| By
Steven Johnson
 Few regional accents generate
as much discussion as the Liverpool dialect, often perceived as
creating positive connotations of warmth and humour but also unfairly
associated with poverty and dishonesty.
Edge Hill PhD student and lecturer in Linguistics, Kevin Watson,
is studying the origins and evolution of the scouse accent. He joined
other speakers, including renowned author Professor Jennifer Coates,
at a language and linguistics conference held at the Ormskirk Campus,
to pose the question ‘Is Scouse is getting Scouser?’
As Liverpool looks forward to the European Capital of Culture in
2008, Kevin finds that far from being supplemented and softened
with the neutral tones of Standard English, Scouse is continuing
to evolve and establish its identity.
“Scouse is unusual because words such as ‘note’,
pronounced ‘noat’ with a southern vowel sound rather
than ‘nort’, sit alongside typical Northern traits like
pronouncing ‘bath’ with the same vowel sound as ‘bat’
not ‘barth’.”
Kevin, who grew up in Netherton and now lives in Wavertree has a
slight Liverpool accent himself: “Whilst certain features
traditionally found in southern English accents are starting to
creep into northern ones, there has been a general resistance in
the Scouse accent,” said Kevin. “Scouse also has lots
of features that happen in not very many other places and some features
that happen nowhere else at all. These aspects of pronunciation
are spreading to occur in more words than they used to.”
These distinctive features include pronouncing words such as “that”
and “this” with a “d” or “t”
rather than “th” sound and pronouncing the “t”
as an “h” in “what” and increasingly longer
words like “market”. It is these characteristics that
mark the Liverpool accent to people from outside the city and get
imitated most frequently by impressionists. Far from people distancing
themselves from these stereotypes, however, Kevin feels they are
using them even more.
“We don’t know why this is happening, but it’s
possible that socially Scouse speakers want to use language as an
identity maker and don’t want to become the same as anywhere
else”.
This phenomenon is particularly interesting given some well-known
faces admit adapting their Scouse accents for fear of being perceived
negatively. Politician turned broadcaster Edwina Currie claims to
be as fiercely proud of her Merseyside roots as celebrities such
as Ricky Tomlinson, but has admitted to adapting her accent to suit
her audience.
The vast majority of the Merseyside population seem proud of their
accent and roots and the increasingly distinct sound of Scouse remains
at the heart of Liverpool’s culture. It is fitting that as
preparations continue for 2008 there is evidence that far from being
in danger of petering out, Scouse is clearly here to stay.
|
Edgeways
Issue 13 Contents >>>
|
|
|
|
