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LELA 10082

LELA 10082. Describing accents IV Case study: Liverpool. Liverpool accent. Spoken in quite restricted area around city, though influences accents (due to migration!) as “far” away as Southport, Warrington, Chester/North Wales. Liverpool accent.

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LELA 10082

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  1. LELA 10082 Describing accents IV Case study: Liverpool

  2. Liverpool accent Spoken in quite restricted area around city, though influences accents (due to migration!) as “far” away as Southport, Warrington, Chester/North Wales

  3. Liverpool accent • Northern accent with no /~/ distinction, and typical /a~A/ distribution • But quite unlike other local accents (rural Lancs, Cheshire) in other respects: close /i/ in city, diphthongs for /ei,ou/ • Said to derive from C19 migration of Manx, Scots, Welsh and above all Irish – certainly there are Gaelic features in the accent • Amazingly, ignored in 1950-61 Survey of English Dialects • Actually (like most accents) there are numerous varieties, in particular “hard, gritty” vs “soft, lyrical” • Distinctive intonation range (though more marked in recent years)

  4. Most distinctive feature • “Lenition” of stop consonants • Realisation as fricatives or affricates of /t/ and /k/ especially, and to an extent /p/ • General “lax” articulation of voiced stop consonants /b,d,g/

  5. Endocentric analysis of /t/ phoneme(strongest accent) • If realised as [s], forms homophone pairs • sin/tin, lesser/letter, pass/pat, sri/tree, sop/stop, rice/rights, chance/chant • Word-finally may be realised as [h] • but [bUh], what [wh] • But this is allophonic free variation, as [bUs] and [ws] are also possible • And existence of /h/ phoneme is in doubt • Similar situation with medial: • Got a letter may be [gsəlEsə], [gəlEə] • This may be incidental variation, ie using /r/ phoneme • Similar situation with lateral and nasal release: • button, bottle more likely to be heard with [?] or [s] • Glottalstop otherwise not particularly common feature

  6. Arguments against • Many accents do make a distinction, even if /t/ is heavily affricated • Native intuition would recognize difference • Though this is influenced by familiarity with RP and other accents • And reinforced by the writing system • In fact, may not even agree that eg but/bus are homophones • Distribution of allophones can be described with reference to “t in the spelling”: • final [h] in but, what (but never in bus) • medial ‘r’ sound in got to, lot of, better (but never in passer, guesser) • Glottal stop in bottle (but never in castle)

  7. Word list

  8. Narrative text • Speaker • Female • “middle-aged” • has lived in Liverpool all her life • You can also hear one or two other speakers • At least one of these is also Liverpudlian

  9. Things to listen out for • Affricated stops: • [x] in America, weeks (0:00), like (0:09), Walker (0:12), can’t drink, can’t smoke (0:18), walking (0:18), working (0:38), work (0:47), back (0:59) etc • [s] in great (0:16), monitor (0:28), straight [sreIs] (0:38), extra [Exsr] (1:18) • Realisation of /r/: • flap medially America (0:00); for her (0:37), for him (0:59), where it (1:08); • tap or roll in great (0:16), drink (0:18), straight (0:38) • Medial /t/ realised as tap: what if (0:33), lot of (1:08), got a job (1:15), tara (1:38) (= ta-ta) • /h/ usually dropped: her (0:16), he’s (0:28), him (0:59)

  10. Accents: Summary • When comparing English accents, it is usual (and easiest) to compare with RP • Often there are a few very striking features which we tend to focus on, but in reality there are probably lots of others, sometimes quite subtle • Notice we have tried to use phonetic terminology, and avoid subjective comments about attractiveness or otherwise of accents

  11. Realisation of // vowel /a/ ~ /A/ distribution Distribution of /r/ (“rhotic” accents) /u/ ~ /U/ distinction /h/ phoneme (“H dropping”) Use of glottal stop Status of velar nasal /N/ Use of /j/ in consonant clusters “Long mid diphthonging” Regional accents in general:Key points of variation

  12. Distribution and phoneme status of velar nasal /N/ • Pronunciation of words ending in -ing • [N] as an allophone of /n/ • “Long mid diphthonging” • Variety in quality of diphthongs /ei/ and /ou/ • More southern accents have wider diphthongs • Some accents have (historically older) monophthongs

  13. Accent groups of the British Isles

  14. CL: Central Lancs CN: Central north ESW: Eastern southwest H: Humberside M: Merseyside NE: North-east SM: South Midlands WM: West Midlands WSW: Western southwest Source: A. Hughes, P. Trudgill and D. Watt. English Accents and Dialects: An introduction to social and regional varieties of English in the British Isles. (4th edition) London (2005) Hodder Arnold

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