Age and Accent - Changes in a Southern Welsh English Accent

Abstract

This paper describes the accent of Neath (South Wales) from a socio-dialectological perspective and deals with changes in the accent which are due to the non-linguistic factor age. In a direct interview with indirect questioning, 27 informants from Neath were recorded for the investigation of the English spoken in Neath. Based on the life-stage approach, the 27 informants are divided into three age-groups, representing adolescents, younger adults, and older adults respectively. The data is described using Well's lexical sets and analysed statistically to show correlations between age and linguistic variants. The percentage with which some variants are realised in the key-words varies by up to 60 per cent. The realisations of STRUT, BATH and START, FACE/STAY, GOAT/SNOW, NEAR, CURE, PLAYER, emPLOYER, FIRE, POWER, and the consonants /r/, /l/, and word final <ing> in participles and gerunds have changed throughout age.Key words: Southern Welsh English, social dialectology, non-linguistic factors, age Languages have changed and will continue to change. Various factors, like age, gender, education, and ethnicity, might contribute to language change. This paper, sociodialectological in its nature, discusses the non-linguistic factor age and its influence on the accent of Neath.First, some background information on Neath English (NE) and the survey is given, then socio-dialectology as well as age as a non-linguistic factor are discussed briefly, and, finally, the lexical sets of NE affected most by the factor age are described.

A contrastive analysis of southern welsh and cockney accents

“…Also, it shows that people who speak English "with an accent" are often denied opportunities related to employment, housing, and job promotions. Podhovnik (2010), in his paper "Age and Accent -Changes in A Southern Welsh English Accent", presents the accent of Neath (South Wales) from a socio-dialectological perspective. He describes changes in the accent which are due to the non-linguistic factor of age.…”