Introduction lecture - describing

7 important questions on Introduction lecture - describing

Which variations have high rising terminals?

  • Australian English
  • New Zealand English
  • Northern Irish English
  • Some speakers in the US and GB too:
    • Heavily associated with California ‘Valley Gir

The soicalinguistic perspective of high raise terminals?


  • Guy et al. (1986) on high raise terminals (HRT) in Australian English:
    • Led by women, teenagers, working class speakers
    • Used to check listener comprehension or securing listener cooperation for extended ‘turn’
  • Levon (2016) on HRT in young white speakers in London:
    • Used more by men
    • Different use of HRT between genders:
      • Women more typically use HRT for turn-taking
      • Men more typically use HRT to introduce new informatio

The two timings and which variations belong to which group.


Syllable timing:
  • More full vowels
  • Relatively even distribution between syllables


  • Jamaican English
  • MLE
  • many Englishes in Africa
  • Indian Englishes
  • Singapore English

Stress timing:
  • Fewer full vowels
  • Uneven distribution between syllables
  • Entire vowels are elided (or shwa)


  • Most UK Englishes
  • Irish Englishes
  • Australian English
  • New zealand English
  • North American Englishes
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What can happen with consonant clusters?

  • Phonetically reduced in casual speech --> constonant cluster reduction
  • differences between varieties
    • African American Vernacular English
    • Multicultural London English
    • Jamaican English
    • Indian English
    • Singaporean English

What is the most important feature to identify Idian English

Retroflex t

What is the most important feature to identify Northern Irish English?

The MOUTH feature

What is the difference between South and North Irish English?

  1. PRICE
  2. MOUTH
  3. CLEAR L
  4. TH stopping
  5. the upsidedown dubble W

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