This thesis examines productions and perceptions of BATH and TRAP variation in Cornwall, England. It first identifies South Western ‘long <a>’ as one of the most salient feature of West Cornish English. It then conducts an analysis of the production of the /aː/ variant in BATH and TRAP vowels in Cornwall, taking both a diachronic and synchronic perspective. This sociophonetic analysis considers both vowel quality and duration, comparing a new corpus of early adolescent speakers to the Survey of English Dialects (Orton & Dieth 1962) recordings from Cornwall, and a corpus of Received Pronunciation speakers. This shows how these vowels have changes in the years since the Survey of English Dialects and, where there have been shifts, demonstrates whether the young speakers are ‘doing RP’, or something different. It then explores the sociolinguistic correlates of variation in the early adolescent corpus, in order to determine how the vowel changes may be socially motivated.
To establish the salient features of West Cornish English, a perception experiment used a new methodology to test the salience of individual features in a guise by asking listeners to ‘click’ whenever they hear something that stood out to them (see Montgomery & Moore 2018). The results of this experiment indicate that lengthened variants of open, fronted vowels in West Cornish English are some of the most salient features of the variety. This is suggested to potentially be due to links between South Western ‘long <a>’ and negative rural stereotypes. The diachronic analysis finds that the majority of West Cornwall early adolescents have retained the fronted BATH vowel. However, both TRAP and fronted variants of BATH have significantly shortened to [a] since the Survey of English Dialects. It is suggested that the speakers participating in this shift are responding to a desire to maintain regional distinctiveness, while also avoiding using variants associated with rurality, which have potential to attract stigma. Therefore, in shortening the traditional Cornish English BATH vowel, the acoustic element of the variant with the most negative associations is lost, but it maintains its distinctiveness in comparison to the RP form. The synchronic analysis of these variables supported this hypothesis. In particular, the speakers were shifting towards fronted BATH in the most monitored style, but away from lengthened variants.
Overall, this thesis contributes to our understanding of an understudied variety of English, and rural varieties more generally. In particular, it demonstrates how rurality, and particularly the stigma that can come with variants associated with rurality, can shape linguistic practices. It also shows how rural adolescents, just like their urban counterparts, can be innovative in their language use. Regarding the implications for sociophonetic research more widely, this thesis demonstrates how vowel duration, like vowel quality, can vary meaningfully on a gradient, phonetic scale.
