1/18 LELA Lecture 3 Describing accents I

2/18 How accents differ Want to talk in general about how to describe accents –We’ll apply today’s ideas to some case studies later “Accents” means we’ll concentrate on phonetic aspects To do this properly, you really need to be a good phonetician –Know your phonetic symbols –Have a really good ear But even if not, you can still grasp the principles

3/18 How to approach the task? Independent phonemic analysis (endocentric) –More “scientific”, but can be long-winded Comparison with something else (probably RP) (exocentric) –More convenient, but … –Beware of false impressions: That accent is derived from RP (may be vice versa, or accents are historically quite distinct) That RP is better (cf last class: RP used to be prestigious, and certainly may influence changes in regional accents)

4/18 Differences between X and RP 1.Differences of phoneme system Additional phoneme distinctions; “missing” phonemes 2.Differences of distribution X and RP have equivalent phonemes, but the phonetic contexts in which they occur differ 3.Differences of incidence X and RP have equivalent phonemes, but in particular words, a different phoneme is chosen 4.Differences of realisation X and RP have equivalent phonemes, but the phonetic and/or allophonic realisation differs

5/18 Systematicity Phoneme systems generally show some systematic patterns: this also applies to differences Examples of systematicity in RP –Phonemes can be grouped –Allophones of voiceless stops –Vowels in long-short pairs

6/18 Phonemes can be grouped Three places of articulation with voiced and voiceless stops and nasals: ptk/bdg/mnN Fricatives/affricates also in voiced/voiceless pairs Diphthongs –three/four centring ( i , E , , u  ) –five closing of which three close to front (ei,ai,  i) and two to back (au,ou)

7/18 Allophones of voiceless stops /p,t,k/ Aspirated word initially Slightly aspirated syllable initial But not aspirated after s- Glottalized word finally Ejective word finally for emphasis

8/18 Vowels in long-short pairs Vowel phonemes are distinguished mainly by quality, but also by length –a~ A I ~i  ~   ~u  ~  (+ E ~ E  or E ~ei) –Qualitatively, long vowels are even longer before voiced consonants (eg course~cause) final or +voiced +nasal +voiceless Short vowels Long vowels Diphtongs Length in csecs (from Gimson 1970)

9/18 1. Differences in phoneme system /  / generally absent in accents north of Severn-Wash “isogloss” –luck~look, putt~put, etc –hypercorrection push, pull [p  S, p  l], butcher

10/18 1. Differences in phoneme system Scots doesn’t have three long-short distinctions –/  / = /u/ pull, pool –/  / = /  / caught, cot –/ a / = / A / psalm, Sam Three vowel phonemes where RP has six Two are long (u, A ) one short (  ) (heart~hat distinction affected by another difference – see later)

11/18 1. Differences in phoneme system “Rhotic” accents –Have /r/ pre-consonantal and word-final (see later) don’t have centring diphthongs / i , E , , u  / Have combination of vowel + /r/ instead eg hear /hir/, bear /b E r/, floor /fl  r/, poor /pur/

12/18 1. Differences in phoneme system Scouse lack / E  /~/  / distinction eg fair=fur Scouse lack / D / as in /di du d  u d  unt di d  u/ North Wales lack /z/ and / Z / eg zinc=sink, zoo=Sue, face=phase, pleasure=/ plES  / Many accents lack /h/ Some Irish accents lack / T / and / D /, so three=tree, thick=tick, other=udder, path=Pat Midlands and North N is not a phoneme, but an allophone of /n/ –Note eg hanging / haNgINg /, sing / sINg / –[ N ] only occurs before /k/ and / g /, so can be analysed as allophone of /n/ Be aware of implications of saying an accent “lacks” something

13/18 1. Differences in phoneme system – additional phonemes Accents which distinguish /w/~/  / witch~which Scots has extra phoneme /  i/ eg in tide ≠ tied Scots has extra phoneme /x/ in technical, Brechin, loch, Buchan and for some speakers in bright, light, night Welsh speakers of English have extra phoneme /  / though only in loan words (place names, eg Llangollen), so status as phoneme is debatable London has extra phoneme /  / eg in door, bore, paw, law bored ≠ board, paws ≠ pause –only occurs in morpheme-final position –note bored = bore+d, paws = paw+s

14/18 Differences seen as speech defects? Some accents (or idiolects) lack /f/~/ T / contrast … generally viewed as showing lack of education, and something to be avoided; but cf Irish A lisp is identified by a missing phoneme contrast /s/~/ T /, and is viewed as a minor speech defect

15/18 2. Differences of distribution Phonemes are characterised by the contexts in which they can appear Not all phonemes can appear in all contexts, eg –/h,j,w,r/ do not appear word-finally – consonant clusters with -r and -l limited to: pr, br, tr, dr, kr, g r, fr, T r, sr, S r pl, bl, *tl, *dl, kl, gl, fl, T l, sl, S l,

16/18 2. Differences of distribution /r/ in “rhotic” accents can occur after a vowel in word-final position (eg four, car) and pre- consonant position (bird, work) Rhotic accents include Scots, Irish, most North American, SW England, N Lancs

17/18 2. Differences of distribution Final unstressed / I / realised as /i/ in South, West, Wales, Scouse, Geordie (creeping into RP), eg studded≠studied, pitted ≠pitied, taxis ≠taxes, candid ≠candied Scots word-final / I/ realsied as /e/ eg lady /lede/, daily /dele/ Norfolk no /j/ after labials pure=poor, mute=moot, beauty=booty, ? few /fu/, view /vu/

18/18 2. Differences of distribution Several accents no /j/ after /t,d,n,s,l,z, T / tune, dune, nuclear, pursuit, lewd, resume, enthuse Yorkshire voiceless assimilation at morpheme boundaries, eg Bradford /bratf  d/, frogspawn /fr  ksp  n/ Cockney / D / becomes /v/ except initially: the bruvvers, they bave (‘bathe’), they like baving