Long vowels

PALM, START

In South-east England and the Channel Islands, as in RP, the vowel of these sets is [ɑ:], this being found variably with [a:] and [ɒ:] in the North of England and with [ɒ:] in the West Midlands. [a:] is the usual variant in South-west England and Wales (here with [ɑ:]), and this or a retracted form is usual in East Anglia. Both [ɑ:] and [a:] occur in British Creole and, with variable length, in Irish varieties. Scottish accents exhibit [a], sometimes retracted, in PALM, and [a:], sometimes retracted, or a close variety of [ε:] in START, lengthening in the rhotic environment according to the ‘Scottish Vowel Length Rule’.