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Phonetic variation and change in the Cockney Diaspora: The role of place, gender, and identity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 August 2020

Amanda Cole Open the ORCID record for Amanda Cole [Opens in a new window]  and
Bronwen G. Evans
Amanda Cole*
Affiliation:
University of Essex
Bronwen G. Evans
Affiliation:
University College London
*
Address for Correspondence: Amanda Cole Department of Languages and Linguistics University of EssexColchester, CO4 3SQ, UK[email protected]
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Abstract

Recent research has suggested that two linguistic processes are displacing Cockney: the emergence of Multicultural London English (MLE) in inner London and dialect levelling (e.g. Kerswill & Williams 2005). This study investigates firstly whether Cockney phonetic features have ‘moved East’ to Essex (Fox 2015), and secondly the features’ indexicality in relation to place and identity. Fifty-four participants from Debden, an outpost of the Cockney Diaspora, completed a sociolinguistic interview. Vowel measurements were made from a wordlist and passage, and quantitative attitudinal and qualitative data were extracted from a questionnaire and interviews. Overall, changes in identity as a result of social change exceeded linguistic changes, and linguistic labels were not interpreted uniformly across the community. Whilst Cockney variants were largely maintained in young speakers, they were transposed onto an ‘Essex’ accent. Furthermore, some young women but no young men considered themselves Cockney, likely due to the matrifocal nature of Cockney. (Cockney, phonetic variation and change, dialect levelling, identity, indexicality, gender)

Type
Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 50 , Issue 5 , November 2021 , pp. 641 - 665
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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