Dennett, Lauren Mary (2022) “Oh, you’re from Hull? First question – where’s that?” Explorations of Personal Accent Perception alongside Diphthong Phonological Variability in the Construction of Social and Linguistic Identity in Hull. Masters thesis, York St John University.

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Abstract

This thesis presents a sociophonetic study of Hull, an urban city located on the coast of East Yorkshire. The gathered data for the present study are from a group of fifteen speakers, who are divided by gender and grouped into two emically defined age cohorts – ‘younger’ (18-34 years-old) and ‘retired’ (over 65 years-old), to test for generational differences suggestive of accent divergence, phonological resistance and linguistic continuity and innovation. Two linguistic variables, PRICE, and GOAT diphthongs, are investigated using data gathered through a sociolinguistic interview methodology, comprising of word list, reading passage and interview styles of speech. Impressionistic analyses supported with annotated spectrograms of PRICE and GOAT tokens uncover patterns in phonological variation across the speaker cohorts. The phonological findings reveal that the Hull speakers predominantly produce monophthongal variants of diphthong vowels, adhering to local, allophonic forms, with some speakers acknowledging an awareness of such features in their linguistic inventory.

The study also explores speakers’ overt perceptions towards their accent and language variation, and discusses how such perceptions inform their linguistic, social, and regional identities. Through comparing the language ideologies, elicited through the identities questionnaire, with the patterns of phonological data, the study offers insight into whether perceived individual linguistic identity is reflected through one’s phonological variability. Perceptions of age and sex variation, perceptions of place, and speaker’s affiliation towards Hull, are all found to be pertinent to constructing social and linguistic identity. Despite the negative stigma and media portrayal attributed to Hull, all speakers feel a sense of pride for their city, concluding how personal accent perceptions do not act as a motivation for language change, but rather act as a motivation for linguistic continuity and phonological resistance in Hull. Suggestions for future research in the field are also considered.

Item Type:	Thesis (Masters)
Status:	Published
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics
School/Department:	School of Education, Language and Psychology
URI:	https://ray.yorksj.ac.uk/id/eprint/7162

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