Welsh English

Last updated

Welsh English
Native to United Kingdom
Region Wales
Ethnicity Welsh people
Native speakers
(undated figure of 2.5 million[ citation needed ])
Early forms
Dialects
Latin (English alphabet)
Language codes
ISO 639-3 –
Glottolog None
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Speech example
An example of a male with a South Wales accent (Rob Brydon).
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Welsh English (Welsh : Saesneg Gymreig) comprises the dialects of English spoken by Welsh people. The dialects are significantly influenced by Welsh grammar and often include words derived from Welsh. In addition to the distinctive words and grammar, a variety of accents are found across Wales, including those of North Wales, the Cardiff dialect, the South Wales Valleys and West Wales.

Contents

While other accents and dialects from England have affected those of English in Wales, especially in the east of the country, influence has moved in both directions, those in the west have been more heavily influenced by the Welsh language, [1] those in north-east Wales and parts of the North Wales coastline it have been influenced by Northwestern English, and those in the mid-east and the south-east Wales (composing the South Wales Valleys) have been influenced by West Country and West Midlands English. [2]

A colloquial portmanteau word for Welsh English is Wenglish. It has been in use since 1985. [3]

Pronunciation

Vowels

Short monophthongs

Long monophthongs

Monophthongs of Welsh English as they are pronounced in Abercrave, from Coupland & Thomas (1990), pp. 135-136. Abercrave English monophthongs chart.svg
Monophthongs of Welsh English as they are pronounced in Abercrave, from Coupland & Thomas (1990) , pp. 135–136.
Monophthongs of Welsh English as they are pronounced in Cardiff, from Coupland & Thomas (1990), pp. 93-95. Depending on the speaker, the long /e:/ may be of the same height as the short /e/. Cardiff English monophthongs chart.svg
Monophthongs of Welsh English as they are pronounced in Cardiff, from Coupland & Thomas (1990) , pp. 93–95. Depending on the speaker, the long /ɛː/ may be of the same height as the short /ɛ/.
Diphthongs of Welsh English as they are pronounced in Abercrave, from Coupland & Thomas (1990), pp. 135-136 Abercrave English diphthongs chart.svg
Diphthongs of Welsh English as they are pronounced in Abercrave, from Coupland & Thomas (1990) , pp. 135–136
Diphthongs of Welsh English as they are pronounced in Cardiff, from Coupland & Thomas (1990), p. 97 Cardiff English diphthongs chart.svg
Diphthongs of Welsh English as they are pronounced in Cardiff, from Coupland & Thomas (1990) , p. 97
  • The trap-bath split is variable in Welsh English, especially among social status. In some varieties such as Cardiff English, words like ask, bath, laugh, master and rather are usually pronounced with PALM while words like answer, castle, dance and nasty are normally pronounced with TRAP. On the other hand, the split may be completely absent in other varieties like Abercraf English. [13]
  • The vowel of car is often pronounced as an open central unrounded vowel [ɑ̈] [14] and more often as a long open front unrounded vowel /aː/. [8]
  • In broader varieties, particularly in Cardiff, the vowel of bird is similar to South African and New Zealand, i.e. a mid front rounded vowel [ø̞ː]. [15]
  • Most other long monophthongs are similar to that of Received Pronunciation, but words with the RP /əʊ/ are sometimes pronounced as [oː] and the RP /eɪ/ as [eː]. An example that illustrates this tendency is the Abercrave pronunciation of play-place[ˈpleɪˌpleːs]. [16]
  • In northern varieties, /əʊ/ as in coat and /ɔː/ as in caught/court may be merged into /ɔː/ (phonetically [ oː ]). [7]

Diphthongs

  • Fronting diphthongs tend to resemble Received Pronunciation, apart from the vowel of bite that has a more centralised onset [æ̈ɪ]. [16]
  • Backing diphthongs are more varied: [16]
    • The vowel of low in RP, other than being rendered as a monophthong, like described above, is often pronounced as [oʊ̝].
    • The word town is pronounced with a near-open central onset [ɐʊ̝].
  • Welsh English is one of few dialects where the Late Middle English diphthong /iu̯/ never became /juː/, remaining as a falling diphthong [ɪʊ̯]. Thus you/juː/, yew/jɪʊ̯/, and ewe/ɪʊ̯/ are not homophones in Welsh English. As such yod-dropping never occurs: distinctions are made between choose/t͡ʃuːz/ and chews/t͡ʃɪʊ̯s/, through/θruː/ and threw/θrɪʊ̯/, which most other English varieties do not have.

Consonants

Distinctive vocabulary and grammar

Aside from lexical borrowings from Welsh like bach (little, wee), eisteddfod , nain and taid (grandmother and grandfather respectively), there exist distinctive grammatical conventions in vernacular Welsh English. Examples of this include the use by some speakers of the tag question isn't it? regardless of the form of the preceding statement and the placement of the subject and the verb after the predicate for emphasis, e.g. Fed up, I am or Running on Friday, he is. [22]

In South Wales the word where may often be expanded to where to, as in the question, "Where to is your Mam?". The word butty (Welsh : byti) is used to mean "friend" or "mate". [25]

There is no standard variety of English that is specific to Wales, but such features are readily recognised by Anglophones from the rest of the UK as being from Wales, including the phrase look you which is a translation of a Welsh language tag. [22]

The word tidy is among "the most over-worked Wenglish words". It carries a number of meanings include - great or excellent, or a large quantity. A tidy swill is a wash that includes, at the least, the hands and the face. [26]

Code-switching

As Wales has become increasingly more anglicised, code-switching has become increasingly more common. [27] [28]

Examples

Welsh code-switchers fall typically into one of three categories: the first category is people whose first language is Welsh and are not the most comfortable with English, the second is the inverse, English as a first language and a lack of confidence with Welsh, and the third consists of people whose first language could be either and display competence in both languages. [29]

Welsh and English share congruence, meaning that there is enough overlap in their structure to make them compatible for code-switching. In studies of Welsh English code-switching, Welsh frequently acts as the matrix language with English words or phrases mixed in. A typical example of this usage would look like dw i’n love-io soaps, which translates to "I love soaps". [28]

In a study conducted by Margaret Deuchar in 2005 on Welsh-English code-switching, 90 per cent of tested sentences were found to be congruent with the Matrix Language Format, or MLF, classifying Welsh English as a classic case of code-switching. [28] This case is identifiable as the matrix language was identifiable, the majority of clauses in a sentence that uses code-switching must be identifiable and distinct, and the sentence takes the structure of the matrix language in respect to things such as subject verb order and modifiers. [27]

History of the English language in Wales

The presence of English in Wales intensified on the passing of the Laws in Wales Acts of 1535–1542, the statutes having promoted the dominance of English in Wales; this, coupled with the closure of the monasteries, which closed down many centres of Welsh education, led to decline in the use of the Welsh language.

The decline of Welsh and the ascendancy of English was intensified further during the Industrial Revolution, when many Welsh speakers moved to England to find work and the recently developed mining and smelting industries came to be manned by Anglophones. David Crystal, who grew up in Holyhead, claims that the continuing dominance of English in Wales is little different from its spread elsewhere in the world. [30] The decline in the use of the Welsh language is also associated with the preference in the communities for English to be used in schools and to discourage everyday use of the Welsh language in them, including by the use of the Welsh Not in some schools in the 18th and 19th centuries. [31]

Literature

Dylan Thomas' writing shed at the Boathouse, Laugharne Dylan Thomas' writing shed in Laugharne (17086083038).jpg
Dylan Thomas' writing shed at the Boathouse, Laugharne

"Anglo-Welsh literature" and "Welsh writing in English" are terms used to describe works written in the English language by Welsh writers. It has been recognised as a distinctive entity only since the 20th century. [32] The need for a separate identity for this kind of writing arose because of the parallel development of modern Welsh-language literature; as such it is perhaps the youngest branch of English-language literature in the British Isles.

While Raymond Garlick discovered sixty-nine Welsh men and women who wrote in English prior to the twentieth century, [32] Dafydd Johnston believes it is "debatable whether such writers belong to a recognisable Anglo-Welsh literature, as opposed to English literature in general". [33] Well into the 19th century English was spoken by relatively few in Wales, and prior to the early 20th century there are only three major Welsh-born writers who wrote in the English language: George Herbert (1593–1633) from Montgomeryshire, Henry Vaughan (1622–1695) from Brecknockshire, and John Dyer (1699–1757) from Carmarthenshire.

Welsh writing in English might be said to begin with the 15th-century bard Ieuan ap Hywel Swrdwal (?1430 - ?1480), whose Hymn to the Virgin was written at Oxford in England in about 1470 and uses a Welsh poetic form, the awdl , and Welsh orthography; for example:

O mighti ladi, owr leding - tw haf
At hefn owr abeiding:
Yntw ddy ffast eferlasting
I set a braents ws tw bring.

A rival claim for the first Welsh writer to use English creatively is made for the diplomat, soldier and poet John Clanvowe (1341–1391).[ citation needed ]

The influence of Welsh English can be seen in the 1915 short story collection My People by Caradoc Evans, which uses it in dialogue (but not narrative); Under Milk Wood (1954) by Dylan Thomas, originally a radio play; and Niall Griffiths whose gritty realist pieces are mostly written in Welsh English.

See also

Other English dialects heavily influenced by Celtic languages

Related Research Articles

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The phonology of the open back vowels of the English language has undergone changes both overall and with regional variations, through Old and Middle English to the present. The sounds heard in modern English were significantly influenced by the Great Vowel Shift, as well as more recent developments in some dialects such as the cot–caught merger.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scouse</span> Accent and dialect of English in the Liverpool City Region

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Open back rounded vowel</span> Vowel sound represented by ⟨ɒ⟩ in IPA

The open back rounded vowel, or low back rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɒ⟩. It is called Latin turned alpha being a rotated version of Latin alpha. It seems a "turned script a", being a rotated version of "script (cursive) a", which is the variant of a that lacks the extra stroke on top of a "printed a". Latin turned alpha a ⟨ɒ⟩ has its linear stroke on the left, whereas Latin alpha a ⟨ɑ⟩ has its linear stroke on the right.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Close-mid front rounded vowel</span> Vowel sound represented by ⟨ø⟩ in IPA

The close-mid front rounded vowel, or high-mid front rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Open-mid back unrounded vowel</span> Vowel sound represented by ⟨ʌ⟩ in IPA

The open-mid back unrounded vowel or low-mid back unrounded vowel is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ʌ⟩, graphically a rotated lowercase "v". Both the symbol and the sound are commonly referred to as a "wedge", "caret" or "hat". In transcriptions for English, this symbol is commonly used for the near-open central unrounded vowel and in transcriptions for Danish, it is used for the open back rounded vowel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Open-mid central unrounded vowel</span> Vowel sound represented by ⟨ɜ⟩ in IPA

The open-mid central unrounded vowel, or low-mid central unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɜ⟩. The IPA symbol is not the digit ⟨3⟩ or the Cyrillic small letter Ze (з). The symbol is instead a reversed Latinized variant of the lowercase epsilon, ɛ. The value was specified only in 1993; until then, ⟨ɜ⟩ was an alternative symbol for the mid central unrounded vowel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Near-close near-front unrounded vowel</span> Vowel sound represented by ⟨ɪ⟩ in IPA

The near-close near-front unrounded vowel, or near-high near-front unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɪ⟩, the small capital I. The International Phonetic Association advises serifs on the symbol's ends. Some sans-serif fonts do meet this typographic specification. Prior to 1989, there was an alternate symbol for this sound: ⟨ɩ⟩, the use of which is no longer sanctioned by the IPA. Despite that, some modern writings still use it.

In phonetics, vowel roundedness is the amount of rounding in the lips during the articulation of a vowel. It is labialization of a vowel. When a rounded vowel is pronounced, the lips form a circular opening, and unrounded vowels are pronounced with the lips relaxed. In most languages, front vowels tend to be unrounded, and back vowels tend to be rounded. However, some languages, such as French, German and Icelandic, distinguish rounded and unrounded front vowels of the same height, and Vietnamese distinguishes rounded and unrounded back vowels of the same height. Alekano has only unrounded vowels. In the International Phonetic Alphabet vowel chart, rounded vowels are the ones that appear on the right in each pair of vowels. There are also diacritics, U+0339◌̹COMBINING RIGHT HALF RING BELOW and U+031C◌̜COMBINING LEFT HALF RING BELOW, to indicate greater and lesser degrees of rounding, respectively. Thus has less rounding than cardinal, and has more. These diacritics can also be used with unrounded vowels: is more spread than cardinal, and is less spread than cardinal.

English phonology is the system of speech sounds used in spoken English. Like many other languages, English has wide variation in pronunciation, both historically and from dialect to dialect. In general, however, the regional dialects of English share a largely similar phonological system. Among other things, most dialects have vowel reduction in unstressed syllables and a complex set of phonological features that distinguish fortis and lenis consonants.

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) can be used to represent sound correspondences among various accents and dialects of the English language.

In English, many vowel shifts affect only vowels followed by in rhotic dialects, or vowels that were historically followed by that has been elided in non-rhotic dialects. Most of them involve the merging of vowel distinctions and so fewer vowel phonemes occur before than in other positions of a word.

Most dialects of modern English have two close back vowels: the near-close near-back rounded vowel found in words like foot, and the close back rounded vowel found in words like goose. The STRUT vowel, which historically was back, is often central as well. This article discusses the history of these vowels in various dialects of English, focusing in particular on phonemic splits and mergers involving these sounds.

The English language spoken and written in England encompasses a diverse range of accents and dialects. The language forms part of the broader British English, along with other varieties in the United Kingdom. Terms used to refer to the English language spoken and written in England include English English and Anglo-English.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cardiff English</span> Regional accent of English, in Wales

The Cardiff accent, also known as Cardiff English, is the regional accent of English, and a variety of Welsh English, as spoken in and around the city of Cardiff, and is somewhat distinctive in Wales, compared with other Welsh accents. Its pitch is described as somewhat lower than that of Received Pronunciation, whereas its intonation is closer to dialects of England rather than Wales.

The mid front rounded vowel is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages.

The mid back unrounded vowel is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. Although there is no dedicated symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents the exact mid back unrounded vowel between close-mid and open-mid. Because no language is known to distinguish all three, ⟨ɤ⟩ is normally used. If more precision is desired, diacritics can be used, such as ⟨ɤ̞⟩ or ⟨ʌ̝⟩.

The distinction between rhoticity and non-rhoticity is one of the most prominent ways in which varieties of the English language are classified. In rhotic accents, the sound of the historical English rhotic consonant,, is preserved in all phonetic environments. In non-rhotic accents, speakers no longer pronounce in postvocalic environments: when it is immediately after a vowel and not followed by another vowel. For example, in isolation, a rhotic English speaker pronounces the words hard and butter as /ˈhɑːrd/ and /ˈbʌtər/, but a non-rhotic speaker "drops" or "deletes" the sound and pronounces them as /ˈhɑːd/ and /ˈbʌtə/. When an r is at the end of a word but the next word begins with a vowel, as in the phrase "better apples," most non-rhotic speakers will preserve the in that position since it is followed by a vowel in this case.

Port Talbot English (PTE) is a variety of Welsh English spoken in Port Talbot, generally by the working class.

Abercraf English is a dialect of Welsh English, primarily spoken in the village of Abercraf located in the far south of Powys.

References

  1. ↑ Rhodri Clark (27 March 2007). "Revealed: the wide range of Welsh accents". Wales Online. Retrieved 31 January 2019.
  2. ↑ "Secret behind our Welsh accents discovered". Wales Online. 7 June 2006. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
  3. ↑ Lambert, James (2018). "A multitude of "lishes"". English World-Wide. A Journal of Varieties of English. 39: 1–33. doi:10.1075/eww.00001.lam.
  4. ↑ Wells (1982), pp. 380, 384–385.
  5. ↑ Connolly (1990), pp. 122, 125.
  6. 1 2 3 Coupland, Nikolas; Thomas, Alan Richard (1990a). English in Wales: Diversity, Conflict, and Change - Google Books. Multilingual Matters. ISBN   9781853590313 . Retrieved 22 February 2015.[ page needed ]
  7. 1 2 3 Wells (1982) , pp.  384, 387, 390
  8. 1 2 3 4 Schneider, Edgar Werner; Kortmann, Bernd (2004). A Handbook of Varieties of English: CD-ROM. - Google Books. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Company KG. ISBN   9783110175325 . Retrieved 22 February 2015.
  9. ↑ Coupland, Nikolas; Thomas, Alan Richard (1990a). English in Wales: Diversity, Conflict, and Change - Google Books. Multilingual Matters. ISBN   9781853590313 . Retrieved 22 February 2015.[ page needed ]
  10. ↑ Wells (1982), pp. 380–381.
  11. ↑ Trudgill, Peter (27 April 2019). "Wales's very own little England". The New European. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
  12. ↑ Coupland & Thomas (1990), p. 95.
  13. ↑ Wells (1982), p. 387.
  14. ↑ Coupland, Nikolas; Thomas, Alan Richard (1990a). English in Wales: Diversity, Conflict, and Change - Google Books. Multilingual Matters. ISBN   9781853590313 . Retrieved 22 February 2015.[ page needed ]
  15. ↑ Coupland, Nikolas; Thomas, Alan Richard (1990a). English in Wales: Diversity, Conflict, and Change - Google Books. Multilingual Matters. ISBN   9781853590313 . Retrieved 22 February 2015.[ page needed ]
  16. 1 2 3 Coupland, Nikolas; Thomas, Alan Richard (1990a). English in Wales: Diversity, Conflict, and Change - Google Books. Multilingual Matters. ISBN   9781853590313 . Retrieved 22 February 2015.[ page needed ]
  17. ↑ Coupland, Nikolas; Thomas, Alan Richard (1990a). English in Wales: Diversity, Conflict, and Change - Google Books. Multilingual Matters. ISBN   9781853590313 . Retrieved 22 February 2015.[ page needed ]
  18. ↑ Peter Garrett; Nikolas Coupland; Angie Williams, eds. (15 July 2003). Investigating Language Attitudes: Social Meanings of Dialect, Ethnicity and Performance. University of Wales Press. p. 73. ISBN   9781783162086 . Retrieved 2 September 2019.
  19. 1 2 Coupland, Nikolas; Thomas, Alan Richard (1990a). English in Wales: Diversity, Conflict, and Change - Google Books. Multilingual Matters. ISBN   9781853590313 . Retrieved 22 February 2015.[ page needed ]
  20. ↑ Coupland (1988), p. 29.
  21. ↑ Approaches to the Study of Sound Structure and Speech: Interdisciplinary Work in Honour of Katarzyna Dziubalska-Kołaczyk. Magdalena Wrembel, Agnieszka Kiełkiewicz-Janowiak and Piotr Gąsiorowski. 21 October 2019. pp. 1–398. ISBN   9780429321757.
  22. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Crystal (2003), p. 335.
  23. ↑ The British Isles. Bernd Kortmann and Clive Upton. 10 December 2008. ISBN   9783110208399 . Retrieved 31 January 2019.
  24. ↑ Wells (1982), p.  390.
  25. ↑ "Why butty rarely leaves Wales". Wales Online. 2 October 2006 [updated: 30 Mar 2013]. Retrieved 22 February 2015.
  26. ↑ Edwards, John (1985). Talk Tidy. Bridgend, Wales, UK: D Brown & Sons Ltd. p. 39. ISBN   0905928458.
  27. 1 2 Deuchar, Margaret (1 November 2006). "Welsh-English code-switching and the Matrix Language Frame model". Lingua. 116 (11): 1986–2011. doi:10.1016/j.lingua.2004.10.001. ISSN   0024-3841.
  28. 1 2 3 Deuchar, Margaret (December 2005). "Congruence and Welsh–English code-switching". Bilingualism: Language and Cognition. 8 (3): 255–269. doi:10.1017/S1366728905002294. ISSN   1469-1841. S2CID   144548890.
  29. ↑ Deuchar, Margaret; Davies, Peredur (2009). "Code switching and the future of the Welsh language". International Journal of the Sociology of Language (195). doi:10.1515/ijsl.2009.004. S2CID   145440479.
  30. ↑ Crystal (2003), p. 334.
  31. ↑ "Welsh and 19th century education". BBC. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
  32. 1 2 Garlick (1970).
  33. ↑ Johnston (1994), p. 91.

Bibliography

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