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T-tapping in Standard Southern British English: An ‘elite’ sociolinguistic variant?

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Published
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>30/04/2022
<mark>Journal</mark>Journal of Sociolinguistics
Issue number2
Volume26
Number of pages12
Pages (from-to)287-298
Publication StatusPublished
Early online date27/12/21
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

Social class is one of the key axes of sociolinguistic variation, but the speech of those at the top of the class spectrum—the elite—is rarely studied. While T-glottalling has spread widely across British English accents, a competing variant—T-tapping—has attracted little scholarly attention in the United Kingdom. This article presents a study of elite speech by examining sociolinguistic variation in T-tapping among adolescent speakers of Standard Southern British English. Data were collected from interviews with teenagers aged 16–19 at two schools in Hampshire, UK. T-tapping is led by those who previously attended private school and is used more by boys than girls in formal speech. The findings suggest that T-tapping may be used to index a combination of authority and informality, which is invoked by elite speakers to assert themselves from a position of privilege while maintaining an image of openness and approachability.