Investigating Regional Speech in Yorkshire: Evidence from the Millennium Memory Bank

In this thesis I investigate the extent to which accent variation existed in Yorkshire at the turn of the millennium. I do this by examining the speech of a number of speakers from different locations around the region, recorded in 1998-9 as part of the Millennium Memory Bank oral history project conducted by the BBC and British Library. I also use this data to study change over time by comparing two generations of speakers from the Millennium Memory Bank, and also comparing those speakers with data from the Survey of English Dialects. I conduct the study focussing on two phonological variables: the GOAT vowel, and the PRICE vowel. I discuss the changes and variation found, both over time and with regard to place, with reference to dialect levelling as it has previously been described within the region, considering the possibility of the development of a ‘pan-Yorkshire’ variety. My findings suggest that, although changes have clearly occurred in Yorkshire since the time of the SED, some variation within the region remains robust, and there may even be evidence of new diversity arising as urban varieties in Yorkshire cities continue to evolve.
I also assess the potential of an oral history interview collection such as the Millennium Memory Bank for use in linguistic research, discussing the advantages and drawbacks of such data, and describing ways in which the collection as it currently stands could be made more accessible to linguists.