(A) Do not pronounce an ‘R’ unless it is followed by a vowel.

Pronounce the ‘R’ as you normally would in words like rat and carry.

But do not EVER pronounce the ‘R’ in words like cart, bird, fort, beard, dared, muttered.

This makes you sound as if you have some kind of West Country accent, and it’s what leads to the perfectly justified accusations in letters to the EDP (that’s the Eastern Daily Press in case you didn’t make its acquaintance during your visits to the county) that all that you are doing is speaking ‘Mummerzet’.

(B) Do pronounce the short ‘A’ vowel in words like cat, bad, man as you normally would, and not with a fake West Country accent which makes bad sound like ‘bahd’.

Norfolk people, as near enough as makes no difference, pronounce bad in the same way that Londoners and other people in the southeast of England do.

(C) Do not turn ‘L’s into vowels in the way that Londoners do.

Norfolk people do not pronounce milk like ‘miook’ or pail like ‘pay-oo’.

“Best of luck with the Basic Level – next we’ll try to get you sounding as if you might even come from Norfolk!”

Peter Trudgill FBA President of FOND
Honorary Professor of Sociolinguistics at the
University of East Anglia