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t-to-r in West Yorkshire English1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2008

JUDITH M. BROADBENT
JUDITH M. BROADBENT*
Affiliation:
English Language and Linguistics, Roehampton University, Roehampton Lane, London SW15 5PH, [email protected]
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Abstract

This article investigates t-to-r in West Yorkshire (WY) English and traces its course from a productive process in the nineteenth century to a lexically restricted fossil in contemporary WY. Nineteenth-century sources suggest that by the end of that century this process was already in decline. During the course of the twentieth century t-glottalling became a feature of the variety and so this article explores the possibility that as the frequency of use of t-glottalling increased, this would quickly overshadow t-to-r usage. Paradoxically, frequency of use is also responsible for the t-to-r phenomenon manifested today. More specifically, t-to-r remains in a small group of frequent words which are related by phonological shape. As a consequence of their frequency and shape, they have lexical strength and this is why a t-to-r fossil is maintained in WY today.

Type
Research Article
Information
English Language & Linguistics , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , March 2008 , pp. 141 - 168
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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