Editing British English (section)

== Features ==
Phonological features characteristic of British English revolve around the pronunciation of the letter R, as well as the dental plosive T and some diphthongs specific to this dialect.

=== T-stopping ===
Once regarded as a Cockney feature, in a number of forms of spoken British English, {{IPA|/t/}} has become commonly realised as a [[glottal stop]] {{IPA|[ʔ]}} when it is in the intervocalic position, in a process called [[T-glottalisation]]. National media, being based in London, have seen the glottal stop spreading more widely than it once was in word endings, ''not'' being heard as "no{{IPA|[ʔ]}}" and ''bottle of water'' being heard as "bo{{IPA|[ʔ]}}le of wa{{IPA|[ʔ]}}er". It is still stigmatised when used at the beginning and central positions, such as ''later'', while ''often'' has all but regained {{IPA|/t/}}.<ref name="Trudghill56">{{cite book|last=Trudgill|first=Peter |author-link=Peter Trudgill|title=Language in the British Isles|year=1984|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge, England|isbn=0-521-28409-0|pages=56–57}}</ref> Other consonants subject to this usage in Cockney English are ''p'', as in pa{{IPA|[ʔ]}}er and ''k'' as in ba{{IPA|[ʔ]}}er.<ref name="Trudghill56" />

=== R-dropping ===
In most areas of England and Wales, outside the [[West Country English|West Country]] and other near-by counties of the UK, the consonant R is not pronounced if not followed by a vowel, lengthening the preceding vowel instead. This phenomenon is known as [[Rhoticity in English|non-rhoticity]].
In these same areas, a tendency exists to insert an R between a word ending in a vowel and a next word beginning with a vowel. This is called the [[intrusive R]]. It could be understood as a merger, in that words that once ended in an R and words that did not are no longer treated differently. This is also due to London-centric influences. Examples of R-dropping are ''car'' and ''sugar'', where the R is not pronounced.

=== Diphthongisation ===
British dialects differ on the extent of diphthongisation of long vowels, with southern varieties extensively turning them into diphthongs, and with northern dialects normally preserving many of them. As a comparison, North American varieties could be said to be in-between.

==== North ====
Long vowels /iː/ and /uː/ are usually preserved, and in several areas also /oː/ and /eː/, as in '''go''' and '''say''' (unlike other varieties of English, that change them to [oʊ] and [eɪ] respectively). Some areas go as far as not diphthongising medieval /iː/ and /uː/, that give rise to modern /aɪ/ and /aʊ/; that is, for example, in the traditional accent of [[Newcastle upon Tyne]], 'out' will sound as 'oot', and in parts of Scotland and North-West England, 'my' will be pronounced as 'me'.

==== South ====
Long vowels /iː/ and /uː/ are diphthongised to [ɪi] and [ʊu] respectively (or, more technically, [ʏʉ], with a raised tongue), so that '''ee''' and '''oo''' in '''feed''' and '''food''' are pronounced with a movement. The diphthong [oʊ] is also pronounced with a greater movement, normally [əʊ], [əʉ] or [əɨ].

=== People in groups ===
Dropping a morphological [[grammatical number]], in [[collective noun]]s, is stronger in British English than North American English.<ref name="BOD">[https://web.archive.org/web/20111118122015/http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2011/09/agreement-over-collective-nouns/], [[Oxford Dictionaries (website)|Oxford Dictionaries]] website, 2 April 2017.</ref> This is to treat them as plural when once grammatically singular, a perceived natural number prevails, especially when applying to institutional nouns and groups of people.

The noun 'police', for example, undergoes this treatment:

{{blockquote|'''Police are''' investigating the theft of work tools worth £500 from a van at the Sprucefield park and ride car park in Lisburn.<ref name=BBC1>[https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-38547391], [[BBC]], 8 January 2017.</ref>}}

A football team can be treated likewise:

{{blockquote|Arsenal '''have''' lost just one of 20 home Premier League matches against Manchester City.<ref name=BBC2>[https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/39396482], [[BBC]], 2 April 2017.</ref>}}

This tendency can be observed in texts produced already in the 19th century. For example, [[Jane Austen]], a British author, writes in Chapter 4 of ''[[Pride and Prejudice (novel)|Pride and Prejudice]]'', published in 1813:{{blockquote|All '''the world are''' good and agreeable in your eyes.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1342/1342-h/1342-h.htm|title=Pride and Prejudice |first1=Jane |last1=Austen |website=The Project Gutenberg |access-date=2020-02-27}}</ref>}} However, in Chapter 16, the grammatical number is used. {{blockquote|'''The world is''' blinded by his fortune and consequence.}}

=== Negatives ===
Some dialects of British English use negative concords, also known as [[double negatives]]. Rather than changing a word or using a positive, words like nobody, not, nothing, and never would be used in the same sentence.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/grammar/british-grammar/types-of-english-formal-informal-etc/double-negatives-and-usage|title=Double negatives and usage – English Grammar Today – Cambridge Dictionary|website=dictionary.cambridge.org}}</ref> While this does not occur in Standard English, it does occur in non-standard dialects. The double negation follows the idea of two different morphemes, one that causes the double negation, and one that is used for the point or the verb.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Susagna |last=Tubau |title=Lexical variation and Negative Concord in Traditional Dialects of British English |journal=The Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=143–177 |doi=10.1007/s10828-016-9079-4|year=2016 |s2cid=123799620 |url=https://ddd.uab.cat/record/287774 }}</ref>