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Introduction lecture describing

27 important questions on Introduction lecture describing

Where is rhotocity retention?

Some parts of England (esp. further removed from London)
Many North-American varieties
Scottish English
Irish Englishes

Were is rhoticity loss or the innovation of this loss?

Most of England and Wales
North-East of US
Later colonial varieties:

AusE
NZE
South-African English
Singapore English
Many varieties of English in Africa

Why rhoticity loss in AusE and NZE?

There were vowel changes through The Great Vowel Shift, which made it more efficient to lose the pornonciation of the R.
less effort to pronounce

What are the two chain shifts?

Push chain

One phoneme shifts into another phoneme’s space
This pushes the other phoneme to another place to avoid overlap and confusion

Pull chain

One phoneme shifts away
This creates a vacuum which pulls in another phoneme into the space

The New Zealand English chain shift?

a series of interconnected vowel sound changes where vowels move to avoid merging, with sounds like TRAP [æ], DRESS [e̞], and KIT [ɪ] shifting towards higher and more central positions, creating distinct Kiwi vowel sounds, especially as the TRAP vowel moved into the DRESS space, forcing DRESS up, and KIT centralizing, a process identified as a "push-chain" because raising sounds push others away. In the end you call this a pull chain, because the KIT becomes centralized into the space of schwar. While SQUARE and NEAR get merges.

Why is the change in NZE seen? (also this can also be generalized overal changes seen in English) (4)

Prestige
incomplete learning
efficiency
maintaining

What is the distinguishing feature between AusE en NZE?

The centreliased KIT toward schwar indicates wheter it is AusE or NZE.
centreliased KIT is NZE

What for influence has London on the English language?

Major (soft) power centre
gravity effect on sound change:

BTAH-backing
Th-fronting

The historical development of English in Britain?

Anglo-Saxon settlement

Contact with Brittonic substrate

possibly:

simplification of The
the progressive aspect.

Viking invasions and the Danelaw

Contact with Old Norse substrate--> are the vikings

lexical influences
loss of inflection of verbs, noun, adjectives and articles

The Norman Conquest

Contact with Old French superstrate

did not replace Middle English, only adopted in high register vocabulary
mostly lexical influences

pork vs. Swine
beef vs. Cow

When does language change occur?

Through incomplete Language acquisition

How does the Caribbean influence English in Britain?

Enslaved speakers of many different West-African languages (substrates) speaking English (superstrate)
First used as pidgin (tussentaal)

Used between speakers with no common language
Limited vocabulary, grammar & function

Then becomes creole

A pidgin turned into a native language for new speakers

What is the creole continuum?

From closest to superstrate (acrolect) (closest to English) to furthest from
superstrate (basilect)

Caribbean Englishes in England and what is MLE?

Increase in migration from Caribbean to England after WWII
Contact between Englishes in England and Caribbean Englishes
MLE is a relativly new under-researched variety of English

spoken by working-class in London, especially by speakers of ethnic minorties
likely trhough language contact between

jemaican and other caribbean Englishes
Cockney
SSBE

Which features have been retained in Nort of England compared to Middle English

STRUT = FOOT
/r/ still is realised as a alvealor tap/flap [ɾ]

Which features have been retained in Scottish English compared to Middle English

Rhoticity
/r/ still realised as [r] or [ɾ]
pre-Great Vowel Shift vowel GOOSE (u:)

Which features have been retained in Scotttish English compared to Early Modern English

Rhoticity
mid-Great Vowel Shift vowels: [ow]/[ʌʊ]

Which feature have Northern English and Early Modern English in common?

STRUT = FOOT

To what refers gravity effects in linguistics?

refer to models, like Peter Trudgill's gravity model, that use principles from physics (mass, distance) to explain how language changes spread: innovations move from large, dense populations (more "mass") to smaller ones, influenced heavily by local contact, with distance acting as a diminishing factor, but sometimes challenging findings show larger centers might resist change more. It also appears in models of trade (common language as a facilitator) and in cognitive linguistics (semantic gravity in teaching).

Was-were variation in North and Scotland?

They both have the non-standard were everywhere.

Three systems of was-were levelling?

All was

e.g. AAVE

Mostly was but weren’t for negation

especially in the South of England

All were

especially in the North of Englang

Verb morphology happing in North and Scotland? Name a essetial concept?

There is a historical tendency for verb morphology to
become less complex

Systems become less complex
Strong verbs become weak
Past simple and past participle become the same

Often by a process of analogy:

Remodelling morphology imitating existing more simple system

Grammar differences in North and Scotland?

Strong verbs become weak
reduction of the morphological paradigm

same simple past and past participle
but plenty of exceptions

Do – did – done
Break – broke – broken
Write – wrote – written

Variation in past simple - past participle distinction, where is this?

In the North of England they use non-standard forms

He come round last night
I hadn’t drank since about one
We’d drove from Ecclesall over to Hillborough
I’ve spoke to you one or two words
It’s probably threw you, you know

Were is the COT-CAUGHT (-PALM) merger
Or the LOT-THOUGHT-PALM merger?

General American has LOT and THOUGHT (and PALM) merged
cot and caught, Don and Dawn are all [ɑ], same as PALM
However, some of these distinctions are retained in AAVE, the South & NYC English

How is TRAP different in GA than it is in SSBE?

TRAP is already hihger in GA

What happens with TRAP in american accents?

Common for TRAP (and BATH) to raise and diphtongise to [ɛə] in North American accents:

NYC, Philadelphia, Mid-West, Canada, and the South
Often a continuum of raising

NYC split

What is the NYC split?

before /m/ and /n/ (front nasals), /b/, /d/, /g/ (voiced stops), /ʃ/, /s/, /f/, /θ/ (voiceless fricatives) and in coda position ---> The TRAP is raised and diphtongise to [ɛə].

Fan, lamb, grab, bad, flash, ask, half, bath, bag [ɛə]

all the other TRAP words have a high TRAP vowel.

Back, happy, locality, magazine, planet, frank [æ]

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Topics that are related to Introduction lecture describing

Introduction lecture describing

27 important questions on Introduction lecture describing

Where is rhotocity retention?

Were is rhoticity loss or the innovation of this loss?

Why rhoticity loss in AusE and NZE?

What are the two chain shifts?

The New Zealand English chain shift?

Why is the change in NZE seen? (also this can also be generalized overal changes seen in English) (4)

What is the distinguishing feature between AusE en NZE?

What for influence has London on the English language?

The historical development of English in Britain?

When does language change occur?

How does the Caribbean influence English in Britain?

What is the creole continuum?

Caribbean Englishes in England and what is MLE?

Which features have been retained in Nort of England compared to Middle English

Which features have been retained in Scottish English compared to Middle English

Which features have been retained in Scotttish English compared to Early Modern English

Which feature have Northern English and Early Modern English in common?

To what refers gravity effects in linguistics?

Was-were variation in North and Scotland?

Three systems of was-were levelling?

Verb morphology happing in North and Scotland? Name a essetial concept?

Grammar differences in North and Scotland?

Variation in past simple - past participle distinction, where is this?

Were is the COT-CAUGHT (-PALM) mergerOr the LOT-THOUGHT-PALM merger?

How is TRAP different in GA than it is in SSBE?

What happens with TRAP in american accents?

What is the NYC split?

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Were is the COT-CAUGHT (-PALM) merger
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