Editing British English (section)

=== English regional ===
{{Expand section|with=details about other different regional accents and dialects|talk=Shortcomings|small=no|date=April 2024}}
Most people in Britain speak with a regional accent or dialect. However, about 2% of Britons speak with an accent called [[Received Pronunciation]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/case-studies/received-pronunciation/|title=Received Pronunciation|access-date=20 March 2017|archive-date=22 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190722181432/http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/case-studies/received-pronunciation/|url-status=dead}}</ref> (also called "the King's English", "Oxford English" and "[[BBC]] English"<ref>BBC English because this was originally the form of English used on radio and television, although a wider variety of accents can be heard these days.</ref>), that is essentially region-less.<ref name=sweet>{{cite book |last=Sweet |first=Henry |title=The Sounds of English |page=[https://archive.org/details/soundsenglishan00sweegoog/page/n11 7] |url=https://archive.org/details/soundsenglishan00sweegoog  |publisher=Clarendon Press |year=1908 }}</ref><ref name=fowler>{{cite news |last=Fowler |first=H.W. |editor=R.W. Birchfield |title=Fowler's Modern English Usage |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1996 }}</ref> It derives from a mixture of the Midlands and Southern dialects spoken in London in the early modern period.<ref name=fowler/> It is frequently used as a model for teaching English to foreign learners.<ref name=fowler/>

In the South East, there are significantly different accents; the [[Cockney]] accent spoken by some East Londoners is strikingly different from Received Pronunciation (RP). Cockney [[rhyming slang]] can be (and was initially intended to be) difficult for outsiders to understand,<ref name="Franklyn1975">{{cite book|last=Franklyn|first=Julian|title=A dictionary of rhyming slang|year=1975|publisher=Routledge and Kegan Paul|location=London|isbn=0-415-04602-5|page=9}}</ref> although the extent of its use is often somewhat exaggerated.

[[London]]ers speak with a mixture of accents, depending on ethnicity, neighbourhood, class, age, upbringing, and sundry other factors. [[Estuary English]] has been gaining prominence in recent decades: it has some features of RP and some of Cockney.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Crystal |first1=David |title=BBC - Voices - Your Voice |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/voices/yourvoice/feature2_4.shtml}}</ref> Immigrants to the UK in recent decades have brought many more languages to the country and particularly to London. Surveys started in 1979 by the [[Inner London Education Authority]] discovered over 125 languages being spoken domestically by the families of the inner city's schoolchildren.<ref>{{cite report |author=Department of Education and Science |date=Summer 1980 |title=Report by HM Inspectors on Educational Provision by the Inner London Educational Authority |url=http://www.educationengland.org.uk/documents/hmi/1980-ilea.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171119045234/http://www.educationengland.org.uk/documents/hmi/1980-ilea.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=19 November 2017 |publisher=H.M. Stationery Office |page=4 |access-date=17 January 2023 |quote=A survey of all school pupils conducted by ILEA's Research and Statistics Division has established that one in ten children in inner London speak English as a second language; ILEA pupils have over 125 different mother tongues, far more than any other LEA in England and more than in New York.}}</ref> Notably [[Multicultural London English]], a [[sociolect]] that emerged in the late 20th century spoken mainly by young, [[Working class|working-class]] people in [[Multiculturalism|multicultural]] parts of [[London]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.urben-id.org/|title=UrBEn-ID Urban British English project|access-date=23 May 2016|archive-date=19 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210319181015/https://www.urben-id.org/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=2 November 2013|title=Argot bargy|newspaper=The Economist|url=https://www.economist.com/britain/2013/11/02/argot-bargy|access-date=15 April 2021|issn=0013-0613}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=How Is Immigration Changing Language In the UK?|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/how-is-immigration-changing-language-in-the-uk/|access-date=16 April 2021|website=Vice |date=24 February 2016 }}</ref>

Since the mass [[internal migration]] to [[Northamptonshire]] in the 1940s and given its position between several major accent regions, it has become a source of various accent developments. In Northampton the older accent has been influenced by overspill Londoners. There is an accent known locally as the [[Kettering]] accent, which is a transitional accent between the [[East Midlands]] and [[East Anglia]]n. It is the last southern Midlands accent to use the broad "a" in words like ''bath'' or ''grass'' (i.e. {{respell|barth}} or {{respell|grarss}}). Conversely ''crass'' or ''plastic'' use a slender "a". A few miles northwest in [[Leicestershire]] the slender "a" becomes more widespread generally. In the town of [[Corby]], {{convert|5|mi|km|0|spell=in}} north, one can find Corbyite which, unlike the Kettering accent, is largely influenced by the West Scottish accent.