Exploring London and Scottish Accents in British Phonetics

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This session delves into the history and distinctive features of London and Scottish accents, discussing their indexical attributes and the ability to differentiate between English and Scottish speakers. With a focus on Cockney and Multicultural London English, the session analyzes phonetic elements like TH-fronting, T-glottaling, and L-vocalization.

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Topics in Phonetics & Phonology John Corbett: USP-CAPES International Fellow Session 6: British accents London & Scotland

1. Introduction: Review of IPA & lexical sets 2. Review: Transcribing connected speech 3. Accents of English 1: Reference accents (RP and GenAm) Course structure 4. Revisiting English as a lingua franca 5. Accents of English 2: American accents 6. Accents of English 3: British Accents 7. Accents of English 4: Accents of World English 8. Accents of English 5: Brazilian English accents

9. Acoustic phonetics: Using WASP 10. Rhythms of English: Poetic metre 11. Rhythms of English: Rhythm in speech Course structure 12. Discourse intonation 1 13. Discourse intonation 2 14. Course review

London and Scottish accents: What is their history? This session What are their indexical features? Can you distinguish an English from a Scottish speaker? Can you switch from English to Scottish?

Cockney is the name given to the broad, working class variety of English associated with the East End of London. Diffused South of the River Thames and across much of SE England. Adopted by younger middle class ( Mockney ). Merged into more recent Multicultural London English (MLE). What is the London accent?

https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/cockney-accent-freddie-ridley-road- market Exampleof Cockney accent British Library Sound Archive Freddie, a street-market trader (born 1951; recorded 1999)

Consonantal features: TH-fronting/ , / > /f, v/ things, brother T-glottaling/t/ > / / medially andfinally butter, want L-vocalisation /l/ > / / feel, real, wild, little Cockney: Indexical features H-droppinghave, Harrods, handkerchief, hold Hypercorrectionhadjective, hand(conjunction), habout ListentoFreddie again. Notallofthese features willnecessarilybe presentin hisspeech.

https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/cockney-accent-freddie-ridley-road- market Freddie: About hundred years, roughly. They didn't put any value on it in the past, so there, there's not any pr, realproper records before nineteen- twenty-six. But, uhm, my eldest relative, my aunt Lil', who's stillalive - she's ninety-something - uhm, says that the market started in theHigh Street, uhm, much in the same way as a ThirdWorld market wouldstart: people brought their spare vegetables and whateverthey had to spare to the market and traded them and soldthat. Uh, but when the trams started, it was too dangerous to have the market in the High Street and they brought it round here into Ridley Road. Exampleof Cockney accent

Freddie: About hundred years, roughly. They didn't put any value on it in the past, so there, there's not any pr, realproper records before nineteen- twenty-six. But, uhm, my eldest relative, my aunt Lil', who's stillalive -she's ninety-something -uhm, says that the market started in theHighStreet, uhm, much in the same way as a ThirdWorld market wouldstart: people brought their spare vegetables and whatever they hadto spare to the market and traded them and soldthat. Uh, but when the trams started, it was too dangerous to have the market in the High Street and they brought itround here into Ridley Road. Exampleof Cockney accent: consonants hundred, had, here H-dropping real, eldest, Lil, still, people, vegetables, sold, World L-vocalisation something, Third (later, clothing) TH-fronting twenty, market, whatever, that, started, brought it T-glottalisating

FLEECE London RP FACE London RP THOUGHT London i ~ i i closingdiphthongs long close front unrounded creep, speak, leave, feel, key, people ~ e closing diphthongs closing diphthong tape, cake, raid, veil, steak, day Cockney: Indexical features: 5 dipthongs o: ~ close-mid back unrounded ~ centring diphthong long open-mid back rounded taught, sauce, hawk, jaw, broad RP GOAT London RP PRICE London RP closing diphthong closing diphthong soap, joke, home, know, so, roll a closing diphthong closing dipthong ripe, write, arrive, high, try, buy

https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/cockney-accent-freddie-ridley-road- market Freddie: About hundred years, roughly. They didn't put any value on it in the past, so there, there's not any pr, real proper records before nineteen- twenty-six. But, uhm, my eldest relative, my aunt Lil', who's still alive- she's ninety-something - uhm, says that the market started in the High Street, uhm, much in the samewayas a Third World market would start: people brought their sparevegetables and whatever they had to spareto the market and traded them and soldthat. Uh, but when the trams started, it was too dangerousto have the market in the High Street and they brought it round here into Ridley Road. Exampleof Cockney accent

Freddie: About hundred years, roughly. They didn't put any value on it in the past, so there, there's not any pr, real proper records before nineteen-twenty- six. But, uhm, my eldest relative, my aunt Lil', who's still alive-she's ninety- something - uhm, says that the market started in the HighStreet, uhm, much in the sameway as a Third World market would start: people brought their spare vegetables and whatever they had to spare to the market and traded them and soldthat. Uh, but when the trams started, it was too dangerous to have the market in the High Street and they brought it round here into Ridley Road. Exampleof Cockney accent i ~ i ~ o: ~ nineteen, street, same, way, spare, traded, dangerous brought sold, road nineteen, alive, ninety, High

Freddie: About hundred years, roughly. They didn't put any value on it in the past, so there, there's not any realproper records before nineteen-twenty- six. But, uhm, my eldest relative, my aunt Lil', who's stillalive- she's ninety- something-uhm, says that the market started in the HighStreet, uhm, much in the samewayas a Third World market would start: people brought their sparevegetables and whatever they had to spareto the market and traded them and soldthat. Uh, but when the trams started, it was too dangerousto havethe market in the High Street and they brought it round here into Ridley Road. Canyouspeak Cockney? i ~ i ~ o: ~ nineteen, street, same, way, spare, traded, dangerous brought sold, road nineteen, alive, ninety, High hundred, had, here real, eldest, Lil, still, people, vegetables, sold, World something, Third twenty, market, whatever, that, started, brought it H-dropping L-vocalisation TH-fronting T-glottalisating

There are variousYouTube andothervdeos online onLondon accents(Cockney, Estuary, MLE). Listentoa few ofthem andtry them out! Can you speak London English? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY8FjXN14ew https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H8r2Izzo5k

How many Scottish accents are there? Main differences from RP Examples from the SCOTS corpus Future developments Scottish accents of English

Until 7thCentury: Celtic languages 7thCentury: Northumbrian OE in SE Scotland. c.1066: Northern OE speakers pushed into SE Scotland by the Harrying of the North. Northern OE develops into Scots and diffuses through the lowlands. Why are there different accents? Until 1100: Northern OE 1100-1700: Older Scots 1700-now: Modern Scots Language contact over time: Celtic, OE, ON, Norman French, Dutch No pressure to standardise till 18thC.

6 main accent groups: Central (E, W, SW) Southern North-East Northern Insular (Orkney & Shetland) Northern Irish (Ulster) How many accents are there?

Focus on 4 areas Central (E, W, SW) Southern North-East & Northern Insular (Orkney & Shetland) How many accents are there?

Broad Scots: Regional and socially differentiated Main differences: Broad scots & SSE Scottish Standard English (SSE): Educated/polite standard Scottish accent, originating in 18thC, modelled on southern English

SSE Central Southern Northern Insular Example RP , h, f , f , t think x x x x, x k loch Some distinctive Scottish consonants f w what r (rhotic) r r r, vr r, wr (non- rhotic) write

SSE Central Southern Northern Insular Example RP i i i, e, i i i i, i me Some distinctive Scottish vowels and diphthongs o , i o, e, o, e, , e head o, i, o, i, home u , ji, u ai i i i i i kind house au u u, u u, u u, u u, u

/l/ elision in words like <all, fall, call, hall, wall> Some features of broad scots articulatio ns Scottish vowel-length rule: lengthening of vowels in stressed syllables, only in certain contexts, eg before morpheme boundaries, before other vowels and before /r, v, , z, /, so brood/brewed , leaf/leave . Distinct diphthongs in tide/tied , rice/rise , slide/sly .

Go to www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk Click on Advanced Search Click on Map to search different accents Metadata about writers/speakers is available Exploring Scottish accents with the SCOTS corpus

Ayrshire (SW Central) Me, my mother and my two aunts (Margaret and Mary) Four Scottish accents: (1) Ayrshire https://www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk/document/?documentid=27

Hawick (Southern) Schoolfriends born in the 1920s Interviewer born in the 1950s Four Scottish accents: (2) Hawick https://www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk/document/? documentid=1430

Shetland Two Shetlanders talking about building houses, and the festival Up-Helly-Aa. One is a retired teacher born in Perth (Central) in the 1940s and the other, a mature student, was born in Lerwick (Insular) in the 1950s. Four Scottish accents: (3) Insular https://www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk/document/?documentid=1387

NE Scots comedy group Scotland the What? Phone call from a toy shop in Ballater to Princess Diana, asking what Prince Harry would like as a Christmas present. Four Scottish accents: (4) NE Scots https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzS3AdzZ0Nw

Accent levelling: movement towards SSE with impact of education, fewer traditional Broad Scots speakers Continued language contact f2f and media, greater mobility Identity formation age, class, gender, ethnicity rise of new accents like Glaswasian , Jockney Continuing diversity Future developments