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Levelling across the life‐span?: Tracing the face vowel in panel data from the North East of England
Author(s) -
Buchstaller Isabelle,
Krause Anne,
Auer Anja,
Otte Stefanie
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of sociolinguistics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1467-9841
pISSN - 1360-6441
DOI - 10.1111/josl.12227
Subject(s) - diphthong , vowel , linguistics , german , mid vowel , ethnography , quarter (canadian coin) , scope (computer science) , face (sociological concept) , psychology , sociology , history , computer science , anthropology , philosophy , archaeology , formant , programming language
Apparent time analysis has revealed that the Tyneside face vowel is the site of two intersecting trends: levelling towards the supra‐northern monophthong as well as the gradual incursion of the southern standard closing diphthong. This article investigates the participation of individual speakers across their life‐span in these ongoing changes in the face vowel. We report on a small‐scale panel sample of six speakers who were recorded in 1971 and again, 42 years later, in 2013. The analysis probes the stability of individual speakers’ grammars, relying on longitudinal ethnographic analysis in the community as well as insights gleaned from sociolinguistic interviews about the speakers’ socio‐demographic trajectory and their presentations of self. The article contributes to the growing body of panel research that aims to determine the scope and the limits of linguistic malleability across speakers’ life histories.