This paper investigates two supra-local sociolinguistic features produced by speakers from South West and South East England: t-glottaling, which is socially salient (Schleef, 2013), and the pre-vocalic definite article (PVDA). The Standard English rule is that "the" is realised as [ði:] before vowels, and when carrying emphatic stress, but [ðə] elsewhere. This difference in realisation is mainly caused by either a glide or a glottal stop being inserted to break vowel hiatus (Britain & Fox, 2008). However, there is some evidence to suggest that glottal stop insertion, the phonetic process that results in [ðə] before vowels, is becoming more frequent in varieties of English around the world (Davidson & Erker, 2014). This paper questions if a speaker’s frequent use of glottal stops in other phonetic contexts correlates with the use of [ðə] before vowels, and discusses the underlying phonetic processes that may link these variants. It also discusses the difference in social salience between the variables.
The data was collected from 23 students at Cardiff University who were recorded reading out a text describing a cartoon both designed to elicit PVDA. 557 tokens of the PVDA and 235 tokens of post-vocalic and inter-vocalic /t/ were analysed perceptually and acoustically, and the relationships between the two linguistic variables and social factors were tested using Rbrul.
The findings of the research show some differences in terms of regional distribution and gender, but the focus of the discussion is on the relationship between supra-local non-standard variants; investigating if the use of one increases the likelihood of using the other as a form of phonetic diffusion in supra-local vernacular speech.
References
Britain, D., & Fox, S. (2008). The regularisation of the hiatus resolution system in British English. In M. Filppula, J. Klemola, & H. Paulasto (Eds.), Vernacular Universals and Language Contacts: Evidence from Varieties of English and Beyond (pp. 177–205). New York: Routledge.
Davidson, L., & Erker, D. (2014). Hiatus resolution in American English: the case against glide insertion. Language, 90(2), 482–514.
Schleef, E. (2013). Glottal replacement of/t/in two British capitals: Effects of word frequency and morphological compositionality. Language Variation and Change, 25(02), 201–223.
