4 -1 North of England Flashcards
Introduction
- There are more accents in the North than in the rest of England.
- However, levelling is occurring in the North as well.
- Emergence of supra-local accents and dialects centred around urban centres.
How can be defined the North in linguistic terms ?
In linguistic terms it can be defined by the FOOT / STRUT and the
BATH / TRAP mergers
strong short vowel system
6 vowels in a typical south
BUT 5 in north because foot = strut
Phonemic features, Strut
STRUT does not correspond to a specific phoneme.
It merges with FOOT
→ /ʊ/
bus [bʊs]
money [‘mʊni]
love [lʊv]
cup [kʊp]
And historically ?
Historically: no FOOT-STRUT split
put /pʊt/
cut /kʊt/
full /fʊl/
dull /dʊl/
In the north of England, /ʊ/ and /ʌ/ have not
become separate phonemes
Phonemic features
nurse square
NURSE and SQUARE often merge.
They do so to phonetically
yield either [ɜː] or [ɛː].
world [wɜːld] / [wɛːld]
thirty [θɜːti] / [θɛːti]
mare [mɜː] / [mɛː]
Distributional features bath
/ɑː/ is not found in BATH (ask words)
Historically: no BATH broadening
Distributional features
* typical southern accent
TRAP [æ/a]
BATH [ɑː]
START [ɑː]
gas, pass, farce
[æ/a] [ɑː] [ɑː]
Distributional features
* typical northern accent VS Southern
- typical northern accent
TRAP [a]
BATH [a]
START [aː]
gas, pass, farce
[a] [a] [aː]
- typical southern accent
TRAP [æ/a]
BATH [ɑː]
START [ɑː]
gas, pass, farce
[æ/a] [ɑː] [ɑː]
Distributional features
* typical northern accent
TRAP [a]
BATH [a]
START [aː]
gas, pass, farce
[a] [a] [aː]
cap /kap/
bat /bat/
man /man/
Realisational features
TRAP
TRAP is mainly
realised [a] (a very open vowel)
(or sometimes [æ] )
Realisational features
FACE & GOAT
FACE and GOAT: most of the time
monophthongs in the north
FACE [e:] GOAT [o:]
taste, Wales, don’t, loam
/te:st/ /we:lz/ /do:nɫ]
!! In Hull, GOAT is often [ɜː]
Realisational features
MOUTH
MOUTH has several variants in the North.
*Tyneside and Northumberland: often [ɛʊ]
out [ɛʊt]
round [rɛʊnd]
pronounce [prə’nɛʊns]
*The Middle-English pronunciation [uː] has survived in words that are strongly associated with a local identity.
ex: Toons [tu:nz] the inhabitants of Newcastle & nickname of Newcastle Football club
*[a:] is a very common variant : out [a:t], round [ra:nd], pronounce [prə’na:ns]
Consonants /r/
- The south of lancashire is rhotic: hard /ˈhɑːrd/
- The rest of the North isn’t: hard /ˈhɑːd/
- In Liverpool, intervocalic /r/ is often pronounced as a alveolar flap
very [veɾi]
sorry [sɒɾi] - In Northumberland, speakers of the traditional dialect often use a
uvular /r/ pronounced…. The French way!!!! It’s transcribed [ʁ]
/p, t, k/
- In Liverpool, the plosives /p/ (bilabial), t (alveolar) and /k/ (velar) are often heavily aspirated and are sometimes even affricated.
(bat, lip, book, leap [li:x]
