English language in southern England
South East England and the Home Counties (the counties bordering London) tend to reflect the interface between the London region and other regional accents. Affluent districts are associated with a modified Received Pronunciation (RP) accent, reflecting their traditional popularity with upper middle and upper-class residents which has spread throughout more social classes broadly in rural areas with commuting access to London. Less affluent areas have traditionally mainstream London accents (that is, variants of the Estuary English accent) that grade into southern rural outside urban areas.
Northern England
Northern English accents have not undergone the – split, and a common shibboleth to distinguish them from Southern ones is the Northern use of the short a (the near-open front unrounded vowel) in words such as "bath" and "castle". On the opposite border, most Northern English accents can be distinguished from Scottish accents because they are non-rhotic, although a few rhotic Lancashire accents remain. Other features common to many Northern English accents are the absence of the – split (so "put" and "putt" are homophones), the reduction of the definite article "the" to a glottal stop (usually represented in writing as "t"), and the T-to-R rule that leads to the pronunciation of "t" as a rhotic consonant in phrases like "get up" ().