Features of local Dublin English

Vowel breaking

Long high vowels are realized as two syllables with a hiatus between the two when they occur in closed syllables. The hiatus element is [j] with front vowels and [W] with back vowels, clean [klijən], fool [fuwəl]. The disyllabification of long high vowels extends to diphthongs which have a high ending point as can be seen in the following realizations: time [təjəm], pound [pεwən]. Among the further prominent vocalic characteristics of Dublin English are the following: (a) Fronting of /au/, e.g. down , (b) Lengthening of historically short vowels before /r/, e.g. circle , first , (c) Retention of early modern English short /U/, e.g. Dublin .