Language in Society. Regional Englishes

[ðə fɜːst taɪm aɪ wɛnt tə ðʔ¹ ʃɒp aɪ θɔːʔ² ðə wə ᵊ³ raɪt naɪs reːnʤ⁴ əv gʊdz ðɛː⁵ | ɪt dɪnt⁶ siːm tuː dɪə bəʔ⁷ wɛn aɪ lʊkt ət ðʔ⁸ ˈpraɪsɪz mɔːˈkeəflə⁹ aɪ θɔːʔ¹⁰ wɛl ˈɑʔʧʊələ^11,12 ɪts nɒʔ¹³ sʊʧ¹⁴ ᵊ¹⁵ gʊd ˈvɑljuː¹⁶ ˈɑːftər¹⁷ ɔːl | sɒ¹⁸ ðɛn aɪ dɪˈsaɪdɪd tə gɔː¹⁹ ˈsʊmwər^20,21,22 ɛls | wɒʔ²³ aɪ dɪd faɪnd aʊʔ^24,25 ðɔː wəz ðəʔ²⁶ ðʔ²⁷ vɑst²⁸ mʌˈʤɒrɪtə^29,30 əv ˈpleːsɪz³¹ ə tuː ɪksˈpɛnsɪv ðiːz deɪz | jə³² kɑːnt³³ faɪnd ˈɛnɪwə³⁴ ʧiːp]

1. The definite article reduction that is realised with the glottal stop (Beal 2010).
2. The glottal stop (omission of the final sound [t]) (Foulkes & Docherty 2014).
3. The indefinite article weakening, the diphthong [eɪ] weakens to the schwa sound (Beal 2010).
4. The initial diphthong [eɪ] turns to the monophthong [eː] (Wells 1982).
5. The initial diphthong [eə] turns to the monophthong [ɛː] (Foulkes & Docherty 2014).
6. The contracted negative didn’t (Foulkes & Docherty 2014).
7. The glottal stop (omission of the final sound [t]) (Foulkes & Docherty 2014).
8. The definite article reduction that is realised with the glottal stop (Beal 2010).
9. The final sound [ɪ] turns to the schwa sound (Foulkes & Docherty 2014).
10. The glottal stop (omission of the final sound [t]) (Foulkes & Docherty 2014).
11. The glottal reinforcement for the sound [k] (Beal 2010).
12. The final sound [ɪ] turns to the schwa sound (Foulkes & Docherty 2014).
13. The glottal stop (omission of the final sound [t]) (Foulkes & Docherty 2014).
14. The sound [ʌ] turns to the sound [ʊ] (Wells 1982).
15. The indefinite article weakening, the diphthong [eɪ] weakens to the schwa sound (Beal 2010).
16. The trap-bath split does not occur, the sound [æ] is replaced by the sound [a] (Foulkes & Docherty 2014).
17. The linking R, which occurs when the sound [r] stands at the end of a word before the word with the initial vowel sound (Foulkes & Docherty 2014).
18. The diphthong [əʊ] turns to the monophthong [oː], but in a weak unstressed position becomes the short sound [ɒ] (Wells 1982).
19. The diphthong [əʊ] turns to the monophthong [oː] (Wells 1982).
20. The sound [ʌ] in the first syllable turns to the sound [ʊ] (Wells 1982).
21. The initial diphthong [eə] turns to the sound [ɛː], but in a weak unstressed position becomes the sound [ə] (Foulkes & Docherty 2014).
22. The linking R, which occurs when the sound [r] stands at the end of a word before the word with the initial vowel sound (Foulkes & Docherty 2014).
23. The glottal stop (omission of the final sound [t]) (Foulkes & Docherty 2014).
24. The diphthong [aʊ] is slightly labialized (Wells 1982).
25. The glottal stop (omission of the final sound [t]) (Foulkes & Docherty 2014).
26. The glottal stop (omission of the final sound [t]) (Foulkes & Docherty 2014).
27. The definite article reduction that is realised with the glottal stop (Beal 2010).
28. The trap-bath split does not occur, the monophthong [a:] turns to the short sound [a] (Foulkes & Docherty 2014).
29. The prefix does not take the reduced vowel.The schwa sound turns to the sound [ʌ] (Foulkes & Docherty 2014).
30. The final sound [ɪ] turns to the schwa sound (Foulkes & Docherty 2014).
31. The initial diphthong [eɪ] turns to the monophthong [eː] (Wells 1982).
32. The weak unstressed form (Beal 2010).
33. Though the trap-bath split does not occur, the monophthong [a:] is retained in the contracted form can’t (Beal 2010).
34. The initial diphthong [eə] turns to the monophthong [ɛː] (Foulkes & Docherty 2014).

Lexical Sets

The term ‘lexical set’ may be understood in two different ways. In lexicology (that is a branch of linguistics that studies words and different properties of linguistic units), a lexical set is a ‘specific group of items sharing certain semantic features’ (Nation 2000, p. 10). Such lexical sets are helpful in teaching new words because when a person learns the meaning of words, they see how these meanings relate to each other and other words outside of a given set. In sociolinguistics (a branch of linguistics that investigates the social causes of changes in vocabulary), a lexical set is a group of lexical items that share certain formal features. Such lexical sets are helpful in comparing the phonetic systems of various accents of English language. The first phonetician who introduced lexical sets and demonstrated their use was John Wells. In 1982, he presented the classification of English words that comprised 24 sets. The basis of classification was the pronunciation of the stressed vowel in British and American English (Wells 1982). In fact, this classification may be employed while describing features of various accents because in different dialects people tend to pronounce words with similar stressed vowels (Wells 1982).

Sociolinguistic Analysis

The given audio extract presents a sample of speech that has several phonetic and linguistic features characterising it as a Yorkshire dialect. The Yorkshire dialect has two sub-dialects: South-west and North-east Yorkshire dialects. It is important to take into consideration the existence of these two sub-dialects since some of the features that are traditionally ascribed to the Yorkshire dialect are not present in the given audio extract. This fact may be explained by the difference in these two sub-dialects that we will discuss later in this section.

Among linguistic features of the Yorkshire dialect that may be traced in the given audio extract are the use of verbs in plural instead of singular form and use of words in their archaic meaning. In the first sentence, for example: ‘The first time I went to the shop, I thought there were a right nice range of goods there’, the verb to be is used in a plural form, while in Standard English such constructions as a number of, a list of, a range of, etc. are used with a verb in singular form. The use of plural verbal forms is one of the distinctive features of the Yorkshire dialect (Wells 1982). In the very first sentence, one may also find the example of another distinctive feature of the Yorkshire dialect: use of words in their archaic meaning. The word combination ‘right nice range’ may be transformed into the word combination ‘very nice range’. The Yorkshire dialect uses the word right not only as an adjective in standard meanings ‘correct, morally good, most appropriate’ but also as an intensifying submodifier in the meaning ‘very’ (Oxford Dictionaries 2016, p. 14).

The Yorkshire pronunciation, in general, has shorter and broader vowels, and consonants are pronounced more emphatically (Foulkes & Docherty 2014). In the given audio extract there is an extensive number of examples where the quality of a sound differs from the Received Pronunciation.

If we start with stressed vowels of words that belong to certain lexical sets, we should mention such examples as range, such, somewhere, so, go and places. The diphthong [eɪ] in the word range is pronounced as the monophthong [eː], which allows considering that the word range belongs to the FACE lexical set (Foulkes & Docherty 2014). The same process happens with the word places, in which diphthong [eɪ] is pronounced as the monophthong [eː]. Thus, the word places belongs to the FACE lexical set (Foulkes & Docherty 2014). Other examples in which diphthongs are replaced by monophthongs are the words so and go. In both cases, the monophthong [oː] is pronounced instead of the diphthong [əʊ], labelling so and go as belonging to the GOAT lexical set (Foulkes & Docherty 2014). There are also examples in words such and somewhere, in which the sound [ʊ] is pronounced instead of [ʌ], which is the case of the STRUT lexical set (Foulkes & Docherty 2014).

There are cases when the initial diphthong [eə] changes its quality to the monophthong [ɛː]: there. In unstressed syllables, though, the monophthong [ɛː] is weakened to the schwa sound: somewhere, anywhere (Foulkes & Docherty 2014).

The example of the weakening of the indefinite article [eɪ] to [ᵊ] is also observed in the given audio extract (Beal 2010).

The trap-bath split does not occur in the Yorkshire accent, which means that there is no distinction between sounds [a] and [a:] (Foulkes & Docherty 2014). Thus, in the word vast the monophthong [a:] turns to the short sound [a]. However, in certain words the monophthong [a:] does not change its quality, for example, in the contracted negative form of the verb can: can’t (Foulkes & Docherty 2014).

In the Yorkshire accent, the pronunciation of vowels in unstressed syllables differs from the Received Pronunciation. Thus, the final sound [ɪ] in words carefully and majority turns to the schwa sound (Foulkes & Docherty 2014). Moreover, the unstressed prefix of the word majority retains unreduced sound [ʌ], whereas the Received Pronunciation requires the schwa sound (Foulkes & Docherty 2014).

The consonants in the Yorkshire accent are more emphatic than in the Received Pronunciation. The distinctive phonetic feature of the Yorkshire accent is the glottal stop (Foulkes & Docherty 2014). In the given audio extract, there are such examples of the glottal stop as thought, but, that, what, not, and out. One more feature is the reduction of the definite article that is realised with the glottal stop: to t’shop, at t’prices, and t’vast majority (Beal 2010). In the word actually the sound [k] is also reinforced by the glottal stop (Beal 2010).

In general, the Yorkshire accent is non-rhotic, which means that the sound [r] is not pronounced in such words as first, carefully, dear, more, and anywhere. However, the Yorkshire accent recognises such phenomenon as linking R, when the sound [r] is pronounced if it stands in the final position before a word with the initial vowel sound, for example, after all and somewhere else (Foulkes & Docherty 2014).

The given audio extract also has the examples of intra-speaker variation. Mougeon, Nadasdi and Rehner (2010, p. 67) define intra-speaker variation as a variation when ‘speakers can choose between elements in the same linguistic context.’ These elements may belong to all levels of language, that is, syntactic, morphological, lexical and phonological. Mougeon, Nadasdi and Rehner (2010, p. 3) state that the speaker may alternate those elements ‘whose meaning (or phonological status, if they are sounds) is identical’. According to Mougeon, Nadasdi and Rehner (2010, p. 68), the choice of particular forms depends on various factors, such as ‘the degree of formality of the topic under discussion, the social status of the speaker and of the interlocutor, the setting in which communication takes place, etc.’

Among the distinctive features of the Yorkshire dialect, there is the use of archaic forms of ‘you’ (thou, thee, thine) and double negation. These features have not been observed in the given audio extract. Otherwise, the last sentence would sound as follows: ‘Thou can’t find nowhere cheap’. There are two possible explanations for this fact. First, the absence of these Yorkshire dialect features may be explained by the existence of two types of the Yorkshire dialect. South-west Yorkshire dialect speakers, especially older ones, retain all these features in their speech, while the North-east Yorkshire dialect has changed and become more similar to Standard English (Foulkes & Docherty 2014). On this basis, the speaker whose speech is presented on the audio extract may live on the Northeastern territory of Yorkshire and speak the North-east Yorkshire dialect. The second explanation is as follows: the speaker may intentionally refuse the use of archaic forms of ‘you’ and double negation in order to adapt his style to Standard English. Perhaps, he considers the interlocutor and wants to make his speech clearer and easier to understand. Such point may be supported by the fact that the speaker changes only grammatical features of his speech. The phonetic features of the Yorkshire dialect remain the same since it takes certain time and effort to get rid of the accent. In this case, such reluctance to use of archaic forms of ‘you’ and double negation may be considered as the intentional intra-speaker variation.

Conclusion

The given audio extract presents a sample of the Yorkshire accent. It may be characterised by the prevailing number of shorter and broader vowels, diphthongs that are pronounced as monophthongs and consonants that are pronounced more emphatically than in the Received Pronunciation. For comparison of phonological features of the Received Pronunciation and the Yorkshire accent, linguists may use the lexical sets that have been introduced by John Wells. Though his classification was initially made as the comparison of the British and American English, linguists employ it while describing features of various accents because in different dialects people tend to pronounce words with identical stressed vowels. Among linguistic features of the given audio extract are the use of verbs in plural instead of singular form, as well as the use of words in their archaic meaning: e.g.: ‘there were a right nice range of’. Such features as the use of archaic forms of ‘you’ and double negation are not present in the given audio extract, which may be explained by the intra-speaker variation. The personal decision to alternate syntactical, lexical and phonological elements may be due to the degree of formality of the situation, topic of discussion, social status of the speaker and interlocutor, pragmatic aspect of communication (the speaker wants to make his speech understandable for the interlocutor), setting in which communication takes place, etc.

Reference List

Beal, JC 2010, An introduction to regional Englishes, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh.

Foulkes, P & Docherty, G 2014, Urban voices: Accent studies in the British Isles, Routledge, Abingdon.

Mougeon, R, Nadasdi, T & Rehner, K 2010, The sociolinguistic competence of immersion students, Multilingual Matters, Bristol.

Nation, P 2000, ‘Learning vocabulary in lexical sets: Dangers and guidelines’, TESOL Journal, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 6-10.

Oxford Dictionaries 2016, Right, Web.

Wells, JC 1982, Accents of English: An introduction, Cambridge University Press, New York.