1887
Volume 19, Issue 1
  • ISSN 0172-8865
  • E-ISSN: 1569-9730
USD
Buy:$35.00 + Taxes

Abstract

Work on Northern Hiberno-English (NHE) generally accepts a consensus view that plays down or overlooks interactions between ethnic division and language variation. A study of Derry/Londonderry English (DLE) indicates that, for a feature involved in ongoing change, ethnicity is a salient social factor. The (e) variable in the FACE-class is subject to change in which a distinction between "Standard" NHE [e] and vernacular [I] is giving way to a three-way distinction which for some speakers adds ingliding [is] diphthongs. The change originates in the east of Northern Ireland, especially Belfast, and may have been in progress for some time. It is entering DLE through the Protestant middle class, and diphthongs are now the predominant vernacular form among Protestant teenagers of both sexes and all class backgrounds. While it has made little progress among Catholics, it is currently found mainly among the Catholic middle class. The ethnic boundary is not an impermeable barrier, but it has a considerable delaying effect on the spread of this innovation.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/eww.19.1.03mcc
1998-01-01
2025-04-25
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/eww.19.1.03mcc
Loading
  • Article Type: Research Article
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error