Accent Change in Glaswegian: Final report

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Annexe 2: Tables

Table 1

Social profile of Glasgow sample. 32 speakers were recorded first in casual conversation in same-sex pairs for up to 45 minutes and then reading a wordlist (methodology after Milroy et al 1997).

Speakers adolescents (13-14 yrs) adults (40+ yrs)
working-class (male) 4 4
working-class (female) 4 4
middle-class (male) 4 4
middle-class (female) 4 4
     
Criteria    
working-class (inner city) born/raised/resident in area born/raised/resident in area
middle-class (suburban) born/raised/resident in area long resident in area 

Notes:

1. The difficult variable of 'Class' was determined by selecting two schools who showed markedly different profiles in educational/social criteria:

  • percentage of grades 1 and 2 in Standard grade (~ GSCE) exams
    (Source: Examination results in Scottish schools, 1994-6, HM Inspectors of Schools Audit Unit)
    MC = 43%; WC = 10%
  • percentage of school leavers going on to full-time higher education
    (Source: Clothing Grant to Secondary Schools, QA Unit, Strathclyde Regional Council, Department of Education - 1989-90. We are grateful to Andy Biggart, Department of Sociology, University of Glasgow, for passing these figures on to me.)
    MC = 58%; WC = 18%
  • percentage of children receiving clothing grants
    MC = 5%; WC = 43%

The main residential catchment area of the each school was used to select adult participants.

2. Geographical distribution (Figure 1). The 'middle-class' area is 'Bearsden', a green suburb technically outside the limits of Glasgow city, but effectively part of Glasgow, occupied to a large extent by professionals and academics, including many from England. The area is characterized by continual in-migration. The 'working-class' area is 'Maryhill', ranging from Maryhill proper to Possil, comprising largely deprived inner city districts. The area has undergone extensive urban redevelopment, with parts of the population being rehoused within and outside the area (Rae 1974); today the population is relatively stable.

Table 2

Average percentage values of variants for the 8 consonantal variables for the Glasgow sample - overall, within middle-class and within working-class. (Values for one variant per variable are given; for overall variation see Figures 9-11. (MC - middle-class; WC - working-class; O - old; Y - young.))

  wordlists   conversations
Speaker all   MC   WC     all   MC   WC  
(variable)                          
[variant]                          
% O Y O Y O Y   O Y O Y O Y
DIFFUSION                           
(th) [f] 0.6 15.1 0.0 0.0 1.1 30.2   0.0 10.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 20.1
(dh) [v] 0.0 7.5 0.0 0.0 0.0 15.0   0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
(l) [V] 12.9 30.5 13.7 13.9 12.1 47.1   0.2 4.5 0.0 0.1 0.4 8.8
RETENTION                          
(t) [?] 3.8 40.5 0.7 4.7 6.9 76.3   65.7 83.7 40.0 74.0 91.5 93.4
(s) [sh] 1  4.4 11.7 2.2 9.8 6.5 13.6   2.0 9.8 0.0 4.8 4.0 14.9
LOSS                          
(x) [x] 78.1 50.0 87.5 50.0 68.8 50.0   74.9 20.8 52.1 41.7 97.7 0.0
(hw) [hw] 60.4 73.7 79.2 83.3 41.7 64.0   79.2 46.4 94.6 67.9 63.8 25.0
(r) [r] 75.6 49.5 88.2 81.4 62.9 17.6   82.7 52.6 93.2 91.2 72.2 14.0

1[sh] represents all 'retracted' variants identified: [sr], [sj], [sw], [sh].

Table 3

Raw numbers of variants presented as percentages in Table 2 above.

  wordlists   conversations
Speaker   all   MC   WC       all   MC   WC  
(variable)                              
[variant]                              
   
O
Y
O
Y
O
Y
   
O
Y
O
Y
O
Y
DIFFUSION N               N            
(th) [f]
349
1
26
0
0
1
26
  
2404
0
102
0
0
0
102
(dh) [v]
188
0
7
0
0
0
7
  
2325
0
0
0
0
0
0
(l) [V]
656
43
97
23
23
20
74
  
3420
6
52
1
0
5
52
RETENTION                              
(t) [?]
1212
23
246
2
14
21
232
  
2385
811
948
247
456
564
492
(s) [sh]
1388
81
79
8
30
23
49
  
2414
38
64
11
20
27
44
LOSS                              
(x) [x]
64
25
16
14
8
11
8
  
128
96
3
28
3
68
0
(hw) [hw]
95
29
35
19
20
10
15
  
1328
626
234
334
171
292
63
(r) [r]
1103
240
268
247
219
173
49
  
8179
4249
1568
2389
1400
1860
168

Table 4

Results of one-sided t-tests comparing adolescents against adults - overall, within middle-class and within working-class. Diffusion and retention variables look for 'increase' of variant, loss variables look for 'decrease' of variant.

(variable) [variant] wordlists   conversations
p value 0.05 all MC WC   all MC WC
DIFFUSION (increase)              
(th) [f] 0.0038 ns <0.00001   0.0013 ns 0.00001
(dh) [v] 0.0054 ns 0.00002   - - -
(l) [V] ns ns ns   0.0018 ns 0.00002
RETENTION (increase)              
(t) [?] ns ns 0.0045   ns ns ns
(s) [sh] 1  ns ns ns   ns ns ns
LOSS (decrease)              
(x) [x] ns ns ns   0.0231 ns <0.00001
(hw) [hw] ns ns ns   ns ns ns
(r) [r] ns ns ns   ns ns ns

1 [sh] represents all 'retracted' variants identified: [sr], [sj], [sw], [sh].