LONDON AND ITS SURROUNDINGS bcs of its position: political capital, largest city, linguistic centre Upper class: lay foundations for St E, RP London’s working class: Cockney: London, inner suburbs of East London COCKNEY DIALECT: separate vocabulary, usages rhymes, slang: ‘Be on your tod’ “hello trouble!’ Popular London: closer to RP than Cockney

Differences btwn Cockney-Popular London speech Genuine Cockney Popular London 1) MOUTH wrds: Monophthong Diphthong [mᴂ:f]=[ma:f] [mᴂʊɵ]=[mᴂʊf] Fricative Glottaling: ‘safer’: [saɪɁə] Popular London Speech: ‘refayned’ accent , unsuccessful attempt to sound as if its speakers belonged to a higher social class by avoiding extremes of Cockney (e.g., Diphthong Shifting) but also going too far in the other direction Middle Class: closer to RP with some regional features (Southeast-Regional Accent)

The Vowel System of London E (Btwn RP-Cockney) ɪi, ʌɪ, oɪ, ɑɪ, ʉ:, ʌʊ, o:, ᴂʊ, ɒʊ iə, eə, ɜ: (ʊə), ɔə, ɑ:

THE VOWEL SYSTEM OF LONDON E KIT ɪ FLEECE ɪi NEAR iə DRESS e FACE ʌɪ SQUARE eə TRAP ᴂ PALM ɑ: START ɑ: LOT ɒ THOUGHT o:/ɔə NORTH o:/ɔə STRUT ʌ GOAT ʌʊ CURE uə FOOT ʊ GOOSE ʉ: NURSEɜ BATH ɑ: MOUTH ᴂʊ LETTER ə CLOTH ɒ/o: PRICE ɑɪ COMMA ə HAPPY ɪi VOICE ɔɪ What can we notice?

Main differences btwn RP-London Speech 1) Diphthongisation of monophthongs ‘Bored’ [ɔə] vs ‘board’ [o:] 2) əʊ→ʌʊ e.g., ‘polar’ /pəʊlə/→[pʌʊlə] 3)HAPPY→i: (but RP is almost similar nowadays) RP i: eɪ aɪ ɔɪ Popular London ɪi ʌɪ ɑɪ ɔɪ Cockney əi aɪ ɒɪ oɪ

Main differences btwn RP-Cockney RP ɑʊ əʊ u: aɪ Popular London ᴂʊ ʌʊ ʊʉ ɑɪ Cockney ᴂ: aʊ əʊ=ʉ: ɑɪ In Consonants L vocalisation ‘people’ [pi:po], ‘fill’ [fɪo] h→ᴓ tendency to get rid of it 3) /ɵ, ð/ ‘’ “ “ ” 4) Glottalisation V-V later [lʌɪɁḍə], baker [bʌɪɁgə], [bʌɁə] ‘butter’

Main differences btwn RP-Cockney in consonants 5) Tapping /voicing in btwn vowels: [bʌɾə] ‘butter’ [ʃᴂəɾɪd] ‘shouted’ and across morpheme boundaries: [ˈʃʌɾəp] In other contexts, glottalisation is more favoured than tapping: [jʉ spoɪlɁɪɁ] ‘you spoilt it’ , [gɪʊɁi] ‘guilty’ 6) Affrication of plosives: initial [tˢəi] ‘tea’ [kˣoʊ] ‘call intervocalic: [betˢəɪ] ‘Betty’ Final: [aɁpɸ] ‘up’ 7) Fricatives: in Cockney: TH-Fronting:/ɵ, ð/→/f,v/ thin: [fɪn], [brʌvə] ‘brother’ [ba:f] ‘bath’ [fri:] ‘free’ In the voiced one: only in non-initial position: ðɪs but * [vɪz] TH-Fronting: NON – SYSTEMIC DIFFERENCE bcs Cockney speakers DO have /ɵ, ð/ and they KNOW how to distinguish /f, v, ɵ, ð/ by the age of 9

Fricatives in London Speech Initial /ð/→[d, l, Ɂ, ð but frictionless] ‘this’ [dis], [lis], [Ɂis], [ð: No friction] E. g., /ɪz ðᴂt ᴐ:l / → [ɪz ˈᴂɁoʊ] previous centuries: stopping of /ɵ, ð/ spelling:‘Thursday’ :’Tursday’ , ‘further’ ‘furder’ (by some London children) Neutralisation of /s/vs /z/→[s] ‘knees’ →[nəis]=‘niece’ →[nəis], /bɪˈkɒz/→[bɪˈkɒs];/ʃ,ȝ/ not much lip rounding

Yod phenomena in Cockney The only consonants that /j/ follows: /p, b, v, g/ e. g., ‘dispute’: [diˈspjʊt], ‘beautiful’ [bju:təfəl] but: [mʉ:zɪk], ‘few’: [fʉ:] In alveolar+jod→j →ø like Gen Am: ‘tune’: [tʉ:n], ‘new’ : [nʉ:] Gradually, jod coalescence replaced jod dropping: [tʃtʊʉn], ‘duke’: [dȝʊʉk] Awareness/stigmatisation of jod coalescence leads to hypercorrection ‘chew’: [tjʉ:], ‘june’: [djʉ:n]

Prosodic features of Cockney Voice quality: ‘chest’ tone , ‘rough’, ‘harsh’ Popular London Speech: less lip activity, only /w//o:/ Sloppy plosive release, heavy aspiration, affrication, but a sudden release of[Ɂ] Intonation: similar to RP but a falling pitch on the question tag ‘eh’ ‘Rhythmically: lengthening of final syllables e.g., [kʰanɁri:] ‘country’ Literary Cockney: Dickens (outdated) , Shaw

The South: three main parts Home Countries East Anglia West Country Near London Norfolk Gloucestershire Kent, Surrey Suffolk Avon, Devon Sussex Essex Bristol, Cornwall

Phonetics characteristics of East Anglia 1) Vowels: similarities with RP: In FOOT STRUT wrds BATH broadening /ba:ɵ/ Non-rhotic Differences in vowels: Distinction btwn : [e: or ea] vs [ᴂɪ] the GOAT wrds:[ʊu]=u: boat→ bʊt, road rʊd Name nail moan /ᴐ:/ mown /ᴐʊ/ Paper way sole soul Face eight nose knows GOOSE: [ʉ: or ou] e.g., ‘soon’: sʉ:n

Phonetic characteristics of East Anglia NEAR, SQUARE: merge into: [ɛ: or ɛə] Homophones rear-rare , fear-fair CURE Norwich: [ɜ:] ‘sure’→[ʃɜ:] SMOOTHING: More in Norwich: ‘fire’: [fa:], ‘tower’: [ta:], ‘trying’: [trɑ:n], ‘allowing’ [əˈlɑ:n] DRESS →[ɜ: or ʌ] II consonants 1) jod dropping almost everywhere: [mʉzɪk] music , [bʉdi] ‘beauty’2) h-dropping, 3)t-Glottaling

Prosodic features of East Anglia Extreme lengthening of stressed, long Vs +compensatory reduction of the unstressed Vs: e.g., ‘thirty-two’: [ɵɜ::Ɂtʉ:] III. The West Country 1) Well known for its rhoticity/r/ pronounced everywhere (Bristol, Exeter, Southampton) /r/:retroflex [ɻ] 2) voicing of initial fricatives /f, ɵ, s, ʃ/→[v, ð, z,ȝ] farm: [va:ɻm], ‘seven’: [zevən], ‘shepherd’:[ȝepɚd]

Phonetic features of West England 3) In Bristol: /k/→[Ɂ] [lɒɁ] 4) intrusive /l/ ‘comma’: [kɒməl] Loss of minimal pairs: ‘area’ ‘aerial’ [eərɪəlz] Bristol is the only city in Britain which turns: ‘ideas’ →’ideals’, ‘Monicas’→’monocles’ 5) h-dropping: varies

The West country vowels 1) V length : not v important but also: short Vs→lengthened: ‘did’ [di:d], stem’:[ste:m] 2) TRAP →[a] 3)LOT→[ɑ] 4)in Wessex: [ᴐ:] merges with [ɑ]→[ɑr] so NORTH, START: [ɑr] 5)FACE, GOAT→[fe:s], [go:t] 6)[ʌ] or [ə] in some areas