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Previous Work
• The first thorough investigation into the accent, and
the standard work ever since, was Gerry Knowles
Scouse: The Urban Dialect of Liverpool in 1973.
• The only other major work on the Liverpool Accent is
Hilary De Lyon’s sociolinguistic study from 1981 (De
Lyon: 1981).
• Since the late 1990s more research by Patrick
Honeybone, Catherine Sangster and Kevin Watson.
Furthermore, looking at the accents of England, both
Peter Trudgill and the BBC published material on the
Liverpool accent.
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Ways Of Analysing
– Sociolinguistic: looking at gender, age,
background (parents), occupation, areas of living
and comparing a group of people with that form
a representative mix.
– Phonetic: focussing on how the speech is realised
by speakers of the dialect / accent. Research
would look at intonation, pitch, melody and the
realisation of consonants, diphthongs and vowels
and compare these with the standard accent.
• Traditionally, the research was based on the study-
author’s ability to hear and distinguish individual
sounds. This is, however, very subjective.
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Ways of Analysing: My
Methodology
• For this study, I have interviewed informants
of both sexes, between the ages of ten and
72, who all live in the same small area of
Liverpool.
• The recordings were then fed into a
computer, so that I can compare the speech
of the informants using the help of electronic
analysis, looking at wave-forms and
spectrograms to highlight possible contrasts.
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Comparing /k/ lenition
• „(Sometimes you do get • “(To ehm – pause -) take
frustrated with) doctors..“ (it off)” – Diane, f, 60
• Lisa, f, 28
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Comparing /t/ lenition
• „(No more of) tha‘ • “(in our) street (pause)” –
(pause)“ Ali, m, 18 Steve, m. 38
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Comparing /p/ lenition
• “(he’s) putt’n’ more • “(ten) pound (in
people on benefit” – vouchers)” – Dan, m, 10
Diane, f, 60
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Comparison: Scouse / SE (1)
• “(Yeah –pause -) but • “(Sometimes it is really
(really they should)” – interesting)-pause- but
Diane, f, 60 –pause –“ Annette, f, 54
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Comparison: Scouse / SE (2)
• “(oh) happy • “Happy birthday”,
(birthday)”– Mr C, m, Chris, m, 66
38
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Comparison: Scouse / SE (3)
• “Liverpool” – Alf, m, 72; Dan, m 10
• “Liverpool” – Ro, f,
24
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Comparison: Scouse / SE (4)
• „Are like (pause)“ - • “(Things) like (eh you
Lisa, f. 28 know)” – Ro, f, 24
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Comparison: Scouse / NI-Engl.
• “(pause)...Iraq • “Iraq” – Ciara, Northern-
...(pause)” – Ali, m, 18 Irish (Belf.), f, 25
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