Chapter published in:
Processes of Change: Studies in Late Modern and Present-Day English
Edited by Sandra Jansen and Lucia Siebers
[Studies in Language Variation 21] 2019
► pp. 203–226

Levelling processes and social changes in a peripheral community

Prevocalic /r/ in West Cumbria

This chapter presents a sociolinguistic study of changes due to levelling in the use of prevocalic /r/ in Maryport, a peripheral community in the county of Cumbria in the far north-west of England. Mixed-effect models are used to investigate linguistic and social constraints in the levelling process. The results show that levelling of prevocalic /r/ is under way and has progressed further in Carlisle than in Maryport. Social changes such as the loss of local employment and the breaking up of neighbourhoods as social networks are provided as reasons for the decline of the local variant.
Keywords: sound change, social change, levelling, geographical diffusion, peripheral varieties
Published online: 13 August 2019
https://doi.org/10.1075/silv.21.11jan
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