Department of Linguistics and English Language, Lancaster University, LA1 4YT, United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0) 1524 594577 Fax: +44 (0) 1524 843085

Phonological levelling, diffusion & divergence in Liverpool and its hinterland

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Summary: The project, coordinated by Dr Kevin Watson and Professor Paul Kerswill, will investigate the roles of and interaction between linguistic and non-linguistic factors in accent levelling, geographical diffusion and phonological divergence in the north-west of England, by examining the varieties of English spoken in three localities in the Merseyside region: Liverpool, arguably the most well-recognised and stereotyped accent in the area, Skelmersdale, a new town which has been subjected to migration from Liverpool, and St Helens, a smaller town which, because of changes in country boundaries, is variably affiliated with Merseyside and Lancashire.

Key Facts

Website: http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/projects/phono_levelling/index.htm

Funder: ESRC

Type of Activity: Academic Research - Externally Funded

Principal Investigator: Kevin Watson

Consultant: Paul Kerswill

Dept/Research Groups: Linguistics and English Language, Language Variation and Linguistic Theory (LVLT)

Keywords: English phonetics, Phonetics, Sociophonetics, Sociolinguistics, Phonology

Purpose of Research

Academic Research - Externally Funded

Project Funder

ESRC

Associated News Stories

Kevin Watson & Lynn Clark give invited talk at the Poznan Linguistics Meeting

Date: 2 May 2011

Kevin Watson & Lynn Clark give an invited paper at the workshop on 'Experimental Approaches to Sociolinguistics', being held at the Poznan Linguis ... Read more»

Kevin Watson & Lynn Clark give paper at the 'Variation and Language Processing' Conference

Date: 11 April 2011

Kevin Watson & Lynn Clark give a paper at the first 'Variation and Language Processing' conference (VaLP2011), being held at the University of Che ... Read more»

Kevin Watson & Lynn Clark give invited talk at Sheffield Hallam

Date: 29 March 2011

Kevin Watson & Lynn Clark give invited talk at Sheffield Hallam's Language Seminar Series, entitled:"Sociolinguistics, salience & statistics: ... Read more»

Kevin Watson & Lynn Clark present a talk at NWAV39

Date: 3 November 2010

Kevin Watson & Lynn Clark presented a talk called 't-to-r in British English: on frequency, constructions and sociolinguistics' at the New Ways of ... Read more»

Kevin Watson & Lynn Clark give invited talk at University of York

Date: 1 November 2010

Kevin Watson and Lynn Clark gavea guest lectureat the University of York. The talk was called 'Sociolinguistic and cognitive linguistic approaches to ... Read more»

Kevin Watson & Lynn Clark run workshop for A Level students at Stockport College

Date: 13 October 2010

Kevin Watson and Lynn Clark ran a workshop for A Level English Language students at Stockport College. The workshop was about accent variation in the ... Read more»

Associated Events

LVLT talk: 'Sociolinguistics, salience and statistics: outlining some new directions in language attitude research' Kevin Watson & Lynn Clark

Date: 10 March 2011 Time: 12.00-1.00

The LVLT talk this week will be given byKevin Watson & Lynn ClarkTitle: Sociolinguistics, salience and statistics: outlining some new directions i ... Read more»

 

LVLT workshop on using RBrul (Lynn Clark)

Date: 16 December 2010 Time: 9.30 - 11.30am

As part of the LVLT research group, Lynn Clark is running a workshop about using RBrul. Rbrul (Johnson 2009) runs on the R environment and allows the ... Read more»

 

LVLT meeting: Kevin Watson & Lynn Clark '/t/s and /r/s and t-to-r in Northern British English'

Date: 28 October 2010 Time: 12.00-1.00

Meeting of the Language Variation and Linguistic Theory Research GroupKevin Watson & Lynn Clark will give a talk called/t/s and /r/s and t-to-r in ... Read more»