SURVEY: Newcastle student sets out to explore the Potteries accent
RESIDENTS from North Staffordshire are being asked to take part in a new survey of the Potteries accent.
Hannah Leach, a Linguistics student from Newcastle, is due to start a PhD exploring the region's social history at the University of Sheffield and hopes to investigate how the accent varies across different speakers and ages.
-
May un Mar Lady, the cartoon series famous for its use of Potteries dialect.
Hannah, 23, said: "Frequently, when I told people I was from the Potteries, the response from non-Stokies would be "oh yeah, bewk, lewk, cewk", as if that was how people from here were identified.
"While studying though, I noticed that the accent of the Potteries region was very under-researched, despite - to me, and to many others - being a particularly strong and recognisable one.
Would you like a professional to review your CV and give you some constructive feedback?
contact BlueSky CVs for an honest review
Terms: 1 per person
Contact: 01538 710408
Valid until: Friday, May 24 2013
"I think the accent is fascinating, and is itching to be analysed linguistically. With such a strong social and industrial history, and the city in something of a transition period at the moment, its the perfect project."
The project will be run alongside University of Sheffield lecturer Chris Montgomery, who also grew up in Newcastle.
Chris, 32, said: "We're interested in specific parts of the accent, but also how people react when they hear it. We know that a local accent is really important to people, and we want to understand the reasons for this."
The results will be presented to a conference on language and identity at the University of the West of England in Bristol this April.
If you would like to take part, you can complete the survey below.
Comments
by WebMonkey1
Tuesday, March 12 2013, 4:25PM
“Most people don't realise they've got an accent, until some Derby-ite takes pleasure in telling them.”