Prosodic variation in southern British English

Area of Science:

• Linguistics
• Phonetics
• Sociolinguistics

Background:

• Intonation research often overlooks variability within speech communities.
• Understanding prosodic feature use is key to linguistic and communicative function.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate cross-speaker variability in intonation.
• To analyze how speakers use and perceive prosodic features for communicative functions.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a new prosodic test battery (PEPS) with 90 adult English speakers from London.
• Collected and analyzed production data focusing on prosodic feature realization.

Main Results:

• No significant gender or age effects on prosodic performance were found.
• A minor effect of educational level was observed in younger adults.
• Qualitative analysis revealed significant individual variation in prosodic feature use.

Conclusions:

• Speaker realization of communicative functions through prosody is more variable than previously assumed.
• Further research into individual differences in prosody is warranted.