Vowels Short monophthongs • The vowel of
cat is pronounced either as an
open front unrounded vowel or a more central
near-open front unrounded vowel . In
Cardiff,
bag is pronounced with a long vowel . In
Mid-Wales, a pronunciation resembling its
New Zealand and
South African analogue is sometimes heard, i.e.
trap is pronounced . and is encountered as a
hypercorrection in northern areas for
foot. It is sometimes manifested in border areas of north and mid Wales as an
open front unrounded vowel . It also manifests as a
near-close near-back rounded vowel without the
foot–strut split in parts of North Wales influenced by
Cheshire and
Scouse accents, • The
schwa tends to be supplanted by an in final closed syllables, e.g.
brightest . The uncertainty over which vowel to use often leads to hypercorrections involving the schwa, e.g.
programme is often pronounced . • The vowel of
car is often pronounced as an
open central unrounded vowel and more often as a long
open front unrounded vowel . • Most other long monophthongs are similar to that of
Received Pronunciation, but words with the RP are sometimes pronounced as and the RP as . An example that illustrates this tendency is the
Abercrave pronunciation of
play-place . • In northern varieties, as in
coat and as in
caught/court may be merged into (phonetically ). while an
alveolar trill may also be used under the influence of
Welsh. • Welsh English is mostly
non-rhotic, however variable rhoticity can be found in accents influenced by Welsh, especially
northern varieties. Additionally, while
Port Talbot English is mostly non-rhotic like other varieties of Welsh English, some speakers may supplant the front vowel of
bird with , like in many varieties of
North American English. •
H-dropping is common in many Welsh accents, especially
southern varieties like
Cardiff English, but is absent in northern and
western varieties influenced by Welsh. • Some
gemination between vowels is often encountered, e.g.
money is pronounced . • As Welsh lacks the letter Z and the
voiced alveolar fricative /z/, some first-language Welsh speakers replace it with the
voiceless alveolar fricative /s/ for words like
cheese and
thousand, while
pens () and
pence merge into , especially in north-west, west and south-west Wales. • In northern varieties influenced by Welsh,
chin () and
gin may also merge into . • In the north-east, under influence of such accents as
Scouse,
ng-coalescence does not take place, so
sing is pronounced . • Also in northern accents, is frequently strongly velarised . In much of the south-east,
clear and dark L alternate much like they do in RP. • The consonants are generally the same as RP but Welsh consonants like and (phonetically ) are encountered in loan words such as
Llangefni and
Harlech. • is in free variation with in northern dialects. ==Distinctive vocabulary and grammar==