What is it about?
We identified intonation patterns of the Welsh accent in English and then correlated them with speakers' social attributes: cultural background (North Wales, South Wales, Cardiff), generation of speakers (young, middle-aged, old), gender (men, women) and social class (middle, working). The data was compared to the standard BBC English tone nomenclature (Crystal, 1969). The differences in the frequency and form of tones were further broken down based on the Welsh language intonation and rhythm patterns.
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Why is it important?
This paper is a state-of-the-art description of Welsh English pitch patterns which may serve as Welsh English regional and social markers. Our findings show that a person's identity, among other linguistic and extra-linguistic features, is reflected through the choice of intonation patterns.
Perspectives
Though English is a global language and the population of its speakers is as diverse as ever, we still tend to view accented speech as 'less correct'. Our article gives an insight into socially determined aspects of accent and how they serve as constituents of a speaker's identity.
Maria Fedotova
Moscow State Technical University N E Bauman
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This page is a summary of: Welsh English intonation and social identity, Sociolinguistic Studies, December 2016, Equinox Publishing,
DOI: 10.1558/sols.29500.
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