The stylistic variation of nuclear patterns in Belfast English

Abstract

Informal observation of Belfast speakers finds a larger number of falls in careful speaking styles than the literature would suggest is the case, since Belfast English is reported to be one of the minority varieties of English in which the rise predominates in both interrogatives and declaratives. Three different speaking styles, ranging from careful to spontaneous are elicited from twelve seventeen-year-old Belfast speakers, and the nuclear accents analysed. In the majority of speakers, there is a tendency to use more falling nuclei when the speech style is careful, and fewer or none at all in the most informal style. It is suggested that this is an attempt, in formal contexts, to emulate the prestige variety of the language, which is probably that spoken in Southern England, and uses a preponderance of falling nuclei. Female speakers show more willingness than males to use the features of the prestige variety, which may be explained by social, cultural and complex contextual reasons.