A Sociophonological Analysis of Mersea Island English: An investigation of the diphthongs (), () and () Jennifer Amos A thesis submitted for the degree of PhD Linguistics Department of Language and Linguistics University of Essex September 2011 II ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Firstly, I would like to extend my thanks to all the people of Mersea Island who willingly gave up their time to help with this study. They welcomed me into their homes, gave me endless cups of tea and provided me with any information I needed. Also, to all those at the Mersea Museum, thank you for granting me access to the archive recordings and for being so patient when I needed help. This research could not have been completed without you all. I also wish to thank to the E.S.R.C. for their financial support (Award Number PTA-031- 2006-00256) and my supervisors, Prof. Dr. David Britain and Dr Wyn Johnson, for their continuous encouragement and faith in my research. To David, my family and my friends, what can I say? Thank you for your love and tolerance, for sharing the laughter and the tears, and for always being there. Finally, to my dad, Adrian – Thank you for being the most hilarious proof-reader anyone could wish for! - J.A. III “Is the bottle half-full or half-empty? Neither. There is always something in place of that space where nothing can be seen, whether it be air, or something other. Therefore the bottle is always full, but, like life, it is not always full of what you expect.” - Michelle-Lee Phelan IV ABSTRACT This thesis presents a socio-phonological analysis of three diphthongs in Mersea Island English (MIE). Mersea Island is situated off the North East coast of Essex in South East England. Socio-economically, the Island has seen dramatic change over the past century. Originally quite isolated and economically largely self-sufficient, social and demographic changes have led to significantly greater contact (both social and linguistic) with the mainland. Thus, parallels may be drawn between the developments of Mersea Island and those of, for example, Martha’s Vineyard and Ocracoke Island in North America. The nature of these social changes will be evaluated alongside the analysis of the diphthongs MOUTH, PRICE and CHOICE. As a result, the direction of change and typologies of variation present in the speech of three generations of Mersea Islanders will be established, and the relationship between the dialectological findings and external sociolinguistic factors will be explored. The results from the sociolinguistic data analysis will then be considered in light of naturalness and phonological theory. Using an approach combining the mechanics of Optimality Theory (OT) and the principles of Dispersion Theory, a three-tiered model will be constructed which effectively represents the interface between internal (linguistic) factors and external (sociolinguistic) influences on language variation and change. It will be seen, through the application of this model to MIE that, while some variation may be generated at the linguistic level, other variation may be attributed to selections based upon sociolinguistic considerations. In addition, the incorporation of variation at each level of the model allows for a distinction to be made between language change, which is V generated through linguistic motivations, and change which is motivated by external sociolinguistic desires. VI TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract IV Introduction 1 Chapter 1 11 Mersea Island – The Community: it’s social history and demographic change 1.1 The Island 12 1.2 Access 15 1.3 The Island’s Geographic Development 15 1.4 Modern Mersea 18 1.5 Summary 29 Chapter 2 30 Methodology 2.1 Data Collection 32 2.1.1 The Interviews 32 2.1.2 The Informants – General Overview 35 2.1.2.1 The Museum Speakers 37 2.1.2.2 The Older Generation 38 2.1.2.3 The Younger Generation 38 2.2 Social Factors 39 2.2.1 Class 39 2.2.2 Age and Gender 41 2.3 The Variables – Extraction, Analysis and Classification 42 2.3.1 Linguistic Constraints 42 2.3.1.1 Syllable Type 43 2.3.1.2 Phonological Environment 44 2.3.1.2.1 The Distribution of /a/ 44 2.3.1.2.2 The Distribution of /a/ 45 2.3.1.2.3 The Distribution of // 46 2.3.1.3 Stress 46 2.3.1.4 LIKE 47 2.4 Historical Data 47 2.4.1 Ellis (1889) 48 2.4.2 Wright (1968) 49 2.4.3 Kurath and Lowman (1970) 50 2.4.4 The Survey of English Dialects (SED) 51 2.5 Summary 52 VII Chapter 3 53 The Historical Derivation and Variation of the Variable () 3.1 Historical Sources 54 3.2 Variation of (a) 60 3.2.1 Historical Variation 64 3.2.1.1 Ellis (1889) 64 3.2.1.2 Wright (1968) 64 3.2.1.3 Kurath and Lowman (1970) 65 3.2.1.4 The Survey of English Dialects (SED) 65 3.2.1.5 Summary 66 3.2.2 Modern Variation Studies – The South East 67 3.2.2.1 The East Anglia Fens 67 3.2.2.2 Colchester 69 3.2.2.3 Basildon 70 3.2.2.4 Summary 71 3.2.3 Contemporary Studies of Insular Varieties 72 3.2.3.1 Martha’s Vineyard 72 3.2.3.2 Ocracoke and Smith Island 74 3.2.3.3 The Falkland Islands 76 3.2.3.4 St Helena 78 3.2.3.5 Tristan da Cunha 80 3.3 Summary 81 Chapter 4 83 4.1 () - An Analysis of Social and Linguistic Factors 84 4.2 Social Factors 85 4.2.1 Age 86 4.2.2 Age and Gender 89 4.3 Linguistic Factors 92 4.3.1 Syllable Type 92 4.3.2 Preceding Phonological Environment 94 4.3.3 Following Phonological Environment 98 4.3.3.1 Following Voice 100 4.4 Summary 104 Chapter 5 106 The Historical Derivation and Variation of the Variable (a) 5.1 Historical Sources 107 5.2 Variation of (a) 111 VIII 5.3 Historical Variation 114 5.3.1 Ellis (1889) 114 5.3.2 Wright (1968) 115 5.3.3 Kurath and Lowman (1970) 116 5.3.4 The Survey of English Dialects (SED) 116 5.3.5 Summary 117 5.4 Some More Recent Studies 117 5.4.1 Norwich 118 5.4.2 The East Anglian Fens 120 5.4.3 Other South-Eastern Variation 121 5.4.4 Summary 123 5.5 Contemporary Studies of Insular Varieties 124 5.5.1 Martha’s Vineyard 124 5.5.2 Ocracoke and Smith Island 126 5.5.3 The Falkland Islands 128 5.5.4 St Helena 129 5.5.5 Tristan da Cunha 131 5.6 The Special Status of LIKE – Variation in New Zealand 132 English 5.7 Summary 133 Chapter 6 135 6.1 () - An Analysis of Social and Linguistic Factors 136 6.2 Social Factors 138 6.2.1 Age 138 6.2.2 Age and Gender 139 6.3 Linguistic Factors 140 6.3.1 Syllable Type 140 6.3.2 Preceding Phonological Environment 141 6.3.3 Following Environments 142 6.3.3.1 Voice 143 6.3.3.2 Manner 146 6.3.3.3 Following Place of Articulation 146 6.3.3.4 Following /l/ and the Status of ‘Island’ 147 6.3.4 LIKE 152 6.4 Summary 155 IX Chapter 7 157 The Historical Derivation and Variation of the Variable () 7.1 Historical Sources 158 7.1.1 // and //, a Temporary Merger? 159 7.2 Historical Variation 162 7.2.1 Ellis (1889) 162 7.2.2 Kurath and Lowman (1970) 163 7.2.3 The Survey of English Dialects (SED) 164 7.3 Modern Variation Studies 164 7.3.1 British English 165 7.3.2 International Insular Variation 166 7.3.2.1 The Falkland Islands 166 7.3.2.2 St Helena 166 7.3.2.3 Tristan da Cunha 167 7.4 Summary 167 Chapter 8 169 8.1 () - An Analysis of Social and Linguistic Factors 170 8.2 Social Factors 170 8.2.1 Age 170 8.2.2 Age and Gender 172 8.3 Linguistic Factors 173 8.3.1 Syllable Type 173 8.3.2 Phonological Environments 176 8.3.2.1 Preceding Place of Articulation 176 8.3.2.2 Preceding Manner of Articulation 179 8.3.3 The BOY Effect 180 8.4 Summary 183 Chapter 9 185 MIE - Sociolinguistic Considerations 9.1 The Direction of Change 186 9.2 Performance and Enregisterment 190 9.2.1 Performance, Enregisterment and Mersea Island English 193 9.3 Contact, Diffusion and Supra-localisation 200 X Chapter 10 209 Socio-Phonology: the construction of an integrated model 10.1 What is Optimality Theory? 211 10.1.1 The Nature of Constraints 218 10.1.1.1 Faithfulness Constraints 218 10.1.1.2 Markedness Constraints 221 10.1.2 Optimality Theory and Language Variation 222 10.1.2.1 Tied Violations 223 10.1.2.2 Multiple Grammars 224 10.1.2.3 Stochastic OT 226 10.2 Dispersion Theory 229 10.2.1 Dispersion Constraints 231 10.3 A Three-Part Phonology 236 10.3.1 The Inventory 237 10.3.2 The Realisation 239 10.3.3 The Evaluation of Surface Constraints 241 10.3.4 Evaluation of this Approach 243 10.4 An Inventory- Based Model of Mersea Island English 254 10.4.1 The Inventory 254 10.4.2 The Realisation of Contrasts 254 10.4.2.1 Canadian Raising 255 10.4.2.2 The Dorsal Effect - A lowering of diphthong nuclei 257 after /k/ 10.4.2.3 Smoothing - // to /:/ before coda /l/ 259 10.4.2.3.1 Smoothing - Proposal 1 260 10.4.2.3.2 Smoothing - Proposal 2 262 10.4.2.4 Island Monophthongisation 263 10.4.2.5 BOY 266 10.4.3 The Older Speakers – multiple grammars or variable 270 ranking? 10.4.4 Evaluation of Surface Constraint (ESC) 272 10.5 The Sociolinguistic Level of Speech Production 275 10.5.1 Introduction 275 10.5.2 Communicative Competence 276 10.5.3 Where does that leave phonology? Information through 280 exemplars 10.5.4 How this can be implemented through the three-tiered 284 model 10.5.5 The Activation of the Sociolinguistics Matrix and 291 Evaluative Parameters 10.6 The Representation of Types of Change 294 XI Conclusion 304 Bibliography 308 Appendix A 319 The complete numerical data sets pertaining to the analysis of the variable () Appendix B 339 The complete numerical data sets pertaining to the analysis of the variable () Appendix C 358 The complete numerical data sets pertaining to the analysis of the variable () Appendix D 382 Examples from the Mersea data for each of the variables examined with respect to preceding and following environments Appendix E 388 The (stressed) vowel inventories of two