Linguistic change in Galway City English

This article presents a pilot study of linguistic change in progress in Irish English. It is based on a small corpus of interview data. Using a segmental phonological approach, the paper focuses on the phonological characteristics of English spoken in the Bóthar Mór district of Galway City in the west of Ireland. The data come from four female speakers who belong to different age groups. The analysis of prenasal /e/-raising and dental fricatives reveals patterns of variation that appear to be due to intergenerationally-based change in progress. Other patterns of variation are instances of stable variation. Keywords: Southern Irish English; Galway English; Bóthar Mór/Bohermore; phonological change; apparent-time study; linguistic change

• Affiliations: 1: University of Potsdam