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Language Variation - European Perspectives V: Selected papers from the Seventh International Conference on Language Variation in Europe (ICLaVE 7), Trondheim, June 2013
Edited by Eivind Torgersen, Stian Hårstad, Brit Mæhlum and Unn Røyneland
[Studies in Language Variation 17] 2015
► pp. 129–144

A century of change in prevocalic (r) in Carlisle English

Internal constraints in a levelling process

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Language-internal factors in the levelling of local features have been overlooked in many cases. Based on a quantitative analysis of oral history recordings and sociolinguistic interviews I discuss constraints on the levelling of prevocalic (r) across the 20th century in Carlisle English, an urban variety spoken in the far north-west of England. The study focuses particularly on the use of (r) in CrV position and the possibility that levelling of (r) in this environment is linked to the decrease of PreR-dentalisation.

Keywords: Dialect contact, dialect levelling, internal constraints, PreR-dentalisation
Published online: 9 April 2015
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https://doi.org/10.1075/silv.17.10jan
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