What's happening in RP? - AMU Faculty of English

Poznan 12 Oct. 2010
What’s happening in RP
An empirical look at variation and change in Received Pronunciation
Bente Rebecca Hannisdal
University of Bergen
Empirical data:
30 hours of speech from 30 television newsreaders
Phonological variables:
1. CURE lowering: /T/ → /N9/ sure, pure, tourist, etc.
2. Smoothing: /`H+`T/ → [`+`9] fire, power, etc.
3. GOAT allophony: /T/ → [PT] before /k/ goal, shoulder, etc.
4. R-sandhi: linking and intrusive /r/ far/r/ away, law/r/ and order
5. T-voicing: intervocalic /s/ → [3] British, a lot of, etc.
6. Yod coalescence: stressed /si+ci/ → /sR+cY/ tune, endure, etc.
Results
Table 1. The lexical distribution of /T/ and /N9/ in CURE
word /T/ /N9/ word /T/ /N9/
bureau 6 - sure 7 38
cure 4 - assure 6 11
during 171 - assurance 2 1
Europe 360 - ensure 6 11
furious 10 - insurance 10 4
jury 12 2 tour 20 31
lure 2 - touring 1 2
moor 1 3 tourism 12 3
poor - 28 tourist 49 17
purely 4 - tournament 8 28
secure 18 1 Uruguay 1 -
security 239 - your/you’re - 129

Distribution largely determined by phonetic environment:
• /T/ after C/j/ and before prevocalic /r/
• /N9/ in other contexts
Table 2. Smoothing: total scores
N %
[`+`9] 621 46.4
[`H+`T] 718 53.6
Table 3. The use of GOAT allophony
Categorical
allophony
Variable
allophony
No allophony
Number of speakers 24 4 2
Table 4. R-sandhi: total scores
Linking /r/
Intrusive /r/
N % N %
/r/ 3612 59.8 182 32.6
Ø 2433 40.2 376 67.4
Variation mainly constrained by linguistic factors.
Sandhi /r/ significantly disfavoured
• in pre-stress environments for !hours, Malaga !airport
• before proper nouns Mister Annan, Jemaah Islamiyah
• in the vicinity of another /r/ terror attacks, area around

Clause boundary/tone group boundary did not prevent the insertion of /r/:
[1] What about there in Singapore[r] Is there that feeling…
[2] Let’s get the latest news from Manila[r]. Our correspondent John McClane is there.
[3] …if the rebels do withdraw[r], as Barnaby Phillips now reports.
[4] We shouldn’t assume that this is someone from America[r], it could be somebody
living in the Philippines.
[5] We’re just getting some news in from the Gulf headquarters in Doha[r]. A spokesman
has said that…
Table 5.1. T-voicing: total scores
N %
[3] 1976 35.2
[s] 3639 64.8
Table 5.2. T-voicing according to word position
Word-final
Word-medial
N % N %
[3] 1344 66.9 632 17.5
[t] 664 33.1 2975 82.5
Table 6. Yod coalescence: total scores
N %
/sR+cY/ 286 46.4
/si+ci/ 331 53.6

T-voicing: mean scores for gender
Males: 42,5
Females: 26,6
Smoothing: mean scores for gender
Males: 59,0
Females: 33,6
Males more prone to phonological reduction
T-voicing, yod coalescence and GOAT allophony represent new developments in RP.
Inclusion of a feature in RP depends on how the accent is defined.
Defining RP:
- An abstract norm
- The BBC accent
- Prestige
- Social criteria
- Non-localisability
A feature can be included in RP if it is geographically widespread.
RP does not incorporate all non-regional features, but excludes all regional features.
T-voicing, yod coalescence and GOAT allophony can be documented as supra-local.
Non-localisability can serve as a criterion for delimiting the RP accent.
It allows for changes
It is in line with the RP tradition
It can be tested objectively

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