Glossary
Explore the table below to find explanations of some of the technical terms used on the site. Click on the links in the ‘listen’ column to listen to relevant recordings on the Home Map. Click on the links in the ‘find out more column’ to investigate relevant themes or case studies.
| term | definition | listen | find out more |
|---|---|---|---|
| accent | pronunciation peculiar to a particular person or place | ||
| anticipatory pronoun | construction containing a pronoun or verb phrase used as an emphatic tag (e.g. I play football, me or he’s a madman, is David) | Burnley, Lissummon | Grammatical Variation |
| auxiliary verb | finite verb used in compound verbal constructions (e.g. I have done, we are going, did you know) | ||
| broad BATH accent | the use of a long vowel in words such as bath, grass, laugh and dance | ||
| code-switching | alternating between two or more languages within the same utterance - a common feature of bilingual speakers | Moseley | |
| conjunction | word used to connect words, clauses or sentences | ||
| connected speech processes | the way particular combinations of sounds are pronounced in words or phrases during normal continuous speech | ||
| consonant cluster reduction | the way some consonants are deleted in particular combinations of sounds (e.g. best becomes ‘bes’, respect becomes ‘respeck’ and land becomes ‘lan’) | ||
| definite article | the word the | ||
| definite article reduction | contracted pronunciation of the word the (generally as a <t> sound or as a glottal stop or, when preceding a vowel, as a <th> sound) | Leeds | |
| demonstrative pronoun | that, this, (yon), these, those (them) | ||
| determiner | grammatical function word that appears before a noun (e.g. the, this, my) | Coventry | |
| dialect | variety of speech differing from the standard or literary language and characterised by local vocabulary, constructions or pronunciations | ||
| diphthong | combination of two vowel sounds | ||
| Doric | traditional dialect of North East Scotland | Stonehaven | |
| filler | word or phrase that carries no semantic meaning, but is part of spoken grammar (e.g. like, sort of or you know what I mean) | ||
| flat BATH accent | the use of a short vowel in words such as bath, grass, laugh and dance | ||
| Geordie | dialect and/or accent of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (and Tyneside generally) | ||
| glottal stop | sound produced by the sudden opening or shutting of the glottis (as in the sound between the two oh’s in the exclamation, oh oh!) | ||
| grammar | way in which individual words change appearance according to function (e.g. tense, plurality etc.) and are combined in phrases and sentences | ||
| high rising terminal | use of a rising intonation on a statement that is not necessarily a question (‘upspeak’) | ||
| H-dropping | deletion of an initial <h> in words such as happy and house | ||
| historic present | verbal construction used as an alternative to the simple past tense when telling a story or relating a series of connected events in the past (e.g. I says, I goes etc.) | ||
| historic perfect | compound verbal construction used as an alternative to the simple past tense when telling a story or relating a series of connected events in the past (e.g. I‘ve seen, I‘ve gone etc.) | ||
| hypercorrection | process whereby a speaker consciously tries to avoid using stigmatised features, and wrongly assigns a prestigious pronunciation to an inappropriate word (e.g pronouncing the initial <h> in honest) | Sheffield | |
| indefinite article | the word a (or an) | ||
| interference | use of features of one language while speaking another | Ethnic Minority English | |
| interrogative | construction used to form a question | ||
| intrusive R | insertion of an <r> sound between vowels at a word boundary regardless of spelling (e.g. law and order) | ||
| language shift | process whereby successive generations of speakers adopt a dominant language in preference to the ethnic language of their parents | Leicester | |
| lexical set | concept of using a single word to refer to the pronunciation of a particular group of English words(e.g. the BATH set - words such as bath, grass, laugh and dance) | ||
| lexis | vocabulary | ||
| linking R | use of an <r> sound between vowels at a word boundary (e.g. car alarm) | ||
| loan-word | word adopted or borrowed from another language | Lerwick | |
| L-vocalisation | pronunciation of a syllable final <l> (e.g. milk, fall and middle) with a sound more like a vowel or a <w> sound | Phonological Variation | |
| metathesis | reversal of two adjacent sounds or syllables (e.g. animal as 'aminal') | Stoke Newington | |
| multiple negation | use of two or more negative markers (e.g. I didn’t do nothing) | ||
| negative particle | grammatical function word that serves to negate a verb or sentence (e.g. not, no, nae or none) | ||
| non-standard grammar | grammatical construction that is peculiar to a location or to informal speech | Grammatical Variation | |
| object pronoun | me, you (thee), him (hine), her, us, (youse, ye), them | ||
| past participle | form of the verb, used in compound constructions with the auxiliary verb have, to express a past event (e.g. have played, has seen, had gone etc.) | ||
| personal pronoun | I, you (thou), he, she (hoo), it, we, (youse), they, me, (thee), him (hine), her, us, (ye), them | ||
| phonology | sounds of speech | ||
| possessive pronoun | my, your (thy), his, her, it's, our, their | Geordie Grammar | |
| preposition | grammatical function word that marks the relationship between two words (e.g. in, from or to) | Warmington | |
| progressive | compound verbal construction, formed with the auxiliary verb be and conveying the sense of continuous action over a period of time (e.g. I am playing, she was walking, we've been swimming) | ||
| qualifier | word attached to an adjective or adverb in order to qualify it | Geordie Grammar | |
| quotative marker | word used to indicate that what follows is a quote (e.g. he’s like, “No way!”) | Plymouth | |
| Received Pronunciation (RP) | regionally non-specific accent used by many middle class speakers in England | RP | |
| reflexive pronoun | myself (mysell, mysen), yourself (yoursell, yoursen, thyself, thysen), himself (hisself, hissell, hissen), herself (hersell, hersen), itself, ourselves, (usselves, oursells, oursens), themselves (theirselves, theirsells, theirsens) | Geordie Grammar | |
| relative pronoun | pronoun used to refer to a noun in the previous clause (e.g. the book that I am reading) | Geordie Grammar | |
| rhotic | rhotic speakers pronounce the <r> sound after a vowel in words such as start, north, nurse, near, square, cure and letter | Phonological Variation | |
| Scouse | dialect or accent of the city of Liverpool (and Merseyside generally) | Birkenhead | |
| simple past | single-word verb form used to express a past event (e.g. played, saw, went etc.) | Coventry | Grammatical Variation |
| standard grammar | set of grammatical constructions widely accepted as prestigious | ||
| subject pronoun | I, you (thou), he, she (hoo), it, we, (youse), they | Grammatical Variation | |
| R-tapping | flap or tap sound produced by flicking (tapping) the tip of the tongue against the roof of the mouth - thus making only very brief and rapid contact | RP Connected Speech Processes | |
| tag question | simple question tagged on to the end of a statement to establish whether a listener has understood, or to invite confirmation (e.g. isn‘t it, don‘t you, can‘t I) | Aberhosan | |
| TH-fronting | pronunciation of <th> as a <f> sound in words like thing or as a <v> sound in words like brother | ||
| TH-stopping | pronunciation of <th> as a <t> sound in words like thing or as a <d> sound in words like this and that | ||
| T-glottaling | glottal stop used in place of a <t> sound | ||
| T-tapping | flap or tap sound produced by flicking (tapping) the tip of the tongue against the roof of the mouth - thus making only very brief and rapid contact | ||
| trilled R | rolled <r> sound produced by vibrating the tongue rapidly against the roof of the mouth | Selkirk | |
| T-to-R | word-final <t> is pronounced as a <r> sound in a restricted set of common verbs (eg get off, got it, let us, put on, shut up) and non-lexical words (eg but actually, lot of, not on, that is, what if) or word-internally with words such as getting, letting, putting and matter | ||
| T-voicing | pronunciation of <t> between vowels as a <d> sound | Belfast | RP Connected Speech Processes |
| unmarked for person | verb form that does not distinguish between 1st, 2nd and 3rd person (e.g. I was, you was, he/she/it was) | Grammatical Variation | |
| unmarked for plural | noun or verb form that does not distinguish between singular and plural (e.g. I was, we was or one pound, ten pound) | ||
| upspeak | use of a rising intonation on a statement that is not necessarily a question | RP Connected Speech Processes | |
| uvular R | <r>sound produced by the uvula at the back of the throat (e.g. the <r> sound used in French and in some German accents) | Aberhosan | Geordie Consonants |
| yod | <y> sound after the initial consonant and preceding an <oo> vowel in words like few, pure and huge | ||
| yod coalescence | blending of the <y> sound with the <t, d, s, z> sound preceding an <oo> vowel (e.g. dune becomes June and tissue becomes ‘tishoo’) | Harrow School | |
| yod retention | pronunciation of a <y> sound after a <t, d, s, z> sound preceding an <oo> vowel (e.g. tune, dune, suit, visual) | Burnham Thorpe |
