The distinction between broad and general accents is a socio-economic-linguistic contrast made between different accents of the same language, typically spoken in a single geographical location and perceived by the language users themselves: *A broad accent (sometimes equated with a local or vernacular accent) is popularly perceived as very "strong" or "thick", highly recognizable to a particular population (typically within a particular region), and often linguistically conservative; almost always, it is the accent associated with the traditional speech of the local people or the

working class The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...

(whether rural or urban) of a given region. *A general accent (sometimes equated with a standard accent) is perceived as geographically more widespread, not particularized to a certain population or location, sounding more "neutral" or "weak", and historico-linguistically innovative; it is typically associated with the

middle class The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. C ...

of a given region, a growing process of

standardization Standardization (American English) or standardisation (British English) is the process of implementing and developing technical standards based on the consensus of different parties that include firms, users, interest groups, standards organiza ...

or supraregionalization that transcends local boundaries, or more "mainstream" speakers. The capitalized term "broad" to refer to a dialect is commonly placed before a place name in the United Kingdom, such as " Broad Lancashire" or " Broad Yorkshire". The supposed mainstream English accent of the United States has been called "

General American General American English, known in linguistics simply as General American (abbreviated GA or GenAm), is the umbrella accent of American English used by a majority of Americans, encompassing a continuum rather than a single unified accent. ...

" since the early-mid 20th century. ''Broad'' and ''general'' are not definitively established terms in

phonology Phonology (formerly also phonemics or phonematics: "phonemics ''n.'' 'obsolescent''1. Any procedure for identifying the phonemes of a language from a corpus of data. 2. (formerly also phonematics) A former synonym for phonology, often pre ...

and

phonetics Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds or, in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians ...

, and thus other terms are commonly used to make the same basic distinction. Irish linguist Raymond Hickey, for example, has classified the broad traditional accent of

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

as "local" and more general mainstream accents of Dublin collectively as "non-local". He has also referred to a particular general and non-local accent common throughout Ireland as "supraregional".Hickey, Raymond.
A Sound Atlas of Irish English
', Volume 1.

Walter de Gruyter Walter de Gruyter GmbH, known as De Gruyter (), is a German scholarly publishing house specializing in academic literature. History The roots of the company go back to 1749 when Frederick the Great granted the Königliche Realschule in Be ...

: 2004. Sometimes a third category is also distinguished: a ''cultivated accent'' that is considered particularly cultured, stylish, affluent, or even contrived, associated with the educated

upper class Upper class in modern societies is the social class composed of people who hold the highest social status. Usually, these are the wealthiest members of class society, and wield the greatest political power. According to this view, the upper cla ...

of a given region. All three distinctions (cultivated, general, and broad) are well studied varieties within South African,

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

, and Australian English phonology. The same three basic concepts also commonly characterize scholarly discussions of the dialects of southeastern England (particularly around

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

) in the 21st century—namely:

Received Pronunciation Received Pronunciation (RP) is the Accent (sociolinguistics), accent of British English regarded as the Standard language, standard one, carrying the highest Prestige (sociolinguistics), social prestige, since as late as the beginning of the 2 ...

(cultivated),

Estuary English Estuary English is an English accent, continuum of accents, or continuum of accent features associated with the area along the River Thames and its estuary, including London, since the late 20th century. In 2000, the phonetician John C. We ...

(general), and

Cockney Cockney is a dialect of the English language, mainly spoken in London and its environs, particularly by Londoners with working-class and lower middle class roots. The term ''Cockney'' is also used as a demonym for a person from the East End, ...

Multicultural London English Multicultural London English (abbreviated MLE) is a sociolect of English that emerged in the late 20th century. It is spoken mainly by young, working-class people in multicultural parts of London. Speakers of MLE come from a wide variety of et ...

(broad).

References

{{reflist Phonetics Phonology Sociolinguistics