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Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 684

Part of General Paper Session (Other abstracts in this session)

Apparent time, real time and an “off the shelf change” - TH-fronting in southeast England

Authors: Holmes-Elliott, Sophie
Submitted by: Holmes Elliott, Sophie (University of Glasgow, United Kingdom)

Recent research on patterns of variation in the UK has identified a set of non-standard consonantal variables that appear to be spreading from London to surrounding areas and throughout the UK (Britain, 2005:29). One such feature is the well-documented spread of TH-fronting, which has appeared in many disparate urban settings (e.g. Foulkes and Docherty, Ed.s, 1999) as in (1).

(1)   I think [fiŋk] she wants to like run the London Marathon [marafən] and stuff they both [bæʊf] run together (Holly, 18)

Apparent time studies frequently show a large increase in the use of the fronted variant through the generations (e.g. Britain, 2005; Docherty & Foulkes, 1999; Milroy, 2006; Stuart-Smith & Timmins, 2006; Trudgill, 1999; Watt & Milroy, 1999; Williams and Kerswill, 1999). However, this feature may be an 'off the shelf change' (Milroy, 2006). This might make it particularly susceptible to age grading, where younger speakers exhibit high rates of a feature in adolescence but withdraw from a change as they grow older. So are these generational increases an example of an extremely rapid change in progress, severe age grading or both?

In an attempt to answer this question I examine two datasets. The first is a quantitative apparent time analysis of 2,600 tokens of the interdental fricative from thirty speakers, aged fifteen to ninety, from Hastings, sixty miles south of London. Results echo those of previous studies: an extremely marked increase in use of the fronted variant through the generations. Further, analysis of the individuals reveals that the variable is highly heterogeneous throughout the community. The second dataset is a small-scale real-time analysis. Following Sankoff (2004), data were taken from the “7-up” documentary, a televised series that followed a group of individuals at seven-year intervals. Three females from east London were chosen and their rates if TH-fronting were charted. Despite small token numbers a qualitative analysis suggests that this feature is subject to vary through a person’s life exhibiting minimal rates of use in childhood followed by a typical adolescent “peak” and finally a decrease in rates of use (cf. Tagliamonte, 2009).

These results are discussed in terms of the spread of the ‘London set’ of consonants within the UK. The results from Hastings, and those found elsewhere, appear to indicate changes in progress combined with age grading, i.e. apparent time studies may have so far over-estimated the rate of change for these features. More broadly these results suggest that features like TH-fronting, i.e. discrete variables that are of limited structural consequence and are not subject to complex conditioning (Labov, 2007) may not only hop between unconnected communities but also be picked-up or put-down at any age.