A Ubiquitous Sound Change in the Periphery

Abstract

T-glottalling2 is one of the most prominent innovations in Present-Day UK varieties of English. A vast body of sociolinguistic research has investigated the ubiquitous change from [t] to [ʔ] for /t/ in word-medial and word-final position in numerous, often urban, locations in the UK since the 1970s3 (e.g. Altendorf and Watt 2008 for London; Baranowski and Turton 2015 for Manchester; Drummond 2011 for Polish L2 speakers of English in Manchester; Fabricius 2000, 2002 for RP; Flynn 2012 for Nottingham; most articles in Foulkes and Docherty's volume on Urban Voices 1999, e.g. Derby, London, Sheffield; Jansen 2018 for Carlisle; Kerswill and Williams 2000 for Milton Keynes, Hull and Reading; Llamas 2007 for Middlesbrough; Macaulay 1977 for Glasgow; Marshall 2001 for north-east Scots; Mees 1987 for Cardiff; Milroy et al. 1994 for Newcastle; Reid 1978 for Edinburgh; Schleef 2013 for Edinburgh and London; Smith and Holmes-Elliott 2018 for Buckie; Straw and Patrick 2007 for Ipswich; StuartSmith 1999 for Glasgow; Thorne 2003 for Birmingham; Trudgill 1988 for Norwich.)4 Milroy et al. (1994) describe the use of glottal stops as an urban feature. Since most sociolinguistic investigations of this variable have concentrated on urban areas in the UK, the information on T-glottalling in more peripheral and remote areas is still patchy. Notable exceptions are Marshall (2001), who explores T-glottalling in north-east Scots, Milroy (1982), who investigates this feature in Galloway, and Smith and HolmesElliott (2018), who study T-glottalling in Buckie, a burgh town on the Moray Firth coast of Scotland. Smith and Holmes-Elliott (2018, 324) propose that "some key questions [...] surrounding the origins and subsequent development of the variable" remain and they call for more studies on this variant to gain further information about "the trajectory of this iconic variable through time and space" (Smith and HolmesElliott 2018, 352). Filling geographical gaps in the study of T-glottalling is one point that needs to be addressed, but investigating this change in progress in diverse communities should also be taken into account in order to achieve a fuller understanding of T-glottalling as a phenomenon of Present-Day English.