LELA 10082 Lecture II

1
LELA 10082Lecture II

• Describing accents II

2
Differences between X and RP

• Differences of phoneme system
• Additional phoneme distinctions missing
  phonemes
• Differences of distribution
• X and RP have equivalent phonemes, but the
  phonetic contexts in which they occur differ
• Differences of incidence
• X and RP have equivalent phonemes, but in
  particular words, a different phoneme is chosen
• Differences of realisation
• X and RP have equivalent phonemes, but the
  phonetic and/or allophonic realisation differs

3
3. Differences of incidence

• One phoneme rather than another in certain words
• Systematic differences more interesting
• Some differences are more arbitrary
• Accents have both phonemes (or equivalent)
• Difference can be defined in terms of phonetic
  (or other) context/condition

4
3. Differences of incidence

• Northern flat A
• Note flat is not a phonetic term /a//A/
  (frontback)
• Northern accents have /a/ rather than /A/ before
  voiceless fricatives and consonant clusters
  beginning with a nasal laugh, path, pass,
  sample, answer, aunt, branch, slander
• But some exceptions pant, romance, mansion,
  band, camp
• But /A/ when theres an r or l in the
  spelling, or before voiced fricatives half,
  hearth, calm, farm, parcel, father, camouflage,
  and a few other words

5
3. Differences of incidence

• pat, bad, cap, can, gas, land
• path, laugh, grass
• dance, grant, demand
• part, bar, cart
• half, palm, banana, cant
• How do you pronounce these words?

• RP /a/ in (1), /A/ elsewhere
• Midlands, N England /a/ in (1)-(3)
• Scots, N Irish has only /a/ in all 5
• SW England contrast is variable, but mostly have
  long a (ie /A/?)
• All of the above subject to exceptions

6
Northern A

• Some words with /a/ look like they should have
  /A/, giving rise to hypercorrection, and even
  some variation in RP
• gas, salmon, graphic, lather, transfer, plastic,
  elastic, Elastoplast, gymnastic, Atlantic,
  Gesellschaft (!)
• Realisation of /A/ varies in Northern accents
  (more later)

/a/ in path /A/ in path Contrast absent or in
doubt
7
3. Differences of incidence

• Conservative RP has /?/ rather than /?/ before
  voiceless fricative in off, lost, cloth
• Some Northern accents have /u/ rather than /?/
  where there is oo in spelling, eg look, book,
  cook
• Hypercorrection tooth /tUT/
• System shift lucklookLuke /lUklukljuk/
• Some Northern accents have /?/ rather than
  (expected) /?/ where there is o in spelling,
  eg once, tongue, one, none, nothing, among

8
4. Differences of realisation

• Especially in the vowel systems, many accents
  have same number of phonemes, used in the same
  words, but they differ phonetically often
  systematically
• Quite often we see the whole vowel system
  shifted round in some way
• Example
• RP and Brummie

9
RP Brummie
10
4. Differences of realisation

• Tyneside inverted diphthongs
• Belfast similar
• Diphthongs appear as monophthongs in several
  accents
• /eI/ /e/ in Scots, /E?/ in Lancs
• /ou/ /o/ in Scots, /??/ in Lancs
• etc.
• /A/ is long /a?/ in Scouse catcart
• Realisations sometimes make systematicity more
  obvious

RP Tyneside example eI I?
plate oU u? boat aU u?
brown
11
4. Differences of realisation

• Scouse voiceless stops /p,t,k/ affricated, or
  even realized as fricatives (esp. in word-final
  position, and especially /t/)
• cup kUp, kUp?, kxUp?, xU? (? bilabial
  fricative)
• but bUts, bUts, bUs so but bus
• back bakx, bax
• echo Ex?u
• Stop phonemes in general characterized by lax
  articulation, leading to affrication or
  replacement by fricatives
• bread and butter brEz n bUsE

12
4. Differences of realisation

• Equivalent phonemes (sometimes called diaphone)
  
• Particularly vowel phonemes, absolute differences
  can be quite significant
• Experimental evidence shows that hearers can
  adjust to the appropriate vowel system within a
  few utterances
• even if the accent is unfamiliar
• This underlines the idea of systematicity

13
4. Differences of realisation
/ou/ as in go
?u, ??
ou
EU, Eo
14
Beyond phonemes

• Suprasegmentals
• Intonation
• Patterns
• Range
• Stress, Rhythm, Loudness
• Voice quality features

15
Intonation

• Accents can differ in use of intonation patterns
• Patterns described in terms of start position
  (high, mid, low) and direction (rise, fall,
  fall-rise, steady)
• Pattern differences, like phonemes, can be
  analysed as follows
• (see Ladd DR 1996. Intonational Phonology.
  CambridgeCUP)
• Semantic differences (same tune, different
  meaning)
• Systemic differences (same meaning carried by
  different tune)
• Realisation differences
• Phonotactic differences (intonation patterns
  combine in different ways)
• Lots of work done on IViE corpus
• Multiple recordings of nine urban accents from
  around the British Isles
• http//www.phon.ox.ac.uk/IViE/

16
Intonation

• Semantic differences same tune different meaning
• Systemic differences same meaning different tune
• Some overlap here our example could be either
  semantic or systemic

17
Intonation example

• Use of (mid) rise in declarative statements
• Most accents of English use low rise for yes/no
  questions or requests for confirmation
• Did you go the party?
• Who was at the party?
• Same intonation when used with declarative
  statement implies element of questioning, eg
  request for confirmation
• I come from Wigan (have you ever heard of it?)
• This pattern increasingly used for simple
  declaratives
• Evidence that this use originated with Australian
  adolescent females, spread to males, and then
  spread overseas, through soaps, though it is also
  a feature of some British accents, notably Ulster

18
Intonation example

• From Grabe E, Post B Intonational variation in
  the British Isles, in book, available at
  http//www.phon.ox.ac.uk/esther/GP2002.doc
• Intonation used for declarative statements
• Data based on multiple recordings of informants
  from various regions

19
Intonation range

• Even if patterns are the same, a difference in
  range may be typical of an accent
• Range means how high/low the rises and falls
  are
• Some accents characterised as sing song
• eg South Wales, Brummie
• Range variation can also be idiolectal

20
Stress, rhythm, loudness

• Stress placement in individual words, or (rarely)
  in general, can be dialectal (eg New?castle), and
  also interacts with choice of phoneme (weak
  forms)
• Rhythm differences are usually idiolectal, but
  can be associated with regional dialects
• eg some rural accents characterised as having a
  slower pace of delivery
• Some non-UK accents might have distinctive
  rhythmic patters due to influence of other local
  languages (eg West Indian accents have more even
  rhythm, fewer weak forms)
• Once again, beware of sociological stereotyping
  that has nothing to do with linguistics!
• Loudness differences are almost always idiolectal
• Some languages are typically louder than others,
  but this doesnt seem to be the case with accents

21
Voice quality features

• Voice quality include things like pitch, range
  and loudness, but also eg
• Breathiness, nasality, pharyngealisation,
  velarisation,
• Voice quality usually idiolectal, but there are
  some regional tendencies

22
Voice quality features

• Several accents can be described as nasal
• New York, middle class southern English
• Liverpool and N Wales accents often have a
  velarised or pharyngealised quality tongue is
  raised towards back of mouth, giving a
  strangled quality
• Some southern Irish accents can sound breathy
  due to (pre-)aspiration of stops (influence of
  Gaelic), and weak voicing of vowels
• Flexibility of lip-movement might give an accent
  a certain quality (tight- or stiff- lipped)