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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - An acoustic analysis of rhoticity in Lancashire, England
AU - Turton, Danielle
AU - Lennon, Robert
PY - 2023/11/30
Y1 - 2023/11/30
N2 - This paper presents the first systematic acoustic analysis of a rhotic accent in present- day England. The dataset comprises spontaneous and elicited speech of 28 speakers from Blackburn in Lancashire, Northern England, where residual rhoticity remains, having never been lost in the earlier sound change which rendered most of England non-rhotic. Although sociolinguistic studies of rhoticity in England exist, we have almost no description of its phonetic properties. Moreover, most sociolinguistic studies focus on the South West of England and relatively little is known about rhoticity in the North. Our study is timely because Northern rhoticity is predicted to disappear in the next few generations, a process which is now complete in many areas of the South West. Our results demonstrate that rhoticity is still present in Blackburn,although non-prevocalic /r/ is weaker when compared to other rhotic varieties of English such asthose in Scotland and North America. We find that non-prevocalic /r/ is phonetically weakening in apparent time, with the F3-F2 difference being larger for younger speakers as well as females. We present additional social and linguistic factors affecting its potential demise, and discuss how our results contribute to our understanding of historical /r/-loss in Anglo-English.
AB - This paper presents the first systematic acoustic analysis of a rhotic accent in present- day England. The dataset comprises spontaneous and elicited speech of 28 speakers from Blackburn in Lancashire, Northern England, where residual rhoticity remains, having never been lost in the earlier sound change which rendered most of England non-rhotic. Although sociolinguistic studies of rhoticity in England exist, we have almost no description of its phonetic properties. Moreover, most sociolinguistic studies focus on the South West of England and relatively little is known about rhoticity in the North. Our study is timely because Northern rhoticity is predicted to disappear in the next few generations, a process which is now complete in many areas of the South West. Our results demonstrate that rhoticity is still present in Blackburn,although non-prevocalic /r/ is weaker when compared to other rhotic varieties of English such asthose in Scotland and North America. We find that non-prevocalic /r/ is phonetically weakening in apparent time, with the F3-F2 difference being larger for younger speakers as well as females. We present additional social and linguistic factors affecting its potential demise, and discuss how our results contribute to our understanding of historical /r/-loss in Anglo-English.
KW - /r/
KW - Rhoticity
KW - Varieties of English
KW - Sociophonetics
KW - Sound change
U2 - 10.1016/j.wocn.2023.101280
DO - 10.1016/j.wocn.2023.101280
M3 - Journal article
VL - 101
JO - Journal of Phonetics
JF - Journal of Phonetics
SN - 0095-4470
M1 - 101280
ER -