Individual differences in intra-speaker variation: T-glottalling in England and Scotland

Abstract

This paper explores stylistic variation in the use of word-medial and word-final released and glottalled /t/ in London and Edinburgh. Specifically, it investigates the extent to which the social salience of a linguistic feature constrains individual differences in the degree and direction of intra-individual variation. Variation in the social salience of t-glottalling is explored in two linguistic contexts: word-medially, where it is high in London and somewhat lower in Edinburgh, and word-finally, where it is lower than in medial position in both places. Data is based on paired sociolinguistic interviews of 24 London-born adolescents and 21 Edinburgh-born adolescents. Results suggest that while style-shifting norms from speech to reading differ between London and Edinburgh adolescents, they are similar within the communities. However, there are many individual differences in the degree and direction of style-shifting and the latter are more pronounced in final position, where the social salience is weaker. There is also a somewhat large number of Edinburgh adolescents who diverge from the majority norm in medial position and who do not style-shift at all.