T Historical Variation In English Page 2
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2(c) Aitchison (1991) likens the GVS to the Mad Hatter’s tea-party.
Why? If you’re not familiar with Alice in Wonderland, here is the
appropriate quotation from it:
‘I want a clean cup,’ interrupted the Hatter: ‘Let’s all move one place on.’
He moved on as he spoke, and the Dormouse followed him; the
March Hare moved into the Dormouses’s place, and Alice rather unwillingly
took the place of the March Hare. The Hatter was the only one who got any
advantage from the change: and Alice was a good deal worse off, as the March
Hare had just upset the milk-jug into his plate.
4. Rhoticity. The post-vocalic /r/ (or the non-prevocalic /r/) seems to
have wreaked havoc on the vowel sound preceding it, before this /r/
was lost in many accents. Compare the pronunciations and spellings of
these groups of words. If we assume that spelling is conservative and in fact reflects the pronunciation of words around
1400, what kinds of pronunciation changes would you say have occurred? (Warning: (e) is particularly tricky.)
(a) cat, mat, cart
(b) fist, first, fir
(c) fend, fern
(d) fun, fur, hurt
(e) steak, bean, hear, wear
(f) sake, mate, lame, bare, care
(g) white, bile, side, wire, hire
(h) cute, tune, cube, lure, pure
NOTE: Questions 1 and 2 should be finished very quickly. Question 3 might take more time and Question 4 will
probably take the longest time. (Some selection might be necessary.)
John Wells’s key words for vowels
Keyword RP
Example words
ɪ
ship, rip, dim, spirit
KIT
e
step, ebb, hem, terror
DRESS
æ or a
bad, cab, ham, arrow
TRAP
ɒ
stop, rob, swan
LOT
ʌ
cub, rub, hum
STRUT
ʊ
full, look, could
FOOT
ɑː
staff, clasp, dance
BATH
ɒ
cough, long, laurel, origin
CLOTH
ɜː
hurt, term, work
NURSE
iː
seed, key, seize
FLEECE
eɪ
weight, rein, steak
FACE
ɑː
calm, bra, father
PALM
ɔː
taut, hawk, broad
THOUGHT
əʊ or oʊ
soap, soul, home
GOAT
uː
who, group, few
GOOSE
aɪ or ʌɪ
ripe, tribe, aisle, choir
PRICE
ɔɪ
boy, void, coin
CHOICE
aʊ
pouch, noun, crowd, flower
MOUTH
ɪə
beer, pier, fierce, serious
NEAR
ɛə or eə or ɛː care, air, wear, Mary
SQUARE
ɑː
far, sharp, farm, safari
START
ɔː
war, storm, for, aural
NORTH
ɔː
floor, coarse, ore, oral
FORCE
ʊə
poor, tour, fury
CURE
2
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