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Corela Cognition, représentation, langage
HS-24 | 2018 Multicultural Spoken English L'anglais mondial oralisé
Pierre Fournier and Isabelle Girard (dir.)
Electronic version URL: http://journals.openedition.org/corela/5084 DOI: 10.4000/corela.5084 ISSN: 1638-573X
Publisher Cercle linguistique du Centre et de l'Ouest - CerLICO
Electronic reference Pierre Fournier and Isabelle Girard (dir.), Corela, HS-24 | 2018, « Multicultural Spoken English » [Online], Online since 15 June 2018, connection on 10 February 2020. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/ corela/5084 ; DOI:10.4000/corela.5084
This text was automatically generated on 10 February 2020.
Corela – cognition, représentation, langage est mis à disposition selon les termes de la licence Creative Commons Attribution - Pas d’Utilisation Commerciale - Partage dans les Mêmes Conditions 4.0 International. 1
Ce volume thématique, intitulé Multicultural Spoken English ou L’anglais mondial oralisé, regroupe des articles extraits du 16ème colloque d’avril sur l’anglais oral organisé conjointement par l’Université Paris 13 et l’ALOES (Association des Linguistes Oralistes de l’Enseignement Supérieur, Secondaire et Elémentaire) à l’Université Paris 13 les 30 et 31 mars 2012.
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L’anglais mondial oralisé / Introduction
Fournier Pierre and Girard Isabelle
1 Ce volume thématique, intitulé Multicultural Spoken English ou L’anglais mondial oralisé, regroupe des articles extraits du 16ème colloque d’avril sur l’anglais oral organisé conjointement par l’Université Paris 13 et l’ALOES (Association des Linguistes Oralistes de l’Enseignement Supérieur, Secondaire et Elémentaire) à l’Université Paris 13 les 30 et 31 mars 2012.
2 Pour l’occasion, l’invité d’honneur était Paul Kerswill, professeur de sociolinguistique à l’Université de Lancaster. Spécialiste de dialectologie et de sociolinguistique, il s’intéresse à l’évolution de l’anglais oral, notamment à partir du rôle joué par les adolescents, les différentes communautés de locuteurs et les grandes conurbations. Il travaille ainsi dans le domaine de l’uniformisation dialectale (dialect levelling). Il est, entre autres, l’auteur de “Standard and Non-Standard English"1, "Dialect Levelling and Geographical Diffusion in British English"2, "Children, Adolescents and Language Change"3, "Rural Dialect Speakers in an Urban Speech Community: the Role of Dialect Contact in Defining a Sociolinguistic Concept"4 ou encore "Levels of Linguistic Variation in Durham".5 Ses travaux actuels le portent à interroger le statut multiculturel de l’anglais parlé à Londres. Certains jeunes locuteurs adoptent volontairement dans leur parler des caractéristiques prosodiques ou phonétiques naguère associées à des variétés d’anglais jugées plus « périphériques ». Ceci peut être dû à un ensemble de dynamiques complexes : la reconnaissance de variétés plutôt que de normes, l’émergence de différentes variétés d’anglais, la perte de prestige de la variété R.P. (Received Pronunciation) ainsi que sa contestation idéologique et les compétitions économiques pour promouvoir d’autres modèles de prononciation de l’anglais. Dans quelle mesure peut-on parler d’un anglais oral multiculturel, notamment dans les grandes métropoles ? L’aspect multiculturel de l’anglais peut également se manifester par d’autres critères et les trois premières contributions de ce volume mettent chacune en valeur, et ce dans des domaines fort distincts, l’une des facettes multiculturelles de l’anglais.
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3 Le premier article de ce volume, proposé par Pierre Fournier (Université Paris 13), s’intitule “Stress Assignment in Italian Loanwords in English and its Impact on the Stressing of Foreign Words by Native English Speakers". Cette recherche, centrée sur l’accentuation lexicale des emprunts en anglais contemporain, s’organise autour de deux axes de réflexion. La première partie de son étude démontre, à partir d’un corpus d’emprunts italiens extraits de dictionnaires anglais de prononciation, que l’anglais emprunte non seulement un item lexical, mais également, dans le cas de l’italien, des propriétés phonologiques de la langue source. En d’autres termes, la mise en évidence de la conservation quasi-systématique de l’accentuation italienne originelle pour les emprunts italiens en anglais, confirme que lors du contact entre langue source et langue cible les propriétés accentuelles de la langue source (italien) sont conservées par la langue cible (anglais). Ce constat, basé sur un corpus de données dictionnairiques, est ensuite enrichi d’une expérience portant sur des productions orales de locuteurs anglophones. Cette expérience vise à tester l’hypothèse selon laquelle l’afflux massif de plusieurs centaines d’emprunts italiens en anglais au cours de l’histoire et la conservation quasi-systématique de l’accentuation lexicale italienne en anglais pourrait avoir eu un effet sur la façon dont les locuteurs anglophones accentuent les emprunts en anglais et ce quelle que soit la langue d’origine de ces derniers. Les résultats obtenus démontrent que, confrontés à un emprunt, les anglophones auront tendance à accentuer l’item sur la syllabe pénultième, et ce quelle que soit son origine, à l’exception des emprunts français qui constituent un sous-système phonologique tout à fait unique au sein du système anglais. Selon l’auteur, ce schéma accentuel préférentiel sur la syllabe pénultième semble être la conséquence de l’afflux massif d’emprunts italiens accentués sur la syllabe pénultième. Les locuteurs anglophones, en reproduisant massivement l’accentuation italienne jusque dans les sources institutionnalisées que constituent les dictionnaires, ont peut-être par extension créé un schéma accentuel préférentiel qui s’appliquerait aux mots « étrangers » en anglais. 4 Le second article est écrit par Laura Goudet (Université de Rouen) et s’intitule “Internet Representations of Dialectal English". Dans cet article, l’auteure étudie les spécificités de la langue anglaise en ligne dans une perspective phonographématique. Afin de constituer un corpus représentatif de son étude, elle regroupe des productions extraites de forums de discussion principalement destinés à deux groupes de locuteurs possédant des particularités ethniques et géographiques distinctes. Le premier site regroupe 25 millions de locuteurs afro-américains tandis que le second est un réseau social destiné principalement à des locuteurs parlant l’anglais écossais et/ou le gaélique. Ces locuteurs anglophones maîtrisent donc l’anglais standard écrit et oral, ainsi que les sociolectes (tout du moins dans leurs versions orales) qu’ils utilisent sur ces forums de discussion. Les rapports entre les composantes phoniques et graphiques figurent donc au cœur de l’article et sont fortement liés à des considérations identitaires. Cependant, il est parfois difficile de distinguer entre les effets stylistiques utilisés par un locuteur et les graphies alternatives représentatives de l’ensemble d’une communauté linguistique. L’auteure dresse dans un premier temps une typologie des graphies alternatives rencontrées sur ces deux forums, le principe d’alternance étant principalement déterminé par l’influence de la composante orale sur la graphie. Il s’avère que certaines catégories de mots sont plus sujettes à la variation que d’autres et l’auteure évoque ensuite une série de critères permettant de faire la distinction entre les alternances graphiques dites « volontaires » et les alternances n’étant en fait que des erreurs. Dans un second temps, Laura Goudet dresse une liste des divergences
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dialectales observées sur les deux forums ; divergences qui, selon elle, traduisent des rapports différents dans les liens qu’entretiennent les locuteurs vis-à-vis de leur variété d’anglais et de la norme. La dernière partie de l’article s’intéresse aux différences graphiques déterminées par les propriétés phonologiques spécifiques aux deux variétés d’anglais. Des phénomènes de variation systématique apparaissent mais ils sont toutefois distincts selon la variété considérée tant au niveau consonantique que vocalique. Les deux variétés développent cependant des relations phonographématiques assez similaires en rapport aux mots grammaticaux mais ce pour des raisons différentes. L’auteure termine enfin en démontrant les limites de la substitution vocalique dans une perspective phonographématique, l’intercompréhension mutuelle entre les membres du forum constituant l’enjeu principal de tout acte de communication. 5 Le troisième article, écrit par Stephan Wilhelm (Université de Bourgogne), s’intitule “Segmental and Suprasegmental Change in North West Yorkshire : a New Case of Supralocalisation". Cet article, s’inscrivant dans la tradition des études sur les changements phonétiques et phonologiques des différentes variétés géographiques de l’anglais, est centré sur l’évolution du parler des locuteurs anglophones du nord-ouest du Yorkshire. A partir d’un corpus d’interactions spontanées représentatif des locuteurs de cette zone géographique de l’Angleterre, les catégories d’âge constituant le critère fondamental dans la constitution du corpus, Stephan Wilhelm observe l’évolution et les innovations à l’œuvre dans cette variété d’anglais. Dans un premier temps, l’auteur répertorie les propriétés segmentales et suprasegmentales, attestées dans la littérature mais également observables de par l’analyse de ses données, de ce qui est considéré comme la variété « standard » de l’anglais du Yorkshire. Après avoir défini la variété « standard », l’auteur va rendre compte des innovations et des changements observables vis-à-vis de la norme. Ces innovations sont de nature vocalique et consonantique, parfaitement illustrées par des spectrogrammes, mais touchent également le domaine de la qualité de voix (voice quality) avec des locuteurs adoptant de plus en plus de réalisations vélarisées. Cette modification de la qualité de voix est liée, comme le démontre fort justement Stephan Wilhelm, au paramètre de l’âge. Des changements prosodiques sont également notables, principalement chez les jeunes locuteurs de l’anglais du nord-ouest du Yorkshire, avec la multiplication des schémas intonatifs montants (high-rising tones) en fin d’énoncé déclaratif. Après avoir illustré et analysé tous les changements phonétiques et phonologiques à l’œuvre dans cette variété d’anglais, l’auteur présente une série de conclusions provisoires. Il s’interroge sur l’influence potentielle des médias mais également sur le rapport qu’entretiennent les locuteurs vis-à-vis de la norme que constitue la variété R.P. La mobilité géographique et l’âge constituent également autant de paramètres déterminants dans l’apparition de ces phénomènes. L’auteur termine son étude en remettant en perspective son travail à la lumière des deux concepts-clés que sont la « diffusion » (geographical diffusion) et l’« uniformisation dialectale » (dialect levelling). 6 La particularité du colloque d’avril sur l’anglais oral, organisé depuis 1982 à l’Université Paris 13, est d’accueillir également des sessions hors thématique. La dernière contribution de ce volume, intitulée « L’accent préfère-t-il le sens ? Les noms féminins en -ess en anglais britannique moderne et contemporain », s’inscrit dans cette perspective. L’étude, menée par Jérémy Castanier (Université d’Amiens), se situe à la croisée entre diachronie et synchronie et relève de la tradition morphophonologique de l’école de Guierre, cadre théorique privilégiant une interaction entre morphologie et
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phonologie. Cette idée est perçue comme le moteur principal de la dynamique de l’accentuation lexicale en anglais. Toutefois, l’auteur met l’accent dans son étude sur la strate sémantique qui constituerait également un paramètre indissociable de cette dynamique. Pour le démontrer, Jérémy Castanier prend comme corpus d’analyse les noms féminins en -ess en anglais britannique. Son approche, résolument dictionnairique, se base sur un corpus d’analyse inventoriant l’accentuation de tous les noms féminins en -ess répertoriés dans plusieurs dictionnaires de prononciation de référence. La dimension diachronique de son travail réside dans le relevé de l’accentuation des noms féminins en -ess dans les versions antérieures des dictionnaires contemporains de prononciation, lui permettant ainsi de retracer l’historique de l’accentuation de ces items en anglais. Il adopte une démarche qui, loin d’être simplement descriptive, lui permet de tester des paramètres et de formuler des hypothèses permettant de justifier l’évolution accentuelle de ces items. Jérémy Castanier démontre tout d’abord l’importance fondamentale de la composante morphologique en identifiant deux types de suffixation débouchant sur deux comportements accentuels distincts. Il complète ensuite son raisonnement par la prise en compte dans son analyse du sémantisme inhérent à la terminaison. La fusion des paramètres morphologique et sémantique permet de mieux rendre compte de l’évolution accentuelle des items avec toutefois, selon l’auteur, une primauté de la strate sémantique sur la strate morphologique. L’article se termine sur la question de la « diffusion lexicale ». La régulation de l’accentuation des noms féminins en -ess est le résultat d’un phénomène de diffusion et de propagation des propriétés accentuelles de certains items, dictées principalement par des considérations sémantiques, à l’ensemble des noms relevant de cette catégorie. Enfin, le recours à une analyse fréquentielle diachronique permet à l’auteur de confirmer ses hypothèses de départ.
NOTES
1. Article paru dans l’ouvrage Language in the British Isles, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 34-51, 2007. 2. Article paru dans l’ouvrage Social dialectology, D. Britain et J. Cheshire (éd.), In honour of Peter Trudgill, Amsterdam : Benjamins, 223-243, 2003. 3. Article paru dans la revue Language Variation and Change 8, 177-202, 1996. 4. Article paru dans la revue International Journal of Applied Linguistics 3, 33-56, 1993. 5. Article paru dans la revue Journal of Linguistics 23, 25-49, 1987.
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AUTHORS
FOURNIER PIERRE
Paris 13 University / Pléiade EA7338
GIRARD ISABELLE
Université du Littoral Côte d’Opale
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Stress Assignment in Italian Loanwords in English and its Impact on the Stressing of Foreign Words by Native English Speakers
Fournier Pierre
1. Introduction1
1 Stress investigations concerning languages in contact have already been led within the Loan Phonology approach (Kentowicz & Sohn 2001, Friesner 2009, Svensson 2001, 2004, 2007, Schultz 2013 or P. Fournier 2016). These studies analyse the different ways borrowings can be phonetically or phonologically reproduced when being transferred from source languages to target languages. Two major tendencies are to be found. The loanwords may adapt to the phonological properties of the target language and thus develop assimilatory mechanisms depending on their degrees of integration, or, they may conserve certain phonological characteristics of the source language. As far as stress assignment is concerned, previous results (P. Fournier to appear) demonstrated that Italian loanwords in English systematically reproduced their original Italian stress patterns, and thus, constitute a perfect example of stress conservation. This analysis was dictionary-based, and therefore, the goal of this study is first, to extend the corpus of Italian loanwords by including the Oxford English Dictionary database, in order to test the stress preservation principle on a larger corpus, and second, to confront these results with oral data. An experiment was carried out with English native speakers who were asked to read Italian words aloud, inserted into lists of English words, and it appeared that the stress conservation rate grew in accordance with the speakers’ fluency in Italian. This leads us to formulate a hypothesis concerning the way loanwords are integrated into dictionary sources in English, and provides us with insight concerning native English speakers’ perception and production of the stressing of loanwords.
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2 The second part focuses on the stress patterns of Italian loanwords in English dictionaries and investigates the potential stress match between the two languages.
2. Stress assignment of Italian loanwords in English pronunciation dictionaries
2.1. Corpus building
3 The final corpus is based on the data of three major references in English: the Oxford English Dictionary (henceforth OED), the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (henceforth LPD) and the Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary (henceforth EPD). The last two sources are reference works concerning English pronunciation while the OED gives access, through its large database, to numbers of representative loanwords. The loanwords extracted from the OED also include phonetic transcriptions when they are attested.
4 The book that was used during the very first steps in collecting samples of representative loanwords is Laura Pinnavaia’s major work about the Italian loanwords which are attested in the OED (Pinnavaia 2001). Her mainly lexicographic approach, coupled with a diachronic perspective, turned out to be of great value to elaborate the corpus. She considered the classifications “It.”, “adopted from It.” or “adapted” as representative of Italian loanwords. Her lists were double-checked to make sure that only real Italian loanwords would be integrated into the final corpus. Only direct2 loanwords with a
Indeed,
<-VC2V#> (Italian) → <-VCV#> (English)
buratto → borato
5 When the structures of the last two syllables, whose influence on stress assignment appears to be fundamental, are modified through the borrowing process, the corresponding items are not conserved because stress comparison would prove to be vain.
Italian English
teleferica→ teleferic
6 Despite the OED precious etymological resources, source languages may prove to be difficult to determine. Some loanwords (i.e. pasquinade, mora and moto) have an uncertain origin that might be dual according to the OED. They, therefore, are not selected either. The corpus building is systematically carried out with an etymological
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double-check, because it turns out that some sections of the OED are currently updated, thus possibly modifying the initial data Pinnavaia used in her work. This uncertain etymology is not relevant to our study because only Italian loanwords are taken into account.
7 On the contrary, variant spellings that do not modify
Italian English
balcone→ balcony
cembalo→ cymbalo
letterato→ literato
8 After having applied these first lexicographic criteria to the lists Pinnavaia built, the resulting list of Italian loanwords is composed of 534 items. However, 89 out of these 534 loanwords are obsolete in the OED. Those outdated loanwords, whose entries do not contain any phonetic information, turn out to be useless and have to be rejected. The entire list of obsolete Italian loanwords is found below: alture (altura5), ancora, antelucano, appassionate (appassionato), argin(e) (argine), balsamo, berlina, bollito, bona-roba (buenaroba), botano (bottana), brendice (brindesi/ brindisi), buckone (boccone), burratine (burattino), caricatura, carnadine (carnadino), celestrine/celestine (cilestrino/celestino), centurine (centurino), clarissimo, cornuto, crociate (crociata), enamorate (innamorato), entrata, entrate (entrata), faciata (facciata), fantastico, festino, fincture (finctura), frittado (frittata), gallantissimo (galantissimo), gallature (gallatura), glorioso, gossipine (gossipina), governatrice, imboscata, porporate (porporato), granitone, Greco, ignaro, imbroccata, improviso, inspiritate (inspiritato), intagliature (intagliatura), intrico, intrigo, Liatico (liatico), lujula (lugliola), malevolo, malgrado, marsoline (marzolino), melancholico (melancolico), mezzo termine, moccenigo (moc(c)enigo), morene (morena), moro, moroso, moscardino, motivo, napelo (napelo/ nap(p)ello), nicolo (niccolo), nimfadoro, pagody (pagodi), Papalina, pavone, pistolese, plemmirulate (plemmirulata), politicone, polverine (polverino), pomada (pomada/ pomata), primore, puttine (puttino), ripare (riparo), saltamartino, scalado (scalada), scrivano, sdrucciola, serenissimo, sotane (sottana), spiritato, squadrate (squadrato), squadrature (squadratura), stare (stara/staro), steccado (steccada/steccata), stilettato (stillettata), stuccature (stuccatura), stufata (stufato), stufe (stufa), travature (travatura), verzino, volpone. 9 The resulting corpus has yet to be cleaned because 45 loanwords attest final mute
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(scopo), sellaite, simetite, sistine (sistina), soldanate (soldanato), taramellite, Ticinese, Torinese, tramontane (tramontana), travertine (travertino), trombone. 10 The OED online edition is under constant revision and its entries have not been fully updated yet: it appears that some Italian loanwords do not have any associated phonetic transcriptions. Stress comparison turns out to be impossible and these items have therefore not been retained. The following list includes these 16 cases: barcone7, casal(e), con impeto, granito, latticino/latticinio, natrodavyne (natrodavyna), sonata da camera, sonata da chiesa, stretto maestrale, verde antico, viola pomposa, violetta marina, violoncello piccolo, vita nuova, inamorate (innamorato), Veronese. 11 The application of the previous criteria makes it possible to reject non-relevant items. The corpus is now made up of 384 loanwords, whose stress patterns are extracted from the three English dictionary sources8. Dialect-dependent differences in British English and American English are also taken into account. Collected English stress patterns will, in the second part of the study, be compared with Italian stress patterns. In fact, corresponding Italian words9 and their stress patterns have to be investigated. The selected Italian dictionary sources are the Dizionario della Lingua Italiana (Sabatini & Coletti 2005) and the Le Robert & Signorelli. Dictionnaire français-italien/italien-français (Arrizi & Robert 1999). Quite surprisingly, it turns out that 26 Italian loanwords, attested in English dictionaries and classified as such, cannot be found in Italian dictionary sources: brava, camata, cavo-rilievo, dimity, flautone, gigalira, improvisatrice, intrada, messa di voce, mezza voce, Mona Lisa, Monte di Pietà, negroni, numero uno, oboe d’amore, ottava rima, palmarosa, piano nobile, piano piano, sgraffiato, sgraffito, tarantato, tarentola, terza rima, Unione Siciliana, Verona. 12 Furthermore, seven Italian loanwords with -ino and -ina diminutive suffixes in English are not attested as such in Italian sources where only deriving forms are found: duettino (duetto), fantoccini (fantoccio), giallolino (giallo), palombino (palombo), pandurina (pandura), scherzino (scherzo), spaghettini (spaghetto/spaghetti). 13 Finally, syneresis is a frequent phonetic phenomenon occurring in Italian and the stressed syllables that undergo this process have to be carefully dealt with. Two cases are to be distinguished. The first one is only related to the two Italian dictionary sources into which this phonetic process leads to distinct stress representations. The Dizionario della Lingua Italiana does not include and its palatalized /j/ realization within the stressed syllable whereas the Robert & Signorelli dictionary does. Dizionario della Lingua Italiana: cappricci’oso, curi’oso, ruffi’ano Robert & Signorelli: cappric’cioso, cu’rioso, ruf’fiano 14 The inclusion of those items might lead to a misinterpretation of Italian stress patterns and then skew the results of the stress match investigation with English. Indeed, and this is the second case, the borrowing transfer may, in some very specific cases, trigger a re-syllabification process that deeply reshapes syllable structures of corresponding Italian loanwords in English and affects the determination of stress patterns. The loanword piano clearly illustrates this phenomenon because in English,
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010/ stress pattern in both Italian dictionaries. However, the alternative phonetic realization of
Italian / English stress match investigation in dictionary sources
2.2.1. Stress in Italian
16 In Italian, as well as in English, there is a lexical stress (noted /1/). This phonological similarity between both languages makes it possible to compare the stress patterns of loanwords in the source language and in the target language. Several studies concerning stress patterns in Italian have been carried out and the results appear to be equivalent. In Italian, words are mainly stressed on the penultimate syllable (80%). Stress on the antepenultimate syllable is also attested (16%) and the final stress pattern is not productive (only 4%) (Borrelli 2002; Thornton, Iacobini & Burani 1997). If we compare these results with those based on the stress patterns of the Italian items that constitute our corpus, the general tendency is confirmed. Indeed, out of 309 Italian loanwords: – 247 are stressed on the penultimate syllable (79.9%). – 57 are stressed on the antepenultimate syllable (18.4%). – 4 are stressed on the final syllable (1.4%). – 1 case of stress variation is attested (0.3%).
2.2.2. Results
17 The comparison of Italian stress patterns with the stress patterns of corresponding Italian loanwords in English proves to be very instructive. Indeed, as Table 1 below shows, most Italian loanwords with
18
total match total match total match /-1/ → /-1/12 /(-)10/ → /(-)10/ /(-)100/ → /(-)100/
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3 241 52
affetu’oso → affettu’oso al’tissimo → al’tissimo oi’me → oi’me do’gana → do’gana ‘broccolo → ‘broccoli romani’ta → Romani’tà fu’rore → fu’rore e’nergico → e’nergico terribili’tà → terribili’tà ri’presa → ri’presa ‘timpano → ‘timpani
Table 1: Total stress matches between Italian and English
19 Only 4 loanwords out of 309 do not display any stress match between Italian and English: auto’strada → ‘autoˌstrada (OED/LPD) bal’cone → ‘balcony (3)13 ‘bucchero → buc’chero (OED) ‘porfido → por’fido (OED) 20 The balcony loanword is interesting, because the original Italian stress pattern is re- interpreted (/100/) and accompanied by a change in spelling (from
21 Finally, nine partial stress matches are observed between Italian and English.
Italian English
‘bravo‘bravo /10/ (3) + var /01/ EPD (GB/US 15)
ca’sino / casi’no16 ca’sino (3)
in’cognita in’cognita + var /(-)10/ OED
in’cognito incog’nito (3) + var /0100/ (3)
‘pergola‘pergola (3) + var /010/ LPD (GB/US)
pie’ta Pie’tà (3) + ‘Pietà LPD/EPD (GB/US in LPD and GB in EPD)
‘rapido‘rapido + var /010/ (GB/US) OED
ricer’care ricer’care + var /1000/ (GB) OED
ses’tina ses’tina + var /100/ (US) OED
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Table 2: Partial stress matches between Italian and English
22 As can be observed in Table 2, stress variants are minor in English dictionary sources (9 cases out of 309 loanwords i.e. 2.9%). Two types of variation are attested in the above table. The variation may be either attested within the same dictionary data base (example: incognita in the OED), or, the variation can be found between dictionaries (example: Pietà, whose alternative stress pattern on the first syllable is attested in the LPD and the EPD but not recognized by the OED).
23 Furthermore, it is worth noting that dialect-dependent differences have no impact on the stress of Italian loanwords in English. The OED entries have not been fully updated yet and thus access is often only restricted to British phonetic transcriptions, however, stress variants which are linked to dialectal variation are very limited and generally not extended to the three dictionary sources. This means that the dialectal argument plays no part in the stressing of Italian loanwords whose stress patterns are only influenced by the reproduction of the phonological stress properties of Italian. This is a major difference with French loanwords whose stress patterns are greatly influenced by the varieties of English under scrutiny (see P. Fournier 2013 and 2016).
2.2.3. Preliminary conclusions concerning dictionary data
24 This dictionary-based analysis of stress match between Italian words and their corresponding Italian loanwords in English demonstrates that the stress pattern of the source language (Italian) is almost always reproduced by the target language (English). The results, i.e. 95.8% total match added to 2.9% partial match, strongly support this argument. Only 1.3% of Italian loanwords are not stressed according to the Italian stress pattern in English and show assimilatory features. Italian loanwords are not stress-assimilated in English and the low rate of partial matches confirms that trend.
25 These results also highlight the reliability of the OED phonetic transcriptions which have often been criticized for a very long time in the specialized literature. Indeed, annex 1 shows that a high proportion of Italian loanwords are only attested in the OED. However, the stress conservation principle is also valid, as the two reference pronouncing dictionaries (i.e. the LPD and the EPD) show. The results of the first study (P. Fournier to appear) are thus confirmed. 26 The next part of the study compares those results, based on dictionary sources, with oral data. An experiment was conducted with seven English native speakers to determine the influence of the introduction of Italian loanwords on the way Italian loanwords are perceived and stressed in English. The majority of Italian loanwords in English are stressed on the penultimate syllable. The preservation of Italian stress patterns explains why the penultimate stress pattern is the most frequent one. However, the dictionary-based data has proved that words that are stressed on the antepenultimate syllable in Italian also reproduce the same stress pattern in English after the borrowing process. Nonetheless, it turns out that the massive introduction of Italian loanwords, which are stressed on the penultimate syllable, has had an impact on the way foreign words in general might be perceived and stressed by English speakers.
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3. English native speakers’ sensitivity to Italian word stress
3.1. Description of the experiment
27 Seven English native speakers (two male and five female speakers), aged from 22 to 35, were asked to read a list of items. Several varieties of English were represented (Irish, Scottish, British and American English). This hardly seems relevant, though, as the first part has clearly demonstrated that in English, the stress of Italian loanwords is not determined by the variety under consideration. Five speakers are lecturers in French universities and two of them are prospective EFL teachers. Several of them have advanced language skills abilities and can speak several languages such as French, Spanish, Arabic, German, Turkish or Hebrew, however, only three of them studied Italian at school, although only for one year, at high school or university.
28 The list of items they were asked to read was composed of 150 words, 50 of which were Italian words (nouns or adjectives). Twenty-six of those Italian items are stressed on the penultimate syllable, while the remaining 24 are stressed on the antepenultimate syllable. Several conditions were implemented in the corpus elaboration. First, the Italian words cannot be loanwords in English and they have to exhibit
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livelihood, meadowland, overburden, wintergreen, dynamic, maintainable, heterogeneous, hysterical, juvenile, mandatory, lateral, maturative, lenticular, litigious, handwritten, threatening, meaningless, yellowish, weaponless, uppermost, turnipy, weedgrown, waterproof, tokenistic, indirectly, organically, humanistically, luminously, marginally, pejoratively, meditatively, pronouncedly, monstrously, nutritionally, knowledgeably, tellingly, prettily, heartbreakingly, healthily, girlishly, early, feelingly, wholly, guiltily, individuate, irradiate, obnubilate, licentiate, panegyrize, liquidate, manducate, masculinize, modify, nationalize, wallow, hearten, glisten, fumble, forbid, believe, understand, hurdle, listen, answer, kibbutznik, mandapam, mazurka, pastourelle, restaurant, resumé, gendarmerie, t’ai chi ch’uan, kimono, tokonoma, genipapo, guerilla, gemütlich, gegenschein, kindergarten, dreidel, cunjevoi, couscous, bungalow, smorgasbord. 30 The speakers were then asked to read the whole list without any further information. The presence of loanwords of different origins which are attested in English along with other English words, and the random order the words were listed, could make the speakers to think that all these words were attested in English. Consequently, they systematically attributed stress patterns no matter the words they were presented with. Data recording was carried out by a single person but oral data analysis and the determination of stress patterns concerning Italian words were treated separately by three researchers. This analysis was first carried out separately and results were then confronted. When the three people could not come to an agreement concerning primary stress location, the majority (two over one) won, but, it only represents a dozen of cases because the determination of stressed syllables is generally made easy by the reading of isolated words. Finally, ten oral productions were rejected, because speakers mispronounced the words or pronounced them so slowly that the stressed syllable identification was made impossible.
3.2. Results
3.2.1. Global results
31 Each of the 7 speakers pronounced 50 words and only 10 productions - that is 340 tokens - could not be used.
stress patterns occurrences rate
/(-)10/ 280 82,3 %
/(-)100/ 57 16,8 %
/(-)1000/ 3 0,9 %
Table 3: Overall results concerning the stress patterns of Italian words
32 The figures show that English speakers mainly stress Italian words on the penultimate syllable (82%). The /(-)100/ stress pattern is a fairly productive one as well (16%) and the /(-)1000/ stress pattern is clearly not considered as a potential option17 (0.9%). It is worth noting that the selected speakers never opted for the final stress pattern which nevertheless exists in Italian. The goal of this experiment is to check the potential
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stress match between Italian and English, and to do so, results concerning stress match have to be reorganized according to the Italian primary stress location.
3.2.2. Stress match analysis between oral data and Italian stress patterns
33 If only Italian words that are stressed in /(-)10/ are taken into account, 26 words were pronounced by 7 speakers, and 4 items could not be used, which means 178 occurrences. Among the 24 Italian items that are stressed in /(-)100/, 6 productions could not be used, which means 162 occurrences. The following table examines the distinction between the stress patterns the English speakers realized alongside the stress match investigation criterion.
Italian words in /(-)10/ Italian words in /(-)100/
stress patterns occurrences rate occurrences rate
/(-)10/ 170 95.5 % 111 68.5 %
/(-)100/ 7 3.9 % 49 30.2 %
/(-)1000/ 1 0.6 % 2 1.3 %
Table 4: Match rate results between oral data and Italian stress patterns
34 Results show that Italian words which are stressed on the penultimate syllable are also mainly stressed on the penultimate one by English speakers (95.5%). Few cases of antepenultimate stressing are attested (3.9%). The results turn out to be different when only Italian words with an antepenultimate stress are taken into account because it appears that the /(-)10/ stress pattern is still the preferential one (68.5%) but the antepenultimate stress pattern is far more represented (30.2%) than concerning Italian words that are stressed in /(-)10/. This meaningful difference demonstrates that English speakers might be sensitive to the original stress patterns and, more generally, to the phonological properties of source languages (here Italian). Indeed, some speakers tend to reproduce the original stress patterns (either /(-)10/ or /(-)100/). However, those results cannot be fully interpreted if no clear-cut separations are drawn, based on the speakers’ command of Italian. As a matter of fact, this linguistic ability criterion is also a determining factor in the reproduction of corresponding Italian stress patterns. The next part re-interprets these results alongside this new parameter.
3.2.3. Results based on speakers’ linguistic abilities in Italian
35 Four English speakers out of seven have no linguistic notions concerning the Italian language, have never studied it nor been exposed to it. Each of them pronounced the 50 Italian words and 6 items - that is 194 tokens (101 concerning /(-)10/ items and 93 concerning /(-)100/ ones - could not be used.
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Italian words in /(-)10/ Italian words in /(-)100/
stress patterns occurrences rate occurrences rate
/(-)10/ 95 94 % 73 78.5 %
/(-)100/ 5 5 % 19 20.4 %
/(-)1000/ 1 1 % 1 1.1 %
Table 5: Match rate results between linguistically naïve speakers’ productions and Italian stress patterns
36 The majority of Italian words that are stressed in /(-)10/ are also stressed on the penultimate syllable by English speakers even though they do not have any linguistic abilities concerning the Italian language. These results are not surprising because it appears that most
37 If English speakers with linguistic notions in Italian are now considered, the results significantly change. These three speakers generated 146 exploitable tokens (with 77 concerning Italian words in /(-)10/ and 69 concerning Italian words in /(-)100/).
Italian words in /(-)10/ Italian words in /(-)100/
stress patterns occurrences rate occurrences rate
/(-)10/ 75 97.4 % 37 53.6 %
/(-)100/ 2 2.6 % 31 44.9 %
/(-)1000/ 0 0 % 1 1.5 %
38 Table 6: Match rate results between initiated speakers’ productions
and Italian stress patterns
39 Concerning /(-)10/ Italian words, figures are roughly equivalent with a 97.4% match between Italian stress patterns and what English speakers actually produce. It appears
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that, whatever the level of linguistic requirements speakers may possess, they tend to stress Italian words on the penultimate syllable. However, a significant tendency emerges concerning the results with /(-)100/ Italian words. Indeed, initiated speakers better reproduce the antepenultimate Italian stress (44.9%) than speakers with no prior notions in Italian (20.4%). They are more familiar with the Italian stress system but may also be more sensitive to the reproduction of Italian phonological principles through the borrowing process.
40 The global results concerning these three initiated speakers consequently modify the tendency that was previously observed for linguistically naïve speakers. The total rate for antepenult stress amounts to 22.6% (versus 12.4% for non-initiated speakers). Though probably not a conscious phenomenon, it nevertheless indicates that initiated speakers have developed intuitions concerning the way Italian words are stressed. Unsurprisingly, the highest stress match rate is found among English speakers who were exposed to Italian, even over a very short period of time, as it enables them to reproduce original stress patterns more satisfactorily18.
/(-)10/ /(-)100/ /(-)1000/
global 82,3 % 16,8 % 0,9 %
non-initiated speakers 86,6 % 12,4 % 1 %
initiated speakers 76,7 % 22,6 % 0,7 %
Table 7: Overall results related to initiated and non-initiated speakers
4. Discussion
41 The study of the stress patterns of Italian loanwords in English pronouncing dictionaries clearly demonstrates that Italian loanwords massively reproduce corresponding Italian stress patterns whether primary stresses are located on the final, penultimate or antepenultimate syllable. Nevertheless, the results also confirm that the preferential stress pattern in Italian is /(-)10/ and, consequently, through the preservation of this Italian stress pattern, many penultimate stress patterns are attested in English. Thus, in
42 The oral test, experimented on native English speakers, has led to the following conclusion: English speakers massively stress Italian words on the penultimate syllable whatever the original Italian stress patterns. However, speakers with some knowledge of Italian reproduce more faithfully original Italian stress patterns and the observation of their stressing concerning the Italian items that are stressed in /(-)100/ confirms that the more they grow accustomed, the more they stress in accordance with Italian stress principles. Those conclusions are to be drawn with a measure of caution, because firstly, there were few recorded speakers, and secondly, it has been difficult to determine the degree of fluency of initiated speakers in Italian who might have been biased concerning the pronunciation patterns. Yet it is noteworthy that the more
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accustomed the speakers are to Italian, the more faithful they are to the Italian stress patterns. One should also keep in mind that those of the informants who were skilled in Italian had only been exposed to it at school and for a very brief period of time (up to one year). Generally speaking, it seems quite obvious that bilingual speakers had integrated Italian loanwords into their English lexicon. If this were not so, this close-to- perfect stress match would not have been possible and would not have been so well reflected by dictionaries. Before being attested in English dictionaries, these loanwords may firstly be used by a community of bilingual speakers hence their stress patterns would remain stable in English. Therefore, these bilingual speakers would not only integrate a new word into the English lexicon, but also its stress contour. 43 This influx of Italian loanwords in English, adopted with their original stress characteristics, has had a major influence on the stressing of foreign words in general. Considering that most Italian words are stressed on the penultimate syllable, and that the stress preservation principle implies that Italian loanwords are consequently stressed in /(-)10/ in English as well, French phonologists postulated the existence of a pedagogical stress rule, called the “Italian rule”, that states that words ending by an alveolar consonant (except
45 The stressing of French loanwords constitutes a unique case within the English stress system. We believe, however, that the introduction of Italian loanwords alongside with the stress preservation principle has also deeply modified the stressing of loanwords in general. Etymology should thus be perceived as a fundamental factor in stress assignment. Hundreds of Italian words with penultimate stresses integrated English. Then, this penultimate stress pattern was felt to “sound” Italian and it seems that
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English speakers adopted this /(-)10/ stress pattern to all loanwords with
5. Conclusion
46 The study of the stress patterns of Italian loanwords in English dictionary sources shows a stress preservation principle between Italian and English. The possible introduction of Italian loanwords in English by bilingual speakers might have influenced the stressing of loanwords in general because the /(-)10/ stress pattern, massively imported from Italian, seems to be the preferential one used by native speakers to stress foreign words no matter what their origin may be (except French). Further oral investigations are needed concerning the stressing of foreign words other than Italian to prove it.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Arrizi, A. & Robert, P. (1999), Le Robert & Signorelli. Dictionnaire français-italien / italien- français, Le Robert.
Borrelli, D. (2002), Raddoppiamento Sintattico in Italian. A Synchronic and Diachronic Cross- dialectal Study. New York, London: Routledge.
Calabrese, A. & Wetzels, L. (2009), Loan Phonology, Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Church, K. (1985), “Stress Assignment in Letter-to-Sound Rules for Speech Synthesis”, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 78 (S1).
D’Imperio, M. & Rosenthall, S. (1999), “Phonetics and Phonology of Main Stress in Italian”, in Phonology 16, 1-28.
Fournier, J.-M. (2007), “From a Latin Syllable-Driven Stress System to a Romance Versus Germanic Morphology-Driven Dynamics : in Honour of Lionel Guierre”, in P. Carr & P. Honeybone (ed.), English Phonology, Language Sciences 29, 218-236.
Fournier, J.-M. (2010), Manuel d’anglais oral, Paris : Ophrys.
Fournier, P. (2013), « L’accentuation des emprunts français en anglais britannique et américain », Annales de l’Université de Craïova - Série langues et littératures romanes, AN XVII, Nr.1, 2013, Craïova : Universitaria, 105-129.
Fournier, P. (2016), « Nouvelles perspectives sur l’accentuation des emprunts en anglais contemporain », Itinéraires, 2015-2, Stumbling blocks. Entraves et obstacles aux circulations.
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Approches pluridisciplinaires. Sous la direction de M. Lévêque et C. Parfait (consultable en ligne : http://itineraires.revues.org/2827).
Fournier, P. (to appear), « Transcription et formalisation de l’accentuation des mots italiens en anglais contemporain », Corela.
Friesner, M. (2009), “The Adaptation of Romanian Loanwords from Turkish and French”, Loan Phonology, edited by A. Calabrese & L. Wetzels, 115-130.
Haspelmath, M. & Tadmor, U. (2009), Loanwords in the World’s Languages: A Comparative Handbook, Mouton de Gruyter.
Jones, D. (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary (18th edition), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kentowicz, M. & Sohn, H.-S. (2001), “Accentual Adaptation in North Kyungsang Korean”, Ken Hale: A Life in Language, ed. by M. Kentowicz, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 239-270.
Kramer, M. (2010), The Phonology of Italian, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Oxford English Dictionary online version (last consulted: March 2th 2016).
Pinnavaia, L. (2001), The Italian Borrowings in the Oxford English Dictionary, Bulzoni Editore Edition.
Sabatini, F. & Coletti, V. (2005), Dizionario della Lingua Italiana, Milano : Rizzoli-Larousse.
Schultz, J. (2013), Twentieth Century Borrowings from French to English : Their Reception and Development, Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Svensson, A.-M. (2001), “Germanic vs French Stress in Disyllabic Loan Words in English”, Studies in Honour of Göran Kjellmer, Gothenburg Studies in English 81, 123-129.
Svensson, A.-M. (2004), “On the Stressing of French Loanwords in English”, Amsterdam Studies in the Theory and History of Linguistic Science Series 4, volume 252, 225-234.
Svensson, A.-M. (2007), “On the Stress-Shifting of Polysyllabic French Loans in English”, Topics in English Linguistics, volume 53, 93-104.
Thornton, A.M., Iacobini, C. & Burani, C. (1997), BDVDB: Una base di dati sul vocabolario di base della lingua italiana. (BDVDB: A database for the Italian basic dictionary). Roma: Bulzoni.
Wells, J.C. (2008), Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (3rd edition), London: Longman.
APPENDIXES
Annex: Corpus of Italian loanwords in English (309 items) abbate (abate), acciaccatura, affettuoso (affet(t)uoso), agitato, Aleatico (aleatico), alla breve (breve21), alla prima (prima), altissimo, amorino, amoroso, andantino, appoggiatura, archipelago (arc(h)ipelago), autostrada, bailo, balcony (balcone), ballabile, ballata, ballerina, bambino, barbone, battuta, beccafico, bel paese, ben trovato (bentrovato), bottega, bravo, bravura, broc(c)oli (broccolo/broccoli), bucchero, bumbelo/bumbolo (bombola), Calabrese (calabrese), campanile, cannelloni (cannellone/cannelloni), cantabile, cantata, cantino,
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canzona (canzone), canzone, capitano, capo, cappuccino, Carbonaro (carbonaro), carissima (carissimo), casino/cassino (casino), cassata, cassone, castrato, cavatina, cembalo, centesimo, chiaroscuro, chitarrone, cicerone, clarino, coda, col(l)arino (collarino), coloratura, commendatore, con amore (amore), con sordino (sordino), concertino, contadina (contadino), contadino, cortile, crotalo, cupola, cymbalo (cembalo), da capo (dac(c)apo), dado, del credere (delcredere), disinvoltura, diva, dogana, dolce vita (dolcevita), doloroso, Duce/duce, energico, espressivo, evirato, evviva, falso bordone (falsobordone), famoso, fata Morgana (fatamorgana), fermata, fettuccine (fettuccina), fico, finale, fioritura, fiumara, flautato, flautino, flauto, fondaco, formatore, fortissimo, frate, frottola, fugato, furore, generalissimo, giallo antico (antico), giga, giocoso, girandola, giro, gola/gula (gola), gondola, gradino, graffito, granita, grano, gregale/grigale/grecale (gregale), Grignolino (grignolino), grissino, grosso modo, illustrissimo, impresa, imprimatura/imprimitura (imprimitura), improvisatore (improvvisatore), inamorata (innamorato), inamorato (innamorato), incognita, incognito, intarsiatore, intonaco/intonico (intonaco), isolato, jettatore (iettatore), jettatura (iettatura), ladino, lamentoso, lava, lazzaro, lazzarone, legato, letterato, lettiga, linguine (linguina), lira, literato (letterato), loco, macaroni (maccherone), maestoso, maestrale, magnifico, mandola, maraschino, marcato, marchesa, marchese, Martini (martini), mela-rosa (melarosa), mezzani (mezzano), mezzo-soprano (mezzosoprano), minestrone, moderato, monsignore22, moscato, motoscafo, musico, muta, nespola, neutrino, obbligato, oboe, oime, ombrellino, opera, osso buco (ossobuco), ostinato, ottava, ovolo (ovolo/ovulo)), padrone, pallone, panettone, papabile, partita, pastorale, pecorino, peperino, pepperoni (peperone), pergola, pianino, pianissimo, piccolo, Pietà/pietà (pieta), pifferaro, piffero, pizzicato, poco, podere, pomposo, porfido, portantina, pozzolana, presa, prestissimo, prima ballerina (ballerina), primo, provolone/ Provolone (provolone), pulvino, Questore/questore (questore), Questura/questura (questura), rapido, ravioli (raviolo), recitativo, replica, ricercare, ricercata (ricercato), rigatoni (rigatone/ rigatoni), rione, ripresa, risoluto, ritenuto, riva, romanità/Romanità (romanita), Romano (romano), rosso antico/Rosso Antico (antico), rotolo, salami (salame), salita, salone, sambuc(c)a/Sambuc(c)a (sambuca), sandolo/sandalo, salto mortale (mortale), scaldino, scallopini (scalopina), scena, scopa, scordatura, scorzonera (scorzanera), scudo, semola, semolina/semoulina/semolino (semolino), semplice, serenata, sestina, sforzato, sfumato, signora, signorina, sindaco, solfatara, solo, sonata, sonatina, sopranino, soprano, sostenuto, sotto voce (sottovoce), spadona (spadone), speronara (speronare), spiccato, spinone, sposa, sposo, sprezzatura, spumoni (spumone), Squadrone (squadrone), staccato, stile concitato (concitato), stile rappresentativo (rappresentativo), stoccado (stoccata), strac(c)hino (stracchino), strepitoso, stufa, subito, tagliarini (taglierini), tartana, tempera, tenebroso, tenore, terreno, terribilità (terribilità/terribilita), terzina, tessitura, timpani/tympani (timpano), toccata, tombarolo, tombolo, tondino, tornese, tortellini (tortellino), trabac(c)olo, tremolo, Triplice/ triplice (triplice), tromba marina (marina), tuba, tufa (tufo), uomo universale (universale), veduta, vettura, vetturino, vibrato, villeggiatura, villino (vil(l)ino), violino piccolo (piccolo), violone, virtuosa (virtuoso), virtuoso, vivace, voce, volcano (vulcano), zeppole (zeppola), Zingano (zingaro), Zingaro (zingaro), zita, zucchini (zucchino), zuf(f)olo (zufolo).
NOTES
1. I would like to thank Sophie Herment and Stephan Wilhelm for their constructive comments.
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2. A loanword is considered to be direct when directly imported in English from Italian without any intermediate language which might have phonologically influenced its resulting stress pattern. 3. This criterion also leads us to reject loanwords with <-VCiV#> structures because
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17. This result concerning the /(-)1000/ stress pattern is not significant because there are many words in the list containing less than four syllables. 18. The degree of familiarity of initiated speakers with selected Italian words is impossible to determine, though it might also be a significant parameter affecting the experiment. 19. The stressing of French loanwords is to be dealt with carefully because it appears that it is subject to varietal considerations (British English and American English) as well as syntactical ones (mainly the common noun / proper noun distinction) (see P. Fournier 2016). 20. It appears that this phenomenon can be extended to all words with
ABSTRACTS
Italian loanwords in English are stressed according to their original Italian stress patterns in
Les emprunts italiens en anglais reproduisent à plus de 95 % le schéma accentuel de la langue source dans les structures en
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INDEX
Keywords: lexical stress, Italian loanwords, Loan Phonology, English pronunciation dictionaries, English native speakers’ perception. Mots-clés: accentuation lexicale, emprunts italiens, dictionnaires anglais de prononciation, perception locuteurs anglophones.
AUTHOR
FOURNIER PIERRE
(Pléiade EA7338) - Paris 13 University
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Internet representations of dialectal English
Laura Gabrielle Goudet
Introduction
1 English spelling online greatly differs from accepted orthography. There are no regulating bodies policing utterances, so website members tend to express themselves freely, with adaptations of the written norms of English. The only limit to what can be said is framed within Terms of Service, supposedly acknowledged by platform users when they first sign in. Censorship can also be exercised by scripts surveying any or all messages posted; the censored words being replaced by alternative versions. This, in turn, pushes the users towards non-traditional spellings which are not listed by these automated replacement tools: “computer-based censorship cannot keep up with simple substitutions of letters, let alone community-based insults which do not belong to any standardized list of profanities” (Goudet, 2013).
2 The corpus is made of forum threads from two sites aimed at gathering people around a common ethnic or geographical background: Black Planet 2 (hereinafter referred to as BP), an African American online community with more than 25 million members; and Scotster3, a Scottish-oriented social networking site with 5,000 users. The members are about the same age (35–54 years old for BP, 45–54 years old for Scotster). The threads selected for this study contain more than 10 answers in order to observe how people interact in the most popular sections of the forum. The selected message corpora are about the same size, 25,000 words each. 3 These native English speakers master spoken and written English and the sociolects they resort to, at least orally. As Internet users, they are exposed to shorthand practices both on new communication media, and online. These are encompassed by the wide concept of Netspeak (Crystal 2001). They are also exposed to website-specific uses and vocabulary, such as the “timeline” (for Facebook’s news feed). On Black Planet, statuses belong to the “what’s new?” section, whereas Scotster uses the expression “the Pulse”.
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4 On regional interest forums which gather people around a common geographical or ethnic identity, these common uses are also intertwined with minority languages or dialects. 5 I will first draw a quick overview of some practices found online, regarding spelling and graphophonemic equivalences. Netspeak can account for some unorthodox graphic forms of the corpus, and can be viewed as another dialectal layer. The type of alternative spellings, which can bear the same graphic forms as spelling mistakes, will then be examined, before moving on to the role censorship plays in online exchanges. Official views on these two varieties, especially by lexicographers and academics who study these dialects will be discussed in the second part: they differ from one another, and also from what the members of the two websites use. Last, graphophonemic replacements of consonants, in a general way and more specifically in grammatical words will be studied before moving to the limits of vowel substitutions and problems of homophony.
Typology of alternative spellings online
6 Alternative spellings are often motivated by the oral nature of the transformations applied to written discourse. There is a mental equivalence between dialects and graphic representation of pronunciation: “Orthography is a system designed for readers who know the language […] Such readers can produce the correct phonetic forms, given the orthographic representation and the surface structure, by means of the rules that they employ in producing and interpreting speech” (Chomsky & Halle, 1968, p. 49). I will first evoke Netspeak, especially the spellings commonly used on the Internet that are inspired by pronunciation, before examining the very close relation between alternative graphic forms and spelling mistakes. The role of censorship is also paramount in some graphic choices, and will be the subject of the third section about spellings online.
Netspeak
7 Online exchanges are essentially free from control, and practices become standard as they are being used by members of the community. Netspeak is a broad concept, encompassing “the words, idioms, and peculiarities of spelling and grammar that are characteristic of online documents and communications” (McFedries, 1995). Some of these peculiarities are adaptations of written forms in order to be closer to their pronunciation: “c’mon” (BP) is a shortened version of “come on”, and compresses the two words into a spelling showing how it is pronounced (/kəˈmɑːn/). The unstressed vowel is replaced with an apostrophe, one of the most common strategies used to symbolize a reduced sound in non-orthographic spellings. The importance of orality is also palpable in the proportion of interjections (
8 The form
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graphophonemic equivalence being selected by new technology users, on the Internet and in text messages alike (Crystal 2008). This type of spelling does not preserve the length of the original orthography, but its frequency online5 is high (one example of for every 97
Unorthographic spellings
10 Deciding whether a spelling that does not follow the standard orthography is an alternative spelling or a spelling mistake is a tricky task. Misspellings are involuntary and irregular and revolve around either spelling or typing errors for native English speakers. Uncertain spellings often rely on the incorrect selection of a grapheme to symbolize a sound. The spelling
11 The example of
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Effects of censorship
14 On the two forums under scrutiny, censorship is not exerted the same way. Users of Scotster tend to censor their messages themselves. They either symbolize taboo words with the initial and the number of asterisks corresponding to the remaining number of letters (“"F*** sake”), or paraphrase what they could write (“preceded by a sweary word.”[sic]). That kind of censorship is endogenous, as there is no moderation when a user resorts to profanity: the word “shit” (a hapax on SC) is not altered by the social network.
15 On BP, an automated script neutralizes offensive strings of characters, converting them into the sequence <%#&@$! >, found 62 times in the corpus. Thus, the word “fucking” becomes <%#&@$! ing> (sic). In turn, users of this forum have adapted their discourse to circumvent these replacements. Some may have no phonological underlying motivation, such as the deletion of the first letter of the incriminated word. The form
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word, in order to recognize it easily, and have it fill the same space the orthography would. 18 After this illustration of Internet-triggered alterations of spelling, the second section of this paper I will examine how dialects are considered, before seeing how speakers use their dialect in what they write.
Dialectal peculiarities of spelling
19 Within these communities, attitudes towards the variety they speak are diverse. A centripetal movement draws users of the same website to adopt the group’s accepted codes and literacy. The speakers’ interest for metalinguistic discourse and the views in education (either acknowledging the existence of African American Vernacular (AAV), or actively educating pupils about the spelling freedom of Scots), as well as the type of discourse held in dictionaries will be compared for the two linguistic communities, in order to see how ethnocentrism8 affects them.
Lexicographical stances on African American dialect
20 African American dictionaries tend to have a descriptivist approach (Kearse, 2006, Smitherman, 2000). They are either composed by academics, or by speakers of AAV, such as Kearse, who compiled an “urban slanguage” (sic) dictionary as he was serving time in jail. Smitherman said she observed all kinds of African American people and used their production, as well as cultural productions such as songs, radio programs, or even letters (Smitherman, 2000). The proportion of standard English words is significant, although their meaning may have been altered and accepted alternative spellings appear as head words. The phatic term of address “homey” is defined by Kearse as “males who are from the same city, state or neighborhood as you” and as “a person from one’s neighborhood. A Black person” by Smitherman. This form does not exist in the corpus (although this form, as well as
21 There is also a greater proportion of idioms and full phrases in AAV dictionaries, such as “I’m not talkin’ too fast, you’re listenin’ too slow” (Kearse, 2006), than for Scots. These are rarely, if ever, attested in the corpus. On Black Planet, there is no result on the forum for queries containing the words ‘talk/speak slang, vernacular’ pertaining to using African American Vernacular. Certain terms such as
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‘understanding’” (Smitherman, 2000) and African American identity are closely interrelated. These never call for an explanation in the corpus, and only occur in conversation about ethnic matters. The reanalysis of the morphological structure of the lexeme accounts for the semantic change. It is not always the case, as for the word
Scottish lexicography and prescriptivism
23 Compared to AAV lexicographers, most Scots dictionaries reflect a more prescriptivist approach to the dialect. As Scots is used in schools in Scotland, the general stance on education is to let the pupils choose themselves how they would like to spell Scottish words, within carefully defined educational moments. Some dictionaries have almost no explanation as to how data was gathered, and no field works are evoked, not even the reason why these dictionaries are compiled (Warrack, 2000). Guidelines and style sheets for Scots, such as Warrack’s introduction to his dictionary or the Makar’s Club recommendations which are still seen as today’s standard, have common features, such as advocating against the use of “parochial apostrophes”. These are perceived as demoting Scots, as they point at considering Scots spelling as an adaptation of the English orthography. The spelling
24 The importance of historical details about the evolution of the dialect may suggest that the main goal of Scots dictionaries is to read older texts. The same may apply to the Dictionary of the Scots Language, split between the Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (Scots before 1700) and the Scottish National Dictionary (SND), which contains words of Modern Scots, and a corpus of texts up to 2005. It is also the only dictionary with a name translated into Scots, “Dictionar o the Scots Leid”. Eagle’s Online Scots Dictionary (OSD) and the SND are the only ones to give phonetic transcriptions, with regional variations. The entry “bird” in the OSD lists /bɪrd/, /bɛrd/ and /bʌrd/, but the SND only suggests the last one, along with /bø:rd/ and /bu:rd/. This example shows how imprecise these transcriptions are, seeing they refer to several varieties of the same dialect. As the spelling of the word is not fixed, both dictionaries propose several spellings, such as
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26 On Scotster, members frequently refer to Scots or Gaelic. The subsection of the forum called “Scottish Languages” contains 289 threads, devoted to asking users to translate messages in Gaelic, or test their knowledge of the two languages. “Parochial apostrophes” are common in certain words, as the form
Spellings
28 This part will tackle dialectal spellings which are triggered by specific pronunciation features in Scots and AAV. First, consonantal differences between standard English and alternative written forms will be discussed, after which a more precise analysis of consonantal changes within grammatical words will take place. Lastly, I will look at vocalic substitutions and the problems they raise.
Consonantal changes
29 Figure 1 sums up some of the most frequent consonantal changes, whether these are grammatical or lexical words. There are more alternations in the Scottish corpus than in the African American one, and both corpora exhibit fairly similar proportions of consonantal changes when looking at manners of articulation. The exception is the treatment of fricatives, mainly because of the tendency to drop
Figure : Consonantal changes according to articulation
30 A tendency towards the elimination of
Phenomenon Example (SC) Example (BP)
/d/ → ø, /ʔ/
/t/ → ø, /ʔ/
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/g/ → /j/
/ŋ/ → /n/
/l/ → ø
/r/ → ø —
Table 1: Examples of the consonantal changes suggesting a dialectal pronunciation
31 The approximation of /g/ into a /j/ in the form
32 Both dialects feature consonant cluster reduction, especially in final position, and the develarization of the last consonant (/ŋ/) is common in the corpora. It is a frequent phenomenon in AAV (Clark, 2014), and in informal speech. This change only occurs when
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Grammatical words
37 When it comes to grammatical words, both SC and BP exhibit similar tendencies towards the elision or the change of certain sounds, reflected in spelling, although these do not have the same historical causes. Grammatical lemmas are more affected by spelling changes, because they are more common than lexical words. Only alternative spellings with the same underlying phonological explanation will be shown in table 211.
Phenomenon Examples (SC) Examples (BP)
/ð, θ/# → /z, t/
#/ð/ → /d/ —
/v/ → ø
/f/ → ø
/r/ → ø
Table 2: Most common alternative forms of grammatical words
38 African American forms such as
39 Other known models can trigger alternative spellings. The negative adverb “not” in Scots,
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SC) or alveolarization (
Standard BNC rank Alternative spellings Ratio form (Frequency) (SC) Alternative:Standard
And 3 N; ane; an 1 :11
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From 20 Fae; fra 1:3.5
Over 135 Oer; ower 1:5.5
With 14 Wiz; wi 1:2.3
Table 3: Comparison of uses of standard and alternative spelling of prepositions (Scotster)
46 One of the messages about Scots is metalinguistic, and the user tends to use as many alternative spellings as possible: 1. “Now adays people fae the next village speak a different twang, they hav aw got there ane different words. av noticed that the further out you go fae a town or city, you still get the old local dialects.” (‘Nowadays people from the next village speak a different twang, they all have their own different words. I’ve noticed that when you get far from a town or city, you still hear old local dialects.’) 47 In example 1, none of the alternative spellings affect nouns, and most function words (except “out”) bear a Scottish form. The word “twang” actually has a different meaning in Scots13, and its standard English definition is to be understood here.
48 Function words in general tend to be more altered in Scots than in AA. Vowels changes may be more problematic, as there are only 6 letters to represent the 24 lexical sets of English, Scots and AAV. The focus of the next part will be possible homophonic confusions.
Homophony and limits of vocalic substitutions
49 Vowels tend to be affected by these alternative spellings, but homophonic confusion tends to arise more readily than with consonantal replacements. I will restrict the discussion to issues of potential homophony in this section, and how vocalic substitutions can create equivocal interpretations.
50 Some graphic alterations are easy to understand, such as
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53 Substituting a vocalic grapheme for another can cause misunderstandings, as there is no phonetic input or context to guide the other users. In example 3a, a user proposes a Scots spelling for the word "woods",
Conclusion
55 Language online is specific to the media, and Netspeak elements pervade both forums, as there is no official regulating body assessing the grammatical or orthographical correctness of messages. This constitutes a fertile ground for the creation of alternative spellings, which may bear the same forms as spelling mistakes. These creative manipulations are not always consistent, as stylistic changes can occur within a community, or even within a user’s productions. Stylistic choices may also be influenced by the presence of censorship, or another avatar of regulation of written productions.
56 Censorship is traditionally endocentric, and the first letter of the taboo word may bear its symbolic weight, as in “the F-bomb” or “the [#C] word”. On BP, censorship is exocentric and exerted automatically by the platform, after the users have composed and posted their message. To circumvent the effects of censorship, users tend to alter vowels with a close equivalent, and the initial letter, bearing an important symbolic weight, is very rarely replaced or dropped. 57 Official recommendations are usually not followed by members of both communities, and are outdated by this kind of corpus. African American innovations are more varied (at least 34% of all messages contain an alternative token), but dictionaries and lexicographical works do not reflect how people chose to express themselves on the website. There is no real difference between African American morphemes and those used in standard English. The non-rhotic nature of AAV accounts for words traditionally ending in <-er> being turned into <-a>. However, this is not as frequent in the corpus as one could expect, and only appears in three words. The corpus also contains very little voluntary metatheses, such as
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Multiple dialects account for the various forms found in the corpus, but there is a high proportion of hapax legomena in the corpus. Even if members of this community are older than those on BP, 43% of messages contain at least one alternative token. Using Scots is a factor of cohesion although spelling recommendations are not always followed in this corpus either. The extra Scottish letter, yogh (<ȝ>) is replaced by its closer phonological neighbor
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Davies, Mark. (2008-) The Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) : 520 million words, 1990- present. Available online at http://corpus.byu.edu/coca/. Last access : January 22, 2016.
Davies, Mark. (2013) Corpus of Global Web-Based English (GLoWBE) : 1.9 billion words from speakers in 20 countries. Available online at http://corpus.byu.edu/glowbe/. Last access : January 2, 2016.
Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd.
Eagle, A (2002—). Online Scots Dictionary. Online resource. URL:
Merriam-Webster.com. (2011), Retrieved Jan 8, 2016, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/ dictionary/
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Urban Dictionary (2003-). Available online at http://www.urbandictionary.com/. Last access : January 30, 2016.
Chomsky, N., & Halle, M. (1968). The sound pattern of English. Cambridge, Mass : MIT Press.
Clark, J. T. (2014). Negotiating Elite Talk: Language, Race, Class and Identity Among African American High Schoolers. Routledge.
Corbett, J., McClure, J. D., & Stuart-Smith, J. (2003). The Edinburgh companion to Scots. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Crystal, D. (2001). Language and the internet. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.
Crystal, D. (2003). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. Cambridge, U.K : Cambridge University Press.
Crystal, D. (2008). Txtng : The Gr8 Db8. Oxford : Oxford University Press.
Deorowicz, S, and M G. Ciura. (2005) "Correcting Spelling Errors by Modeling Their Causes." International Journal of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science. 15 : 275–286.
Education Scotland. (2012). Scots spelling—Writing in Scots—Knowledge of Language. URL :
Goudet, L. G. (2013). “Alternative spelling and censorship : the treatment of profanities in virtual communities” in Aspects of Linguistic Impoliteness [Cambridge Scholars Publishing].
Kearse, R. (2006). Street Talk: Da Official Guide to Hip-hop & Urban Slanguage. Fort Lee, NJ: Barricade Books.
Labov, W. (1991). Sociolinguistic patterns. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
McFedries, P. (1995). The word spy.
Mufwene, S. (1998). African American English: Structure, History, And Use. London: Routledge.
Pullum, G. K. (2004). “Snowclones: lexicographical dating to the second”. Language Log. http:// itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000350.html. Last access: January 25, 2016.
Rickford, J. R. (2000). Spoken soul: the story of Black English. New York: Wiley.
Seidner, S. S. (1982). “Ethnicity, language, and power from a psycholinguistic perspective”. Proceedings of the International Symposium Scientific Committee: Centre de Recherche sur le Plurilinguisme.
Smitherman, G. (2000). Black Talk: Words and Phrases from the Hood to the Amen Corner. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Warrack, A. (2000). The Scots Dialect Dictionary. New Lanark, Scotland: Waverley Books.
Wells, J. C. (2008). Longman pronunciation dictionary. Harlow: Pearson-Longman.
NOTES
1. In the sense of “digital ecology”, i.e. the wide interconnection and network formed by all the elements interacting online. 2. Available at the address
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5. 165,264 tokens on the corpus of global Web-based English (GloWbE), compared to 16,129,419 results for the form
ABSTRACTS
This paper presents an account of how alternative spellings found online can be linked to phonetic and phonological roots, especially in settings where dialects are encouraged. These spellings are part of Netspeak uses, and dialectal spellings are influenced by official, lexicographical sources and a personal desire to spell words as they are pronounced. Consonants and vowels are affected by these choices, and this paper will mainly discuss consonantal changes and the limits of vocalic alternations. Non-traditional spellings aim at showing an alteration of the same type of sound, irrespective of the dialect and there are common underlying mechanisms between dialects of English. Exposure to the Internet culture, and forum-specific uses may account for neography. Limits reached by these respellings (homophony, semantic ambiguity) will also be discussed. The corpus of this study is composed of written productions found in African American and Scottish online communities, Black Planet and Scotster. These will be examined to compare the parallel development of alternative spellings of these dialects. Indeed, they contravene the rhoticity of the variety of English spoken in their country. The wider ecological1 context of writing online is the first focal point: Netspeak influences alternative written practices, and censorship is part of this environment. The typology of alternative spellings will be defined: they are not limited to simple deletion or doubling of letters, and their difference with spelling mistakes will be specified. The stance of linguistic studies on spelling and lexical differences with standard English will shed light on the official stances regarding these two dialects, and which rules alternative forms found on the forums are supposed to follow. While Scots spelling is seen with a little more prescriptivism, works on African American Vernacular describe forms and sanitize them (there is
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very little profanity in dictionaries). Bearing in mind these specificities and the wider online context, consonantal substitutions will be tackled, both generally, and then more specifically when they are applied to grammatical words. Vowel changes and limits created by homophony will be the point of the last subsection.
Les graphies alternatives en ligne peuvent être attribuées à des causes phonétiques et phonologiques, surtout dans des contextes où l’utilisation d’un dialecte est encouragée. Je m’intéresse ici surtout aux changements consonantiques dans les graphies utilisées par des membres de forums afro-américains et écossais. Ces graphies peuvent être contraintes par la culture internet, et par celle des forums fréquentés. Après une typologie des phénomènes rencontrés, et des strates linguistiques (Netspeak, graphies alternatives idiolectales…), j’étudierai dans la seconde partie les points de vue des organismes officiels qui édictent des règles pour ces deux langues minoritaires. Si l’attitude écossaise est plus prescriptiviste, les lexicographes afro-américains décrivent en censurant les lexèmes qu’ils recensent. La dernière partie examinera les substitutions consonantales, notamment dans les mots grammaticaux, puis les substitutions vocaliques et les problèmes d’homophonie qu’elles peuvent provoquer.
INDEX
Mots-clés: dialecte, graphie, phonographématique, Scots, vernaculaire afro-américain Keywords: African American Vernacular, dialect, graphophonemics, Scots, spelling
AUTHOR
LAURA GABRIELLE GOUDET
Université de Rouen ERIAC (EA7338)
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Segmental and suprasegmental change in North West Yorkshire – a new case of supralocalisation ?
Stephan WILHELM
Acknowledgements
1 The author wishes to thank Mr David Strode, Head of the Languages Department at Guiseley School, Guiseley, for his invaluable assistance in meeting and recording the pupils under his care. He would also like to express special thanks to Olivier Glain and Gabor Turcsan for their help and judicious advice.
Introduction
2 The diffusion of phonetic and phonological innovations into a number of geographical areas of Britain has lately prompted intensive research into the mechanisms of accent variation and change (e.g. Britain, 2002a, 2002b ; Foulkes & Docherty, 1999 ; Kerswill, 2002a, 2003 ; Stuart-Smith, Timmins & Tweedie 2004, 2007, etc.). This paper attempts to further current knowledge about the sociophonetic component of language change. It investigates a number of phonetic and phonological evolutions observed in North-West Yorkshire, and is concerned with apparent-time variation (e.g. Chambers & Trudgill, 1996 : 76) identified not only at segmental, but also at suprasegmental level. It emphasises the geographical component of sound change and tries to identify some of the psychological factors which contribute to it. The area referred to as North West Yorkshire (NWY from now on) includes Leeds and a mainly rural area comprising the former West Riding County and a small area a few miles north of the Yorkshire Dales. This choice of locations made it possible to narrow down the study of NWY accents to a fairly restricted geographical zone and to compare the data collected in the urban environment of Leeds with features observed in more rural settings.
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3 The outcome of social as well as geographical mobility is dialect contact, which gives rise to two distinct mechanisms observed on a large scale – that is dialect levelling and geographical diffusion, which occur through face-to-face contact and communication accommodation. Dialect levelling consists in a decrease in the number of variants in regional varieties, resulting in the levelling out of differences between dialects (cf. e.g. Britain 2002a, 2002b, 2010). For example, the attrition of the ‘Northumbrian burr’ – that is the use of uvular variants of R in Tyneside and adjacent areas – testifies to the operation of dialect levelling in that area of England. Geographical diffusion, by contrast, consists in the dissemination of isolated linguistic innovations into varieties where they have not traditionally been present (cf. e.g. Britain, 2002a, 2002b, 2010). The spread of glottal variants of T into most contemporary varieties of British English is a well-known instance of geographical diffusion. Dialect levelling and Geographical diffusion combine to favour the formation of new supralocal dialect areas, which are larger than the traditional regions while retaining distinctive characteristics (Williams & Kerswill, 1999 ; Britain, 2010). 4 To appreciate the nature and extent of the evolutions observed in NWY as well as the mechanisms underlying their development, we first aim to provide a list of the features thought to characterise Yorkshire accents and identify a number of suprasegmental traits associated with Yorkshire vernacular. We then review a number of phonetic and phonological changes observed at both segmental and suprasegmental levels, as a result of both levelling and diffusion processes. Finally, we discuss some of the issues raised by the attrition of marked variants and the diffusion of innovative features, such as their origins and social significance and their realisational vs. phonological status. We suggest that the situation observed in NWY testifies to the formation of new supralocal accent areas in the north west of England.
Data collection and transcription conventions
5 Interviews were arranged with a total of 30 NWY residents, all born and bred in the area. These informants were selected in three age groups – 1) over 50 years old, 2) from 30 to 40 years old, and 3) from 9 to 15 years old. Most of the informants were arranged into dyads, and the adolescents aged 9 to 15 were organised into 4 groups of 4 according to their sex and age (2 groups of respectively 12- and 15-year-old girls and 2 groups of respectively 12- and 15-year-old boys). Most of the data were collected in the informants’ homes or workplaces using a SONY® MZ-RH1 digital recorder and ECM-F8 omnidirectional microphone. The adolescents arranged in groups of 4 were recorded with the same devices in a classroom in Guiseley School’s language department. The informants knew that they were being recorded and that they were taking part in a linguistic survey, but were not told beforehand which aspects of their speech would be investigated. Whenever possible, the fieldworker withdrew from the scene in order to prevent any alteration of speech or register due to the observer’s paradox (Labov, 1972 : 209). The informants were left to discuss any topic they chose.
6 The data consist of approximately 150 minutes of free conversation in dyads and groups of four as well as approximately 160 minutes of spontaneous teenager interaction in the streets of Leeds and Settle and spontaneous conversation between NWY residents in the presence of the fieldworker. These data were subjected to repeated auditory analysis. A number of innovative vocalic segments and unusual
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intonation patterns were subjected to additional instrumental examination using Praat (Boersma & Weenink, 2006). Voice quality was investigated using a simplified version of the VPA protocol (Coadou, 2007 ; Laver, 1980, 1994 ; Mackenzie-Beck, 2005 ; Wilhelm, 2011 : 425-437). 7 Whenever possible, the informants were also asked to try and identify, rate and describe 13 different specimens of British English accents1 (all taken from the Accent Bank website,2 hosting a variety of audio clips featuring the voices of performers from various parts of the United Kingdom). 8 Throughout this study, transcriptions of local vowel pronunciation are provided in terms of Wells’ lexical sets, represented by keywords. These keywords are described by Wells (1982 : xviii) as ‘intended to be unmistakeable no matter what accent one says them in’. They are traditionally represented in small capitals. Thus, ‘the TRAP words’ or simply ‘TRAP’ refers to such words as cat, lap, pad, and ‘the TRAP vowel’ refers to the vowel heard in these words. 9 This approach has been opted for to avoid arbitrarily choosing the phonemes of one specific accent (like RP) as a comparison basis for the other varieties. When discussing processes (like T-glottalisation, R-labiodentalisation, etc.) or presenting categories, small capitals are also used to represent consonants, following Foulkes & Docherty (1999). Whenever phonetic transcriptions are provided to illustrate our observations, the first name and age of the informants having produced the transcribed forms are provided in the text of the article, between brackets.
Results
Traditional features of recognizable Yorkshire accents
10 This section aims at providing a list of the most distinguishing features of traditional Yorkshire accents. Some of the distinctive segmental and suprasegmental features of Yorkshire speech are described on the basis of the data collected during this survey, but also with reference to a number of existing descriptions of Yorkshire English, even though these do not necessarily take suprasegmental factors into account.
Segmentals
11 Chevillet (1986), Petyt (1985), Wells (1982), and Wales (2006) describe a number of ‘traditional’ segmental characteristics of Yorkshire accents. Analysis of the data for the over-50 age-group yielded results which generally tallied with these descriptions. Traditional features of Yorkshire accents3 can be described as follows :
- Vowels
12 - a very open DRESS vowel ([ɛ]) (Chevillet, 1986 : 221 ; Petyt, 1985 : 96 ; Wells, 1982 : 364) ;
13 - an open, sometimes unrounded realisation of LOT ([ɒ̜]) (Chevillet, 1986 : 224 ; Wells, 1982 : 356) ; 14 - the absence of a FOOT-STRUT split4 and of BATH broadening (Petyt, 1985 : 165, 170 ; Wells, 1982 : 351-356), as in most northern English accents (e.g. Wales, 2006 : 20-24, 103 ; Wells, 1982 : 351) ;
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15 - monophthongal FACE and GOAT vowels ([e̞ː] ; [o̞ː] ~ [ö̞ː]) (Chevillet, 1986 : 226, 228 ; Wells, 1982 : 357, 364) ; 16 - a very open THOUGHT vowel ([ɔ̞ː]) (Chevillet, 1986 : 224 ; Petyt, 1985 : 96 ; Wells, 1982 : 360, 364) ; 17 - a very narrow PRICE diphthong, with a long, open onset, and an optional very open second element ([aːɛ] ~ [aˑɛ]), or even a monophthongal PRICE vowel ([aːˑ]) (Chevillet, 1986 : 227 ; Petyt, 1985 : 96 ; Wells, 1982 : 358, 364) ; 18 - a very open, monophthongal SQUARE vowel ([ɛ̞ː] ~ [æ̝ː]) (Chevillet, 1986 : 230 ; Wells, 1982 : 361, 364) ; 19 - an open to very open happY vowel ([ɪ̞] ~ [ɛ]) (Wales, 2006 : 166 ; Wells, 1982 : 362).
- Consonants
20 Along with the frequent, vigorous glottalling associated with the Leeds area,5 a notable consonantal characteristic of Yorkshire accents is Yorkshire assimilation (Wells, 1982 : 367), a form of regressive voice assimilation which causes the devoicing of voiced obstruents when in contact with a following voiceless obstruent across a word or morpheme boundary, and sometimes word-internally (bed time => [ˈbɛdta˺̥ ɛm] ; Bradford => [ˈbradf̥ əd]).
21 In these environments, an underlying /d/ can be reinterpreted as a /t/ and realised as a glottal stop (e.g. Bradford => [ˈbraɁfəd], old people => [ˈol̞̈ Ɂ ˈp ɪipɫ]). ‘Middle’ variants of L, whose perceptual quality is intermediate between clear and dark (Wells, 1982 : 370-371), are also observed in prevocalic position.
Suprasegmentals
To our knowledge, no distinctive study of NWY prosody has been carried out so far. A number of suprasegmental features, however, have to be taken into account in order to account adequately for the distinctive character of Yorkshire accents. 22 Some remarkable innovative intonation patterns are observed in the lowest age bracket. They will not be described here as this section is concerned with traditional Yorkshire speech.6 No particular intonational feature seems to be associated with Yorkshire accents, either in existing descriptions of Yorkshire accents7 or in the over-50 age group.
23 Like Laver (1980, 1994) and Mackenzie-Beck (2005), but unlike other researchers (e.g. Marasek, 1997), we consider that voice quality results from both articulatory and phonatory settings. Articulatory settings (also referred to as supralaryngeal settings) consist in the long-term position of the speech organs situated above the larynx as well as that of the larynx and pharynx. By contrast, the phonatory component of voice quality results from phonation types, that is specific modes of vibration of the vocal folds (Laver, 1980, 1994 ; Mackenzie-Beck, 2005). 24 No characteristic voice quality features of Yorkshire accents seem to have prompted much comment so far. We nevertheless suggest that specific voice-quality settings are associated with traditional NWY speech at both articulatory and phonatory levels :
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- Articulatory settings
25 As seen supra (section 3.1), a significant number of vowels are unusually open in NWY. This is the case as far as DRESS, SQUARE, TRAP, LOT, THOUGHT, and happY are concerned. In the absence of BATH broadening, TRAP is also distinctly more open than its southern equivalent (Wells, 1982 : 356). In NWY and in other areas of England which Wells calls the English ‘Middle North’, monophthongal variants of FACE and GOAT are also more open than their equivalents in most Scottish accents8 (cp. Wells, 1982 : 357, 364 and Wells, 1982 : 399-400). The data collected in this survey also show that :
26 - KIT is frequently more open than its RP equivalent, although closer variants do occur. F0 Instances of [e]̝̈ 7E [e]̝ are sometimes observed in accented as well as unaccented position : e.g. lift => [ˈleft]̝̈ ; six => [ˈseks]̝̈ (Christian, 12) ; big => [ˈbeg]̝̈ (Hannah, 15) ; tripped => [ˈtrept]̝̈ (Georgina, 15), Elvis [ˈɛ̞lves]̝ (Eleonor, 12). 27 - Open variants of FOOT frequently occur in all age brackets (e.g. good => [ˈɡod]̈ (Bob, teenager recorded in the street) ; good => [ˈɡoː̈d] (Sally, 32)). 28 - Very open realisations of FLEECE are observed in all age brackets. FLEECE has diphthongal variants with a very open, fronted onset.9 (e.g. Leeds => [ˈlə̞̟ɪdz]).̥ 29 - GOOSE is sometimes very open. This applies to its monophthongal as well as to its diphthongal realisations (e.g. : schools => [ˈsko̝ːz] (Lily, 9) ; cool => [ˈkə̞̟ol]̝̈ (Bob, teenager recorded in the street)).
Fig. 1 : Vowel chart for the (relatively10) pure vowels of RP (following Cruttenden, 2001a : 91-148)
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Fig. 2 : Vowel chart for the (relatively) pure vowels in NWY
30 As the vowel charts which feature the (relatively) pure vowels of RP and NWY accents show (fig. 1 and 2), not only are a significant number of vowels more open in NWY than in RP, but a noticeable symmetry is also apparent in the NWY vowel system. This is all the more remarkable if one considers that the true front equivalent of the long vowel of THOUGHT is not the short vowel of DRESS, but the long monophthongal vowel of SQUARE. It is thus the whole NWY vowel system that seems to be compressed downwards. This, according to Laver (1994 : 410-411), signals a low tongue-body setting : Taking the highest point of the tongue body as a point of location, settings of the body of the tongue can be described in terms of the movement of the long-term average position of this point away from its location in the neutral setting. This can be done in two dimensions, vertical and horizontal, so that the body of the tongue can show a fronted or a backed setting, or a raised or a lowered setting. All this will result in a manipulation of the vocoid space […] ; [A] raised tongue-body setting compresses the vocoid space towards the palate, and a lowered tongue-body setting expands the vocoid space downwards. (Italics mine.) 31 The downward expansion of the vocoid space suggests that NWY accents are characterised by long-term lowering of the tongue-body. This illustrates a principle described by Laver (1994 : 404), according to whom the vocalic system of a given accent can be defined in terms of an articulatory setting.11
- Phonatory settings
32 29 out of 30 speakers are observed to use a significant amount of creaky voice.12 8 out of 30 informants, 7 of whom are males, are also observed to use creaky voice almost as their default phonation type. A comparison of these data with Coadou (2007) suggests that NWY speakers of both sexes and in all age brackets tend to use creaky voice more markedly and to a greater extent than speakers using other accents of English. This tallies with the findings of Coadou (2007 : 184-196) and Henton & Bladon (1988), who have shown that northern speakers of English English tend to use creaky voice more extensively than Southerners. Creak and creaky voice are normally associated with a low register (50 to 100 Hz for ‘pure’ creak), and it is not without interest to note that, when mimicking Southerners, Yorkshire speakers usually use higher voice pitch than in normal speech situations (Daniels, personal communication). Although no definite explanation can be offered for NW Yorkshire speakers using a greater amount of creaky
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voice than speakers of other varieties, it may be suggested that the somewhat uncouth manliness sometimes associated with Yorkshire people (cf. e.g. Howse, 2014) may to some extent be related to this prolific use of creak. Although this would accord with Ohala’s (1983) well-known claim that high frequency ultimately signals smallness and a submissive attitude whereas low F0 conveys largeness and self-confidence, we are fully aware that it remains a very tentative and disputable explanation.
Summary
33 Judging from auditory analysis of the data as well as from existing descriptions of Yorkshire accents, it seems that NWY accents are characterised not only by a number of segmental (vocalic and consonantal) features, but also by a particular voice quality defined, at articulatory level, by a low position of the tongue-body and at phonatory level, by frequent and marked use of creaky voice.
Innovations and change
34 Having listed a number of distinctive features associated with Yorkshire accents, we now describe noticeable changes and innovations observed during this survey. These are observed not only at segmental, but also at suprasegmental level.
Segmental features
- Vowels
35 The vocalic changes observed in NWY are of two types. Some result from the attrition of a number of traditional phonemes and phonemic contrasts and are clearly the outcome of dialect levelling (Trudgill 1986 : 98). Other changes affect the phonetic quality of certain vowels. Whether these are to be attributed to dialect levelling or to the geographical diffusion of isolated features will be discussed in the section devoted to the geographics of accent change (cf. 4.1).
36 The data testifies to the attrition of a number of traditional phonemes or vocalic contrasts, which used to contribute significantly to what Chevillet (1986) defined as the ‘systemic complexity’ of Yorkshire phonology. Thus, no instances of the MANE/MAIN13, NOSE/KNOWS14 or MEET/MEAT15 contrasts still regularly attested a few decades ago in Yorkshire vernacular (Chevillet, 1986 : 225-226 ; Wells, 1982 : 357-364) are observed in any age-group,16 although the very open onset in a number of diphthongal variants of FLEECE (3.2.1, a) may be a vestige of the MEET/MEAT opposition. Nor is there any trace of the traditional /ɔʊ/ phoneme within the THOUGHT lexical set, of /oə/ in FORCE, or /ɔʊ/ in words spelled with
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non-traditional vocalic features, mostly in the lower age group. A direct comparison between the 9-to-15 and the over-50 age brackets proves most revealing in this respect. 1. Diphthongal realisations of the two long close-mid vowels (FACE and GOAT) are frequently observed in the 9-to-15 age group, whereas monophthongal variants are the more frequent in the over-50 age bracket (fig. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8).17 A few monophthongal, fronted variants of GOAT ([ɵ]) are also observed in the teenagers’ speech.18
Fig. 3 : Spectrogram of a monophthongal FACE vowel (Elaine, 57)
Fig. 4 : Spectrogram of a diphthongal FACE vowel (Hannah, 15)
Fig. 5 : Spectrogram of a monophthongal GOAT vowel (Elaine, 57)
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Fig. 6 : Spectrogram of a diphthongal GOAT vowel (Hannah, 15)
2. Whereas a majority of PRICE monophthongs or narrow diphthongs with a long onset occur in the over-50 age group, most variants observed in the 9-to-15 age group are diphthongs with a shorter onset and closer second element (fig. 9, 10, 11). 3. Most happY variants in the over-50 age are open to very open ([ɪ], [ɪ̞] or even [ɛ]), but close and diphthongal realisations ([i] ; [ɛ̝ɪ] ; [ɪi]) predominate in the 9-to-15 age bracket (fig. 12). Again, this seems to signal change in progress.
Fig. 7 : FACE – % diphthongal variants per age bracket (p. < 0.01)
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Fig. 8 : GOAT – % diphthongal variants per age bracket (p. < 0.01)
Fig. 9 : Spectrogram of a monophthongal PRICE vowel (Elaine, 57)
Fig. 10 : Spectrogram of a diphthongal PRICE vowel (Rhys, 12)
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Fig. 11 : PRICE – % diphthongs with short onset per age bracket (p. < 0.001)
Fig. 12 : HappY – % close variants per age bracket (p. < 0.01)
- Consonants
38 With the pressure of dialect levelling (e.g. Kerswill, 2002a, 2003) and the development of ‘new modern dialects’ (Trudgill, 2001 : 180), such traditional consonantal features as Yorkshire assimilation and ‘middle’ variants of prevocalic L (cf. section 3.1.1) may have been expected to recede, the more so as the consonantal systems of most accents of British English are thought to be converging (Williams & Kerswill, 1999 : 147). However, no regression of Yorkshire assimilation was perceived in the 30-to-40 and 9-to-15 age brackets. The phenomenon is indeed very frequently observed in teenage speech in sequences like old people or Bradford, with occasional glottal replacement of the underlying /d/.
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39 Similarly, ‘middle’ variants of prevocalic L are still widely observed in all age brackets, word-initially as well as internally. L-vocalisation, which is observed in many areas in Britain (Cruttenden, 2001a : 83 ; Johnson & Britain, 2004 : 7-12 ; Stuart-Smith et al., 2004 ; Trudgill, 1974 : 182), is often present in the 9-to-15 age group, mostly word- finally.19 40 R-labiodentalisation, also observed in a number of British accents of English (Docherty & Foulkes, 1999 : 51 ; Trudgill, 1999 : 133 ; Watt & Milroy 1999 : 30 ; Williams & Kerswill, 1999 : 147), is often present in the 9-to-15 age group (e.g. all right => [ɒːˈʋaˑɛ̝t] (Andrew, 15 ; Georgina, 15 ; Hannah, 15) ; drive => [ˈdʋaɛ̝v] (Harvey, 15 ans) ; recorded => [ʋɛ ˈkɒ̜ːdɛ̝̈d] (Bob) ; (RSPCA => [ˈaˑʋˈɛ̝sˈpiˈsiˈeɪ] ; really => [ˈʋɪəɤi] ; room => [ʋəʉm] (Lily, 9)). One of the informants in the 30-to-40 age group uses labiodental approximants, as well as one speaker in the over-50 bracket. Occasionally, labiodentalisation even extends to other consonants in the vicinity of a labiodental R. E.g. : he’s a very good driver => [hizə ˈvɛ̞ʋɪˈɡʊd˺ˈdʋaɛ̝ʋɐ] (Bob, teenager recorded in the street). 41 A number of fricated preaspirated variants of K are observed in the 9-to-15 age group after the TRAP vowel. These variants are realised with a velar fricative (e.g. back => [ˈbaxk] (Tim, teenager recorded in the street) back => [ˈba xk] (Hannah, 15) ; tackled => [ˈtaxkɫd] (Brian, 12) ; racket => [ˈɹaxkɪ̞ʔ] (Christian, 12)). These will be discussed later on.
Suprasegmental features
42 In addition to the evolutions observed at segmental level, a number of changes also appear to be in progress at suprasegmental level. These innovations affect voice quality or involve the diffusion of non-traditional intonation features.
- Voice quality innovations
43 11 informants, all in the 9-to-15 age bracket, are observed to use at least intermittently a raised and retracted position of the tongue body, producing velarised voice.20
Fig. 13 : Proportion of informants using velarised voice
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Fig. 14 : Proportion of informants using velarised voice in the 9-15 age bracket
44 Henton & Bladon (1988) and Stuart-Smith (1999) have shown that the use of voice quality features can be a social identity marker. In the present case, intermittent use of velarised voice seems to be age-conditioned and/or point to change in progress, since no instance of such velarisation is observed in the over-50 age group.
- Intonational change in progress
45 Whereas no notable differences between NWY and RP intonation (henceforth RPI, cf. Cruttenden, 2007 : 261) have been reported in the literature so far (Cruttenden, 2007 : 272 ; Grabe, 2002, 2004 ; Grabe, Kochanski, & Coleman, 2005 ; Grabe & Post, 2002), 21 numerous unexpected intonation patterns were observed in both Leeds and the rural areas. These mainly consist in rising nuclear accents at the end of declarative utterances, mostly in the 9-to-15 age bracket.22
46 A classification of these rising tones is here proposed according to two phonetic criteria – amplitude and contour shape. 47 - Type-1 tones
48 These usually start low in the speakers’ range and then rise sharply to the end of the phrase, with a contour which may drop imperceptibly before the rise. The rising part of the contour often spans at least 80 Hz, and sometimes up to 275 Hz (fig. 15). This type of rising tone corresponds to what Cruttenden (1997 : 52 ; 2007 : 264) calls full rises. It is sometimes observed in portions of speech which also feature high rises and fall-rises at the end of statements, whose rising section spans a narrower range than the rises described above (approximately 40 Hz). Impressionistically, the full rises are characterised by their ‘“querying” nature’ (cf. Cruttenden, 2007 : 264)23, and testify to the diffusion of the High Rising Terminal – or HRT – in NWY (cf. Cruttenden, 2007 : 270).
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Fig. 15 : Type-1 tone (full rise) (Sally, 32)
Fig. 16 : Type-2 tone (low rise) (Bob, teenager recorded in the street)
49 - Type-2 tones
50 In these patterns the pitch of the voice is low to mid24 on the main accent of the intonation group (which may or may not be preceded by a step down) and rises slightly or very slightly from that low. These rising tones are low rises (Cruttenden, 1997 : 51, 2007 : 264). Very often they start near the speaker’s baseline and may span no more than 5 to 20 Hz (fig. 16). In some cases, it is difficult to distinguish between type-2 and type-1 contours on purely phonetic grounds. This occurs when the rising part of the pattern spans more than 40 Hz. Type-2 rises are impressionistically different from type-1 rises in so far as they are not generally of a ‘“querying” nature’. 51 Type-2 tones are not HRTs. Rather, they characterise Urban North British Intonation, or UNBI (Cruttenden, 2007), which Cruttenden (2007 : 257, 271) defines as ‘an intonational system that operates in a number of cities in northern Britain […] characterised by a default intonation involving rising or rising-slumping nuclear pitch patterns’. Cruttenden often observes an alternation of UNBI and RP intonation (henceforth RPI) in the speech of the same informers (Cruttenden, 2001b, 2007 ; Wilhelm 2015). 52 - Type-3 tones (compound tones)
53 These patterns comprise contours which usually begin low to mid on the main accent of the intonation group according to the degree of speaker involvement, with a rising
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nuclear accent and a ‘slumping’ – that is, according to Cruttenden’s (2001b, 2007) terminology, slightly falling – tail. The rising part of the contour may sometimes span as little as 15-20 Hz, and its slumping section no more than 10-12 Hz (fig. 17). This corresponds to what Cruttenden (2001b : 57-59, 2007 : 258) calls rise-slumps.25 54 A number of rise-falls, where the pitch returns to the speakers’ baseline (fig. 18), are also observed at the end of declaratives where RP speakers would have used simple falls. Differences in F0-syllable alignment also contribute to differentiating these contours from RP rise-falls.
Fig. 17 : Type-3 tone (rise-slump) (Andrew, 15)
Fig. 18 : Rise-fall (Katrina, 12)
55 Like type-2 contours, rise-slumps and rise-falls are specific to UNBI (Cruttenden, 1994 : 261, 2007 : 257, 271 ; Ladd, 1996 : 124, 143-7 ; Mayo, 1996 : 1 ; Wilhelm 2015). Contrary to what applies to HRTs and to at least some of the type-2 rises, however, there are indications that they may have been present in NWY for longer than what existing descriptions of Yorkshire accents suggest, especially among teenagers and perhaps as a working class feature (Beal ; Cruttenden ; Daniels, Kerswill, personal communications). 56 As stated above, the presence of type-1 tones (full rises) in the data testifies to the spread of HRTs to NWY. Although rise-slumps and rise-falls (that is, type-3 tones) are properly falling tones, they involve a nuclear rise, and their frequent use at the end of
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declaratives is characteristic of UNBI. Type-2 rises are probably not a homogeneous category ; whereas some of them are undoubtedly UNBI tones, others may be HRTs. Others seem hard to classify.26 Whereas it is difficult to determine how long type-3 contours have been present in NWY, it seems clear that type-1 patterns are innovative there (Daniels, personal communication). The same probably applies to type-2 contours.
Provisional conclusion
57 NWY accents are presently undergoing various evolutions, although apparent-time studies do not give any indication as to the potential transience or permanence of the changes observed. Adolescents are likely to be versatile speakers and the features they adopt in their teenage years may be abandoned when they reach adulthood (Chambers & Trudgill, 1998 : 77-79, 152-159 ; Wilhelm, 2011 : 492).
58 What is interesting is that the new developments occur at both segmental and suprasegmental levels. Whereas most studies of language change tend to focus mostly on syntactic, lexical and phonetic/phonological innovations, prosodic change is a domain that has largely remained underexplored. The NWY data suggests that this is a field calling for further investigation. This applies not only to intonation, but also to innovative features of voice quality.
Analysis and discussion
59 This section addresses some of the issues raised by the evolutions identified in NWY. It first explores the geographical dimension of the phenomenon and the psychological factors accounting for the spread of the non-traditional features before discussing the implications of the phonetic vs. phonemic status of the diffusing variants.
The geographics of accent change
60 The influence of RP has sometimes been alleged to explain such changes as the progress of diphthongal FACE and GOAT in Yorkshire (Chevillet, 1986 : 25 ; Wells, 1982 : 357 27). However, very different hypotheses have also been proposed to account for similar changes elsewhere, such as the influence of the media (Stuart-Smith & Timmins, 2005) or diffusion from neighbouring geographical areas (e.g. Britain, 2002a, 2002b ; Trudgill, 1974, 1986).
Origins of the features
61 No study seems to corroborate the hypothesis of the influence of the media in situations where change affects phonological systems (Stuart-Smith & Timmins, 2005). The attitude tests carried out in NWY (section 2), however, seem to shed a measure of light on the RP hypothesis and that of the influence of neighbouring areas.
62 Fig. 19 and 20 show how the informants in the over-50 and the 9-to-15 age bracket respectively rated 13 audio samples28 featuring 11 different accents of British English. The names at the bottom of the chart refer to the accents of the performers in the audio clips. RP1 and RP2 designate two samples featuring the voices of two RP speakers
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whose idiolects differed in some minor respects. London 1 and London 2 designate two samples featuring the voice of two performers whose accents, both distinctively London (although not Cockney), differed in some minor respects. The numbers on the vertical axis of the charts are the mean scores attributed to each accent by the informants. In answer to the question, “Do you like this accent ?” the informants were asked to choose between four possible answers : a) Yes, quite a lot ; b) Yes, moderately ; c) No, not too much ; and d) No, not at all. A score of 0 was systematically attributed to each answer d) ; 1 to each answer c) ; 2 to each answer b) ; and 3 to each answer a). The charts thus feature the global score out of 3 attributed to each sample in the two age groups, and makes it possible to see how the accents in the samples rated in the ‘absolute’ judgment of the informants as well as relative to the other accents.29 The different colours used in fig. 19 and fig. 20 have no referential significance. 63 The charts testify to the difference of attitude towards RP in the 9-to-15 and the over-50 bracket. The rather favourable rating and ranking of the RP idiolects in the over-50 bracket (with RP1 coming first) suggest that older speakers, who have been taught to regard RP as the standard of correctness, still have some form of respect for it. The medium rating of the two RP idiolects in the 9-to-15 age bracket (just above 1.5 out of 3) and its ranking towards the middle of the other accents suggest that for the teenage respondents, RP is but an accent among others. While this in itself is no positive evidence that RP does not exert any influence on NWY adolescents, such attitudinal considerations make it less likely that it should play any major part in accent change in the groups surveyed.
Fig 19 : Ratings of the samples by the informers in the over-50 age group
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Fig 20 : Ratings of the samples by the informers in the 9-to-15 age group
64 More striking is the information conveyed by the charts in connection with the attitudes of the informants towards urban northern British accents. Whereas the informers in the over-50 age group systematically ranked the accents of Liverpool, Birmingham, Glasgow and Tyneside at the bottom end of the attitude questionnaire, the adolescents consistently placed them at the top of their preference list, although they associated them with a number of conceivably negative traits (section 2), such as ‘ harsh/offensive’, ‘unintelligent’ and ‘unfriendly’.30 A possible explanation for these seemingly paradoxical findings may be that NWY adolescents, liable to construct social identities through opposition processes (Auer 2007 : 13), endeavour to differentiate themselves from older speakers by performing ‘acts of identity’ (Le Page, in Auer, 2007 : 3-5) through the use of urban northern British features, even though they perceive them as unpleasant in some respects. 65 Whereas, as appears supra, all the urban northern accents presented to the informants tend to be perceived favourably in the 9-to-15 bracket, only the Liverpool and Tyneside accents were correctly identified. This leads us to hypothesise that the influence of Scouse and Geordie could extend as far as NWY through the complex processes involved in geographical diffusion.31 The presence of segmental and suprasegmental features like fricated preaspirated K (also observed in Liverpool English [Watson, 2007 : 352]) and more recently in Lancashire (Kerswill, personal communication) as well as other areas in the North West of England (Hejná 2014 ; Hejná [forthcoming]), velarised voice (a prominent feature of Scouse (Knowles, 1975)), and UNBI rises (observed in Merseyside (Cruttenden, 1994 ; Knowles, 1975, 1978)) could even lend additional credence to the hypothesis of a Liverpool influence.32 66 Fig. 2133 shows the National Health Service Central Register (NHSCR) figures for migration movements from West Yorkshire Metropolitan County34 to the major regions in the United Kingdom in 201035. According to these figures, the most likely
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destinations for internal migrants from West Yorkshire Metropolitan County are the remainder of Yorkshire and the Humber (that is the area comprising South Yorkshire Metropolitan County, East Riding, North Yorkshire and South Humber) (12,740 moves in 2010), and the North West region (9,720 moves in 2010).
Fig. 21 – NHSCR figures for migration movements from West Yorkshire Metropolitan County to major regions in the UK during the year ending December 2010
67 Fig. 2236 shows the National Health Service Central Register (NHSCR) figures for migration movements from Merseyside (county) to major regions in the United Kingdom and other locations in the North West in 201037. According to the NHSCR figures (fig. 22), the most likely destinations for internal migrants from Merseyside are the counties of Cheshire (4,190 moves in 2010), Greater Manchester (3,640 moves in 2010) and Lancashire (2,890 moves in 2010), all located in the North West region ; and Yorkshire and the Humber (2,360 moves in 2010). The remainder of the North West and Yorkshire are thus the most likely destinations for internal migrants from Merseyside. According to additional National Statistics data for 2010, of all the counties comprising Yorkshire and the Humber, West Yorkshire Metropolitan County is by far the most likely destination for migrants from Merseyside38.
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Fig. 22 – NHSCR figures for migration movements from Merseyside to major regions in the UK and other locations in the North West in 2010
68 These data show that population shifts between West Yorkshire and the North West are comparatively substantial. They also show that the North West and Yorkshire and the Humber are the two major destinations for migrants from Merseyside, and that Yorkshire and the Humber and the North West are the most likely destinations for internal migrants from West Yorkshire Metropolitan County. All this might point to the development of a supralocal linguistic region in the north-west of England, and in no way detracts from the hypothesis of a Liverpool influence in the north-west, as far as NWY.
Dialect levelling or geographical diffusion ?
69 Except in the case of a number of specific phenomena often commented on in the literature (happY tensing, GOOSE fronting or, more recently, GOAT fronting in the north of England), it is commonly reckoned that vowel change usually results from levelling rather than spatial diffusion, whereas it is generally the consonants that act as the ‘torchbearers of geographical diffusion’ (Kerswill, 2003 : 231).
70 The consonantal innovations reported in NWY are thus probably the outcome of geographical diffusion. The same is conceivably true of happY tensing, which, a few years ago, was still largely absent from most Yorkshire accents (Foulkes, personal communication). It may, however, prove harder to determine if the progress of diphthongal variants of FACE and GOAT or of PRICE diphthongs with short onsets is to be attributed to dialect levelling or diffusion. If, as suggested by Kerswill (personal communication), these variants turn out to be restricted to middle-class speakers, their presence in the 9-to-15 age group most probably results from diffusion phenomena. Yet their vigorous progression in apparent time seems to indicate that their monophthongal counterparts, ‘marked variants’ in the overall context of contemporary England, may well become minority features in NWY, soon to be levelled out. Besides, levelling, which can be observed on a wide scale, also has localized or ‘regional’ manifestations (Kerswill, 2003 : 224), and the spread of certain features within a regional community sometimes causes the forms which they replace to become ‘marked variants’ likely to recede over time (Kerswill, 2003)39.
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71 Again, some of the changes could testify to the formation of a supralocal linguistic area somewhere in the north-west of England, whereas the emergence of a number of specific features40 in an area comprising Tyneside, Humberside and Teesside (e.g. Watt & Milroy, 1999 : 27-46 ; Watt & Tillotson, 2001 : 296 ; Williams & Kerswill, 1999 : 143) could signal the development of another supralocal region in the north-east. (This suggestion is based on a remark made by Joan Beal at the 5th Northern Englishes Conference in Nottingham.)
Language change in NWY – realisational or phonological ?
72 This final section discusses some of the implications of the phonetic/phonological status of the changes observed in NWY. The first step in doing so consists in determining whether the innovations described above affect only isolated elements of phonemic systems that have remained unchanged, or if they point to deeper variations in NWY phonological inventories.
Segmentals
73 At the segmental level, most of the consonantal innovations observed in NWY would seem to be phonetic – that is, realisational – rather than phonemic, or phonological. R- labiodentalisation, for instance, or the affrication of K do not lead to the emergence of contrastive pairs. By contrast, the attrition of levelled out vowels points to changes in NWY vocalic systems induced by simplification in a general context of supralocal koineisation (Kerswill, 2002b).41
Suprasegmentals
74 The question of the realisational vs. phonological status of suprasegmental elements is only relevant from an intonational point of view, there being no recognized phonological units of voice quality in English.
- The spread of HRTs
75 Most intonationists agree that, in Britain at least, the use of HRTs is stylistic rather than systemic (e.g. Cruttenden, 1986 : 168-170). This means that a speaker’s decision to use HRTs instead of intonational falls is a matter of choice, and that the same statement uttered with a fall or an HRT retains the same basic ‘meaning’, except that a grammatical (‘querying’ – cf. 3.2.2), attitudinal or discoursal nuance is superimposed onto the statement featuring the HRT.42 This means that no systematic alteration of the traditional correspondences between intonational patterns and meaning is involved in the changes observed in NWY.
76 The full rise, however, does not belong to the ‘traditional’ list of NWY contours, which does have phonemic consequences since its usage enlarges the tone inventory of NWY accents. The spread of HRTs to NWY may thus be said to have phonological implications.43
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- UNBI tones
77 Contrary to HRTs, UNBI rises or rise-slumps appear to be used systemically in a number of British locations (Cruttenden, 1994 : 170-171 ; Ladd, 1996 : 124-125, 144-145, 2008 : 126-127). They are described as the unmarked tones for statements in UNBI (Ladd, 1996 : 123). Cruttenden (2001b : 57, 2007 : 258, 270-271) also suggests that the variation observed between these patterns and simple falls at the end of statements in some northern British cities testifies to UNBI being used in alternation with RPI. If that is the case, UNBI rises testify to the co-occurrence of two distinct intonational systems and have phonological status.
78 This observation raises a number of questions. For instance, if NWY speakers really use two intonation systems in alternation, why is the same phenomenon not observed at the segmental level ?44 Why would speakers in Belfast or Glasgow use UNBI consistently and avoid RPI or Standard Scottish Intonation ?45 And why would speakers in other urban northern British areas switch from one code to another without any apparent reason ? 79 Cruttenden (2001 : 57), quoting Gumperz (1976), suggests that the motivation for alternating between two distinct intonation systems could be the wish to switch codes. This harks back to the complex debate on the functions of code switching.46 Again, part of the explanation may be that UNBI rises, like other features originating from urban northern cities, have an indexical function in some sort of role-play activity in which teenagers attempt to differentiate themselves from other speakers, whom they negatively associate with ‘mainstream societal values’ (cf. Chambers & Trudgill, 1986 : 77-79). Adolescents could thus be seen as performing ‘acts of identity’ (cf. section 4.1.1 ; Auer, 2007 : 4-8, 13) involving the use of one or several salient features of other urban northern varieties.
Conclusion
80 This survey shows that NWY speech is characterised not only by distinct vocalic and consonantal features, but also by a number of suprasegmental traits. In terms of voice quality, for instance, NWY accents are characterised by a low setting of the tongue- body and by frequent and marked use of creaky voice. A similar methodology might profitably be extended to all accents of English, and it seems reasonable to suppose that it could also usefully be applied to other languages.
81 Several innovations and changes are observed in apparent time at both segmental and suprasegmental level. The data testifies to the attrition of some traditional phonemic contrasts in the vocalic system of NWY accents and to diverse modifications affecting the phonetic realisation of vocalic and consonantal phonemes. These are particularly salient in the production of young speakers. In terms of articulatory settings, permanent or intermittent use of velarised voice seems to be an innovative feature favoured by teenagers. Rising intonation patterns, unreported in traditional descriptions of Yorkshire accents, are also observed extensively at the end of statements in adolescent speech and, to a lesser extent, in other age brackets. Not all the rises belong to the same category – while some are HRTs, others testify to the presence of UNBI, and some of the rises remain difficult to categorise. These findings show the need to further investigate the progress of HRTs and UNBI in the north of
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Britain as well as the functions and meanings of the tone inventory components of northern British accents. The fact that adolescents could be the main vectors of change confirms the observations already made by several sociolinguists (e.g. Chambers & Trudgill, 1986 : 77-79) and possibly points to their usage of linguistic features to construct a social identity in opposition to older speakers. 82 Whereas voice quality innovations are purely phonetic, some of the changes observed at segmental and suprasegmental levels have phonological status. A number of vocalic changes point to a simplification of phonemic inventories resulting from dialect levelling. 83 HRTs are an additional element in the intonational systems of NWY accents, at least when they are realised as full rises. The presence of UNBI tones alongside traditional intonation patterns may result from the co-occurrence of two distinct intonational systems and thus signal intonational code-switching. 84 We have suggested that the changes observed at both segmental and suprasegmental levels may result from geographical diffusion from other prominent urban northern areas, in particular Merseyside, thus testifying to the formation of new supralocal linguistic regions in the north-west of England. While dialect levelling and geographical diffusion have already been the objects of extensive study, some of the other issues raised here remain largely undocumented. This is true, for instance, of the voice- quality component of geographical or social accents, despite pioneering research by Barbera & Barth (2007), Coadou (2007), Knowles (1975), or Stuart-Smith (1999). Similarly, although the need to explore the geographical, pragmatic and phonetic dimensions of UNBI has been identified for some time now, little progress has been achieved in these areas (Cruttenden, 1997 : 178-179, 2007 : 272). This article contributes to adding to the current database of variation in British English, and it is hoped that it will be useful in expanding the understanding of the mechanisms that operate in accent change. Throughout this paper, our aim has been to highlight the need to investigate research domains which have hitherto remained unexplored and encourage further work in the highly complex and multifaceted field of accent studies.
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NOTES
1. Cf. section 4.1.1. 2. < http://www.accentbank.co.uk/>. The Accent Bank website hosts a variety of audio clips featuring the voices of performers from diverse parts of the United Kingdom. 3. Lexically restricted variants of the PRICE and GOAT vowels (e.g. in I, my, coat, coal, hole, etc. (Chevillet, 1986 : 228 ; Wells, 1982 : 358) and Definite Article Reduction or DAR (W. Jones, 1952 : 81-91 ; M. Jones, 1999 : 103-22 ; 2002 : 325-45 ; Wales, 2006 : 31, 51, 61, 197) were considered to fall outside the scope of this article and were not taken into consideration. 4. Some degree of variation is nevertheless observed in STRUT, where contrasts somewhat inconsistently occur between [ʊ̞] and [ɤ] ~ [ɤ̞̈] or even [ɜ̟̞] in the speech of some informants. Chevillet (1986 : 222-223) and Wells (1982 : 351-353) attribute this to the influence of RP. Petyt (1985 : 110-117, 341) seems to share this view. 5. Wells (1982) – Tape accompanying the 1st edition of Accents of English. 6. Innovative suprasegmental features are examined in section 3.1.2. 7. See, however, note 24. 8. This is understandable as far as GOAT is concerned, given that the THOUGHT vowel is normally very open and leaves room for open realisations of the close-mid back rounded vowel. 9. Cp. Chevillet, 1986 : 225. 10. All long vowels show a tendency to diphthongisation. In most accents of English, this seems to be particularly the case for the FLEECE vowel (Cruttenden, 2001a : 105). In the charts used here,
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we have chosen to number the high vowels among the pure vowels insofar as they are traditionally considered as phonological monophthongs (cf. e.g. Cruttenden 2001). 11. ‘[T]he speaker’s accent distributes the phonetic manifestations of vowels across the dimensions of vocoid space. In this respect, the speaker’s articulatory setting is the joint outcome of the location in vocoid space of the different vocoids and their frequency of occurrence. These two factors combine to determine the centre of gravity of the speaker’s vocoid distribution.’ (Laver, 1994 : 404) Cf. also Stuart-Smith (1999 : 203-222). 12. Creaky voice is produced by the combination of strong adduction and very weak longitudinal tension of the vocal folds, which causes the phonatory apparatus to thicken and vibrate slowly and irregularly. In creaky voice, the subglottal air pressure and glottal airflow are also weaker than in modal voice. 13. MAIN is here defined as a subset of FACE comprising words spelt with
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NWY data the slumping part of the rise-slumps usually spans a narrower range than observed by Cruttenden in Manchester (Cruttenden, 2001b) or in Glasgow (Cruttenden, 2007). 26. There do happen to be cases where discriminating between HRT and UNBI is not easy (Cruttenden, personal communication). Up to very recently, it was claimed that HRTs and UNBI rises were distinguishable on the basis of phonetic and functional criteria (Ladd, 1996 : 124-125). A close examination of the phonetics and pragmatics of HRTs and UNBI tones, however, invalidates this statement (Wilhelm, 2011 : 388-408). 27. Wells (1982 : 357) attributes the blurring of the distinction between MAIN/MANE and KNOWS/ NOSE to the influence of ‘RP and other accents’. 28. Taken from the Accent Bank website (section 2). 29. For example, the charts show that the Scottish Highlands accent rated an average score of 2.25 out of 3 in the over-50 age bracket whereas its average score in the younger group is just below 2 (‘absolute’ rating). The Scottish Highlands accent ranks 2nd out of 13 in the over-50 age bracket, but only 6th out of 13 in the 9-to-15 age bracket (relative rating). There is thus no significant difference in the rating of the Scottish Highlands accent in the two groups, but there seems to be a difference in terms of popularity. 30. The same recurring traits tend to be associated with these accents by the adolescents, who generally judge them ‘unaffected’, ‘animated/involved’, ‘streetwise’, ‘urban’, ‘modern’ and ‘tough’, but also ‘harsh/offensive’ and ‘unintelligent’ as well as ‘unfriendly’. 31. What is suggested is not that Liverpool or Newcastle exerts a direct influence over Leeds or rural locations in the Yorkshire Dales, but that through complex mechanisms, the linguistic influence of these two metropolitan areas may be felt at a considerable distance. Indeed, it is striking that, when discussing the spread of Estuary English, Trudgill (2001 : 178) describes these two very conurbations as major sources of linguistic (counter)influence in the north of England and considers that ‘there is no way in which the influence of London is going to be able to counteract [their] influence.’ Besides, in spite of the geographical remoteness of Hull and Newcastle, the presence of GOAT fronting (cf. footnote 21) in West Yorkshire cities testifies to the influence of Tyneside and Humberside (Beal, personal communication ; Watt & Tillotson, 2001 : 296). 32. Although referring to phenomena of a more local nature than that of those discussed in this article, Beal (2004 : 122) and Watson (2007) also comment on the diffusion of features from Liverpool to other areas in the North West of England. 33. Source : Office for National Statistics
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40. For instance, innovative monophthongal variants of FACE and GOAT (Watt & Milroy, 1999) or glottalised realisations of P and K, ‘a distinguishing feature between the north-east and the north- west’ (Jansen, personal communication). 41. Wells (1982 : 358) points out that the absence of MANE/MAINE and NOSE and KNOWS distinctions suggests that the close-mid mergers are now mostly completed in the Middle North as elsewhere in Britain. 42. The question of the meaning(s) of HRTs has been hotly debated over the past two decades (e.g. Britain, 1992 ; Ching, 1982 ; Guy, Horvath, Vonwiller, Daisley, & Rogers, 1986 ; Liberman, 2006a), and will not be discussed in detail here. 43. Besides these phonological considerations, the presence of the full rise alongside the low rise and the high rise poses a problem in terms of Tone and Break Index representation insofar as it becomes necessary to use an M tone to distinguish this contour from the two others (Cruttenden, 2007 : 269). This violates one of the basic requirements of the ToBI system. 44. Wells (1982 : 351-352) actually suggests that the variable quality of the STRUT vowels in northern accents of England is similarly to be traced to alternations between a 5- and a 6-element system, owing to RP influence. It would be of interest to determine if the use of UNBI tones consistently coincides with that of STRUT variants. 45. It may be answered that in Belfast and other areas in Northern Ireland the intonation system is not in direct opposition with another intonation system comparable to that of RP. In Glasgow, Cruttenden (2007) identified a case of ‘intonational diglossia’. 46. The motivations of code-switching and diglossia, a very similar phenomenon to situational code-switching, have been discussed by e.g. Auer (1995, 1998a, 1998b) ; Ferguson (1959) ; Fishman (1967) ; Mondada (2007) ; Nilep (2006) ; Wardhaugh (2010) ; Zribi-Hertz (2011) (Wilhelm, 2011 : 213-517).
ABSTRACTS
A number of phonetic and phonological changes have lately been observed in most geographical varieties of British English (e.g. Trudgill 1986 ; Foulkes & Docherty 1999 ; Britain 2002b ; Kerswill 2003 ; Stuart-Smith et al. 2004, 2007). This phenomenon seems to have been accelerated in the past decades by increasing social and geographical mobility (e.g. Kerswill 2003 ; Britain 2002a, 2002b ; Stuart-Smith et al. 2004). Based on a corpus mainly composed of recordings of spontaneous conversations between native North West Yorkshire (NW Yorkshire) speakers divided into age groups, this paper identifies and analyses a number of segmental and suprasegmental innovations observed in apparent time in both urban and rural settings. It discusses the sociolinguistic motivation behind some of these innovations and addresses the question of whether the same factors and principles operate in suprasegmental change – especially in the fields of intonation and voice quality – as in the diffusion of non-traditional segmental phonetic/phonological features. It also tackles the nature and status of diffusing intonational patterns such as the innovative use of rising tones in association with statements. The semantic/pragmatic value of these patterns is taken into consideration as well as that of a number of articulatory and phonatory adjustments characterising adolescent speech. It is suggested that the changes observed occur as a result of koineisation and supralocalisation processes (Siegel 1985 ; Kerswill and Williams 2000 ; Britain
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2005, 2009), and that they testify to the emergence of new supralocal dialect areas in the north of England.
Divers changements de nature phonétique et phonologique ont récemment été observés dans de nombreuses variétés géographiques de l’anglais britannique (voir par exemple Trudgill 1986 ; Foulkes & Docherty 1999 ; Britain 2002b ; Kerswill 2003 ; Stuart-Smith et al. 2004, 2007. Ce phénomène semble s’être accentué au cours des dernières décennies en raison de l’accroissement de la mobilité sociale et géographique (voir par exemple Kerswill 2003 ; Britain 2002a, 2002b ; Stuart-Smith et al. 2004). A partir d’un corpus majoritairement constitué d’enregistrements d’interactions spontanées entre locuteurs du nord-ouest du Yorkshire répartis en plusieurs groupes d’âges, nous identifions et analysons ici plusieurs changements segmentaux et suprasegmentaux observés en temps apparent en milieu rural et urbain. Nous nous interrogeons quant à la motivation sociolinguistique de ces évolutions et nous demandons si les mêmes facteurs et principes déterminent les changements observés au niveau phonémique et prosodique, particulièrement sur le plan de l’intonation et la qualité de voix. Nous nous intéressons notamment à la nature et au statut d’innovations intonatives telles que certains schémas ascendants observés en fin d’énoncé déclaratif. Nous proposons une réflexion sur la valeur sémantique et pragmatique de ces contours ainsi que sur le recours à des ajustements articulatoires caractéristiques attestés chez les adolescents. Nous suggérons que les changements recensés résultent de phénomènes de koinéisation et de supralocalisation (voir Siegel 1985 ; Kerswill and Williams 2000 ; Britain 2005, 2009) et que les données recueillies témoignent de la formation de nouvelles zones linguistiques dans le nord de l’Angleterre.
INDEX
Mots-clés: Anglais, sociolinguistique, variation, changement linguistique, prosodie, intonation, éléments suprasegmentaux, UNBI, qualité de voix, nivellement dialectal, diffusion géographique, supralocalisation, Yorkshire Keywords: English, sociolinguistics, language variation and change, speech prosody, intonation, suprasegmentals, UNBI, voice quality, dialect levelling, geographical diffusion, supralocalisation, Yorkshire
AUTHOR
STEPHAN WILHELM
TIL – University of Burgundy CPGE Lycée C.-L. Berthollet, Annecy [email protected]
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L’accent préfère-t-il le sens ? Les noms féminins en -ess en anglais britannique contemporain1
Jérémy Castanier
Introduction
1 Contrairement à nombre de langues du monde, qui ont notamment recours à la flexion pour marquer le genre grammatical des noms, l’anglais contemporain, de nature peu flexionnelle, est une langue globalement neutre ou non spécifique de ce point de vue. Ainsi, les signifiants teacher, doctor ou encore guard peuvent référer aussi bien à des hommes qu’à des femmes. Il existe néanmoins une petite classe de noms possédant une terminaison explicitement féminine, à savoir -ess, comme shepherdess, actress, waitress, priestess, baroness, ambassadress, etc. Nous en dénombrons 78 2, consignés dans l’English Pronouncing Dictionary (EPD) et/ou dans le Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (LPD).
2 Même si une partie des noms féminins en -ess ont une fréquence d’emploi peu importante, on peut être surpris que le statut accentuel de la terminaison -ess soit rarement abordé dans les ouvrages scientifiques et les manuels de prononciation. Par comparaison, le statut contraignant de la terminaison -igible est souvent traité dans les ouvrages (voir par exemple Trevian (2003 : 71-72), Duchet (1994 : 19) ou encore Ginésy (2004 : 115-116)) alors qu’il ne concerne en fait que cinq mots dans EPD18 et/ou LPD3 (corrigible, dirigible, eligible, intelligible, negligible, et les versions préfixées de ceux-ci). Les rares manuels qui mentionnent la terminaison -ess se contentent souvent de la considérer comme accentuellement neutre, au même titre que -or, sans fournir de commentaires, comme on le constate par exemple dans Ginésy (2004 : 98). Les lecteurs comprendront donc par exemple qu’ils sont amenés à accentuer authoress sur la première syllabe [100], l’accent restant sur la même syllabe que dans le dérivant author [10]. 3 Si cette description de -ess s’applique sans problème à l’anglais américain (où aucun changement accentuel concernant cette classe lexicale n’est à signaler), force est de
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constater que l’étudiant qui ouvrira un dictionnaire de prononciation britannique contemporaine risque d’être fort dérouté. Ainsi, EPD18 comme LPD3 accentuent authoress [100] mais aussi [201]. De plus, dans le cas de l’accentuation [100], la terminaison y est transcrite soit [-es] (prononciation principale), soit [-ɪs] ou [-əs] (variante)3. Si la situation est similaire pour hostess et murderess, on constate que l’accentuation finale est même considérée comme la plus fréquente pour deaconess et shepherdess. À l’opposé, d’autres noms ne présentent pas d’accent final, tels leopardess, sculptress et governess, même si la finale inaccentuée peut tout de même se prononcer avec une voyelle pleine au moins en variante. Pourtant, des mots comme seamstress ont une voyelle strictement réduite. Il semble donc à première vue régner un certain chaos au sein de la classe des noms féminins en -ess, à tel point que, comme le souligne F. Zumstein : Wells (1990 : 253) ne peut donc constater la simple neutralité, et ajoute le commentaire laconique suivant dans l’entrée du suffixe <-ess> : « There is great interspeaker variability in the treatment of this suffix. See individual entries. » (2007 : 116)
1. Présentation du corpus dictionnairique
4 Afin de tenter d’appréhender la globalité du phénomène, nous avons eu recours à un corpus dictionnairique couvrant d’une part le XXe siècle, à savoir : i) les 18 éditions de l’English Pronouncing Dictionary (EPD) de Daniel Jones et ses successeurs, dont la première édition fut publiée en 1917 ; ii) les 3 éditions du Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (LPD) de John C. Wells, dont la première fut publiée en 1990 ; iii) l’Oxford Dictionary of Pronunciation for Current English (ODP) de Clive Upton et al., publié en 2001 ; iv) le Concise Pronouncing Dictionary of British and American English (CPDBAE) de Jack Windsor Lewis, publié en 1972.
5 Nous avons d’autre part consulté 23 dictionnaires des XVIII et XIXe siècles, notamment le Critical Pronouncing Dictionary and Expositor of the English Language de John Walker, publié en 1791 (dont nous avons utilisé l’édition de 1842). Toutefois, la parfaite homogénéité accentuelle qui y figure rend inutile de tous les citer spécifiquement dans cette étude. Ils figurent néanmoins dans la bibliographie.
2. Situation antérieure au XXe siècle
6 Aucun des 23 dictionnaires antérieurs au XXe siècle dans lesquels nous avons systématiquement vérifié l’accentuation des 78 noms féminins en -ess étudiés (lorsqu’ils étaient présents) n’a révélé l’existence d’une accentuation finale. Il semblerait donc que le développement du schéma oxyton (accent final) de ces noms ait eu lieu au XXe siècle. On ne trouve que deux notes discordantes. La première provient du dictionnaire de Walker : si celui-ci accentue bien le nom princess sur la première syllabe, il affirme cependant dans son principe 502 : Hence we may perceive the glaring absurdity which prevails even in the first circles ; that of pronouncing the plural of princess, and even the singular, with the accent on the second syllable, like success and successes ; for we might as well say, dutchéss, and dutchésses, as, princéss and princésses ; nor would a correct ear be less hurt with the latter than the former. (Walker 1842, principe 502)
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7 La seconde note discordante, qui concerne également princess, provient de Worcester (1860)4, qui ne fournit exceptionnellement pas de prononciation pour ce nom mais indique en note : Dr. Latham says, “The feminine form of prince is accented princ-cess’, while peer’ess, priest’ess, etc. carry the accent on the first syllable. Princess is remarkable as being the only word in English where the accent lies on the subordinate syllable”. – Yet no English orthoepist, so far as we know, places the accent on the second syllable. (Worcester 1860, princess ; accent placé après la syllabe avant le XXe siècle) 8 Bien qu’elle ne soit jamais indiquée dans les dictionnaires et bien que possiblement marginale, il n’est donc pas inenvisageable que l’accentuation finale de princess ait pu naître avant le XXe siècle. Il est cependant difficile de dire s’il s’agit là d’un phénomène lié à son statut de nom féminin ou bien, plus vraisemblablement, à son statut d’emprunt au français.
9 La prononciation de la voyelle en position inaccentuée est difficilement appréhendable dans les dictionnaires antérieurs au XXe siècle. En effet, d’une part, une partie d’entre eux fournissent seulement l’accentuation des mots et non leur prononciation. D’autre part la plupart de ceux qui fournissent leur prononciation ne possèdent pas de système permettant de représenter les voyelles faibles, en particulier le schwa, et notent l’équivalent de [e] dans toutes les positions. 10 Quelques rares dictionnaires semblent pourtant opérer une distinction entre voyelle pleine et voyelle réduite, à l’image de Worcester (1860), qui note soit Ĕ pour la voyelle qualifiée de « short », soit Ẹ pour celle qualifiée de « obscure », cette dernière étant équivalente à [ə] ou [ɪ]. C’est toutefois une distinction mécanique qui est effectuée dans le cas des noms féminins en -ess, puisque tous ceux qui prennent l’accent sur la pénultième (tels heiress, instructress) ont une voyelle finale transcrite Ẹ tandis que tous ceux qui ont l’accent avant la pénultième (tels lioness, ambassadress) ont une voyelle finale transcrite Ĕ. Cette opposition est d’ailleurs systématique au point de transcrire traitress avec Ẹ et traitoress avec Ĕ. 11 Buchanan (1766) distingue également les deux prononciations, en optant soit pour ĕ, soit pour ĭ. La distinction ne semble cependant pas fiable dans ce dictionnaire car ĭ est utilisé pour tous les mots depuis le début du dictionnaire jusqu’à peeress, tandis que 8 mots sur 17 en fin de dictionnaire (de poetess à votaress) sont transcrits avec ĕ, ce qui laisse supposer qu’un changement dans la logique transcriptionnelle a dû être opéré en cours d’édition du dictionnaire. Aucune logique ne nous semble par ailleurs présider au choix de ĕ ou de ĭ dans la partie finale. 12 Boyer (1827), dictionnaire destiné à un lectorat francophone et fournissant des transcriptions orthographiques devant être lues « à la française », distingue également les deux prononciations, qu’il note -ece et -ice. Presque tous les noms féminins en -ess y sont cependant transcrits avec -ece, à l’exception notable de archduchess (duchess est absent du dictionnaire), mistress et schoolmistress. Quant à Walker (1842), il transcrit tous les mots avec e2 (correspondant à [e]), à l’exception également notable de heiress, mistress et seamstress, qui sont transcrits avec i2 (correspondant à [ɪ]). Il ajoute par ailleurs la note suivante sous l’entrée lioness : There is a propensity pretty general of pronouncing the e in this and similar words like short i : but this pronunciation, however pardonable in light colloquial speaking, would be inexcusable in reading or deliberate speaking. (Walker 1842, lioness)
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13 Walker reconnaît donc explicitement l’existence des deux prononciations [e] et [ɪ] dans ces mots. Toutefois, la pertinence de sa remarque est fortement limitée par le fait que, de façon générale, Walker et nombre de ses contemporains fournissaient des transcriptions prescriptives reflétant bien davantage la parole publique que la conversation spontanée.
3. Situation quantitative au XXe siècle
14 Le dépouillement de tous nos dictionnaires publiés au XXe siècle, et en particulier des 18 éditions de l’English Pronouncing Dictionary, permet de faire apparaître le caractère progressif de la diffusion de la prononciation [-es] et du statut accentué de la terminaison -ess. Cette évolution est exposée dans l’illustration 1. Le tableau présenté en illustration 2, lui, récapitule quantitativement les différentes possibilités pas à pas.
Illustration 1 : Totalité du corpus de travail accentué au XXe siècle, selon les dictionnaires. Pour l'English Pronouncing Dictionary, la série se lit diachroniquement de gauche à droite. Pour faciliter la lecture, chaque type d'accentuation est associé à une couleur unique. En cas d'impression, il est conseillé d'imprimer en couleur.
15 Pour chaque schéma accentuel, le décompte du nombre de syllabes se fonde sur une conception phonétique. La légende fournie est réutilisable quel que soit le nombre de syllabes car les couleurs codent uniquement le statut de la syllabe finale : inaccentuée réduite, inaccentuée pleine ou accentuée, et les combinaisons de ces trois statuts. Par exemple, le jaune correspond au schéma [10/14] d'un dissyllabe, au schéma [100/104] ou [010/014] d'un trisyllabe, etc.
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Illustration 2 : Répartition des différentes réalisations phonétiques de la terminaison féminine -ess (statut accentué ou inaccentué, voyelle pleine ou réduite si inaccentuée) dans les dictionnaires du XXe siècle.
16 Il apparaît très clairement qu’à mesure que l’on progresse dans les premières éditions de l’EPD, la terminaison est globalement inaccentuée mais passe peu à peu d’une voyelle réduite à une voyelle pleine. Seul princess peut prendre l’accent sur la finale dans EPD1-3. Alors que seuls deux à trois mots peuvent optionnellement prendre l’accent sur la finale jusqu’à EPD12, quelques mots supplémentaires peuvent ensuite le prendre dans EPD13, mais surtout dans EPD14 et EPD14R5. Enfin, ce nombre explose soudainement à partir de EPD15, jusqu’à représenter environ 41 % du total, que cela soit dans EPD18 ou dans LPD36.
17 L’étendue du phénomène pousse ainsi certains linguistes à établir un parallèle entre - ess et certaines terminaisons contraignantes attirant l’accent sur elles-mêmes. C’est ce que fait Trevian, qui s’en tient toutefois au stade de la description et se contente de comparer -ess avec les terminaisons françaises (en référence à l’accentuation finale démarcative du français) : Si la plupart ont un accent conforme à leur dérivant […], -ess rejoint quasi- systématiquement en variante le statut de -ee et -ese en admettant une accentuation du suffixe. […] Le suffixe -ess constitue typiquement une zone de conflit de la morphophonologie anglaise, opposant isomorphisme et accentuation « à la française ». Au vu des données livrées par LPD et/ou EPD15, une conversion de [ces] items [...] à la seconde tendance semble se dessiner en anglais contemporain. (2003 : 30‑31 ; nous soulignons) 18 J.-M. Fournier, lui, semble établir un lien de causalité plus explicite avec les terminaisons françaises à consonne double du type finesse, cigarette, etc. : Une mention spéciale doit être faite à propos du suffixe féminin -ess : normalement neutre, il admet néanmoins très souvent une variante en /-1/ sous l’influence de la terminaison contraignante –C’C’e […]. Une prononciation sans déplacement d’accent par rapport au dérivant est toutefois toujours attestée. (2010 : 38 ; nous soulignons) 19 Malgré tout, il est difficile de considérer le phénomène homogène, puisqu’il ne concerne qu’environ 41 % des items à l’étude. Non seulement 59 % des mots ne prennent pas l’accent sur la finale, mais ce sont même 23 à 33 % qui voient leur terminaison prononcée avec une voyelle strictement réduite. L’hypothèse d’un lien avec une étymologie française est par ailleurs peu vraisemblable si l’on considère l’origine des noms féminins auxquels nous nous intéressons. En effet, certains peuvent s’accentuer [-1] et sont bien d’origine française (princess, lioness, marchioness, etc.) tandis
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que d’autres, qui ne sont pas d’origine française, n’ont pas d’accent final (‘seamstress, ‘goddess, etc). Mais on trouve aussi des emprunts au français ne présentant pas d’accent final (en’chantress, ‘tigress, etc.), tout comme des noms n’ayant pas été empruntés au français mais pouvant prendre l’accent final (manageress, stewardess, etc.).
20 Quelques paires permettent d’apporter des éléments de raisonnement. D’un côté, la paire duchess [10/01] vs duchesse [01], où duchesse est emprunté au français mais n’est pas un mot à sens féminin (il désigne un meuble), montre que seule -esse peut véritablement être qualifiée de terminaison française attirant l’accent, même si l’on pourrait envisager une influence de duchesse sur duchess. D’autre part, les paires marquis [10] vs marquess [10] et fort vs fortress [10] montrent que la terminaison -ess n’attire pas l’accent, au moins dans ces cas-là, si elle n’est pas féminine (marquess désigne un marquis et non une marquise).
4. L’importance de la morphologie
21 L’examen minutieux du corpus lexical montre que la présence ou l’absence d’accent final est en fait très largement conditionnée par le statut morphologique de la terminaison -ess. Ainsi, deux grands cas de figure doivent être distingués :
22 – Soit la terminaison -ess est strictement suffixale et conduit à l’ajout d’une syllabe supplémentaire (dérivés imparisyllabiques) sans modification du dérivant ( lion > lioness, author > authoress, poet > poetess, millionaire > millionairess, etc.) ; 23 – Soit la terminaison -ess, qu’elle soit strictement ou non un suffixe ajouté à une base existante, ne conduit pas à l’ajout d’une syllabe supplémentaire (dérivés parisyllabiques). On peut distinguer trois sous-cas de figure : 1) il y a substitution suffixale transparente (governor > governess, procuror > procuress, etc.) ou plus opaque (anchorite > anchoress, abbot > abbess, etc.) ; 2) il y a syncope syllabique (hunter > huntress, warder > wardress, actor > actress, etc.) ; 3) la forme féminine n’est pas strictement dérivée de la forme masculine (duke > duchess, seducer > seductress7). 24 Le classement du corpus lexical en fonction de ces deux grands cas de figure permet alors de faire apparaître deux comportements accentuels radicalement différents, puisque seul le premier grand cas de figure (ajout transparent d’une syllabe) est fortement sujet à l’accentuation finale, le second y étant très réfractaire. La situation est présentée dans l’illustration 3, où la partie supérieure correspond aux cas d’ajout transparents tandis que la partie inférieure correspond aux cas où dérivants et dérivés sont parisyllabiques.
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Illustration 3 : Corpus de travail au XXe siècle trié par type morphologique : dérivés parisyllabiques dans la partie inférieure, et dérivés où -ess représente une syllabe supplémentaire dans la partie supérieure.
25 Le fait qu’il s’agisse ou non d’un ajout transparent semble globalement suffire à expliquer la présence ou l’absence de l’accent final. Ainsi, en cas d’ajout transparent, l’accentuation finale n’entrave en rien l’isomorphisme vocalique entre dérivants et dérivés (cf. Dahak 2011 : 206), comme dans [kaʊnt] > [ˌkaʊnˈtess]. Elle n’entrave pas non plus l’application de la règle dérivationnelle dans les dérivés, à savoir la transformation de l’accent primaire du dérivant en accent secondaire du dérivé : lion [10] > lioness [201], shepherd [10] > shepherdess [201], etc. La règle s’applique aussi à millionaire [201] > millionairess [2001] (où la voyelle pénultième conserve d’ailleurs sa valeur pleine), sur le même modèle que represent [201] > representation [20010]. Dans le cas des dérivés de monosyllabes, tels que host [1] > hostess [21], le phénomène est le même qu’avec les dérivés classiques du type trust [1] > trustee [21].
26 En revanche, dans le cas des dérivants en [010], la syncope empêche l’accentuation finale car elle reviendrait à contredire la règle dérivationnelle, et donc à empêcher l’isomorphisme vocalique entre dérivants et dérivés : conductor, instructor [010] > conductress, instructress [010] et non [201] comme dans adore [01] > adoration [2010]. On voit que l’ajout d’une syllabe supplémentaire constitue ici une condition nécessaire à l’accentuation finale, alors que le rare schéma [021] est pourtant régulièrement attesté par ailleurs avec des dérivations telles que escape [01] > escapee [021] ou [201] (on aurait donc pu s’attendre à instructress [021]). Les dérivations du type conductor > conductress se comportent donc en fait de la même façon qu’avec l’accentuation principale [010] de employee, dérivé de employ [01]. Plus largement, l’isomorphisme accentuel s’impose entre dérivants et dérivés parisyllabiques car il permet la conservation du même schéma accentuel dans les deux cas : tiger [10] > tigress [10], adventurer [0100] >
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adventuress [0100], etc. De ce point de vue, la forme féminine n’est pas dérivée de la forme masculine mais lui est subordonnée. 27 Il existe tout de même plusieurs exceptions des deux côtés. Ainsi :
28 – les noms archeress, (druidess), goddess, (leopardess), pythoness et traitoress ne présentent pas d’accent final alors que leur suffixe -ess constitue bien un ajout transparent8 ; 29 – les noms abbess, ambassadress, duchess, (laundress), murderess et sorceress peuvent avoir un accent final en variante alors que leur terminaison -ess ne constitue pas un ajout transparent (dérivants et dérivés sont parisyllabiques).
5. Un suffixe fortement porteur de sens
30 En dépit de la pertinence du critère morphologique que nous avons pu dégager, plusieurs éléments rendent cette seule explication partiellement insatisfaisante :
31 – l’existence des exceptions – même partielles – mentionnées supra ;
32 l’hétérogénéité accentuelle qui règne parmi les cas où -ess constitue un ajout transparent (certains items ont le schéma [-1] comme accentuation principale, d’autres l’ont en variante) ; 33 – l’apparition inégale de l’accent final selon les items sur le plan diachronique (certains ont reçu l’accent final très tôt au XXe siècle, d’autres l’ont reçu seulement à la fin du siècle). 34 C’est pour ces raisons qu’il nous semble utile de tenter d’appréhender également l’accentuation des noms féminins en -ess du point de vue sémantique. En effet, cette terminaison étant fortement porteuse de sens, sa présence est souvent loin d’être anodine. Trevian souligne ainsi son possible rôle contrastif : Un tel glissement est peu surprenant étant donné le rôle contrastif qu’est susceptible de jouer ce suffixe, qui reste avec -woman la seule désinence féminine productive de l’anglais […]. (2003 : 31) 35 Il en va de même pour Hellinger, qui mentionne également le caractère inattendu de la spécification du genre : Asymetrical gender-marking may fulfil various communicative functions : it may emphasize visibility of the “unexpected” referential gender, define the marked gender as the deviation from the norm, or serve contrastive purposes. (2006 : 267). 36 Enfin, le suffixe -ess, en tant que suffixe vivant, est certainement à considérer comme relevant dans certains cas de la « pulsion ludique » évoquée par Tournier : Il existe ainsi des mots – que l’on peut considérer comme inutiles – que l’on crée pour s’amuser, et dont le caractère insolite, cocasse, pittoresque, fantaisiste, leur permet de conquérir droit de cité dans la langue de la communauté ou, au moins, d’une fraction de la communauté. Le langage humain est aussi un terrain de jeu et l’homme éprouve le besoin de jouer sur ce terrain comme sur d’autres : le troisième ressort de la création lexicale est la pulsion ludique. (2004 : 196) 37 Tournier évoque à ce propos le cas de -ee, comme dans bouncer (« videur ») > bouncee 9 (2004 : 198). Il nous semble en fait possible de situer -ess comme appartenant au même ensemble lexicogénique que le trio -er / -ee / -or, comme dans certaines paires, lexicalisées ou non, souvent utilisées pour illustrer les rôles sémantiques en syntaxe : bailor / bailee, giver / givee, etc. On peut ainsi créer à souhait des singeress, paintress ou encore philosopheress.
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38 Il est important, d’autre part, de bien saisir la nuance péjorative qui teinte une grande partie des noms féminins en -ess. Cela est souligné par Hellinger: Frequently, the creation of female-specific nouns will produce semantically asymetrical pairs in which the female represents the lesser category, illustrating what Schulz (1975) has called semantic derogation. (2006 : 267) 39 Holmes illustre précisément le caractère péjoratif de la dérivation: One can [...] regard -ess as signalling women’s secondary status – as marking a deviation from the (male) norm. Baron (1986), for example, comments that “in most instances, the use of the feminine suffix implies that the feminine noun derives from the masculine and that it is of secondary or inferior status”. […] Few would deny that someone introduced as a philosopheress is unlikely to be treated with respect. […] It is impossible to treat a poetess as a serious writer, and no one would think of labeling Janet Frame an authoress or Kiri Te Kanawa a songstress. (1993 : 360) 40 Dans le domaine littéraire précisément, les noms authoress et poetess ont attiré beaucoup d’attention, notamment parce qu’il appartenait justement aux femmes poètes et écrivains d’utiliser ou non le terme pour se définir. Dans la seconde édition de Fowler’s Modern English Usage, Gowers expliquait ainsi : Authoress is a word that has always been disliked by authoresses themselves, perhaps on the ground that sex is irrelevant to art and that the word implies disparagement of women’s literary abilities. […] When the OED was published the authoresses seemed to be getting their way ; for the opinion is there given that authoress “is now only used when sex is purposely emphasized ; otherwise in all the senses, and especially the last [sc. a female literary composer], author is now used of both sexes”. (1965, entrée authoress) 41 Dans la première édition, Fowler lui-même s’élevait encore plus fortement contre l’usage de ce type de noms : This article is intended as a counter-protest. The authoress, poetess & paintress, & sometimes the patroness & the inspectress, take exception to the indication of sex in these designations. They regard the distinction as derogatory to them & as implying inequality between the sexes ; an author is an author, that is all that concerns any reader, & it is impertinent curiosity to want to know whether the author is male or female. (1926, entrée feminine designations) 42 Inversement, Elsa Greene publia en 1972 un article consacré à Emily Dickinson en tant que femme poète, qu’elle intitula « Emily Dickinson was a poetess », preuve de la controverse sur ce terme. On y lit notamment: Emily Dickinson’s exceptionally courageous poetic achievement might have taught later generations that there is no conflict between femaleness and seriousness in poetry. But most of us continue to use the term “poetess” to designate women who write “feminine poems” – meaning insipid, conventional verses ; and we promote exceptional women such as Emily Dickinson to the rank of “poet”. Our terminology still implies the nineteenth-century idea that femaleness limits poetic capacity. Our practice provides only that some women may be able to transcend merely female experience and thereby engage an audience in matters of universal interest. As long as we feel the need to separate a woman from her sex in order to appreciate her poetry, we perpetuate analytic categories which mutilate female subjects in the name of understanding them. For the sake of integrity, hers and our own, it is essential to remember that Emily Dickinson was a poetess. (1972 : 63). 43 Et pourtant, il existe aussi un certain nombre de noms féminins en -ess qui ne véhiculent aucune connotation négative, comme actress, heiress, shepherdess, princess, etc. Certains auteurs justifient l’existence de ces noms par l’impossibilité d’utiliser les formes sans -ess pour renvoyer à une femme, par exemple ici avec Holmes :
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In some cases it is difficult to see how the -ess form could be avoided. For a number of forms in this category, unlike most forms in the occupational category, the base form is marked as male and cannot act as a generic. Consequently, the forms baroness, duchess, empress, and princess are the only available means of expressing the meaning ‘a female of the rank specified’, though in fact they more often refer to ‘the wife of a male of the rank specified’. It it possible that this may change, but at present the forms baron, duke, emperor, and prince are marked with the semantic feature ‘male’ and they cannot be used to refer to females. (1993 : 363) 44 Dans la 2e édition de Fowler’s Modern English Usage, Gowers défend l’usage de certains noms pour des raisons plus larges : It is natural that words like abbess, actress, deaconess, stewardess, wardress, should do so, for in those occupations women have duties peculiar to their sex […]. (Gower 1965, entrée feminine designations)
6. Interaction entre morphologie et sémantique
45 Qu’il soit péjoratif ou non, il nous semble que le possible effet contrastif obtenu lors de l’ajout du suffixe -ess corresponde à une sur-spécification agentive au niveau notionnel. Par exemple, le nom baron peut se décomposer notionnellement en « titre + agent masculin ». De même, le nom shepherd se décompose en « activité + agent masculin ». Dans les deux cas, la dérivation en -ess, qui n’ampute aucun élément du dérivant, revient donc à ajouter une seconde spécification agentive, féminine cette fois. Ainsi, on peut alors décomposer baroness en « titre + agent masculin + agent féminin ». Il en va de même des dérivés de noms neutres. Par exemple, author et manager peuvent se décomposer en « activité + agent neutre ». Par conséquent, les dérivés transparents authoress et manageress se décomposent en « activité + agent neutre + agent féminin », d’où, là aussi, une sur-spécification agentive.
46 Dans les deux cas, la dérivation donne donc lieu à des paires asymétriques où la forme féminine est une forme secondaire, dérivée soit du masculin, soit du neutre. Cette sur- spécification permet alors l’existence d’un accent final de type contrastif. Par effet de retour, il est d’ailleurs possible de réinterpréter les formes neutres comme masculines : si l’on désigne une femme auteur par le terme authoress, author en vient par effet de retour à désigner un homme. 47 Par opposition, la syncope et la substitution de suffixes permettent de gommer cette sur-spécification. Par exemple, governor se décompose en « activité + agent neutre », or la substitution suffixale governor > governess revient à ne conserver que le dérivant verbal govern, qui ne désigne que l’activité. Par conséquent, governess se décompose seulement en « activité + agent féminin ». De la même manière, lors de la dérivation waiter > waitress, l’effacement du segment -e- conduit à effacer par la même occasion la spécification « agent masculin », le
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49 Bien entendu, dans la très large majorité des cas, la morphologie et la sémantique conspirent. Ainsi, dans authoress, le suffixe -ess constitue une syllabe supplémentaire par rapport au dérivant, et construit en même temps une sur-spécification agentive. Inversement, dans waitress, il n’y a ni syllabe supplémentaire, ni sur-spécification agentive. 50 L’exemple de governor nous semble très éclairant sur ce point. Comme le précise Holmes (1993 : 360), qui a travaillé sur le Corpus of written New Zealand English, governess n’apparaît que pour faire référence à l’éducation des enfants. Outre l’absence de sur- spécification agentive due au parisyllabisme (governess = « activité + agent féminin »), le fait qu’il s’agisse dans la réalité extra-linguistique d’un emploi occupé essentiellement par des femmes conduit la propriété « féminin » à faire partie de la notion /governess/. L’absence d’accent final contrastif en est donc d’autant plus logique. À l’inverse, on pourrait vouloir dériver governor avec le suffixe -ess dans un sens politique, pour renvoyer non pas à une gouvernante mais à une femme gouverneur (d’un État des États-Unis, par exemple). Cette fois, la propriété « féminin » ne fait probablement pas partie de la notion, ce poste étant très majoritairement occupé par des hommes. Et en effet, même si le terme n’est pas lexicalisé, on trouve via le moteur de recherche Google plus d’un millier d’occurrences du terme governoress au sens politique. La propriété « féminin » étant cette fois plus inhabituelle pour un tel poste, certains locuteurs ont donc jugé utile d’ajouter et non de substituer le suffixe -ess. Il apparaît alors probable que la prononciation d’une telle forme admette au moins une voyelle finale systématiquement pleine, si ce n’est même accentuée.
7. Quand la sémantique prend le pas sur la morphologie
51 Si nous avons vu supra que la présence ou l’absence de sur-spécification agentive se superpose normalement à la présence ou l’absence d’une syllabe supplémentaire dans la forme féminine, il existe cependant des cas d’accentuation finale dans des dérivés pourtant parisyllabiques, comme avec ambassador [0100] > ambassadress [0100] ou [0201]. On peut supposer ici que la sémantique prend le pas sur la morphologie. Ainsi, ambassadress a deux sens, désignant soit la femme d’un ambassadeur, soit une femme ambassadeur. Il paraît raisonnable de penser que l’accentuation [0201] soit en fait réservée à ce dernier sens, pour lequel la propriété « féminin » est perçue comme moins évidente, puisque la fonction prime habituellement sur le sexe de la personne.
52 De la même façon, si governess ne possède pas le schéma [201], en revanche murderess le possède bien en variante, alors qu’il est pourtant également formé par substitution suffixale. Cependant, la propriété « féminin » est perçue comme appartenant à la notion pour governess car la fonction est majoritairement occupée par des femmes, tandis que le « genre social » (cf. Hellinger 2006 : 266-267) de la personne qui commet un meurtre est habituellement masculin. Le fait que le meurtrier puisse s’avérer être une meurtrière est alors perçu avec davantage de surprise, justifiant un accent final contrastif. À l’inverse, pythoness n’admet pas d’accent final bien qu’il soit étymologiquement dérivé de python car l’Oracle de Delphe est nécessairement une femme : il n’existe pas de python occupant cette fonction.
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53 De façon plus générale, l’examen détaillé du sémantisme de tous les noms féminins en - ess permet de mettre au jour une gradation sociale corrélée au statut accentuel des noms concernés. Les différents ensembles s’inscrivant dans cette gradation sont les suivants : 54 – lexique religieux, politique et titres de noblesse (priestess, baroness, peeress, etc.) : ajout transparent de -ess et accent final majoritaire ; 55 – rôles sociaux connotés positivement (heiress, hostess, millionairess, etc.) : ajout transparent de -ess mais accent final en variante seulement ; 56 – simples métiers : syncope ou substitution suffixale (actress, governess, laundress, etc.) : accentuation du radical très majoritaire ; six mots font exception, dont manageress, authoress et poetess [-1], mais on a ici ajout transparent de -ess ; 57 – comportements connotés négativement (adulteress, temptress, traitress, etc.) : syncope et accent sur le radical. 58 Dans l’ensemble, on constate encore une fois que la morphologie interagit avec le sémantisme des noms concernés, mais la gradation sémantique proposée permet d’affiner la répartition de l’accent final en prononciation principale, en variante, ou bien son absence. Preuves de la prégnance du critère sémantique, les noms abbess et duchess, qui sont pourtant morphologiquement plus éloignés des formes masculines abbot (et non *abb, *abber ou *abbor) et duke (et non *duch, *ducher ou *duchor), peuvent prendre l’accent sur la finale puisqu’ils appartiennent à l’ensemble « lexique religieux, politique et titres de noblesse ». Le conflit entre morphologie et sémantique qui les concerne ne leur octroie toutefois l’accent final qu’en variante. 59 Les noms féminins désignant des animaux femelles s’inscrivent en dehors de la gradation sémantique que nous proposons car il n’est pas question ici de s’intéresser au niveau social des signifiés, ni d’y rechercher une connotation positive ou négative. Au contraire, il est naturel de distinguer le mâle de la femelle dans le règne animal, d’où l’usage de deux mots distincts sans que celui du nom féminin implique une quelconque surprise. Ainsi, si tigress s’accentue uniquement sur le radical (mais il est vrai qu’il s’agit d’un cas de syncope), il en va de même pour leopardess (un cas d’ajout transparent de - ess) et l’accent final n’affecte lioness qu’en variante10. 60 Concernant, enfin, les noms dont la voyelle finale est obligatoirement inaccentuée, on peut esquisser quelques pistes de réflexion : 61 – le trio actress, mistress et waitress s’accentue [10] et n’admet qu’une voyelle finale strictement réduite. On note par ailleurs que mistress était également transcrit avec une voyelle réduite dans Walker (1842) et Boyer (1829) (cf. supra). Il s’agit ici de noms féminins en -ess parmi les plus courants et habituellement dépourvus de toute connotation péjorative. De plus, les noms actor, master et waiter sont davantage masculins que neutres. 62 – goddess s’accentue [10], n’admet une voyelle finale pleine qu’en variante et n’admet pas d’accent final. Il s’agit toutefois du nom dont la fréquence d’emploi est la plus élevée dans toute la classe. De plus, la distinction entre dieux et déesses dans la mythologie semble naturelle. 63 – l’usage de la voyelle inaccentuée mais pleine pourrait tout de même avoir pour fonction de signaler le caractère socialement surprenant du référent. Par exemple, abbess s’accentue essentiellement [10] mais se prononce principalement avec une
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voyelle pleine. Une locutrice native que nous avons interrogée pour cette étude a d’ailleurs prononcé abbess avec une voyelle pleine, en justifiant explicitement sa prononciation [ˈæbes] plutôt que [ˈæbɪs] ou [ˈæbəs] par le fait que le milieu religieux est « male-dominated ». Inversement, seamstress désigne un métier essentiellement féminin (d’ailleurs, Dahak (2011 : 244) précise qu’il n’y a pas de masculin pour sempstress et seamstress) et ne se prononce par conséquent qu’avec une voyelle réduite. Notre démonstration est néanmoins mise à mal par laundress, prononcé principalement [ˈlɔːndres].
8. Un cas de diffusion lexicale ?
64 La progression de l’accent n’ayant pas affecté tous les items simultanément sur le plan diachronique, nous avons voulu vérifier si la classe des noms féminins en -ess pouvait avoir été sujette à un phénomène de diffusion lexicale. Ce phénomène suppose que, dans une classe de mots donnés, un petit nombre d’items sont affectés en premier, permettant ensuite que le reste de la classe (ou du moins une plus grande partie) soit à son tour affecté à un moment ultérieur.
65 William Yang, souvent considéré comme le promoteur du principe de la diffusion lexicale, décrit ce phénomène comme suit : Ideally, before the change, all speakers will use sound X in all relevant morphemes ; after the change, all speakers will use sound Y in the same set of morphemes. The dimension of time may be studied in each of three relatively independent parameters : (1) phonetic, i.e. from sound X to sound Y ; (2) lexical, i.e. from morpheme to morpheme in the relevant part of an individual’s vocabulary ; and (3) social, i.e. from speaker to speaker in the same dialect. (1969 : 12-13) According to this view, during the early phase of the change only a small sector of the relevant morphemes is affected. Some of the affected morphemes may change to the Y-pronunciation. Other morphemes, however, will at first have both the X- pronunciation and the Y-pronunciation, fluctuating either randomly or according to some such factor as tempo or style. […] But the X-pronunciation will gradually be suppressed in favor of the Y-pronunciation. These doublets, then, serve as a kind of psychological bridge between the two end-points of a sound change, carrying along with them even those morphemes which do not go through a doublet stage. (1969 : 15) 66 On voit en effet que le changement qui nous concerne est ici progressif sur le plan diachronique, puisque tous les items s’accentuaient sur le dérivant au départ (même si princess nous empêche de dater très précisément ce « départ »), et qu’ils sont de plus en plus nombreux à posséder à présent plusieurs prononciations. Preuve cependant que le processus est encore en cours, l’accentuation finale n’est la seule accentuation possible que pour trois mots selon EPD17 (cinq mots selon ODP, aucun selon LPD). Yang précise en effet: Since living languages are constantly undergoing change, we should expect to find many seeming exceptions to changes which have not completed their course. These forms are not true residues, in one sense, even though we cannot specify them in general terms either phonetically or morphologically, since in time the appropriate phonological changes will reach them and make them regular. (1969 : 10) 67 On voit ainsi que, pour le moment, la plupart des noms féminins en -ess où - ess représente un ajout transparent possèdent encore une accentuation isomorphe par rapport au radical. Surtout, la plupart des cas où -ess ne représente pas un ajout
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transparent ne sont pas affectés par l’accent final. Il n’est donc pour le moment pas encore sûr qu’il faille en fait considérer que le phénomène s’applique aux noms féminins dérivés par -ess en général, ou bien seulement à la sous-classe des dérivés transparents. Le fait que certains cas de substitution ou de syncope commencent à être affectés pour des raisons sémantiques permet toutefois de suspecter que le changement pourrait se poursuivre dans l’avenir au sein de la classe toute entière.
68 D’autre part, une question récurrente dans la description du changement linguistique est de savoir si ce changement est abrupt ou graduel. Yang explique ainsi: The process of diffusion within a speaker’s vocabulary may likewise be thought of as being either abrupt (i.e., all relevant morphemes change ‘simultaneously’) or gradual (i.e., the change affects the relevant morphemes severally in succession.) There are then four logical possibilities in viewing how a sound change operates on an individual’s vocabulary : (1) phonetically abrupt and lexically abrupt ; (2) phonetically abrupt and lexically gradual ; (3) phonetically gradual and lexically abrupt ; (4) phonetically gradual and lexically gradual Of the two possibilities which involve a phonetically abrupt implementation, (1) is refuted by elementary observations […]. (3) is the view taken by the neogrammarians and continues to be widely accepted today. The hypothesis of lexical diffusion stipulates (2) and (4). Of these two, (2) is the more compelling : for given that the phonetic implementation is abrupt, and that an individual’s vocabulary does not change all that suddenly, the obvious conclusion is that what actually takes place is a kind of diffusion from morpheme to morpheme in this vocabulary. This diffusion within a lexicon is basically the same mechanism as the more observed forms of diffusion across dialects or languages, and diffuses only in its scope or operation ; lexical diffusion is more local, the other forms are more global. (1969 : 14-15). 69 Sur le plan phonétique, Yang défend le caractère abrupt du changement : There is good reason to believe that many types of sound change must be regarded as operating at a phonological level that is much more abstract than the phonetic level, and therefore phonetically non-gradual. So, for a word like ‘acclimate’ in which the pronunciation changes from [əklájmɪt], the only pronunciation found in some older dictionaries, to [ǽklɪmejt], where all three vowels are different (in addition to the difference in accent pattern), it is surely unrealistic to suppose that there was a gradual and proportionate shift along all four phonetic dimensions. (1969 : 14) 70 Si nous adhérons de façon générale à ce point de vue en ce qui concerne le changement accentuel, le changement qui nous occupe ici semble en revanche bel et bien graduel. En effet, nous avons vu que, dans une grande partie des cas, le passage d’une voyelle finale réduite à une voyelle finale accentuée se fait via un stade intermédiaire où la voyelle est inaccentuée mais pleine :[ˈʤaɪəntɪs] > [ˈʤaɪəntes] > [ˌʤaɪənˈtes]. Ce caractère graduel est justement permis par l’isomorsphisme vocalique (dans le reste du mot) mentionné supra. D’autre part, le passage de [ˈʤaɪəntes] à [ˌʤaɪənˈtes] n’est pas nécessairement brutal, puisqu’il ne s’agit ici que d’une modification du degré d’accentuation de la première et de la troisième syllabes, étant entendu que tous les degrés accentuels ne peuvent être rendus par la simple notation [0], [2] et [1]. On pourrait par exemple utiliser le système de notation par chiffres pour symboliser le poids relatif en termes acoustiques (intensité, fréquence fondamentale, etc.) entre deux syllabes accentuées. Dans le cas illustratif de giantess, on pourrait ainsi très bien noter [102], [103], [104], etc. selon le degré d’accentuation de la syllabe finale, mais aussi
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[305], [201], [302], [704], etc. selon la différence relative d’accentuation entre les deux syllabes. On peut tout aussi bien s’attendre à une accentuation égale du type [101]11.
71 Un point cependant qui n’est pas traité par Yang dans son article de 1969, et pour lequel il préfère renvoyer à d’autres auteurs, est celui de la cause initiale de l’apparition du changement (« without concerning ourselves with the intriguing question of how the change came into the language in the first place » 1969 : 12). Nous considérons pour notre part que la cause de l’apparition du changement fait partie intégrante du phénomène de diffusion lexicale et qu’il est donc essentiel de tenter de la reconstituer. Nous avons par ailleurs eu l’occasion d’identifier plusieurs phénomènes de cette nature dans Castanier (2010) et Castanier (2016) en isolant précisément certains mots précurseurs, et nous avons pu reconstituer certaines causes. Par exemple, une fréquence d’emploi élevée explique l’initiation d’un processus de rétraction accentuelle au sein de la classe des mots en -ette, visiblement introduit par le biais de etiquette [201] > [100] (cf. Castanier 2016 : 202-205). Il en va de même pour la progression de l’accent vers la syllabe antépénultième des adverbes en -arily [-100] en anglais britannique (cf. Castanier 2016 : 560-57212), mais ce critère fréquentiel s’est ici surtout doublé d’un critère sémantique. En effet, les mots initiateurs du changement dans cette classe (necessarily, puis primarily, puis enfin diffusion à la quasi-totalité du reste de la classe) sont ceux qui admettent un sens figuré13 susceptible de recevoir une accentuation affectée ou emphatique. 72 Ainsi, parmi les cas où le suffixe -ess est un ajout transparent, on constate sur le plan diachronique que le premier mot ayant acquis l’accentuation finale (en dehors du cas délicat de princess, qui est aussi d’origine française) est manageress, dans EPD8 (1947), qui avait même une voyelle pleine depuis EPD4 (1937). Il fut notamment suivi par stewardess, dans EPD13 (1967). Ces cas sont mis en évidence dans l’illustration 4. Manageress fut également le premier à adopter l’accent final en prononciation principale, à savoir dans EPD13 (1967). A contrario, la plupart des mots qui ont acquis un accent final l’on fait à partir de EPD14 (1977) et surtout de EPD15 (1997). Dans tous ces cas, il faut bien entendu tenir compte du délai nécessaire entre l’apparition des formes dans la langue et leur consignation lexicographique, ce qui permet de supposer que manageress a dû commencer à être affecté par ce phénomène au tout début du XXe siècle.
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Illustration 4 : Corpus de travail au XXe siècle (dérivés imparisyllabiques uniquement). Les zones entourées correspondent respectivement à manageress et à stewardess.
73 Manageress et stewardess, deux cas de sur-spécification agentive (manager est normalement neutre, steward est plutôt masculin), sont des dérivations sémantiquement très marquées, symboles de la féminisation des métiers, y compris à un haut niveau de responsabilité impliquant de diriger des hommes (manageress). Il n’est habituellement pas nécessaire de préciser le sexe du manager (la fonction prime sur le sexe), et l’on utilise habituellement plutôt hostess que stewardess, en particulier dans le cas des hôtesses de l’air. On peut ainsi voir un lien entre le fait que manageress ait été affecté par l’accentuation finale au tout début du XXe siècle et différents éléments historiques, à savoir :
74 – la première vague féministe ; cf. notamment le mouvement des Suffragettes (lutte pour l’égalité des droits) à la fin du XIXe siècle et au début du XXe siècle ; 75 – le première guerre mondiale, où les femmes ont dû remplacer les hommes dans la vie quotidienne (car ceux-ci étaient partis au front) et donc assumer des tâches jusque là considérées comme masculines (labour des champs, travail dans les usines, réparations, etc.), mais aussi où elles ont joué un rôle de premier plan dans la manufacture et la fourniture aux hommes des armes, munitions, vêtements, etc. nécessaires à la vie au front ; 76 – la seconde guerre mondiale, pour des raisons similaires ;
77 – la seconde vague féministe (rejet de l’objectif d’égalité dans le système), dans les années 1960-70. 78 D’autre part, l’évolution fréquentielle diachronique des mots concernés semble conforter nos hypothèses. Ainsi, Google Ngram Viewer montre que des mots tels que laundress et instructress, qui ne prennent pas l’accent sur la finale, ont bien connu un pic fréquentiel mais celui-ci est antérieur au XXe siècle :
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Illustration 5 : Fréquence dans Google Ngram Viewer de laundress et instructress (pluriels inclus) en anglais britannique entre 1650 et 2000
Un nom tel que authoress, qui peut bien prendre l’accent final en variante aujourd’hui, présente également un pic fréquentiel mais celui-ci est observable au milieu du XIXe siècle. Il ne coïncide donc pas avec l’apparition de l’accentuation finale pour ce mot à partir de EPD15 (1997) seulement :
Illustration 6 : Fréquence dans Google Ngram Viewer de authoress (pluriel inclus) en anglais britannique entre 1650 et 2000
79 En revanche, l’augmentation fréquentielle de l’emploi de manageress semble bien compatible avec l’apparition de la voyelle pleine dans EPD4 (1937) et de l’accent final dans EPD8 (1947) :
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Illustration 7 : Fréquence dans Google Ngram Viewer de manageress (pluriel inclus) en anglais britannique entre 1650 et 2000
Illustration 8 : Fréquence dans Google Ngram Viewer de stewardess (pluriel inclus) en anglais britannique entre 1650 et 2000
80 Il en va de même pour stewardess, qui adopte l’accent final dans EPD13 (1967) :
81 Dans ce dernier cas, il est d’ailleurs fort probable que l’apparition du terme pour renvoyer spécifiquement à une hôtesse de l’air explique la plus forte augmentation fréquentielle du terme à la fin de la première moitié du siècle, après un plateau depuis 1850. L’OED fournit ainsi la date de première attestation des différentes acceptions de stewardess : a. (1631) A female who performs the duties of a steward ; also fig. b. (1837) A female attendant on a ship whose duty is to wait on the women passengers. c. (1931) A female attendant on a passenger aircraft who attends to the needs and comfort of the passengers ; = air hostess n. at air n.1 Compounds 2. Also, a similar attendant on other kinds of passenger transport. 82 Dans l’ensemble, il nous semble donc que la féminisation des métiers, mais aussi la recrudescence de la conscience féministe (qu’elle se fasse avec adhésion ou rejet) a pu conduire à l’usage des noms féminins comme un outil de revendication, ou au contraire comme un procédé de stigmatisation dans la langue. Trevian, qui soulevait l’idée d’un effet contrastif de -ess (cf. supra), sous-entend d’ailleurs la même chose en affirmant : « Il est vrai que les luttes féministes ont beaucoup contribué à entacher ces suffixés d’une connotation sexiste » (2010 : 247). Constatant le statut précurseur de ces noms précis au sein de leur classe, on peut donc supposer que le phénomène d’accentuation finale des noms féminins en -ess a pu être initié par des considérations féministes ou anti-féministes, en accord avec le contexte historique et social de l’époque. Ce n’est que plus tard qu’il a pu se diffuser en affectant d’autres types de mots sur des critères avant tout morphologiques, sans stigmatisation obligatoire (shepherdess, heiress, etc.).
Conclusion
83 À travers cette étude de l’ensemble de 78 noms féminins en -ess, nous avons montré que le critère morphologique est primordial dans leur accentuation, puisque si les dérivés parisyllabiques ont peu de chances de recevoir un accent final (type governess), ceux où -ess est un ajout transparent sont au contraire fortement sujets à un schéma oxyton (type poetess).
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84 Nous avons également montré que les cas de dérivation transparente par ajout d’une syllabe correspondent systématiquement à des cas de sur-spécification agentive, renforçant le potentiel accentuable du suffixe. À l’inverse, les dérivés parisyllabiques évitent ou gomment cette sur-spécification, ce qui les rend ainsi sémantiquement peu aptes à être accentués sur la finale. Pourtant, aux interstices de la morphologie, la sémantique peut prendre le pas et conduire malgré tout à une accentuation finale lorsque la propriété « féminin » peut paraître notionnellement surprenante ou inhabituelle, opposant ainsi le type governess (genre social féminin, pas d’accent final) à murderess (genre social masculin, accent final possible). Même en l’absence d’accent final, il est probable que la distinction entre voyelle finale pleine ou réduite joue un rôle similaire (abbess vs seamstress). 85 Tous ces mots conservent néanmoins probablement un potentiel contrastif, sur le plan extra-linguistique mais aussi purement linguistique. On peut ainsi s’attendre à un accent final sur mayoress dans un énoncé tel que : Apparently the Mayor last year or the Mayoress er was rather keen and organized a match between the Dulwich Club and her team nominally which turned out to be made up of masters from Dulwich College. (BNC) 86 Mayoress et ambassadress exhibent par ailleurs une polysémie particulière, pouvant renvoyer soit à une femme occupant la fonction désignée (accent final attendu), soit à la femme de l’homme occupant cette fonction (accent final improbable). Inversement, les cas pour lesquels il est habituel, naturel ou socialement accepté de distinguer le masculin du féminin (mistress, waitress, shepherdess, leopardess, etc.) sont peu enclins à prendre l’accent sur la finale. Nous avons ainsi pu établir une gradation sémantique selon la situation sociale des signifiés, qui permet de prédire le placement de l’accent en conjonction avec la morphologie des signifiants.
87 Enfin, nous avons montré que la classe de mots étudiés relevait bien du phénomène de la diffusion lexicale, mais que, contrairement à la caractérisation du phénomène par Yang (1969), il était ici phonétiquement graduel. Par ailleurs, nous avons expliqué que ce changement accentuel trouvait possiblement sa source dans le contexte socio- historique du début du XXe siècle, la terminaison -ess pouvant représenter un outil de revendication féministe (dont témoigne la création même du suffixé ˌSuffraˈgette) ou de stigmatisation. Cela est appuyé par le statut précurseur des noms manageress et stewardess, avant la diffusion subséquente du changement au reste de la classe en suivant des critères avant tout morphologiques. 88 S’agissant d’un changement en cours (qui concerne l’anglais britannique mais pas l’anglais américain), seul l’avenir dira si le changement s’opérera jusqu’au bout dans le cas des dérivés imparisyllabiques, avec une possible disparition de l’accentuation du radical. Cela semble néanmoins en bonne voie, puisque EPD18 et/ou ODP recensent à présent plusieurs items à accentuation finale exclusive (villainess, manageress, marchioness, etc.). Trevian conclue la même chose: Judging from the data delivered by LPD1/2 and EPD15, conversion of all -ess items to final stressing may be under way today, at least in British English. (2007 :446) 89 Il nous semble toutefois moins sûr que le phénomène atteigne massivement les dérivés parisyllabiques, à moins que ceux-ci ne finissent par se plier au modèle que pourrait alors représenter la sous-classe des dérivés imparisyllabiques.
90 Quoi qu’il en soit, nous avons montré que, au-delà des simples considérations morphologiques, l’avancée de l’accent sur la terminaison répondait à des
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considérations sémantiques. C’est pour cette raison que nous réfutons « l’influence de la terminaison contraignante –C’C’e » (type finesse) supposée par J.‑M. Fournier (2010 : 38 ; cf. supra). Par ailleurs, il indiquait explicitement en 2002 que les noms féminins en - ess devaient s’appréhender au sein du même ensemble lexical que ca’ress : Si la référence à [la terminaison <(V)C’C’e#>] est bien la clé de l’accentuation exceptionnelle de [caress, duchess(e), duress(e), prowess, cuirass, harass, morass, abyss et possess], la question qui se pose alors, c’est de comprendre pourquoi , qu’il en est venu à affecter l’ensemble des unités en
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Sources primaires (corpus)
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[BOYER 1837] BOYER, A. et al. (1837). Dictionnaire anglais-français et français-anglais. Abrégé de Boyer. Paris: Charles Hingrey.
[BUCHANAN] BUCHANAN, J. (1766). An Essay towards Establishing a Standard for an Elegant and Uniform Pronunciation of the English Language. London: for Edward and Charles Dilly.
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[CPDBAE] LEWIS, J. W. (1972). A Concise Pronouncing Dictionary of British and American English. Oxford: OUP.
[DYCHE] DYCHE, T. (1759). A New General English Dictionary. 10e édition (1e publication 1735). London: for C. Ware.
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[FENNING] FENNING, D. (1771). The Royal English Dictionary, or a Treasury of the English Language. 4e édition (1e publication 1761). London: for L. Hawes et al.
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[JOHNSON] JOHNSON, S. (1756). A Dictionary of the English Language. London: for J. Knapton et al.
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[ODP] UPTON, C., KRETZSCHMAR W. A. Jr, KONOPKA, R. (2001). Oxford Dictionary of Pronunciation for Current English. New York: OUP.
[PERRY] PERRY, W. (1800). The Royal Standard English Dictionary. 5e édition (1e publication 1775). Boston: Isaiah Thomas and Ebenezer T. Andrews.
[SHERIDAN] SHERIDAN, T. (1780; 1797). A Complete Dictionary of the English Language, Both with Regard to Sound and Meaning. 1e et 4e éditions. London: for C. Dilly.
[S. JONES] JONES, S. (1804). A General Pronouncing and Explanatory of the English Language. 9e édition (1e publication 1798). London: for Vernor and Mood.
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NOTES
1. Je tiens à remercier Jean-Louis Duchet et Bernard Magnouloux pour leur relecture attentive de cet article et pour leurs remarques et suggestions. 2. Dont 7 qui, présents dans EPD jusqu’à la 14e édition, ont cependant disparu dans les éditions suivantes, et sont également absents de LPD. Il s’agit de ancress, arbitress, avengeress, dauphiness, foundress, idolatress et inspectress. 3. Alors qu’une voyelle entravée en syllabe post-tonique est idéalement réduite, comme dans mattress, cypress, etc. ou dans les suffixes -less et -ness. 4. Bien qu’il s’agisse d’un dictionnaire américain, les transcriptions fournies par Worcester (1860), ainsi que par d’autres lexicographes du XIXe siècle tels que Noah Webster, ne correspondent en réalité pas vraiment, à l’époque, à des prononciations américaines. Nous détaillons en particulier cette observation dans Castanier (2016 : 99-107). 5. EPD14R : 14e édition révisée avec supplément, publiée en 1998 par Susan Ramsaran. 6. Seuls 35,2 % des mots peuvent prendre l’accent final dans ODP, mais il nous apparaît de façon générale que ce dictionnaire est moins sensible à la variation que EPD et LPD. Quant à CPDBAE, qui fournit un peu plus de schémas [-1] que EPD14(R), il permet de supposer que EPD était un peu en retard dans son enregistrement lexicographique du phénomène. 7. Seducer et seductress ne sont pas en lien de dérivation direct, puisque la forme féminine devrait dériver, à strictement parler, de *seductor.
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8. Nous plaçons druidess et leopardess entre parenthèses car ils peuvent bien recevoir un accent final selon ODP et/ou CPDBAE, mais pas selon EPD et LPD. 9. Désignant vraisemblablement une personne refoulée d’un établissement par un videur. 10. On peut cependant suspecter qu’il puisse y avoir une distinction entre lioness désignant un lion femelle, et lioness désignant une femme dont le comportement est comparé à celui d’une lionne. 11. La double accentuation primaire était d’ailleurs un procédé fréquemment employé dans certains dictionnaires antérieurs au XXe siècle lorsque leurs auteurs ne pouvaient trancher en faveur d’une accentuation ou d’une autre. Il s’agissait souvent de mots composés, mais aussi de mots en cours de changement accentuel. 12. L’accentuation des adverbes en -arily fera également l’objet d’un article à paraître (sous réserve d’un changement de titre de l’ouvrage) : « Not necessarily neutral : placement accentuel dans les dérivés en -orily et -arily » in HANOTE, S. & NITA, R. (eds) Morphophonologie, lexicologie et langue de spécialité. Presses Universitaires de Rennes. 13. Par exemple, dans ses développements les plus récents, necessarily ne signifie plus seulement « in a necessary manner » (surtout dans la locution négative « not necessarily »), contrairement à un adverbe du type hereditarily (« in a hereditary manner »). 14. “Either < Middle Low German mōras or < Middle Dutch morasch (also in forms maras, marasch ; Dutch moeras (1599 in Kiliaan)), both ultimately < Old French marais , mares , maresc , etc.” (OED). Ceci ne suffit pas nécessairement à justifier l’accent final de ce mot, mais cela empêche en tout cas par principe de l’inclure d’office dans les emprunts au français, et donc de l’inclure dans le raisonnement. 15. Possess n’est en réalité pas préfixé mais, comme le souligne Fournier (2013 : 64), sa seconde syllabe s’interprète aisément comme une pseudo-base aux côtés de obsess et assess. 16. L’argument de J.-M. Fournier est douteux pour duchess(e) puisqu’il ne s’agit pas de variation graphique, duchess et duchesse n’ayant nullement le même sens. De plus, selon l’OED, duchesse (1794) est largement postérieur à duchess (1395). 17. Danielsson (1948 : 29) considère la date approximative de 1660 comme un pivot avant lequel les emprunts au français ont été dans l’ensemble intégrés au lexique anglais, et après lequel ils ont conservé leur accentuation finale (indépendamment du possible phénomène plus récent de rétraction accentuelle). Nos travaux dans Castanier (2016, chapitre 3 en particulier) confirment parfaitement cette observation. 18. “In 16th cent. a frequent English form was curats, cuirats, apparently under the influence of Italian curazza : compare Middle Low German koritz, Old Danish körritz, kyrritz, etc. This being, from its final s, treated as a plural, gave the mutilated singular curat, curate, etc., common 1560– 1650. The stress was then on the first syllable, but was subsequently under French influence shifted to the second [...]” (OED) 19. Notre corpus de travail dans Castanier (2016) montre que duress n’était accentué que [10] au XVIIIe siècle, et si [01] est apparu marginalement au XIXe siècle, ce schéma n’est devenu majoritaire qu’au XXe siècle. Quant à prowess et harass, leur variante [01] n’apparaît qu’à la fin du XXe siècle avec la publication de EPD15 (1997). L’accentuation finale de harass en anglais britannique semble être un américanisme, puisque l’accent final semblait déjà exister en anglais américain dès le début du XXe siècle. Il n’existe en revanche pas pour prowess dans cette variété.
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ABSTRACTS
Within a dynamic synchronic approach using in particular all 18 editions of the English Pronouncing Dictionary, this study examines the emergence since the mid-20 th century of final stress in British English (but not in American English) on feminine nouns in -ess (authoress, shepherdess, actress, manageress, etc.), whereas this ending used to be perfectly stress-neutral. The situation seems confusing, since 41% of the 78 contemporary feminine nouns in -ess now accept final stress as their main or variant pattern. When unstressed, the final syllable also oscillates between a full vowel [-es] and a weak vowel [-ɪs/-əs]. We show that morphology plays a fundamental role in this new pattern, depending whether the masculine or neutral deriving forms and the feminine derivatives are parisyllabic (stress is usually not shifted: ‘actor > ‘actress) or imparisyllabic (final stress is frequent: ‘author > ˌautho’ress). We also show that this ending may have a marked meaning, and that this semantic criterion interacts with the morphological criterion in attracting stress on the final syllable or not. In the final part we try to determine the potential origins of the change by identifying its lexical diffusion pattern, which suggests the likely role of the socio-historical context (wars, feminist waves, etc.).
Dans une approche de synchronie dynamique utilisant notamment les 18 éditions de l’English Pronouncing Dictionary, cette étude examine l’apparition, depuis le milieu du XXe siècle, d’un accent final en anglais britannique (mais non en anglais américain) sur les noms féminins en -ess (authoress, shepherdess, actress, manageress, etc.), terminaison autrefois parfaitement neutre accentuellement. La situation semble confuse, puisque 41 % des 78 noms féminins en -ess contemporains admettent aujourd’hui un accent final en schéma principal ou en variante. Lorsqu’elle n’est pas accentuée, la finale oscille par ailleurs entre une voyelle pleine [-es] ou réduite [-ɪs/-əs]. Nous montrons que la morphologie régule fortement cette nouvelle accentuation, selon que dérivants masculins ou neutres et dérivés féminins sont parisyllabiques (l’accent n’est alors généralement pas final : ‘actor > ‘actress) ou imparisyllabiques (l’accent est alors souvent final : ‘author > ˌautho’ress). Par ailleurs, nous montrons que le sémantisme de la terminaison féminine - ess est parfois marqué, et que ce critère sémantique interagit avec le critère morphologique dans l’attraction ou non de l’accent sur la finale. Enfin, nous proposons de remonter aux sources possibles du changement en identifiant son schéma de diffusion lexicale, qui pointe le rôle probable du contexte socio-historique (guerres, vagues féministes, etc.).
INDEX
Keywords: English phonology, stress placement, feminine nouns, -ess ending, ongoing change, morphology, semantics, lexical diffusion Mots-clés: phonologie de l’anglais, accentuation, noms féminins, terminaison -ess, changement en cours, morphologie, sémantique, diffusion lexicale
AUTHOR
JÉRÉMY CASTANIER
Laboratoire CORPUS (EA 4295), Université de Picardie Jules Verne
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