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Reading Working Papers in Linguistics 4 (2000) - The University of ...

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P. KERSWILL & A. WILLIAMS<br />

naturalness. Restrict<strong>in</strong>g the discussion to just this factor is because, <strong>in</strong> this<br />

project, all the rema<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g factors are constant, even if their values are not<br />

always known. Where this fails, we look at the language-<strong>in</strong>ternal salience<br />

factors (phonological contrast and phonetic distance), and then at other<br />

language-external, sociol<strong>in</strong>guistic/social-psychological factors.<br />

Consonants<br />

Figure 1 shows the distribution <strong>of</strong> T-glottall<strong>in</strong>g and ?- and 1-front<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> the<br />

three towns. T-glottall<strong>in</strong>g refers to the replacement <strong>of</strong> [t] by [C] <strong>in</strong> <strong>in</strong>tervocalic<br />

positions with<strong>in</strong> a word, as <strong>in</strong> [leCJ] for letter. ?-front<strong>in</strong>g refers to the variable<br />

(th), which concerns the replacement <strong>of</strong> /?/ by /f/, giv<strong>in</strong>g [fF@] for th<strong>in</strong>g. 1-<br />

front<strong>in</strong>g refers to the (dh) variable, the equivalent process affect<strong>in</strong>g non-<strong>in</strong>itial<br />

/1/, which is replaced by /v/ <strong>in</strong> words like brother. Together, the latter two<br />

changes are <strong>of</strong>ten referred to as TH-front<strong>in</strong>g. <strong>The</strong> distribution <strong>of</strong> all three is<br />

broadly similar <strong>in</strong> all three towns: the strongest<br />

100<br />

90<br />

80<br />

70<br />

60<br />

50<br />

40<br />

30<br />

20<br />

10<br />

0<br />

MC<br />

girls<br />

MC<br />

boys<br />

WC<br />

girls<br />

WC<br />

boys<br />

MC<br />

girls<br />

MC<br />

boys<br />

WC<br />

girls<br />

WC<br />

boys<br />

MC<br />

girls<br />

MC<br />

boys<br />

WC<br />

girls<br />

WC<br />

boys<br />

Milton Keynes<br />

<strong>Read<strong>in</strong>g</strong><br />

Hull<br />

% glottal stop for <strong>in</strong>tervocalic /t/ % f for (th) % v for (dh)<br />

Figure 1: Non-standard variants <strong>of</strong> three consonantal variables (<strong>in</strong>terview<br />

data)<br />

76

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