Abercraf English Explained
Abercraf English (also known as Abercrave English) is a dialect of Welsh English, primarily spoken in the village of Abercraf, located in the far south of the traditional county of Brecknockshire, currently administered as part of the unitary authority of Powys.
Accent
Abercraf English is distinct from most other accents in its county due to separation by the Brecon Beacons, creating a substantial communication barrier between the localities. It is more appropriate to associate it with neighbouring Swansea Valley, particularly the speech in northern areas (esp. Ystalyfera) since they are more similar to Abercraf than ones in most of its county, excepting Ystradgynlais. This could be seen from a survey where speakers could not discern the origins of the speech of Ystradgynlais and their hometown, but were able to discern Cwmtwrch with other villages in the valley.
History
Abercraf was entirely Welsh-speaking until World War II, when English-speaking evacuees settled in the village. It is a relatively young acquired dialect. This can be seen from generally less assimilation and elision and clear articulation unlike other accents in Brecknockshire or Glamorgan. Being a more modern accent causes it to be restricted to the last two to three generations, with younger people being much more likely to speak it; although a lot of their daily lives is conducted in Welsh, thus causing English to be taught as a second language.
Phonology
Consonants
Like many other accents in Britain, Abercraf's consonants generally follow that of Received Pronunciation, although it does have some unique innovations common for South Wales dialects:
- As in Port Talbot, consonants can be geminated by any preceding vowel except long non-close vowels, and is most noticeable in fortis plosives and when they are in intervocalic positions.
- Strong aspiration for the voiceless plosives pronounced as //p, t, k// as pronounced as /[pʰʰ, tʰʰ, kʰʰ]/ in stressed syllables when in initial position.
- Regular G-dropping, where the suffix -ing is pronounced as pronounced as //-ɪn//.
- pronounced as //r// is regularly a tapped pronounced as /link/.
- Marginal loan consonants from Welsh pronounced as //pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/// may be used for Welsh proper nouns and expressions, yet pronounced as /[r̥]/ is often heard in the discourse particle right.
- The -es morphemic suffix in words like goes, tomatoes is often voiceless pronounced as //s// instead of pronounced as //z// found elsewhere.
- Like with Scottish English, the suffix -ths such as in baths, paths and mouths is rendered as pronounced as //θs// instead of pronounced as //ðz//.
- H-dropping is quite common in informal speech, although pronounced as //h// is pronounced in emphatic speech and while reading word lists.
- pronounced as //l// is always clear, likewise there is no vowel breaking.
Vowels
Abercraf English is non-rhotic; pronounced as //r// is only pronounced before a vowel. Like RP, linking and intrusive R is present in the system. On the other hand, the vowel system varies greatly from RP, unlike its consonants, which is stable in many English accents around the world.
Monophthongs
! colspan="2" Front | Central | Back |
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| | | | | |
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Close | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | | | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ |
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Close-mid | | pronounced as /link/ | | pronounced as /link/ | | pronounced as /link/ |
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Open-mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | | | |
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Open | pronounced as /link/ | | | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
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- and are close to cardinal pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/.
- The vowel is always tense, being analysed as the vowel, where conservative RP has the lax pronounced as /[ɪ]/.
- is unrounded and mid pronounced as /link/. Unlike accents in West Glamorgan which have a rounded pronounced as /link/, Abercraf's realisation is identical to RP; a similar articulation had also been recorded in Myddfai.
- There is no phonemic distinction between and, with the merged vowel being realised as open-mid pronounced as /link/ in stressed syllables and as mid pronounced as /link/ when unstressed. It is transcribed as pronounced as //ʌ// because the stressed allophone is close to RP pronounced as //ʌ//.
- When unstressed and spelt with an (e), the vowel is preferred, such as cricket, fastest and movement. Likewise when spelt with (a), it varies from to .
- There is no horse–hoarse merger, with the first set pronounced as pronounced as /[ɒː]/, and the second pronounced as /[oː]/ respectively.
- Like all accents of Wales, the –, – and – sets are based more on length rather than vowel quality; creating minimal pairs such as shared–shed, heart–hat and short–shot.
- The – vowels are close to cardinal pronounced as /link/.
- and are close to cardinal pronounced as /link/. In the case of the former, its articulation is considerably more open than the corresponding RP vowel.
- Pairs – are relatively centralised, although may approach to the front.
- The trap–bath split is completely absent in Abercraf English unlike other Welsh accents which have lexical exceptions.
Diphthongs
! colspan="3" Endpoint |
Front | Back |
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Start point | Close | pronounced as /ei/ | pronounced as /ɪu ou/ |
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Open | pronounced as /ai ɒi/ | pronounced as /au/ | |
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The offsets of the fronting diphthongs are near-close pronounced as /link/, whereas the offsets of the backing diphthongs are close pronounced as /link/.
- The onset is closer to open mid pronounced as /[ɔ]/, despite its transcription as pronounced as //ɒ//.
- There are no minimal pairs between words such as aye/I and Dai/Di, unlike in Port Talbot. Like in Myddfai, the onset of is more open pronounced as /link/, compared to other Welsh accents such as West Glamorgan pronounced as //ə//.
- has a near-open onset pronounced as /link/, sharing a similar vowel quality as Myddfai, which is also more open than pronounced as //ə// that of West Glamorgan.
Abercraf has kept some distinctions between diphthong–monophthong pronunciations; they are shared among other south Welsh dialects such as Port Talbot. These distinctions are lost in most other dialects and they include:
- When is spelt with (ew), diphthongal pronounced as //ɪu// replaces monophthongal pronounced as //uː//, thus blew/blue and threw/through are distinct.
- The sequence is pronounced as pronounced as //juː// when (y) is represented in the spelling, otherwise pronounced as //ɪu//, as in you/youth as opposed to use/ewe. When unstressed and after non-coronal consonants, pronounced as //juː// uses the vowel instead.
- Absence of toe–tow and pain–pane mergers, therefore there are distinct monophthongal and diphthongal pronunciations of and lexical sets. They are diphthongs pronounced as //ei// and pronounced as //ou// when the spelling contains (i)/(y) and (u)/(w) respectively, otherwise they are monophthongs pronounced as //eː// and pronounced as //oː//. A good illustration is that of the word play-place pronounced as //ˈpleipleːs//.
Monophthongal pronunciations pronounced as //eː// and pronounced as //oː// are both close-mid; they match their cardinal equivalents. The diphthongal pronunciations have less movement compared to other south Welsh accents, with the onsets of each evidently being close-mid. Exceptions to this rule also exist similar to Port Talbot English, but is slightly different in Abercraf:- The monophthong is generally used before nasals and in the sequence (-atiV), therefore strange and patience is pronounced pronounced as //eː//.
- Certain minimal pairs that are not distinct in Port Talbot English, but are in Abercraf, such as waste/waist. In Port Talbot these two are pronounced monophthongally.
and are not centring diphthongs unlike RP, rather a disyllabic vowel sequence consisting of the equivalent long vowel as the first element and the vowel, such that these words are pronounced pronounced as //niːʌ// and pronounced as //kɪuːʌ// respectively.
- Like Port Talbot English, has a monosyllabic pronunciation pronounced as //jøː// word-initially, including after dropped pronounced as //h//, making hear, here, year and ear all homophones. Likewise, heard also has this vowel.
Phonemic incidence
Abercraf English generally follows West Glamorgan lexical incidence patterns.
- The first syllable in area may use the vowel instead of .
- Only one syllable is in co-op, being homophonous to cop.
- Haulier has the vowel unlike other accents which have .
- Renowned was once pronounced with pronounced as /[ou]/, although this is a spelling pronunciation and standard pronounced as /[au]/ does exist.
- Unstressed to regularly has over even before consonants.
- Tooth has the vowel instead of, which shares its pronunciation with the Midlands and Northern England.
- Want has the vowel, although this pronunciation was known among non-Welsh speakers of English.
- The vowel in whole uses instead of the usual .
Assimilation and elision
As mentioned above, there is less assimilation and elision than in other accents, however some consonants can be elided:
- pronounced as //n// is assimilated as pronounced as //m, ŋ// in the appropriate environments as RP. Likewise, the pronounced as //n// in government is elided.
- Unlike other colloquial accents in Britain, elision alveolar plosives pronounced as //t, d// before consonants is not common. pronounced as //t// was elided in first job and next week but not in soft wood, on the other hand pronounced as //d// is rarely elided in binds and old boy and clearly rendered in could be, headmaster and standard one.
- pronounced as //s// is retracted to pronounced as //ʃ// before another pronounced as //ʃ// as in bus shelter but not before palatal pronounced as //j// in this year (see yod-coalescence).
The vowel pronounced as //ə// is not elided, thus factory, mandarin, reference always have three syllables, unlike many accents such as RP or even Port Talbot.
Intonation
Abercraf English is considered to have a 'sing-song' or 'lilting' intonation due to having high amount of pitch on an unstressed post-tonic syllable, as well as pre-tonic syllables having a great degree of freedom, with a continuous rising pitch being common.