Prosodic and intonational features

Although popular discussions of dialect often refer to the speech of a certain area as sing-song, lilting or monotonous, until very recently there has been relatively little research on the prosodic and intonational features of northern English dialects, except for the discussion of the sociolinguistic patterning of intonational variation in Tyneside English in Pellowe and Jones (1978). However, preliminary results from the Intonational Variation in English (IviE) project indicate that “dialect variation is a significant variable in prosodic typology” (Grabe and Post 2002: 346). An intonational pattern known as the Urban Northern British Rise occurs in Newcastle (as well as in Belfast and Dublin). In this pattern, there is a rise-plateau intonation in declarative sentences, distinct from the high rising tone heard in Australian and New Zealand English. This intonation is highly salient for Tyneside English, but can also be found in other northern British varieties. Grabe and Post (2002) also found differences between dialects of English with regard to the truncation or compression of falling accents on “very short IP-final words” (Grabe and Post 2002: 345). Whereas speakers in Leeds and Liverpool tended to truncate these patterns, those in Newcastle compressed them. Clearly, there is much work to be done on the study of intonational variation in English dialects, but these findings support the division of northern dialects into middle North and far North.

Even less research has been carried out on prosodic variation in English dialects. Here, again, the North-East is distinct from the rest of the North, with a tendency for level stress, or with the main stress on the second element, in compounds. The place name Stakeford (in Northumberland) is pronounced with equal stress on each element, whereas a speaker from outside the region would pronounce it . Likewise, pitheap, the Northumbrian word for a colliery spoil heap, is pronounced .