as, although the articulation is more front and the narrowing is closer, making Cardiff's sound markedly prominent to RP.
• The broadest accents may realise particularly as a tap intervocalically and after the consonants. It can also sometimes be tapped word-initially. Otherwise, it is generally a postalveolar approximant. Cardiff's taps involve a much larger portion of the tongue and is less rapid than in RP, almost as long as. This can cause some homophones between tapped/approximant and, including butter/borough, hotter/horror and starting/starring.
• Like several northern English dialects, some words' final consonants may be devoiced, in words such as second or wardrobe. The conjunction and, when stressed and before a break, is also notably pronounced.
• Slight palatal friction of ; often elided before.
• Unlike other South Wales varieties, has the same clear/dark allophones as RP, namely with clear before vowels and, and before other consonants and pauses.
• * is frequently a syllabic. Alternatively an can be added before the consonant, otherwise the consonant may be vocalised as a close back vowel.
• is unrounded, especially before.
• Two loan consonants from Welsh, and are included in the dialect, but are only found in Welsh names.
• * is often debated as to whether it even should be considered as a phoneme in Cardiff English, as it is exclusively found in people of Welsh-speaking backgrounds or people who have patriotic sentiments to the Welsh language. Many speakers who do not pronounce a convincing find it difficult or even possible anyway, so they would substitute it with either, in names such as Llewelyn, Llandaff.
• *, on the other hand, is more manifested as many speakers of the accent pronounce it in such as Castell Coch, Mynachdy, Pantbach, although that is not to say substitutions such as exist. can also be found in a few interjections of disgust, such as ugh or /.

  Vowels

Monophthongs

• The vowel is markedly closer and more front, generally having no glide, when compared to RP.
• * Word-final is generally short and often more open than , although few broader speakers use a short close vowel.
• * In unstressed non-final environments like anniversary the vowel is in general registers, with some broader accents using .
• is a somewhat more open, compared to typical RP, causing non-Cardiffians to interpret it as the vowel. However, more modern RP speakers have a similar realisation as Cardiff.
• Like, is also closer, somewhat advanced and generally has no glide found in RP and several other British dialects.
• The vowel in is a steady monophthong, significantly raised well above open-mid, which is the common realisation the in-glide of the Received Pronunciation equivalent.
• is a more open and slightly retracted when compared to RP. Like in the diagram above, some may have their vowel at the same height as this vowel, only differentiated by vowel length.
• A closer and fronter vowel is used for, when compared to RP. It is usually realised with strong rounding, even the broadest accents have at least a slight rounding. Accents in the general register have a close-mid tongue height.
• and can be considered to belong to one phoneme, although some sources claim contrast otherwise, which is problematic as there are no minimal pairs between these two vowels. When stressed, it covers a wide allophonic variation as shown in the chart. It is typically open-mid or above, and much closer than RP.
• , a phonologically back vowel, is phonetically central. A similar vowel is used by younger speakers of RP instead of the traditional.
• Broad forms of Cardiff English use a centralised, unrounded and open-mid , with higher-class accents having a closer vowel with strong rounding that is typical of RP. The horse–hoarse merger is present with younger speakers, although a preservation with some older speakers does exist.
• is one of the most characteristic vowels of the accents, generally being an open front vowel and notably longer than Received Pronunciation. Broader accents typically exhibit raising, most commonly as, with being heard from the broadest accents of working-class males. Within the United Kingdom, there is no other dialect that has a vowel more raised than, although some American dialects may have these realisations. Regardless if neighbouring any nasal consonants, it is frequently nasalised itself ; this has been linked to Merseyside velarised speech. The raising of this vowel has been stigmatised with local Cardiff culture, especially its city name Cardiff, as well as Cardiff Arms Park and a pint of dark, referring to the local brew Brian's Dark.
• is typically open varying from front to central, similar to more modern forms of RP, with broader accents having a closer realisation as or even, resembling that of more typical RP. However, the broad pronunciation is stigmatised in the same manner as. A small set of words including bad, bag, mad and man can be lengthened though the vowel quality is still that of, which is always slightly lower than.
• * The trap-bath split is variable among status, being the most used in higher-class forms of the accent due to social pressure of the influence of RP. It is however, apparently confusing for speakers of broad and general accents, as is preferred before nasals and before fricatives. However, certain words like ask, bath, grant, laugh, master, rather and the suffix -graph are strongly likely to be pronounced with. On the other hand, answer, castle, chance, dance and nasty are always pronounced with. Even so, the vowels may be conflated thus both variations can be produced even in succeeding sentences.
• The vowel is unrounded and noticeably fronter than RP.

  Diphthongs

• is a clear diphthong and has a more closer, centralised in-glide and a closer end point as opposed to RP. Very few older speakers may conservatively have very narrow glides, making it only as a potential diphthong.
• The most common realisation of is a central–back glide, although a non-standard variant is slightly backed to. Like, also has a closer end point than RP. The traditional pronunciation was more of a slight back diphthong.
• A noticeably closer in-glide to RP can be seen in.
• Similar to, has a somewhat closer starting point than RP.
• 's in-glide is unrounded and more centralised compared to RP.

Intonation

Assimilation and elision

• is commonly elided at the beginning of a word, e.g. that, there. may also assimilate and be pronounced the same to these alveolar consonants when preceding. Although a similar phenomenon exists in RP, it is much more common and may even carry out to stressed syllables, e.g. all that, although and in these.
• The contractions doesn't, isn't, wasn't is often realised with the as a stop under the influence of the following nasal, realised as, which can be found Southern American English, although to a broader extent. Cardiff English can further reduce this to.
• * Also, the phrase isn't it pronounced as is a common characteristic of the dialect. However, there is no justification to be classified as an elided form of the full pronunciation, as there is no evidence of speakers analysing it as a clausal form with the pronoun it.
• Final before another consonant is often elided, as in about four, but we, pocket money, started collecting and United States. In high-frequency words, including at, bit, but, get, got, let, it, lot, out, quite, said and that, may also be elided before a vowel or a pause, as in but I and that's right. Moreover, final may be simplified to not only before consonants like in RP, but also before vowels, as in don't drive or can't handle.
• * A final is sometimes fricatised to, as in about Secret Seven, gets some, it's dead.
• Intervocalically is occasionally elided and lengthen the previous vowel, as in America or very.
• Unstressed are mainly elided for vowels, as in except police.

  Grammar

• The Northern Subject Rule is a common feature of the colloquial Cardiff accent, which is the tendency to use a third-person singular verb conjugation for all pronouns in the present tense. Examples include I lives in Cardiff, we likes it, they squeaks when you walks. This can also extend to the irregular be and do, such as they's awful or we does it often, and sometimes with have.
• * When have is used as an auxiliary, e.g. they have been, it is more likely to be elided as in they been, like many other colloquial or non-standard accents. Likewise, do as an auxiliary is used, as in they does try. In Reading, the third-person singular forms are used to a lesser extent, with have never being the case but do occasionally. On the other hand, the form dos does exist in Reading but is not attested in Cardiff except for the phrase fair dos 'give her/him due credit', which is analysed as a plural morpheme rather than an inflectional one.
• Conversely, an irregular verb conjugated with third-person singular pronoun can take a first-person singular verb conjugation, specifically with have, but also with do. Examples include she've gone, he do his work, it don't swim. Negative third-person forms of have are difficult to analyse as their forms can be heavily elided; forms such as hasn't, haven't or even ain't can be homophonous.
• The first and third singular past-tense forms of be, was can once again be found in all pronouns you was, we was, they was. However unlike Reading, were replacing standard was cannot be done except occasionally in negative forms. Sometimes, this may be extended to other irregular verbs when that verb's past participle is the same or very similar as the infinitive form, as in he give a book, she come over here.
• Double negatives are also present as in some other urban accents of English, e.g. I haven't had nothin', there isn't no-one in. Similarly never can also be used to negate the past tense in the same manner, as in I never did nothin.
• Them to mean 'those', as in He likes them cats, similar to other non-standard dialects.
• Lack of plural marker -s for nouns of measurement, similar to other colloquial British accents, e.g. forty pound, seven foot long.
• Using adjectival forms for adverbs, such as shop local, she drives lovely.
• Removal of preprositional particles when following adverbs, out for 'out of', over for 'over to/in', up for 'up at/in' etc.
• * Nevertheless, non-standard particle compounds indicating position and direction are present, represented in where to. It mainly acts as a preposition as in where's that to?, however it can also be a preposition, although this can be non-standard.
• The positional and directional adjuncts here and there can be prefixed with by: by here and by there.
• Like other various urban accents, reflexive pronouns all use the possessive form as their base rather than the accusative, i.e. hisself for himself or theirselves for themselves. An alternative construction his/her mitt etc. is also used when referring to people, literally meaning his/her hand.
• The discourse tag isn't it?/innit?, although stereotyped in Welsh English in especially rural areas, is commonly heard in Cardiff. It may simply be a function word, similar to isn't that so? or Northern Welsh yes? and can also interchange with standard don't/didn't they regardless of social class.
• Not found in other Welsh accents is predicate fronting, where the predicate is moved to the beginning of the sentence, i.e. hurt he was or awful I thought it sounded, which is influenced by Welsh. In standard English, this also occurs, although this is referred to as 'thematic fronting'.
• Juxtaposition with particles of different meaning in a sentence, e.g. I'll be over there now, in a minute.

  Vocabulary

• to clam — to yearn, to die for
• dap — plimsole
• * to dap — to bounce, or rarer to hit
• * dap — describes a person's height, usually of a small size but can also refer to taller people when specifying non-verbally
• * dapping — only bouncing once and then catching it, by more specific sources
• half — an emphatic particle, e.g. s/he's half tidy, general approval expression; he don't half kid herself, 'he is pretentious/grandiose'.
• hopper — known by some as a tipping-grain container and not exactly a seed basket
• lush, cracking — great, fabulous, attractive
• off — unfriendly, hostile
• pine-end — used by a small amount to refer to the end of a gable
• pluddle — to puddle, occasionally used as in to puddle through a pool 'to walk through water'
• tidy — a general term of approval. It covers a variety of meanings including tidy looking 'nice-looking', tidy sort 'decent', tidy job 'job well done' etc. although some claim it has no direct equivalent in standard English

  Notable speakers

Opinions