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Salient Features of the Welsh Accent That Are Chosen to Be Portrayed in Film

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Salient Features of the Welsh Accent That Are Chosen to Be Portrayed in Film MA Language and Communication Research Cardiff University Salient Features of the Welsh Accent that are Chosen to be Portrayed in Film Andrew Booth C1456511 Supervisor: Dr Mercedes Durham Word Count: 16,448 September 2015 Abstract The accent portrayed by an actor in films has many different implications to the audience. For authenticity, the filmmakers need their accent to be as close to genuine speech as possible. The Welsh-English accent in film is portrayed in many different ways; the aim of this study is to investigate which features are viewed as salient to filmmakers when portraying a Welsh accent. This dissertation focuses the portrayal of salient features of the Welsh-English accent in the film Pride (2014). Pride was chosen because it can compare Welsh to non-Welsh actors who portray a Welsh-English accent. The research is carried out on the film using both auditory and acoustic analysis. Tokens from the film were coded in terms of their realisations for analysis and comparison to previous literature. This research produced a number of key findings: first, the Welsh actors supported previous research on patterns of realisation for Welsh-English. Second, the non-Welsh actors recognised and produced the key features of a Welsh-English accent. Finally, the features presented are salient when representing a Welsh accent in film. In summary, theories such as accommodation, language transference, hypercorrection, fudging and transition were used to explain variation of accents. This research argues for a multi- methodological approach to analysing different features of a Welsh-English accent in film. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr Mercedes Durham for her instrumental advice and insight over the past few months. I would also like to thank my family and my wife-to-be Jac, for her continuous support and encouragement. Contents 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 The sociolinguistic Issue .............................................................................................. 1 1.2 The Data and its Relevance ......................................................................................... 2 1.3 Key Questions and Overview of the study ............................................................... 5 2. Literature Review .............................................................................................................. 7 2.1 Accent ............................................................................................................................. 7 2.1.1 Defining an accent ................................................................................................. 7 2.1.2 Accents in Film ....................................................................................................... 8 2.1.3 Filmmakers considerations .................................................................................. 9 2.2 Welsh –English Accent .............................................................................................. 12 2.3 Salient Features of GSWE (General South-Welsh English) .................................. 13 2.3.1 Recognisable Welsh Features ............................................................................. 14 2.4 Possible Outcomes ...................................................................................................... 17 3. Methodology .................................................................................................................... 20 3.1 Overview of Methods ................................................................................................ 20 3.1.1 Auditory analysis ................................................................................................ 22 3.1.2 Acoustic Analysis ................................................................................................ 23 3.2 Procedure ..................................................................................................................... 24 3.2.1 Auditory Analysis ............................................................................................... 25 3.2.3 Acoustic Analysis ................................................................................................ 26 3.3 Sampling ...................................................................................................................... 28 4. Results ................................................................................................................................ 28 4.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 28 4.2 GOAT /o:/ vs. SNOW /oʊ/ and FACE /e:/ vs. STAY /eɪ/ ........................................... 30 4.2.1 Description: GOAT /o:/ vs. SNOW /oʊ/ and FACE /e:/ vs. STAY /eɪ/ .............. 30 4.2.1.1 Patterns for GOAT /o:/ vs. SNOW /oʊ/ and FACE /e:/ vs. STAY /eɪ/ ........ 33 4.2.1.2 Exceptional Distribution .................................................................................. 36 4.2.2 Results: GOAT /o:/ vs. SNOW /oʊ/ and FACE /e:/ vs. STAY /eɪ/ ...................... 37 4.2.2.1 GOAT vs. SNOW .............................................................................................. 37 4.2.2.2 FACE vs. STAY ................................................................................................. 46 4.2.3 Summary: GOAT /o:/ vs. SNOW /oʊ/ and FACE /e:/ vs. STAY /eɪ/ ................. 52 4.3 TUESDAY [ɪu] ................................................................................................................. 53 4.3.1 Description: TUESDAY [ɪu] Features ................................................................... 53 4.3.1.1 Patterns for TUESDAY ..................................................................................... 54 4.3.1.2 TUESDAY words .............................................................................................. 59 4.3.1.3 Exceptional Distribution TUESDAY .............................................................. 60 4.3.2 Results: TUESDAY [ɪu] ........................................................................................... 60 4.3.2.1 CURE .................................................................................................................. 62 4.3.2.2 GOOSE ............................................................................................................... 63 4.3.2.3 Exceptional Realisations .................................................................................. 66 4.3.3 Summary: TUESDAY [ɪu] ........................................................................................... 67 4.4 /r/ ....................................................................................................................................... 67 4.4.1 Description: /r/ ......................................................................................................... 67 4.4.1.1 Exceptional Distribution .................................................................................. 70 4.4.2 Results: /r/ ................................................................................................................. 71 4.4.3 Summary: /r/ ............................................................................................................. 77 4.5 STRUT /ʌ/ ......................................................................................................................... 78 4.5.1 Description : STRUT /ʌ/ .......................................................................................... 78 4.5.2 Results: STRUT /ʌ/ ................................................................................................... 78 4.5.2.1 Females ............................................................................................................... 79 4.5.2.2 Males ................................................................................................................... 82 4.5.3 Summary: STRUT /ʌ/ .............................................................................................. 86 5. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 86 5.1 Main findings .............................................................................................................. 87 5.2 Strengths and Limitations ......................................................................................... 88 5.2.1 Strengths ............................................................................................................... 88 5.2.2 Limitations ............................................................................................................ 89 5.3 Further research .......................................................................................................... 90 Reference List ....................................................................................................................... 91 List of Figures ....................................................................................................................... 97 List of Tables ........................................................................................................................ 97 Appendix ............................................................................................................................
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