Non-native northern English

This chapter describes and discusses aspects of a study looking at the acquisition of local accent features by non-native English speakers living in Manchester. The participants in the study are all Polish, and they clearly show variability in the extent to which they use what might be called a non-native northern English accent. Three linguistic features are investigated in detail – the STRUT vowel, glottal variation in /t/, and ING variation, with social factors such as gender, attitude, and identity all playing a role in the ways in which individuals position themselves in relation to both the local culture and the local language.