Skip to main content

Accent Variation and Change in North-East Scotland: The Case of (HW) in Aberdeen

  • Chapter
Sociolinguistics in Scotland

Abstract

The accent of Aberdeen has so far received only limited attention from sociolinguists. Previous descriptions of the phonological system (Robinson and Crawford 2001: 77–93; Hughes, Trudgill and Watt 2005: 105–9; Millar 2007: passim) are mainly based on small data sets or anecdotal observations. The current chapter aims tofill this gap in the literature by presenting results for the variable (HW) taken from a larger study on structured variation in the variety (Brato, in preparation). This variable was chosen because it highlights how the urban accent of Aberdeen is torn between its North-Eastern roots and more recent developments elsewhere in Scotland.

* I would to like to thank Sandra Jansen and Robert McColl Millar for their valuable feedback on this chapter. A big thank you also goes to Robert Lawson for his many encouraging words, helpful comments, and suggestions which have greatly improved this chapter.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Aberdeen City Council (2003). 2001 Census: Key Statistics — Aberdeen City. Edinburgh: General Register Office for Scotland.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aberdeen City Council (2005). Schools. Available at www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/education_learning/education_and_learning.asp. Last accessed, 9 January 2008.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aberdeen City Council (2006). Deprivation in Aberdeen: An Analysis of the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (2006). Aberdeen.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aitken, A.J. (1984). Scots and English in Scotland. In Peter Trudgill (ed.), Language in the British Isles, 517–32. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bates, Douglas M. (2012). lme4: Linear Mixed-Effects Models Using S4 Classes.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blaikie, Andrew (2000). People in the city. In William Hamish Fraser and Clive H. Lee (eds), Aberdeen, 1800–2000: A New History, 47–74. East Linton: Tuckwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brato, Thorsten (in preparation). Aberdonian: The Urban Accent of Aberdeen.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chirrey, Deborah (1999). Edinburgh: Descriptive material. In Paul Foulkes and Gerard Docherty (eds), Urban Voices. Accent Studies in the British Isles, 223–9. London: Arnold.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grant, William (1931). Introduction. In William Grant (ed.), The Scottish National Dictionary, ix–l. Edinburgh: Scottish National Dictionary Association.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hughes, Arthur, Peter Trudgill and Dominic Watt (2005). English Accents and Dialects: An Introduction to Social and Regional Varieties of British English, 4th edn. London: Arnold.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, Daniel Ezra (2009). Getting off the GoldVarb standard: Introducing Rbrul for mixed-effects variable rule analysis. Language and Linguistics Compass, 3 (1): 359–83.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnston, Paul (1997). Regional variation. In Charles Jones (ed.), The Edinburgh History of the Scots Language, 433–513. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnston, Paul (2007). Scots and Scottish English. In David Britain (ed.), Language in the British Isles, 105–21. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Jones, Charles (2002): The English Language in Scotland: An Introduction to Scots. East Linton: Tuckwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kerswill, Paul (1996). Children, adolescents and language change. Language Variation and Change, 8 (2): 177–202.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kerswill, Paul and Williams, Ann (2000). Creating a New Town koine: Children and language change in Milton Keynes. Language in Society, 29 (1): 65–115.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Labov, William (1972). Sociolinguistic Patterns. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lawson, Eleanor and Stuart-Smith, Jane (2003). A sociophonetic investigation of the ‘Scottish’ consonants (/x/ and /hw/) in the speech of Glaswegian children. In Maria-Josep Solé, Daniel Recasens and Joaquín Romero (eds), Proceedings of the XV International Congress of Phonetic Sciences. Barcelona: Causal Productions.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lawson, Robert (2011). Patterns of linguistic variation among Glaswegian adolescent males. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 15 (2): 226–55.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Macafee, Caroline (1983). Varieties of English around the World: Glasgow. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Macafee, Caroline and McGarrity, Briege (1999). Scots language attitudes and language maintenance. Leeds Studies in English, 30: 165–79.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mackay, G. A. and Moir, Anne C. (1980). North Sea Oil and the Aberdeen Economy. London: Social Science Research Council.

    Google Scholar 

  • McClure, J. Derrick (2002). Doric: The Dialect of North-East Scotland. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Marr, Alison (1975). Foreign Nationals in North East Scotland. Aberdeen. University of Aberdeen Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marshall, Jonathan (2004). Language Change and Sociolinguistics: Rethinking Social Networks. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Millar, Robert McColl (2007). Northern and Insular Scots. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Milroy, Lesley (1980). Language and Social Networks. Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Milroy, Lesley and Milroy, James (1992). Social network and and social class: Toward an integrated sociolinguistic model. Language in Society, 21 (1): 1–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Murison, David (1963). Local dialects. In A. C. O’Dell and J. Mackintosh (eds), The North-East of Scotland. A Survey Prepared for the Aberdeen Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1963, 196–202. Aberdeen: Central Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • R Development Core Team (2012). R: a Language and Environment for Statistical Computing [Computer program]. Vienna: R Foundation for Statistical Computing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robinson, Christine (2005). Changes in the dialect of Livingston. Language and Literature, 14 (2): 181–93.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robinson, Christine and Crawford, Carol Ann (2001). Scotspeak: A Guide to the Pronunciation of Modern Urban Scots. Perth: Scots Language Resource Centre.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schützler, Ole (2010). Variable Scottish English consonants: The cases of /hw/ and non-prevocalic /r/. Research in Language, 8: 1–17.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, Jennifer (2005). The sociolinguistics of contemporary Scots: Insights from one community. In John Kirk and Dónall P. Ó Baoill (eds), Legislation, Literature and Sociolinguistics. Northern Ireland, the Republic of lreland, and Scotland, 112–25. Belfast: Cló Ollscoil na Banriona.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stuart-Smith, Jane (1999). Glasgow: Accent and voice quality. In Paul Foulkes and Gerard Docherty (eds), Urban Voices: Accent Studies in the British Isles, 203–22. London: Arnold.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stuart-Smith, Jane and Timmins, Claire (2010). The role of the individual in language variation and change. In Carmen Llamas and Dominic Watt (eds), Language and Identities, 39–54. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stuart-Smith, Jane, Claire Timmins and Fiona Tweedie (2007). ‘Talkin’ Jockney’?: Variation and change in Glaswegian accent. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 11 (2): 221–60.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tagliamonte, Sali (2006). Analysing Sociolinguistic Variation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, Peter, Gordon Philip and Alan Hutton (1981). Some labour market characteristics of oil-related travelling workers. In Robert Moore (ed.), Labour Migration and Oil, 99–132. London: Social Science Research Council.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trudgill, Peter (1986). Dialects in Contact. Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wells, John (1982). Accents of English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wölck, Wolfgang (1965). Phonematische Analyse der Sprache von Buchan. Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag C. Winter.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Copyright information

© 2014 Thorsten Brato

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Brato, T. (2014). Accent Variation and Change in North-East Scotland: The Case of (HW) in Aberdeen. In: Lawson, R. (eds) Sociolinguistics in Scotland. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137034717_3

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics