Swift, Nikki ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2781-0789 (2022) Acquisition of STRUT in a multidialectal environment. In: Building Linguistic Systems, 14-16 June 2022, University of York. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

This research examines the phonological development of a child between the ages of 2;1 and 6;6, raised in a multi-dialectal environment in North Yorkshire, UK. The child was born in Yorkshire, while his parents are from southern UK counties and speak with accents with notable differences from the local area. The child has therefore been exposed to accents at home with key phonetic and phonological differences from accents in the local area. These include realisations of the lexical sets STRUT, FOOT, PALM, START, BATH and TRAP. The child was recorded in a naturalistic environment at frequent intervals for just over 4 years, with a detailed analysis performed at 6-7 points in each year. The data was analysed by impressionistic phonetic analysis, and an acoustic analysis of a sample of the vowels was performed to support the impressionistic analysis.

Early realisations of STRUT, which in the local dialect are not differentiated from FOOT, were consistent with the parents’ varieties, though the realisations soon began to exhibit a mixture of phonetic elements of both the ‘home’ and local varieties (identified in the analysis as ‘blends’). Over time, more typically local realisations began to appear, though these were alongside the home and ‘blended’ variants seen previously. Over four years, the distribution of these home, local and ‘blended’ variants changed, with the local variant becoming increasingly dominant by the age of 6;6, though this was not a smooth trajectory. These results demonstrate the complexity of acquiring a vowel where the distribution in home and local varieties differs, and contribute a more nuanced understanding of the influence of parents, peers and the wider community on phonological development.

Existing literature which considers the development of children raised in multi-dialectal environments is sparse. Literature which considers the development of such a child and spans the length of time examined here in a naturalistic environment appears to be non-existent. This research, therefore, reveals patterns in phonetic and phonological development, phonetic compromises and their path toward a more stable resolution not seen in any previous research in this detail.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Poster)
Status:	Unpublished
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics > P40 Sociolinguitics
School/Department:	School of Education, Language and Psychology
URI:	https://ray.yorksj.ac.uk/id/eprint/14646

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