Upcoming colloquium: Jessica Wormald
Our last colloquium speaker of the year will be Jessica Wormald, PhD candidate at the University of York.
Date: Thursday March 25, 2015, 11:30 am- 12:45pm
Location: Clearihue C108
Talk title: "It’s mixed, it’s like a cake, innit”: Characterising a British contact variety with a focus on rhotics."
Abstract:
This talk will discuss preliminary findings from a study considering the development of ‘Panjabi-English’ (PE), a British contact variety, as spoken in two British cities. The study considers whether a shared heritage language can account for similar linguistic patterns observed in two geographically separate PE varieties despite the presence of regionally distinct Anglo-English varieties. This talk introduces the field sites, and the collection of data. I consider the characteristic vowels FACE and GOAT, and present results of a vocal profile analysis. I then focus on variability associated with rhotics. There is evidence for increased variability in the realisation of /r/ for PE speakers. The reduced amount of r-full /r/-sandhi realisations and the similar strategies employed in hiatus breaking contexts pose interesting questions for the phonology of /r/ in PE. I consider these patterns in relation to any potential influence from Panjabi, and the navigation of complex identities by speakers.
Jessica Wormald, recipient of a Wolfson Foundation postgraduate scholarship, is a PhD candidate the University of York. Her research explores the results of contact in two British cities and considers the linguistic outcomes of this contact on the native English spoken in these locations.