Time: 1:00 - 2:00pm Venue: Bancroft 1.01.1
Old and new phonological variation in Multicultural London English
Rosie Oxbury
Queen Mary University of London
r.f.oxbury@qmul.ac.uk
In this presentation I will present my plans for analysing phonological Multicultural London English (MLE) variables in my PhD data. The data were collected in a youth club and primary school in Ealing, West London. In this presentation I will focus on the adolescent data (participants aged 16-20). The variables are: two established MLE variables, the reversal of diphthong shift and monophthongisation of the FACE and PRICE diphthongs (Cheshire, Kerswill, Fox & Torgersen 2011; Kerswill, Torgersen & Fox 2008); and variation in the voiceless velar stop /k/ in pre-vocalic position. The backing of /k/ to [q] is known to occur before back vowels in MLE (Cheshire, Fox & Kerswill 2008). I plan to investigate the interaction of backing with lenition, leading to the realisation of /k/ as a voiceless uvular fricative [χ].
This very preliminary look at the data will be illustrated with examples including sound files, spectrograms and graphs. This is a methodology presentation and as such will be a discussion session more than a formal presentation – any feedback will be gratefully received. All are welcome regardless of phonetic experience.