Mapping The Existing Phonology of English Dialects

Given its early date, breadth of coverage (geographical and linguistic) and the huge amount of data it contains, Alexander Ellis's The Existing Phonology of EnglishDialects marks an extremely significant episode in British dialectology. Despite this, there has been very little in the way of detailed linguistic analysis of Ellis’s survey, and no attempt has been made to construct a linguistic atlas from the data it contains, although several studies have included a few preliminary maps based on it. Why is this so, and what might we discover if we did investigate this early survey of the dialects of English and Scots in more detail? The aim of this paper is to begin such an investigation and, in particular, to demonstrate that there is considerable mileage (and benefit) in mapping the data in Ellis (1889)

The origins of owld in Scots

The usual development of OE [ɑld] in words such as old in Scots is to auld, reflecting the development of this sequence in northern dialects more generally. But in some Scots dialects other pronunciations of these words, reminiscent of dialects of English south of the Ribble-Humber Line, are found. These forms, of the type owld, are found across Lowland Scotland,with particular concentrations in the far north and south-west. Origins in Irish English and English in England have been suggested for this feature of Scots but these hypotheses have not been explored. Aitken & Macafee (2002: 61-2) instead argue for an endogenous origin of both auld and owld, but this proposed double endogenous development of OE [ɑld] is problematic in a number of ways. In this paper, I examine the history of these developments in Scots in comparison to their development in dialects of English in England and Ireland. The lack of evidence for the owld development in Older Scots suggests that these forms are of relatively recent origin. Crucially, the Eighteenth-Century English Phonology (ECEP) database reveals that the owld pronunciations were in fact a feature of early forms of Standard English.Furthermore, several characteristic features of Irish English have spread into south-west Scotland, and the distribution of owld forms in the area fits this pattern. Thus Scots forms such as owld are not the result of endogenous development, but have their origin in English, in the case of south-west Scotland at least in part from Irish English, and elsewhere in Scotland from early forms of Standard English. These owld forms have been ‘localised’ and reinterpreted as‘Scots’, alongside or replacing original auld. The analysis of the origins of this feature highlights not only the role of contact with varieties of English in the development of Scots,but also the importance of sources such as the ECEP database for understanding the historical phonology of Scots and Englis

The Relationships Between Fluoride Intake Levels and Fluorosis of Late‐Erupting Permanent Teeth

Objectives To examine the relationships between fluoride intake levels and fluorosis of late‐erupting permanent teeth. Methods The current study used information collected from 437 children in the longitudinal Iowa Fluoride Study. Participants\u27 fluoride intake information was collected using questionnaires from birth to age 10 years. Estimated mean daily fluoride intake was categorized into low, moderate, and high intake tertiles for each age interval (2‐5, 5‐8, and 2‐8 years). Bivariate analyses were performed to study the relationships between self‐reported fluoride intake levels during three age intervals and dental fluorosis. Results For canines and second molars, the prevalence of mostly mild fluorosis was less than 10% in the lowest fluoride intake tertile and more than 25% in the highest intake tertile. For both first and second premolars, the prevalence in the low and high intake tertiles was approximately 10‐15% and 25‐40%, respectively. When estimated total daily fluoride intake was 0.04 mg/kg BW during ages 2‐8 years, the predicted probability of fluorosis was 16.0%, 20.5%, 21.8%, and 15.4% for canines, 1st and 2nd and premolars and 2nd molars, respectively. We found that an incremental increase in fluoride intake during the age 5‐ to 8‐year interval led to greater odds for development of mostly mild dental fluorosis in late‐erupting teeth compared to increases in fluoride intake during other age intervals. Conclusions Our results clearly show that dental fluorosis prevalence is closely related to fluoride intake levels and that teeth have greater susceptibility to fluoride intake during certain age intervals

Alumoxane/ferroxane nanoparticles for the removal of viral pathogens: the importance of surface functionality to nanoparticle activity

A bi-functional nano-composite coating has been created on a porous Nomex fabric support as a trap for aspirated virus contaminated water. Nomex fabric was successively dip-coated in solutions containing cysteic acid functionalized alumina (alumoxane) nanoparticles and cysteic acid functionalized iron oxide (ferroxane) nanoparticles to form a nanoparticle coated Nomex (NPN) fabric. From SEM and EDX the nanoparticle coating of the Nomex fibers is uniform, continuous, and conformal. The NPN was used as a filter for aspirated bacteriophage MS2 viruses using end-on filtration. All measurements were repeated to give statistical reliability. The NPN fabrics show a large decrease as compared to Nomex alone or alumoxane coated Nomex . An increase in the ferroxane content results in an equivalent increase in virus retention. This suggests that it is the ferroxane that has an active role in deactivating and/or binding the virus. Heating the NPN to 160 C results in the loss of cysteic acid functional groups (without loss of the iron nanoparticleﾒs core structure) and the resulting fabric behaves similar to that of untreated Nomex , showing that the surface functionalization of the nanoparticles is vital for the surface collapse of aspirated water droplets and the absorption and immobilization of the MS2 viruses. Thus, for virus immobilization, it is not sufficient to have iron oxide nanoparticles per se, but the surface functionality of a nanoparticle is vitally important in ensuring efficacy

Using Corpora of Recorded Speech for Historical Phonology

This chapter examines the use of electronic corpora of recorded speech in historical phonological analysis. On the one hand, corpora of this kind provide us with unique insights into the synchronic phonologies of varieties, allowing us to analyse change in real and apparent time in ways which have never been possible before. On the other hand, the fact that these corpora typically provide us with fragmentary, production-only data which are rarely strictly comparable with each other means that there are considerable limitations on our phonological interpretation of them

What is a merger, and can it be reversed? : the origin, status and reversal of the 'NURSE-NORTH merger' in Tyneside English

This thesis examines the apparent merger of the NURSE and NORTH lexical sets in Tyneside English. In order to determine its origin and status, whether reversal of the merger has taken place, and whether Wells (1982) is correct in his assertion that no hypercorrection has occurred, I examine two kinds of data: (1) traditional dialect phonetic transcriptions; and (2) an auditory and acoustic phonetic analysis of a socially stratified corpus of Tyneside English, the Tyneside Linguistic Survey (Pellowe et a/. 1972). Analysis of the first data-set suggests that there was indeed a merger of these two lexical sets. However, the sampling and elicitation methods employed mean that the real distribution of the merger within the speech community and within the speech of the informants themselves remains unknown. The second data-set is key, therefore, in that it reveals a range of speaker types, from those with complete merger to those with completely distinct NURSE and NORTH lexical sets. Additionally, there is evidence that hypercorrection of the NORTH lexical set has occurred, but on a narrower phonetic scale than Wells (1982) originally envisaged. In light of these divergent data and accounts of other'mergers', it is argued in this thesis that mergers are, in reality, diverse and complex sociolinguistic phenomena, so that questions such as Is Xa merger? and Has mergerXbeen reversed? only make sense when we know what kind of 'merger' X really was. Since the 'NURSE-NORTH Merger' is limited linguistically, geographically and socially, it is argued here that its reversal has been achieved with minimal disruption to the linguistic system in a way that would not be possible for other more widespread and entrenched mergers. Furthermore, it is suggested that it has been reversed in a phonetically gradual manner, such that obvious hypercorrection has been avoided. This possibility of phonetically gradual but lexically specific reversals of merger raises important questions for models of sound change.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceUniversity of Newcastle Upon TyneGBUnited Kingdo