A variationist multilocality study of unstressed vowels and verbal -s marking in the peripheral dialect of east Suffolk Robert Stephen Potter A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Language and Linguistics University of Essex February 2018 Contents List of Figures ………………………………………………………………………… iv Abstract ……………………………………………………………………………….. v Acknowledgements …………………………………………………………………... vi Chapter 1 Introduction ................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Why investigate Suffolk English? ........................................................................ 1 1.2 The chapters .......................................................................................................... 2 1.3 Research questions ............................................................................................... 3 1.3.1 Does either variable show a case of linguistic change in progress? .............. 4 1.3.2 Is there evidence of geographical variation across the three communities under investigation? ................................................................................................ 4 1.3.3 Is the use of the variables linguistically and/or socially motivated? ............. 5 Chapter 2 Literature Review ....................................................................................... 7 2.1 Variationist sociolinguistics ................................................................................. 7 2.1.1 Early dialectology .......................................................................................... 8 2.1.2 Labov, Trudgill and the birth of the variationist paradigm ......................... 11 2.1.3 The development of the variationist approach and criticisms ..................... 18 2.2 Social variables ................................................................................................... 23 2.2.1 Age ............................................................................................................... 23 2.2.2 Gender ......................................................................................................... 33 2.2.3 Social class .................................................................................................. 42 2.3 Language, space, contact, supralocalisation and dialect levelling...................... 47 2.3.1 Language and Space .................................................................................... 47 2.3.2 Supralocalisation and dialect levelling ........................................................ 52 Chapter 3 East Anglia: A Historical and Linguistic Overview .............................. 56 3.1 East Anglia – a brief early history ...................................................................... 56 i | P a g e 3.2 East Anglian English .......................................................................................... 60 3.2.1 The boundaries of ‘linguistic East Anglia’ .................................................. 60 3.2.2 Previous studies ........................................................................................... 63 3.2.3 Dialect description ....................................................................................... 69 3.3 The locations ....................................................................................................... 74 3.3.1 Ipswich ......................................................................................................... 79 3.3.2 Wickham Market ......................................................................................... 81 3.3.3 Woodbridge ................................................................................................. 83 Chapter 4 Methodology .............................................................................................. 86 4.1 Data collection methods ..................................................................................... 86 4.1.1 Pilot studies .................................................................................................. 86 4.1.2 Sociolinguistic interviews ............................................................................ 89 4.2 The linguistic variables (introduction to) ........................................................... 95 4.2.1 Verbal -s ...................................................................................................... 96 4.2.2 The ‘David’ variable .................................................................................... 98 4.2.3 Morphosyntactic variables ........................................................................... 99 4.2.4 Phonological variables ............................................................................... 101 4.3 Independent variables ....................................................................................... 105 4.3.1 Age ............................................................................................................. 105 4.3.2 Gender ....................................................................................................... 106 4.3.3 Social class ................................................................................................ 106 4.4 Sampling ........................................................................................................... 107 4.5 Ethical considerations ....................................................................................... 110 4.6 Recording techniques ....................................................................................... 114 4.7 Data coding and analysis .................................................................................. 116 Chapter 5 Linguistic Variable 1: Verbal -s ............................................................ 119 5.1 Verbal -s as a linguistic variable ....................................................................... 119 ii | P a g e 5.1.1 Introduction to verbal -s variation ............................................................. 119 5.1.2 Historical development of verbal -s variation ........................................... 122 5.1.3 Internal constraints on verbal -s variation ................................................. 126 5.1.4 External constraints on verbal -s variation ................................................ 134 5.2 Verbal -s in East Anglia .................................................................................... 137 5.2.1 Historical development of verbal -s variation in East Anglia ................... 137 5.2.2 Internal constraints on verbal -s variation in East Anglia.......................... 139 5.2.3 External constraints on verbal -s variation in East Anglia ........................ 140 5.3 Methodological considerations ......................................................................... 143 5.4 Results .............................................................................................................. 146 Chapter 6 Linguistic Variable 2: The ‘David’ Variable ....................................... 160 6.1 Unstressed vowels ............................................................................................ 160 6.2 The ‘David’ variable ......................................................................................... 164 6.2.1 Introduction to variable.............................................................................. 164 6.2.2 History of the variable ............................................................................... 169 6.2.3 Internal constraints .................................................................................... 171 6.2.4 External constraints ................................................................................... 175 6.3 Methodological considerations ......................................................................... 177 6.4 Results .............................................................................................................. 180 Chapter 7 Conclusions ............................................................................................. 189 7.1 Verbal -s ........................................................................................................... 189 7.2 The ‘David’ variable ......................................................................................... 191 7.3 The overall picture – dialect levelling and/or maintenance? ............................ 193 7.4 Geographical variation and the role of ‘place’ ................................................. 195 Chapter 8 References ............................................................................................... 199 iii | P a g e List of Figures Figure 1 Map showing East Anglia's location within the United Kingdom, Google (2017) ............................................................................................................................ 57 Figure 2 Map showing the location of the three communities under investigation within the county of Suffolk, Google (2017) ........................................................................... 74 Figure 3 Map of the Suffolk coastline showing the location of the three communities, Haylock (2008: 94) ....................................................................................................... 75 Figure 4 Graph showing the percentage use of -s by age group in the whole Suffolk dataset 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