! Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès UFR Langues, Littérature et Civilisations Étrangères Département des Études du Monde Anglophone The Sociophonology of a Speech Community of Young Adults in Birmingham - Towards a Definition Mémoire de Recherche de Master 2 Présenté par Tanguy ENTRINGER Sous la direction de Madame Anne Przewozny-Desriaux, DEMA et laboratoire CLLE-ERSS Relecture effectuée par Monsieur Daniel Huber, DEMA et laboratoire CLLE-ERSS, membre du jury June 2019 !1 of 108! Acknowledgements I would first like to express my warmest thanks to my supervisor, Anne Przewozny, for her invaluable advice, helpful guidance and total support throughout my time as her student. She regularly invited me to phonology conferences and university events in order to introduce me to various topics related to my dissertation research. Dr. Jane Stuart-Smith also deserves thanks for warmly responding to my requests and accepting to advise and share her extensive expertise in her office at the University of Glasgow, United Kingdom. Thank you also to The University of Glasgow Library, which gave me permission to access invaluable library resources. I warmly thank the personnel for giving me access to their phonology library. I am indebted to my former French students at the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom over the course of the 2017 and 2018 academic year. I thank them for being curious in the classroom as well as for their sense of humour. I would especially like to thank my fourth-year students who kindly responded to my requests and accepted to partake in my research project during their hectic exam period. I would like to particularly thank my friend for letting me assess his pronunciation and share it within the scientific framework of phonology. I express my gratitude to my whole family, my parents and friends for their support and encouragement to the writing of this dissertation. Finally, I would like to thank Dóra for her genuine kindness, constant encouragement, constructive criticisms and invaluable advice. !2 of 108! Table of Contents Introduction.................................................................................................... 6 I- Received Pronunciation, Cockney and Estuary English: The Intricate Task of Defining These Accents............................................................... 9 1. Historical Background..................................................................................... 9 1.1 The intricate definition of Received Pronunciation and its ‘subjective’ connotation.... 9 1.1.1 Origins............................................................................................................................................ 9 1.1.2 Paradoxes regarding EE’s current perception: Standardisation and lack of regionalism? ..........10 1.1.3 Controversial labels .....................................................................................................................12 1.1.4 Varieties of RP?............................................................................................................................ 13 1.1.5 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................14 1.2 Cockney: the ‘working class’ dialect?....................................................................... 15 1.2.1 Problematic definitions ................................................................................................................15 1.2.2 More than an accent: The Cockney dialect and its ‘rhyming slang’............................................ 18 1.2.3 Varieties of Cockney? ..................................................................................................................18 1.2.4 Strong sociological dimension .....................................................................................................19 1.2.5 Cockney at the core of RP........................................................................................................... 20 1.2.6 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................20 1.3 Estuary English: An ‘in-between’ accent?................................................................. 21 1.3.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................21 1.3.2 David Rosewarne: The coiner of EE ............................................................................................21 1.3.3 Paul Coggle .................................................................................................................................22 1.3.4 Wells .............................................................................................................................................24 1.3.5 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................28 2. Three phonological systems and various pronunciation variants............. 28 • Phonetics and Phonology .....................................................................................................28 • Focus on /t/-glottalisation .....................................................................................................29 2.1.1 Basis of the phonological system of RP ......................................................................................30 2.1.2 The phonological system of RP: A representative pronunciation of the British people? ............31 2.1.3 Focus on /t/-glottalisation ............................................................................................................32 2.2 Cockney: A ‘working class’ RP?................................................................................ 33 2.2.1 Phonological system of Cockney ................................................................................................33 2.2.2 Focus on /t/-glottalisation ............................................................................................................34 2.3 EE: both RP and Cockney blended?........................................................................ 35 2.3.1 General phonological system of EE............................................................................................. 35 2.3.2 /t/-glottalisation and its environments .........................................................................................37 • Conclusion............................................................................................................................ 38 II- Corpora and Research............................................................................ 39 1. Substantial corpora hitherto conducted related to EE............................... 39 !3 of 108! 1.1 Przedlacka: the pioneering researcher of EE........................................................... 39 1.1.1 Aim ...............................................................................................................................................39 1.1.2 Methodology ................................................................................................................................40 1.1.3 Results ........................................................................................................................................42 1.1.4 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................43 1.1.5 Observations and Discussion ......................................................................................................44 1.2 Corpora conducted by Ulrike Altendorf (1997 and 1998/1999) and by Christina Schmid (1998)................................................................................................................ 45 1.2.1 Altendorf (1997) ...........................................................................................................................45 1.2.2 Christina Schmid and her thesis on EE (1998) ............................................................................48 1.2.3 Altendorf 1998/1999: London Project.......................................................................................... 49 1.3 Tamás Eitler and his corpus: a song......................................................................... 50 1.4 Conclusion and discussion....................................................................................... 51 2. Britain’s youth and their perception over accents...................................... 53 2.1 Sociological information as to the community of young adults today....................... 53 2.2 The young community at odds with Received Pronunciation?................................. 56 2.3 The young community in favour of EE?.................................................................... 58 III- The study carried out in June 2018 at the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom....................................................................................... 60 1. Methodology - corpus phonology and the PAC programme..................... 60 1.1 The importance of phonology corpus, however big or small corpora are................. 60 1.2 PAC: definition, founders and co-founders............................................................... 62 1.3 Objectives and methods..........................................................................................