Consonants NG

As noted above, the NG variable provides one major distinguishing factor as regards the WM dialect. As Hughes and Trudgill (1996: 63) explain, most varieties do not, in informal speech, have [ŋ] in <-ing>, but rather [n]. However, in a West-Central area of England (including Birmingham, Coventry, Stoke, Manchester, Liverpool and Sheffield, as well as rural counties including Staffordshire and parts of Warwickshire) there is a form [ŋg] for cases showing <ng> in the spelling. Thus, as Wells (1982: 365–366) notes, while most accents of English have a three term system of nasals, the West Midlands and parts of the (southern) North-West have a two-term system whereby [ŋ] is merely an allophone of /n/. Wells calls this phenomenon velar nasal plus. Most accents (including RP) have [ŋ] in words like song, hang, wrong; but some Northern accents are non-NG-coalescing and so disallow final [ŋ] (at least after stressed vowels).

Chinn and Thorne (2001: 22) go so far as to suggest that while [ŋg] frequently occurs in the speech of younger Birmingham speakers, this pattern may actually be a recent development, as it is “not altogether true” of older speakers. Wells notes that [ŋg] occurs well up the social scale; Heath (1980) found it in all social classes in Cannock, while in the BC [ŋ] has been reported as occurring in unstressed word-final syllables (thus [^Imo:niŋ] vs.  ). Indeed, although NG is stereotypically realized as [ŋg] in the WM dialect, analysis of the BCDP data makes it clear that there is variation (particularly among younger speakers) between [ŋg] and [n] and [ŋ].

Similarly, for Sandwell, Mathisen (1999: 111) notes word-final [ŋg ~ ŋ]  and [ŋg] before a word-initial suffix, but comments that it is subject to considerable stylistic variation, with [ŋg] favored by teenage women and for monitored speech.

The potential alternation between [n] and [ŋg] in BC is noted also by Biddulph (1986: 12).

مواضيع ذات صلة

Spelling and Pronunciation SUMMARY

American English vs. British English

Morphological Basis of English Spelling

Phoneme–Grapheme Correspondences in English Vowels

Phoneme–Grapheme Correspondences in English Consonants

Spelling and Pronunciation Irregularity of English Spelling

Structural Factors in Second Language Phonology SUMMARY

Perception

Optimality Theory (OT)

Ontogeny Phylogeny Model (OPM)

Markedness

Hypercontrast