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- Title
Accommodation or political identity: Scottish members of the UK Parliament.
- Authors
HALL-LEW, LAUREN; FRISKNEY, RUTH; SCOBBIE, JAMES M.
- Abstract
Phonetic variation among Scottish members of the UK Parliament may be influenced by convergence to Southern English norms (Carr & Brulard, 2006) or political identity (e.g., Hall-Lew, Coppock, & Starr, 2010). Drawing on a year's worth of political speeches (2011-2012) from 10 Scottish members of the UK Parliament (MPs), we find no acoustic evidence for the adoption of a Southern English low vowel system; rather, we find that vowel height is significantly correlated with political party: Scottish Labour Party MPs produce a higher CAT vowel (Johnston, 1997) than do Scottish National Party MPs. The results contradict claims that Scottish MPs acquire Anglo-English features while serving in the UK Parliament. Rather, we suggest that the variation indexes political meaning, with a subset of individuals drawing on that indexicality in production.
- Subjects
SCOTLAND; ENGLISH language; POLITICAL affiliation; GREAT Britain. Parliament; ENGLISH language pronunciation; SPOKEN English; POLITICAL oratory; ENGLISH language -- Social aspects; EMPLOYEES; VOWEL gradation
- Publication
Language Variation & Change, 2017, Vol 29, Issue 3, p341
- ISSN
0954-3945
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1017/S0954394517000175