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Accommodation or political identity: Scottish members of the UK Parliament

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 November 2017

Lauren Hall-Lew ,
Ruth Friskney  and
James M. Scobbie
Lauren Hall-Lew
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh
Ruth Friskney
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh
James M. Scobbie
Affiliation:
Queen Margaret University
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Abstract

Phonetic variation among Scottish members of the UK Parliament may be influenced by convergence to Southern English norms (Carr & Brulard, 2006) or political identity (e.g., Hall-Lew, Coppock, & Starr, 2010). Drawing on a year's worth of political speeches (2011–2012) from 10 Scottish members of the UK Parliament (MPs), we find no acoustic evidence for the adoption of a Southern English low vowel system; rather, we find that vowel height is significantly correlated with political party: Scottish Labour Party MPs produce a higher cat vowel (Johnston, 1997) than do Scottish National Party MPs. The results contradict claims that Scottish MPs acquire Anglo-English features while serving in the UK Parliament. Rather, we suggest that the variation indexes political meaning, with a subset of individuals drawing on that indexicality in production.

Type
Research Article
Information
Language Variation and Change , Volume 29 , Issue 3 , October 2017 , pp. 341 - 363
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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