Language Change Flashcards
(19 cards)
What is structural change?
Great vowel shift
Example of vowel shift?
Beet - buyt - bite
What did the vowel shift affect?
Long vowels making them higher
(Jaws closer and tongue higher in mouth)
Highest vowel called diphthong
What’s a chain shift
Phonological system structure change in 15-18th century
What are the three contact (historical) factors?
Liverpool English
Vikings
Norman’s
Point of Liverpool English?
Lenition
What is lenition
Weakening of consonants , less articulating effort &easier to pronounce
Example of Liverpool English
But - buh
About - abouts
Time period of Liverpool English
Mid 19th century (used to sound like Lancashire )
Why did liverpool English develop?
Industrialisation, dock growth, movement from N England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland etc
When did the vikings happen?
9th century
What did the vikings affect?
Place names
Examples of place names
Derby - ‘by’ - farm town
Althorpe - ‘thorpe ‘ - village
Eastoft - ‘toft’ - homestead
ALL SCANDINAVIAN
When did the Norman’s happen?
1066
Effects of Norman’s?
Norman French imposes prestige language variety (language of rulers)
Loan words
List the social factors
Fashion and identity
Effect of fashion on language?
Upper class used longer vowels so they wouldn’t be mistaken for a commoner
Effect of identity on language
Llamas investigated Middlesbrough (Yorkshire) and found complex variation patterns on voicelsss stops
Tendencies of younger speakers in identity?
Use more glottal stops (on Tyneside)
Older people identified as from yorkshire
Youngest identified as from the north east
