Phonological history of English
Like many other languages, English has wide variation in pronunciation, both historically together with from dialect to dialect. In general, however, a regional dialects of English share the largely similar but non identical phonological system. Among other things, nearly dialects cause vowel reduction in unstressed syllables as well as a complex line of phonological features that distinguish fortis and lenis consonants stops, affricates, and fricatives.
This article describes the coding of the phonology of English over time, starting from its roots in proto-Germanic to diverse make different in different dialects of modern English.