page 1 of 28
Abstract
My project focuses on consonant cluster simplification (the variable of -t/-d deletion) and the
variation of this feature in Britain. This paper looked at speakers from two areas of Britain,
Bridlington and Colchester to see if there was any variation between the two dialects. This paper is
hoping to find evidence that there is variation between the two dialects and that this feature is
changing in some way but the what this paper will probably find, as has been found in all other
dialects of English, that this variable deletion is quite predictable in a general way. It may however
allow for some important differences of social, dialectal and individual patterning. The purpose of the
paper is to hypothesize a ranking order to see if my findings correlate with previous studies. The
findings from my data actually proved that the hypothesis was correct to a certain extent, in that the
strongest determiner in influencing -t/-d deletion was the effect of the following segment. This paper
also found some interesting data regarding the use of deletion of regular past tense endings.
page 2 of 28
Introduction
A lot of sociophonological work (although most of it sociolinguistic) has already been carried out on
the well-known process of -t/-d deletion in consonant clusters by English speakers. Almost all of the
research carried out on this topic has been done on North American, African American Vernacular
English (AAVE) and New Zealand dialects of English. This study will compare the consonant cluster
reduction in two dialectal areas of Britain, Bridlington in Yorkshire and Colchester in Essex
This variable has been extensively studied in all varieties of English and has been studied by linguists
and sociolinguists such as Labov, Wolfram, Patrick and Guy to name just a few. Published studies, so
far, have found that the deletion of -t/-d has been favoured in a number of ways which include the
sonority of the following environment, the presence of the two preceding consonants and the absence
of stress among them. Native speakers of English have been found more likely to delete a final -t/-d
when it is part of a word stem (e.g. She walked past) rather than when it forms the past tense ending
(e.g. She passed the exam.) Speakers of all English dialects are also more likely to delete when the
following segment begins with a vowel than when a consonant follows.
To carry out this study, I will choose a random sample of seven speakers in total, ranging in ages and
I will compare the two areas in terms of preceding environment, following environment and
grammatical category. I will compare each speaker to other speakers from their area and with other
speakers of the same age group. I intend to study a variety of speakers to get an accurate view of how
consonant cluster simplification occurs in each area and to be able to discuss both the phonological
and sociolinguistic factors affecting -t/-d deletion.
The aim of this project is to see if -t/-d deletion occurs in the same way as previous studies carried out
on North American and New Zealand dialects of English have found. I also aim to see if there is any
variation within British dialects of English and in particular if there are any patterns emerging in
either dialect. I will use published studies to compare my findings and to draw accurate conclusions
from my results.
page 3 of 28
Maps showing the Location of Bridlington (www.multimap.com)
Maps showing the Location of Colchester (www.multimap.com)
page 4 of 28
Theoretical Issue
The theoretical issue in my project is to see if the same constraints on t/d deletion appear to
present themselves in British dialects as they do in North American and New Zealand dialects of
English. Part of this issue will also be concerned as to whether there is any variation within Britain
itself from the results of my data. To determine whether my results reflect the same constraints as
those found in North American and New Zealand studies, I will first need to construct a literature
review of previous studies on this topic.
Many of the studies previously carried out on the variation of t/d deletion have been primarily
concerned with the social constraints on this variable rather than the phonological constraints.
Sociolinguists such as Labov, Wolfram and Shuy have all carried out sociolinguistic studies of this
variable. One of the first studies carried out on the internal linguistic constraints was by Labov, Cohen
and Robins in 1965. In this paper they looked at the speech of black speakers in South Harlem in
America. Other studies that followed have come from Wolfram (1969), Fasold (1972) and Labov
(1972). All these papers found that in all English dialects that were studied, they produced the same
important factors that favour t/d deletion:





The sonority of the following environment,
The presence of the two preceding consonants,
By absence of stress
By homogeneity of voicing in the cluster and;
By the absence of any grammatical function of the deleted segment.
As we have seen this variable appears to operate in the same way in all dialects of English in all
the studies that have been carried out to date. The notation below (as presented by Chomsky and Halle
1968) shows that t/d is variably deleted after a consonant at the end of a word and that this occurs
more in unstressed syllables such as biggest. It also variably deleted when a third consonant precedes
as in next or when there is no preceding grammatical boundary.
t,d   0  /  - str > [+ cons] < 0 > _
+ cons
- voc
The angled brackets that follow the dash indicate that the first segment of the following word favours
deletion if it is [+consonant feature] and the [- vocalic feature]. This generates the declining
simplification by the manner of the following segment as obstruent > liquid > glide >vowel.
Some different theories have been proposed as an alternative account and to go beyond the
regularity of the basic phenomenon. An alternative account of t/d deletion was proposed by those in
favour of Optimality Theory in the mid nineties, in which the ordering of a set of universal constraints
produced an output dictated by the minimal violations of a set of universal constraints, in a dialect
specific ordering. Reynolds (1994) said that to produce a variable output, the theory might be
modified to allow variable ordering. Kiparsky (1994) proposed that the ‘exponential relationship
could be accounted for by an exploded optimality theory constraint that would have the effect of
processing clusters once, twice or three times.
Past Tense Marking
(a) He washed the car.
He seemed funny
(b) He washed everyone’s car.
He seemed odd.
page 5 of 28
In the examples above the /t/ and /d/ are the realisation of the past tense ending –ed, whereas in
previous examples such as most, best etc they do not have this function. In all dialects of English we
could therefore say that t/d deletion is less likely to occur in contexts where t/d marks the past tense.
Evidence from previous studies has shown that this is true as the t/d are the only indication of the
tense of the verb. The Linguistic constraints (whether it is followed by a consonant/vowel and
whether or not it encodes past tense marking) predict that deletion is more likely to occur in the first
set than in the second set.
Language
Variety
Standard
American
English
White Working
Class American
Eng
Black Working
Class American
Eng
Puerto Rican
Working Class
English
Percentage
deletion in non –
ed clusters
(followed by a
consonant)
66
Percentage
deletion in –ed
clusters
(followed by a
consonant)
36
Percentage
deletion in non ed clusters
(followed by a
vowel)
12
Percentage
deletion in –ed
clusters
(followed by a
vowel)
3
67
23
19
3
97
76
72
34
93
78
63
23
This table (Radford et al 1999: 59) shows evidence from a number of dialects and shows that Puerto
Rican speakers tend to delete t, d more frequently in than speakers of American English. This table
also provides evidence that social factors as well as linguistic factors play a part in the variation of
this feature. William Labov says that language is characterised by ‘structured heterogeneity’, in that
a set of social, interactional and linguistic factors have complex effects on the linguistic forms found
within a speech community. (Radford et al 1999: 60)
I chose to study the phonological variable t/d because there has been little work carried out this
feature in Britain. Although there have been very similar findings in all other dialects of English, I
hope to find something new in my data and in particular some variation between my two British
dialects.
page 6 of 28
Linguistic Variable
The linguistic variable I will be focussing on in this study is -t/-d deletion (consonant cluster
simplification) in two varieties of English, describing the major linguistic constraints that govern
variation. TD deletion in English refers to the deletion of the alveolar stop /t/ and /d/ in final
consonant clusters, although in this study I will also briefly look at deletion in word medial position.
This project will look at two important factors regarding this deletion.


Linguistic Factor - the phonological environment the t/d occurs in and the morpheme it occurs in
Social Factor - The age and sex of a speaker, their social class and speaking style.
I will look at three linguistic factors that influence (either by promoting or disfavouring) deletion .
Two of these factors consider the phonological environment that the -t/-d occurs and the other
considers the grammatical category, in other words the type of morpheme that the -t/-d cluster occurs
in.
The Preceding Segment
This refers to the class of sounds that occur before the -t/-d, basically meaning the first part of the
consonant cluster (and therefore it is limited to consonants.) These can be divided into five groups
1) Sibilants / j, s, ʃ, ʧ, z,ʤ /
2) Stops /b, p, g, k/
3) Fricatives /f, v, θ, ð/
4) Nasals /n, m, ŋ/
5) Liquids /l/
E.g. I passed the exam, I was parched for a drink.
E.g. I stopped the car,
E.g. I left home
E.g. Send it in the post.
E.g I told him.
The Following Segment
This refers to the class of sounds that follow the t/-d cluster such as a morpheme or pause etc. We can
also divide these into five groups:
1) Consonants
2) Glides
3) Rhotics
4) Vowel
5) Pause
This refers to all the categories above
/y/, /w/, /h/
/r/
(All English vowels)
Silence, break in speech.
The Grammatical Category
The grammatical category refers to the type of morpheme that the t/d occurs in. I have out these into
four categories:
1) Mono-morphemes
2) Irregular devoicing verbs
3) Regular past verbs
4) Semi weak verbs
Where the t/d is part of the stem. E.g. Just
E.g. send/sent
E.g. She passed the salt.
E.g. I left the cooker on.
With regard to grammatical category, I have excluded negative suffix items such as can’t and won’t
from my data as I felt that these forms were fairly predictable in the way they work and that they are
the most deleted forms.
page 7 of 28
Exclusions from my Data
In my project I have excluded some specific examples which I feel cannot provide an accurate
account of the deletion of -t/-d in these two dialects. I have excluded the following cases:




Cases where a final -t/-d is followed by a -t/-d (respectively) at the beginning of the next
morpheme. This final -t/-d is deleted, almost in anticipation of the following -t/-d. E.g. It's just
too much.
Cases where a nasal appears before a -t/-d cluster and where a vowel follows (the rule of nasalflapping) E.g. Want a light becomes wanna light.
Cases where preceding /r/ is a vital part of the consonant cluster. E.g. This is part of it.
Cases of the function word and as this is very predictable in how its work and therefore there was
no need to include it in my data.
Major Constraints
According to Labov (1989) the major constraints on –t/-d deletion goes as follows. I will use these
formulas in more detail when I discuss my Results.
Theoretical sonority hierarchy:
Stops > Fricatives > Sibilants > Nasals > /l/
LOW SONORITY…………………………………………………
Preceding segment:
Deletion Rule:
HIGH SONORITY
Sibilant > Stops > Nasals > Fricatives > /l/
Most favoured………………………Least favoured
Following segment: Consonant > Liquid, Glide > Vowel > Pause
Deletion Rule:
Most favoured………………………Least favoured
Grammatical status:
Mono-morpheme > Semi weak verbs > Irregular devoiced verbs > Regular past tense
Deletion Rule:
Most favoured………………………Least favoured
page 8 of 28
Methods
In this project I have looked at two different areas, Bridlington (Yorkshire) and Colchester (Essex). I
chose to look at two areas, so I could compare my findings with another another of Britain and in
particular look at whether there were any variation between the North and the South of England. I
chose the Bridlington sample as I have some previous knowledge of the Yorkshire accent, having
lived there, and the Colchester sample because this is where I currently live.
I have used a sample of seven speakers in total, five speakers from Bridlington and two speakers from
Colchester. The Bridlington sample consisted of one old male, two old females, and two young
females. The Colchester sample consisted of an old male, and a young male. All the data collections
were taken from informal interviews and I felt this was important in obtaining an accurate account of
the features of these speakers. I chose to look at speakers of both sexes and a range of ages so I could
look at whether there was a language change in progress and to see if there were any distinctive
differences between the two areas. The Bridlington sample only provided us with the gender and
whether the speaker was old or young. The Colchester sample provided us with many more
sociolinguistic factors such as where they’ve lived and their social class. I felt it was important to
include a variety of speakers in order to analyse the data and come to accurate conclusion.
The table below shows the sample I used and some relevant information that was provided with the
sample.
Tape Reference
Brid04
Brid04
Brid05
Brid11
Brid12
457.1.98
457.13.98
Name of subject
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
Vic Bagnall
Darren Parker
Age
Old
Old
Old
Young
Young
d.o.b 13/10/44
d.o.b. 1969
Gender
Male
Female
Female
Female
Female
Male
Male
Sample
Bridlington
Bridlington
Bridlington
Bridlington
Bridlington
Colchester
Colchester
To calculate my results, I extracted between 30 and 50 tokens per person, depending on the quality of
the tape and the amount of tokens I could actually find by a particular speaker. I looked at three
linguistic factors (mentioned in the Linguistic Variable), two of which consider the phonological
environment that the -t/-d occurs in and the other considers the grammatical category, in other words
the type of morpheme that the -t/-d cluster occurs in. The following are all examples of the kind of
phonological environments I looked at in my project to see if deletion occurred:

Where a consonant cluster ends and a morpheme boundary or pause follows:
t, d ___ E,g I left.

Where a consonant cluster ends and a vowel follows:
t, d ___V E.g I left it on.

Where a consonant cluster ends and a consonant follows
t, d ___C E.g I left the cooker on.
page 9 of 28

How past tense marking effects consonant cluster deletion
E.g. I passed the exam.
I displayed my results firstly in the form of tables, showing each speakers, preceding segment and
following segment and then the grammatical category the –t/-d was found in. The tables display the
number of tokens found in each speakers recording and then I have calculated the percentages so we
can see a clearer picture. (My full results can be seen in both the Results and Appendix sections.) I
then displayed all my results in the form of graphs which can be seen in the Results section. In this
section, I review my findings and explain what my recorded data shows, describing in the Conclusion
what their relevance is to previous studies carried out on this feature.
page 10 of 28
Results: Colchester Old Male 457.1.98 (Vic Bagnall)
Percentage of deleted -t/-d tokens by Preceding Segment
Preceding Segment
Sibilant
Stop
Fricative
Nasal
Liquid
No. of Tokens
29
0
0
19
2
Percentage
58%
0%
0%
19%
4%
Percentage of deleted -t/-d tokens by Following Segment
Following Segment
Consonant
Glide
Rhotic
Vowel
Pause
No.of Tokens
46
1
2
1
0
Percentage
92%
2%
4%
2%
0%
Percentage of deleted -t/-d tokens by Grammatical Category
Grammatical Category
Mono-morphemes
Semi weak
Irregular devoicing
Regular past
Medial
3 Consonant cluster
No.of Tokens
32
3
0
0
1
14
Percentage
64%
6%
0%
0%
2%
28%
The first graph for this speaker shows that the first constraint (preceding segment) is clearly an
important factor that determines whether the following -t/-d is deleted, favouring that sibilants
influence deletion the most, it represents 58% of the deleted tokens. The second constraint (following
segment) showed that deletion was most favoured when followed by a consonant which was expected.
The final constraint shows that mono-morphemes clearly favour deletion as I found no tokens that
show deletion in Irregular devoiced verbs or Regular past tense. There were a small number of semi
weak verbs that underwent deletion but too small to make any concrete conclusions. The second most
favoured place for deletion was where there were a string of three consonants in the final cluster. We
can therefore translate our data into a hierarchy for each constraint.
Preceding:
Sibilants > Nasals > Liquids > Stops > Fricatives
Following: Consonants> Rhotics > glides > Vowels > Pause
Category:
Mono > Semi weak > Irreg devoicing > Reg past
page 11 of 28
Results: Colchester Young Male 457.13.98 (Darren Parker)
Percentage of deleted -t/-d tokens by Preceding Segment
Preceding Segment
Sibilant
Stop
Fricative
Nasal
Liquid
No. of Tokens
17
1
0
8
0
Percentage
66%
4%
0%
30%
0%
Percentage of deleted -t/-d tokens by Following Segment
Following Segment
Consonant
Glide
Rhotic
Vowel
Pause
No.of Tokens
20
2
4
0
0
Percentage
77%
8%
15%
0%
0%
Percentage of deleted -t/-d tokens by Grammatical Category
Grammatical Category
Mono-morphemes
Semi weak
Irregular devoicing
Regular past
Medial
3 Consonant cluster
No.of Tokens
21
0
0
0
1
4
Percentage
81%
0%
0%
0%
4%
15%
The first constraint, as with the older Colchester male, shows that deletion is favoured by sibilants the
most and then nasals follow, 66% and 30% respectively. This is where the similarity ends as the
young male appears to favour deletion more when a stop precedes than when a liquid or fricative.
There is only one token to show that stops are favoured more so it could be the case that with a larger
sample I would not find this. The second constraint shows the same results as that of the older male,
in that consonants favour deletion the most. The grammatical category constraint also shows the same
findings. The majority of tokens are deleted in mono-morphemes and those that were not are either
word medial or part of three consonants in the cluster. I was unable to find any tokens that showed
deletion in semi weak verbs, Irregular devoiced verbs or regular past endings. This is the hierarchy for
the Darren Parker.
Preceding:
Sibilants > Nasals > Stops > Fricatives, Liquids
Following: Consonants > Rhotics > Glides > Vowel, Pause
Category:
Mono > Semi weak, Irreg devoicing, Reg past
page 12 of 28
Results: Bridlington Old Male 04
Percentage of deleted -t/-d tokens by Preceding Segment
Preceding Segment
Sibilant
Stop
Fricative
Nasal
Liquid
No. of Tokens
14
2
2
17
1
Percentage
39%
6%
6%
46%
3%
Percentage of deleted -t/-d tokens by Following Segment
Following Segment
Consonant
Glide
Rhotic
Vowel
Pause
No.of Tokens
34
0
1
0
1
Percentage
94%
0%
3%
0%
3%
Percentage of deleted -t/-d token by Grammatical Category
Grammatical Category
Mono-morphemes
Semi weak
Irregular devoicing
Regular past
Medial
3 Consonant cluster
No.of Tokens
23
2
0
4
0
7
Percentage
64%
5.5%
0%
11%
0%
19.5%
The Bridlington results show some interesting differences from those found in the Colchester corpus
data. The first constraint shows that deletion is favoured more when the preceding segment is a nasal.
There is a 13% difference between that and sibilants, which come as the second most favoured but
this is a little misleading as there are only three tokens separating these results. The second constraint
shows that following consonants are favoured for deletion 94% of the time by this speaker. This
therefore leaves only a small percentage for the other factors and we can conclude that deletion is
most favoured by consonants. The final constraint shows that mono-morphemes are favoured most for
deletion followed by a very surprising regular past endings (11%) coming as second most favoured
for deletion. This will be discussed further in the Conclusion.
Preceding:
Nasals > Sibilants > Stops > Fricatives > Liquids
Following: Consonants > Rhotics > Pause > Glides, Vowels
Category:
Mono > Reg past > Semi weak > Irreg devoicing
page 13 of 28
Results: Bridlington Old Female 04
Percentage of deleted -t/-d tokens by Preceding Segment
Preceding Segment
Sibilant
Stop
Fricative
Nasal
Liquid
No. of Tokens
24
0
3
2
2
Percentage
78%
0%
10%
6%
6%
Percentage of deleted -t/-d tokens by Following Segment
Following Segment
Consonant
Glide
Rhotic
Vowel
Pause
No.of Tokens
25
5
0
1
0
Percentage
81%
16%
0%
3%
0%
Percentage of deleted -t/-d tokens by Grammatical Category
Grammatical Category
Mono-morphemes
Semi weak
Irregular devoicing
Regular past
Medial
3 Consonant cluster
No.of Tokens
26
1
0
3
1
0
Percentage
84%
3%
0%
10%
3%
0%
The Bridlington Female 04 results show that she favours deletion the most when the preceding
environment is a sibilant, at a clear advantage of 78% of the deleted tokens. This is then followed by
Fricatives. The second constraint clearly shows that following consonants favour deletion the most, as
found with all the other speakers so far and represents 81% of the deleted tokens. The final constraint
shows that mono-morphemes represented 81% of the deleted tokens but few tokens were found for
regular past, semi weak and irregular devoiced verbs. As with the Bridlington Old Male 04, 10% of
the deleted tokens were from regular past tense endings and again this will discussed further in the
Conclusion.
Preceding:
Sibilants > Fricatives Nasals, Liquids > Stops
Following: Consonants > Glides > Vowels > Rhotics > Pause
Category:
Mono > Reg past > Semi weak, Irreg devoicing
page 14 of 28
Results: Bridlington Old Female 05
Percentage of deleted -t/-d tokens by Preceding Segment
Preceding Segment
Sibilant
Stop
Fricative
Nasal
Liquid
No. of Tokens
28
0
0
7
1
Percentage
78%
0%
0%
19.5%
2.5%
Percentage of deleted -t/-d tokens by Following Segment
Following Segment
Consonant
Glide
Rhotic
Vowel
Pause
No.of Tokens
24
7
2
1
2
Percentage
66%
20%
5.5%
3%
5.5%
Percentage of deleted -t/-d tokens by Grammatical Category
Grammatical Category
Mono-morphemes
Semi weak
Irregular devoicing
Regular past
Medial
3 Consonant cluster
No.of Tokens
31
0
1
0
1
3
Percentage
86%
0%
3%
0%
3%
8%
The Bridlington Female 05 results show some different findings from the other Bridlington Old
female. She favours deletion with a preceding sibilant the most, both representing 78% of the deleted
tokens. Although the hierarchy below looks quite different to that of the other old female, percentages
are not very different. The only main difference with this constraint is the positioning of fricatives and
liquids which I shall discuss further in my Conclusion. The second constraint shows that consonants
are favoured but only 66% of the time. Glides represent another fairly substantial amount with 20% of
the deleted tokens. The final constraint clearly shows, with 86% that this is the most favoured. I did,
however, find no tokens to represent deleting of regular past tense endings. The hierarchy therefore
goes as follows:
Preceding:
Sibilants > Nasals > Liquids > Fricatives, Stops.
Following: Consonants > Glides > Rhotics > Pause > Vowel
Category:
Mono > Irreg devoicing > Semi weak, Reg past
page 15 of 28
Results: Bridlington Young Female 11
Percentage of deleted -t/-d tokens by Preceding Segment
Preceding Segment
Sibilant
Stop
Fricative
Nasal
Liquid
No. of Tokens
21
0
1
8
0
Percentage
70%
0%
3%
27%
0%
Percentage of deleted -t/-d tokens by Following Segment
Following Segment
Consonant
Glide
Rhotic
Vowel
Pause
No.of Tokens
23
7
0
0
0
Percentage
77%
23%
0%
0%
0%
Percentage of deleted -t/-d tokens by Grammatical Category
Grammatical Category
Mono-morphemes
Semi weak
Irregular devoicing
Regular past
Medial
3 Consonant cluster
No.of Tokens
22
1
0
0
3
4
Percentage
74%
3%
0%
0%
13%
10%
This speakers results show that she favours deletion 70% of the time when the preceding environment
is a sibilant. The next factor was nasals which consisted of 27% of the total tokens. The second
constraint showed that 77% of the deleted tokens were consonants, followed by glides with 23%. The
data shows that I found no tokens of any other following segment. The final constraint shows that
77% of the deleted tokens were mono-morphemes and 3% of them were semi weak verbs. The other
23% consisted of word medial tokens and consonant clusters containing three consonants. I have
excluded the latter two for reasons I will discuss in the Conclusion. The hierarchy therefore goes as
follows:
Preceding:
Following:
Category:
Sibilants > Nasals >Fricatives > Stops, Liquids
Consonants > Glides > Rhotics, Vowels, Pause
Mono > Semi weak > Irreg devoicing, Reg past
page 16 of 28
Results: Bridlington Young Female 12
Percentage of deleted -t/-d tokens by Preceding Segment
Preceding Segment
Sibilant
Stop
Fricative
Nasal
Liquid
No. of Tokens
11
0
0
9
0
Percentage
55%
0%
0%
45%
0%
Percentage of deleted -t/-d tokens by Following Segment
Following Segment
Consonant
Glide
Rhotic
Vowel
Pause
No.of Tokens
17
3
0
0
0
Percentage
85%
15%
0%
0%
0%
Percentage of deleted -t/-d tokens by Grammatical Category
Grammatical Category
Mono-morphemes
Semi weak
Irregular devoicing
Regular past
Medial
3 Consonant cluster
No.of Tokens
14
0
0
0
0
6
Percentage
70%
0%
0%
0%
0%
30%
For this speaker, the results show that 55% of the deleted tokens favour deletion when the preceding
segment is a sibilant. This is lower than that found in the other young Bridlington speaker. She then
favours the deletion when preceded by a nasal 45%. I found for the following environment, exactly
the same hierarchy as that of the other young Bridlington female, with 85% of the tokens favouring
deletion before a consonant. For the third constraints I found no tokens other than mono-morphemes,
which represented 70% of my tokens. I found no other tokens that represented semi weak verb,
irregular devoiced verbs or regular past tense endings. The other 30% of the deleted tokens were from
consonant clusters that contained three consonants. The hierarchy therefore goes as follows:
Preceding:
Following:
Category:
Sibilants > Nasals > Stops, Fricative, Liquids.
Consonants > Glides > Rhotics, Vowels, Pause
Mono > Semi weak, Irreg devoicing, Reg past
page 17 of 28
Results for Bridlington Old Male 04
Percentage of deleted -t/-d tokens by preceding segment
50
45
40
35
30
% 25
20
15
10
5
0
Sibilant
Stop
Fricative
Nasal
Liquid
Percentage of deleted -t/-d tokens by following segment
100
90
80
70
60
%
50
40
30
20
10
0
Consonant
Glide
Rhotic
Vowel
Pause
Percentage of deleted -t/-d tokens by grammatical category
70
60
50
40
%
30
20
10
0
mono
Semi
Irreg
Reg past
Medial
3 cons
page 18 of 28
Results for Bridlington Old Female 04
Percentage of deleted -t/-d tokens by preceding segment
80
70
60
50
% 40
30
20
10
0
Sibilant
Stop
Fricative
Nasal
Liquid
Percentage of deleted -t/-d tokens by following segment
90
80
70
60
50
%
40
30
20
10
0
Consonant
Glide
Rhotic
Vowel
Pause
Percentage of deleted -t/-d tokens by grammatical category
90
80
70
60
50
%
40
30
20
10
0
Mono
Semi
Irreg
Reg past
Medial
page 19 of 28
Results for Bridlington Old Female 05
Perecentage of deleted -t/-d tokens by preceding segment
80
70
60
50
% 40
30
20
10
0
Sibiant
Stop
Fricative
Nasal
Liquid
Percentage of deleted -t/-d tokens by following segment
70
60
50
40
%
30
20
10
0
Consonant
Glide
Rhotic
Vowel
Pause
Percentage of deleted -t/-d tokens by grammatical category
90
80
70
60
50
%
40
30
20
10
0
Mono
Semi
Irreg
Reg past
Medial
3 cons
page 20 of 28
Results for Bridlington Young Female 11
Percentage of deleted -t/-d tokens by preceding segment
70
60
50
40
%
30
20
10
0
Sibilant
Stop
Fricative
Nasal
Liquid
Percentage of deleted -t/-d tokens by following segment
80
70
60
50
% 40
30
20
10
0
Consonant
Glide
Rhotic
Vowel
Pause
Percentage of deleted -t/-d tokens by grammatical category
80
70
60
50
% 40
30
20
10
0
Mono
Semi
Irreg
Reg past
Medial
3 cons
page 21 of 28
Results for Colchester Old Male 457.1.98 (Vic Bagnall)
Percentage of deleted -t/-d tokens by preceding segment
60
50
40
% 30
20
10
0
Sibilant
Stop
Fricative
Nasal
Liquid
Percentage of deleted -t/-d tokens by following segment
100
90
80
70
60
%
50
40
30
20
10
0
Consonant
Glide
Rhotic
Vowel
Pause
Percentage of deleted -t/-d tokens by grammatical category
70
60
50
40
%
30
20
10
0
Mono
Semi
Irreg
Reg past
Medial
3 cons
page 22 of 28
Results for Colchester Young Male 457.13.98 (Darren Parker)
Percentage of deleted -t/-d tokens by preceding segment
70
60
50
40
%
30
20
10
0
Sibilant
Stop
Fricative
Nasal
Liquid
Percentage of deleted -t/-d tokens by following segment
80
70
60
50
% 40
30
20
10
0
Consonant
Glide
Rhotic
Vowel
Pause
Percentage of deleted -t/-d tokens by grammatical category
90
80
70
60
50
%
40
30
20
10
0
Mono
Semi
Irreg
Reg past
Medial
3 cons
page 23 of 28
Results for Bridlington Young Female 12
Percentage of deleted -t/-d tokens by preceding segment
60
50
40
% 30
20
10
0
Sibilant
Stop
Fricative
Nasal
Liquid
Percentage of deleted -t/-d tokens by following segment
90
80
70
60
50
%
40
30
20
10
0
Consonant
Glide
Rhotic
Vowel
Pause
Percentage of deleted -t/-d tokens by grammatical category
70
60
50
40
%
30
20
10
0
Mono
Semi
Irreg
Reg past
Medial
3 cons
page 24 of 28
Summary of Results
In this section of the paper, we saw the results of my recorded data through a series of tables
and graphs. The tables show the number of deleted tokens I found from each speaker and then they
have been calculated as percentages to give a clearer picture. In this section, we will summarise the
observations of the data, discussing each speaker individually and then the group as a whole.
Due to the very small sample of Colchester data, the results cannot completely account for the way t/-d operates in Colchester. These results can draw some reasonable conclusions but these may be
speculative and with more speakers, we could study this area further. My results show that both
Colchester speakers favour sibilants and then nasals in the preceding segments for deletion. The
hierarchy then shows mixed results but only three tokens separate these findings and so no concrete
conclusions can be made with such few tokens between them. Both show a high percentage of deleted
-t/-d tokens when the following segment is a consonants, however the younger speaker shows that he
is more likely to delete when there is a following rhotic or glide than the older male. For the third
constraint, both showed the highest percentage of deletion with mono-morphemes.
Four out of the five Bridlington speakers favoured sibilants as the most likely preceding environment
in which to delete a /t/ or /d/. The Bridlington Male was the only exception but the result was
inclusive as only three tokens separated nasals and sibilants. The two old females both had 78%
deleted tokens as sibilants for the first constraint. The second constraint showed some difference
between the two older females, both favouring consonants but one having 81% deleted tokens and the
other 66%. The third constraint showed that both speakers favoured mono-morphemes for deletion.
The two young females showed a difference in percentage of deleted sibilants, with one showing 70%
of deleted sibilants and the other 55%. For the second constraint, both had a high number of deleted
consonants, recording 77% and 85% of the tokens that were collected. For the final constraint both
speakers favoured mono-morphemes the most for deletion.
This paper showed that six out of the seven speakers favoured a preceding sibilant the most for
deletion before a -t/-d. The only exception to this data was the Bridlington Old Male 04, who favoured
nasals the most with 46% and sibilants following with 39%. The percentages indicate that there is
some difference between the two but in fact, there are only three tokens between nasals and fricatives
and so with a larger sample we may see a different pattern which follows that of the other speakers.
For the second constraint (the following environment) the data showed that all the speakers favoured
consonants the most for deletion, although the range expanded from 66% (Old Female 05) to 94%
(Bridlington Old Male 04.) For the third constraint all the speakers again favoured mono-morphemes
as the likeliest to delete.
page 25 of 28
Conclusion
I can conclude several things from the sample of data I studied in this project. My hypothesis was
fairly correct but there were some subtle differences between the two areas and the individuals. I
found that the phonological environment is very important in influencing the deletion of /t/ and /d/,
the biggest influence being that of the following segment. The linguistic context, without a doubt,
effects whether or not deletion occurs. Previous research and my results both clearly show that
deletion is far less likely before vowels than before consonants. From my results I can propose a
hierarchy of the likeliness of deletion.
Most likely
Less likely
1. Preceding consonant and following consonant
E.g. Best friend, cold weather
2. Past tense suffix and following consonant
E.g. He passed the salt, she seemed funny
3. Preceding consonant and following vowel
E.g. Most of the time, ground attack
4. Past tense suffix and following vowel.
E.g. I passed out, she seemed odd.
Consonant Clusters
Some of my examples show lenition, a process which is where a consonant is weakened in certain
positions. T/D deletion of this sort occurs in examples such as friends, hands and bands show lenition
in certain positions.
Notice that most of these examples contain a /d/ rather than a /t/ and that it is
deleted due to it being the least salient sound in the consonant cluster. Where this occurs with /t/,
however, it is not deleted but infact pronounced as a glottal stop. This also occurs in some word
medial positions such as in ammendment and commitment where the /d/ is deleted and the /t/
pronounced as a glottal stop respectively.
Past Tense Marking
As far as past tense marking occurs, my two Colchester speakers have no tokens that show that they
delete –t/-d when marking the past tense. I found that two out of five of my Bridlington speakers
actually do delete sometimes when marking the past tense. The numbers of these were quite low and
may be due to Yorkshire Assimilation, a process whereby a final /d/ becomes a /t/. For example
bedtime would become bettime.
Previous Studies
Reviewing what previous studies have found, my results do not show much difference in results from
what they observed although most of these studies were sociolinguistic as opposed to phonological. I
found similar patterns in the factors that favoured deletion Labov’s Hierarchy 1968 (shown in the
Linguistic Variable) seems to support my findings on the most favoured environments but not on the
following. The only real major difference between my findings and Labov's hierarchy is the
positioning of stops, as nasals appear to be more favoured across the speakers.
Discussion
There are a few important points which should be mentioned in relation to my data and the results.
The first is that these results show the number of deleted tokens within each speakers recording but do
not calculate the actual total number of tokens which contain consonant clusters. This therefore shows
that this data does not fully represent the patterns that are occurring in either area as the percentage of
absence tokens was not calculated. Although these results confirm the factors that are most favoured
page 26 of 28
for deletion, by calculating the percentage of absence tokens we would get a much clearer and
accurate picture.
The data shows that fricatives are least favoured for deletion when they precede a /t/ or /d/. This is
obvious to conclude as /θ/ and /ð/ cannot occur before a /t/ or /d/ consonant cluster and /v/ does not
occur either. This therefore only leaves /f/ and these tokens are small. Also that mono-morphemes
were most favoured for deletion but if we look at the other grammatical categories we can see that this
should clearly be the case. Semi weak verbs are very rare , Irregular verbs are not very common and
Regular past tense endings should be kept and not deleted as they are the only indication of the past
tense of the verb.
It would be interesting to expand this study with more speakers and certainly more tokens in order to
get a clearer picture. Some of the tapes were poor quality and I would like to conduct further
interviews myself as I feel the interviewer has the best angle at transcribing and concluding the data. I
would also like to expand my study to other areas of Britain to see if any further variation could be
found
page 27 of 28
References
Books
Cruttenden, A. (2001) Gimson’s Pronunciation of English Arnold, London
Foulkes and Docherty (1999) Urban Voices. Arnold; London.
Patrick, P.L (1999) Urban Jamaican Creole: Variation in the mesolect. John Benjamins;
Amsterdam & Philadelphia
Radford et al ( 1999) Linguistics: An Introduction. CUP; Cambridge.
Wells, J.C (1982) Accents of English. Vol 1 – Introduction. CUP; Cambridge.
Wells, J.C (1982) Accents of English.Vol 2 – The British Isles. CUP; Cambridge.Journal Articles
Journal Articles
Bayley, R (1994: 303-326) Consonant cluster simplification in Tejano English. Journal of
Language Variation and Change 6.
Guy, G (1991: 1-22) Explanation in variable phonology: An exponential model of
morphological class. Journal of Language Variation and Change 3.
Guy, G (1991: 223-239) Contextual conditioning in variable lexical phonology. Journal of
Language variation and Change 3
Labov, W (1989: 85-97) The child as linguistic historian in Journal of Language Variation
and Change 1.
Patrick, P.L (1991: 171-189) Creole at the intersection of variable processes: -t, d deletion
and past-marking in Jamaican mesolect in Journal of Language Variation and Change 3.
Santa Ana A, O (1996: 63-89) Sonority and syllable structure in Chicano English. Journal of
Language Variation and Change 8
page 28 of 28
Websites
www.ling.upenn.edu – Daniel Schreier article on Maori English
www.ling.osu.edu - Word-medial /t, d/ deletion in spontaneous speech
Acknowledgements
Roger Jennings
LG232 Lecture Notes – Introduction to Sociolinguistics
Wyn Johnson and Dave Britain