Journal | Annali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie occidentale
Journal issue | 57 | 2023
Research Article | L-Vocalisation in London English
L-Vocalisation in London English
Abstract
Linguists argued that the Cockney dialect, in London, is expected to be replaced by Multicultural London English in the years to come. However, this does not imply that Cockney is dead, as recent research revealed that it just moved to Essex. This paper aims at examining whether (l) vocalisation, a common feature of Cockney, is still present in the London district of Bermondsey. Ten working-class English speakers, stratified by age and sex, have been recorded by means of sociolinguistic interviews. The results, discussed both quantitively and qualitatively, show that: (a) (l) vocalisation is present in all age cohorts, with young speakers favouring the non-standard feature; (b) preceding long vowels trigger (l) vocalisation.
Submitted: April 6, 2022 | Accepted: Dec. 11, 2022 | Published Oct. 30, 2023 | Language: en
Keywords Language variation • (l) vocalisation • Sociolinguistics • Phonology • London English
Copyright © 2023 Carmen Ciancia. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/AnnOc/2499-1562/2023/11/001
