accent and identity on the Scottish~English border

 

 

[For an outline of the project written for non-linguists, click here]

It has been claimed that the greatest concentration of distinctive linguistic features in the entire English-speaking world is to be found along the length of the Scottish/English border (Aitken 1992). In spite of this the spoken vernaculars of this region remain surprisingly under-researched. The project addresses this gap, and as such represents the first empirical sociolinguistic study to investigate linguistic variation along a national border viewed as a whole.

Previous sociological research carried out in and around Berwick-upon-Tweed (Kiely et al. 2000) shows that regional and national identities in the area are unexpectedly complex and fluid, and that linguistic behaviour plays a central role in making and marking these identities. It is as yet unclear, however, exactly which features are used to index, for example, ‘Scottishness’ versus ‘Englishness’.

Through detailed investigation of speech production patterns, combined with perceptual testing and the elicitation of attitudinal data from participants, the project aims to establish what these features are, how their use is distributed socially, and whether they are currently undergoing change. These questions will be addressed through auditory and instrumental acoustic analyses of speech elicited by interview and questionnaire from socially stratified samples of speakers in four border localities (Berwick, Eyemouth, Carlisle, Gretna; see map below). By so doing the project will not only further the current state of knowledge in the field of variationist sociophonetics, but will also contribute significantly to the bodies of work which focus specifically on the language/identity nexus and the emerging field of linguistic border studies.

This research is supported by a grant from the UK Economic and Social Research Council (RES-062-23-0525).

 

Our project aims

(1) to investigate empirically the correspondence between the political border and discontinuities in the use of pronunciation features;

(2) to ascertain whether the varieties under examination are diverging, converging or remaining static with respect to these features;

(3) to examine the extent to which the features are indexical of national and/or regional identities through perceptual tests on informants;

(4) to establish the current social distributions of the linguistic features in terms of age, gender, socioeconomic class, and claimed and imposed national/regional identities;

(5) to correlate the linguistic findings with attitudinal data on identities, allegiances and orientations.
   
Project team
Carmen Llamas (York)  
Dominic Watt (York)  
Jen Nycz (York)  
Damien Hall (was York; now Kent)  
Gerry Docherty (Newcastle)  
   
Outputs to date  
 
Journal articles and book chapters (most recent first)
Docherty, G.J., Watt, D., Llamas, C., Hall, D. & Nycz, J. (2011). Variation in Voice Onset Time along the Scottish-English border. Proceedings of the 17th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Hong Kong, August 2011, pp. 591-594. [available here]
Llamas, C., Watt, D. & Johnson, D.E. (2009). Linguistic accommodation and the salience of national identity markers in a border town. Journal of Language and Social Psychology 28(4): 381-407. [available here]
Llamas, C. (2010). Convergence and divergence across a national border. In Llamas, C. & Watt, D. (eds.). Language and Identities. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp. 227-236. [see further here]
Watt, D., Llamas, C. & Johnson, D.E. (2010). Levels of linguistic accommodation across a national border. Journal of English Linguistics 38(3): 270-289. [available here]
 
Conference presentations and invited talks
Llamas, C., Johnson, D. & Watt, D. (2008). Rhoticity in four Scottish/English border localities. Sociolinguistics Symposium 17, Amsterdam, Netherlands, April 2008.
Llamas, C., Watt, D., Johnson, D.E. & Pichler, H. (2008). The salience of national identity markers in a border town: insights from linguistic accommodation. 11th International Conference on Language and Social Psychology, Tucson, Arizona, July 2008.
Llamas, C., Johnson, D.E., Watt, D. & Hall, D. (2008). Variable /r/ use along the Scottish-English border. NWAV (New Ways of Analyzing Variation) 37, Houston, Texas, November 2008 (poster).

Llamas, C., Watt, D., Docherty, G.J., Hall, D. & Nycz, J. (2009). The Scottish/English borderland: phonological production, perception and attitude. International Conference on Language Variation in Europe (ICLaVE) 5, Copenhagen, Denmark, June 2009.
Redinger, D. & Llamas, C. (2009). Innovations in the measurement and analysis of language attitudes. Production, Perception, Attitude Workshop, Leuven, Belgium, April 2009 (poster).
Watt, D., Llamas, C., Docherty, G.J. & Hall, D. (2009). Phonological productions, perceptions and attitudes in the Scottish/English borderland. Production, Perception, Attitude Workshop, Leuven, Belgium, April 2009.
Llamas, C., Watt, D., Docherty, G.J., Hall, D. & Nycz, J. (2009). Variation and change in /r/ in the Scottish/English borderland. 7th UK Language Variation and Change Conference (UKLVC7), Newcastle upon Tyne, September 2009.
Watt, D. (2009). Rethinking the role of speaker agency. 7th UK Language Variation and Change Conference (UKLVC7), Newcastle upon Tyne, September 2009 (keynote paper).
Watt, D. (2009). Among the most meaningful of sounds: identities, attitudes and /r/ on the Scottish-English border. Invited talk, York St. John University, November 2009.
Docherty, G.J., Hall, D., Llamas, C., Nycz, J. & Watt, D. (2010). Accent and identity on the Scottish/English border. Borders and Identities Conference (BIC2010), Newcastle upon Tyne, January 2010.
Watt, D. (2010). Accent of birth? Linking phonological variation to attitudes and identities on the Scottish/English border. Invited talk, University of Cambridge, January 2010.
Llamas, C. (2010). Accent and identity on the Scottish/English border. Invited talk, University of Manchester, February 2010.
Watt, D., Llamas, C., Docherty, G.J., Hall, D. & Nycz, J. (2010). Speaker awareness, differential use of linguistic variables, and the expression of identity. LAUD Cognitive Sociolinguistics Symposium, Landau, Germany, March 2010.
Watt, D., Llamas, C., Docherty, G.J., Nycz, J. & Hall, D. (2010). Voice Onset Time and the Scottish Vowel Length Rule along the Scottish/English border. British Association of Academic Phoneticians (BAAP), London, March 2010.
Docherty, G.J., Hall, D., Llamas, C., Nycz, J. & Watt, D. (2010). Linguistic variation, geography, and identity: sound change along a national border. Northern Englishes Workshop (NEW) 4, Sheffield, April 2010.
Docherty, G.J., Hall, D., Llamas, C., Nycz, J. & Watt, D. (2010). Dialect contact and phonological change at the variety and speaker level. Manchester Phonology Meeting (mfm) 18, Manchester, May 2010.
Hall, D. (2010). Accent and identity on the Scottish-English border. Invited talk, Berwick Civic Society, May 2010.
Hall, D. (2010). What's the difference between England and Scotland? Invited talk, Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery, Carlisle, May 2010.
Hall, D. (2010). What makes a border a border? Invited talk, Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery, Carlisle, June 2010.
Hall, D. (2010). Accent and identity on the Scottish-English border. Invited talk, Berwick Probus Club, June 2010.
Hall, D. (2010). What makes a border a border? Invited talk, Newcroft Social Group, Carlisle, September 2010.
Llamas, C. & Watt, D. (2010). Language, borders and identities: investigating phonological variation, attitudes and perceptions on the Scottish/English border. Invited talk, Cardiff University, October 2010.
Llamas, C. & Watt, D. (2010). Just a line on a map? Accent and identities on the Scottish/English border. Roland Bibby Memorial Lecture, Northumbrian Language Society, Morpeth, October 2010.
Hall, D. (2010). Just a line on a map? Accent and identities on the Scottish/English border. Carlisle and District University of the Third Age, Carlisle, October 2010. [invited speaker]
Llamas, C., Watt, D., Docherty, G.J., Hall, D. & Nycz, J. (2010). Linguistic variation and identity: sound change along a national border. Workshop on Sound Change, Barcelona, October 2010.
Watt, D., Llamas, C., Docherty, G.J., Hall, D. & Nycz, J. (2010). The effects of a border: a detailed examination of production, attitude and perception. New Ways of Analyzing Variation (NWAV) 39, San Antonio, Texas, November 2010.
Docherty, G.J. (2010). Contact, change and conundrums: a case study of phonological variation along the English-Scottish border. Sociophonetics at the Crossroads of Speech Variation, Processing and Communication. Pisa, Italy, December 2010. [invited speaker]
Llamas, C. & Watt, D. (2011). English, Scottish, British? Phonological variation and national identity groupings on the Scottish-English border. University of Lancaster, February 2011. [invited speakers]
Docherty, G.J. (2011). Variation and speech processing: the challenge of sociophonetic variation. Variation and Language Processing (VaLP) 2011, Chester, April 2011. [invited speaker]
Docherty, G.J., Llamas, C., Watt, D., Hall, D. & Nycz, J. (2011). Perspectives on the perceptual evaluation of sociophonetic variation. 6th International Conference on Language Variation in Europe (ICLaVE 6), June 2011.
Docherty, G.J., Watt, D., Llamas, C., Hall, D. & Nycz, J. (2011). Variation in Voice Onset Time along the Scottish-English border. 17th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Hong Kong, China, August 2011. [proceedings article available here]
Watt, D. (2011). 'A "dialect island"? Phonological variation, social attitudes and perceptions of (r) on the Scottish/ English border. Copenhagen Sociolinguistics Circle, November 2011. [invited speaker]
Docherty, G.J. (2011). Discussion paper (following Francis Nolan, Phonetic degrees of freedom: an argument for native speakers in LADO). ESRC LADO (Language Analysis for Determination of Origin) seminar, University of Essex, November 2011. [invited speaker]
Llamas C., Watt, D. & Docherty, G.J. (2011). The socioindexical properties of (r) in the Scottish-English border region. r'-atics-3, Bozen-Bolzano, Italy, December 2011.
   
Media appearances
Hall, D. Radio interview on BBC Radio Cumbria, 21st October 2010.
   
References  
Aitken, A.J. (1992). Scots. In McArthur, T. (ed.). The Oxford Companion to the English Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 893-899.


Kiely, R., McCrone, D., Stewart, R. & Bechhofer, F. (2000). Debatable land: national and local identity in a border town. Sociological Research Online 5(2). [link]
 
Links
Borders and Identities Conference (BIC2010), 8-9 January 2010, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK [link]
Border Discourse: Changing Identities, Changing Nations, Changing Stories in European Border Communities [final report PDF]
Centre for International Borders Research, Queen's University Belfast [link]
Nijmegen Centre for Border Research [link]
Department of Border Region Studies, University of Southern Denmark [link]

Searching for Neighbours (SeFoNe), University of Southampton [link]

International Boundaries Research Unit, Durham University [link]

Page maintained by Dom Watt
Last updated: 12th December 2011

 

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