>He found that the so-called ‘north-force distinction’ – where words like four and wore have a different vowel sound to for and war – is disappearing in the south and centre of the city. It has completely disappeared from the speech of middle-class Mancunians, so for them, the words in these pairs sound identical – as they do for most speakers of English today.
As a middle class Southern Mancunian it doesn’t surprise me but wait! Apparently it’s not just about class.
>Features of the ‘Manc’ accent are still present across Manchester, though they are much stronger in the working classes. Interestingly, north Manchester is actually different from the rest of the city even if we take social class into account – that is, working-class Mancunians from north Manchester sound a little different from working-class Mancunians elsewhere in the city. That is something which has rarely been reported in linguistic studies.
2 comments
>He found that the so-called ‘north-force distinction’ – where words like four and wore have a different vowel sound to for and war – is disappearing in the south and centre of the city. It has completely disappeared from the speech of middle-class Mancunians, so for them, the words in these pairs sound identical – as they do for most speakers of English today.
As a middle class Southern Mancunian it doesn’t surprise me but wait! Apparently it’s not just about class.
>Features of the ‘Manc’ accent are still present across Manchester, though they are much stronger in the working classes. Interestingly, north Manchester is actually different from the rest of the city even if we take social class into account – that is, working-class Mancunians from north Manchester sound a little different from working-class Mancunians elsewhere in the city. That is something which has rarely been reported in linguistic studies.
https://explore.manchestervoices.org/
Website about the ‘linguistic diversity’ of Greater Manchester.