Methodology
Data Collection
Data was extracted from twelve recordings of Colchester speech made for a previous study (Carey 2010) 1 , however all of the speakers were aged 60 and above. In order to make a comparative study based on age, twelve recordings from the Dialects
Database (University of Essex) were also used. Thus a total of 24 recordings of the casual speech of Colchester speakers formed the corpus for this study. Spurling
(2004) makes the point that “yods are not very frequently occurring in conversation”. In order to make this a feasible study an adequate number of possible yod tokens were required. Labov’s New York City study (1966) investigated a number of variables and he used the speech of 88 people. Trudgill’s Norwich study
(1974) again examined a number of variables and he used data from 60 speakers.
Milroy and Gordon (2003) explain that sociolinguistic studies tend to require smaller samples by citing Sankoff (1980a) who says that because there is minimal variation within a speech community as people need to understand each other, “...community samples of more than 150 individuals tend to be redundant”. Bearing these theorists view in mind, a sample of 24 speakers to study just one variable was thought to be adequate. The aim was to extract around 100 yodfull tokens from each age group to form the basis for the analysis.
For the twelve recordings of the older speakers, the nature of the study was explained to each participant and although they were not informed of the actual
1 The detailed methodology for data collection for the Older Speakers can be found in Appendix i)

variable under investigation, they were told that it was a sound that was made in some words that was to be studied and so the content of the conversation could be of their choosing. All participants were asked to read and sign a consent form
(appendix ii). This explained that the data collected would be stored anonymously but could be accessed for further study. It is important to note that the actual signed consent forms have already been submitted to the University (as have the recordings) for safe storage on the Departmental database. It was made clear to the participants that they could withdraw from the interview at any time and that they would have a week or so to also withdraw their total consent if they so wished.
Prior to the recording, the speakers were also asked to complete a background information sheet (appendix iii). Although background information sheets are also available for the younger speakers, (appendix iii) the exact nature of participant preparation is not available as the recordings were taken from the Dialects Database as previously mentioned.
The Speakers
All of the participants have lived in Colchester for most of their lives, however as
National Service had been compulsory for most of the older male speakers, they had spent some time out of the town as their various postings dictated. One of the older female speakers had also spent two years living in London in her late teens and some of the older participants had been evacuated in the war as young children but for no longer than six months. Further information can be found in the individual
Background Information Sheet for each speaker (appendix iii)

Age Groupings
This apparent time study, the speech of two age groups was analysed. The first group were speakers aged 60 years and above and the second group comprised speakers aged 20 – 47 years. Results from the two age groups would be compared in order to analyse any correlation between yod-dropping/ coalescence and age.
Gender
Previous sociolinguistic studies have demonstrated two types of correlation pattern of variation according to gender (Patrick 2008). The first is a simple pattern, in the main from findings of earlier research for example, Labov (1966) New York City,
Trudgill (1974) Norwich and Horvath (1985) Sidney. These studies demonstrated that if all other sociolinguistic constraints (class, age) are equal, women tend to use speech forms that are non-standard less than men who tend to favour more vernacular forms. Trudgill (1974) gives an explanation for this that is based on four main factors. Firstly, that as primary child- rearers, women wish to transmit a more prestigious speech form to their children to enhance opportunity for upward socialisation. Also he explains that women use linguistic means to secure social status and linked with this they are often “rated” socially on how they appear rather than for what they do in terms of their occupation/earnings as are men, thus by using more prestigious speech forms they may be ranked higher socially. However
Patrick (2008) notes that this simple pattern of gender speech variation may have been found due to the more limited nature and methods of early sociolinguistic studies. Later studies including those by Haeri (1987/95) Cairo/Amman, Milroy
(1987) Belfast and Eckert (1995/98) Detroit Suburbs demonstrate more complex

patterning in the correlation between language variation and gender. Labov (1990) explains this by noting that the earlier studies did not differentiate between those variables that were stable from those which were at a stage of linguistic change in progress. Other theorists note that lack of awareness of gender dynamics and other sociological factors have influenced earlier findings and finally that linguistic differences within gender groups are as important as those linguistic differences between gender groups.
Later studies show the following principles according to Labov (1990): that for stable variables men use a higher frequency of non-standard forms (shown in Labov (1966)
New York City, Wolfram (1969) Detroit, Macaulay (1977) Glasgow and Trudgill (1974)
Norwich). In changes from above women favour the more prestige incoming form
(shown in Labov (1966) New York City and Milroy (1980) Belfast). In changes from below women often innovate (shown in Labov (1966) New York City, Eckert (1989)
Detroit suburbs and Trudgill (1974) Norwich). Finally men are sometimes found to be in advance of women in change from below (shown in Labov 1963) Martha’s
Vineyard, Trudgill (1974) Norwich and Milroy (1980) Belfast).
Taking these issues into consideration the speakers in this study were split into groups according to gender to see which pattern of correlation would prevail.
Social Class
Milroy and Gordon (2003:95) cite the work of Woolard (1985:738) when they discuss the lack of an adequate theoretical framework within which correlations between language and social class can be made. Woolard is of the view that sociolinguists

“borrow” sociological models such as socio-economic rating scales in the main because of convenience and familiarity. For this reason and the relatively small scale of this study, there will be no analysis of correlation between social class and yoddropping/coalescence.
The Variable
By listening to all 24 recordings, all possible “yodfull” tokens were extracted from the corpus, i.e. all words containing the sequence /ju/ as previously defined. Then all tokens where /t/ or /d/ occurred as the preceding consonant were extracted as these would be analysed separately in some elements of the analysis, due to their ability to coalesce as well as to precede yod-dropping. By calculating the yoddropped/coalesced tokens as a percentage of the possible “yodfull” tokens, the overall rate of yod-dropping/coalescence for the whole corpus was calculated.
Sociolinguistic Constraints
In order to examine the sociolinguistic constraints, the same process was repeated for age groupings that is, all yodfull possible tokens and yod-dropped/coalesced tokens were extracted for both the older age group and the younger group and the those with /t/ and /d/ as preceding consonant. A percentage frequency rate was calculated as above. This gave the rate of yod-dropping/coalescence by age. This was then repeated for gender groups giving the rate of yod-dropping/coalescence by gender..

Linguistic Constraints
Next the linguistic constraints were examined. Firstly the phonetic environments were broken down by the consonant preceding the /ju/ sequence.
The number of syllables in the tokens was the next analysis. Firstly the frequency rate yod-dropping/coalescence between monosyllabic and polysyllabic words was compared. Then an analysis was made of the properties of the syllable in relation to stress to establish the frequency of breaking in stressed versus unstressed syllables and open versus closed syllables.