Abercraf English

Like many other accents in Britain, Abercraf's consonants generally follow that of Received Pronunciation, although it does have some unique innovations common for South Wales dialects:[4]

• As in Port Talbot, consonants can be geminated by any preceding vowel except long non-close vowels, and is most noticeable in fortis plosives and when they are in intervocalic positions.[5][6]
• Strong aspiration for the voiceless plosives /p, t, k/ as [pʰʰ, tʰʰ, kʰʰ] in stressed syllables when in initial position.[4]
• Regular G-dropping, where the suffix -ing is pronounced as /-ɪn/.[4]
• /r/ is regularly a tapped [ɾ].[4]
• Marginal loan consonants from Welsh /r̥, x, ɬ/ may be used for Welsh proper nouns and expressions, yet [r̥] is often heard in the discourse particle right.[4]
• The -es morphemic suffix in words like goes, tomatoes is often voiceless /s/ instead of /z/ found elsewhere.[4]
  • Like with Scottish English, the suffix -ths such as in baths, paths and mouths is rendered as /θs/ instead of /ðz/.[4]
• H-dropping is quite common in informal speech, although /h/ is pronounced in emphatic speech and while reading word lists.[4]
• /l/ is always clear, likewise there is no vowel breaking.[4][7]

Abercraf English is non-rhotic; /r/ is only pronounced before a vowel. Like RP, linking and intrusive R is present in the system.[4] On the other hand, the vowel system varies greatly from RP, unlike its consonants, which is stable in many English accents around the world.[8]

Monophthongs of Abercraf English, according to Tench (1990:135–136).

• FLEECE and GOOSE are close to cardinal [iː] and [uː].[11]
  • The HAPPY vowel is always tense, being analysed as the FLEECE vowel, where conservative RP has the lax [ɪ].[12]
• NURSE is unrounded and mid [ɜ̝ː]. Unlike accents in West Glamorgan which have a rounded [øː], Abercraf's realisation is identical to RP; a similar articulation had also been recorded in Myddfai.[13]
• There is no phonemic distinction between STRUT and COMMA, with the merged vowel being realised as open-mid [ɜ] in stressed syllables and as mid [ə] when unstressed. It is transcribed as /ʌ/ because the stressed allophone is close to RP /ʌ/.[14]
  • When unstressed and spelt with an ⟨e⟩, the DRESS vowel is preferred, such as cricket, fastest and movement. Likewise when spelt with ⟨a⟩, it varies from TRAP to STRUT.[15]
• There is no horse–hoarse merger, with the first set pronounced as [ɒː], and the second [oː] respectively.[12]
• Like all accents of Wales, the SQUARE–DRESS, PALM–TRAP and THOUGHT–LOT sets are based more on length rather than vowel quality; creating minimal pairs such as shared–shed, heart–hat and short–shot.[16][17]
• The SQUARE–DRESS vowels are close to cardinal [ɛ].[18]
• THOUGHT and LOT are close to cardinal [ɒ]. In the case of the former, its articulation is considerably more open than the corresponding RP vowel.[11]
• Pairs PALM–TRAP are relatively centralised, although TRAP may approach to the front.[11]
• The trap–bath split is completely absent in Abercraf English unlike other Welsh accents which have lexical exceptions.[12][19]

Diphthongs of Abercraf English, according to Tench (1990:135–136)

The offsets of the fronting diphthongs are near-close [ɪ], whereas the offsets of the backing diphthongs are close [u].[20]

• The CHOICE onset is closer to open mid [ɔ], despite its transcription as /ɒ/.[18]
• There are no minimal pairs between PRICE words such as aye/I and Dai/Di, unlike in Port Talbot. Like in Myddfai, the onset of PRICE is more open [ɐ̟], compared to other Welsh accents such as West Glamorgan /ə/.[13][21]
• MOUTH has a near-open onset [ɐ], sharing a similar vowel quality as Myddfai, which is also more open than /ə/ that of West Glamorgan.[22]

Abercraf has kept some distinctions between diphthong–monophthong pronunciations; they are shared among other south Welsh dialects such as Port Talbot. These distinctions are lost in most other dialects and they include:

• When GOOSE is spelt with ⟨ew⟩, diphthongal /ɪu/ replaces monophthongal /uː/, thus blew/blue and threw/through are distinct.[23]
• The sequence /juː/ is pronounced as /juː/ when ⟨y⟩ is represented in the spelling, otherwise /ɪu/, as in you/youth as opposed to use/ewe.[23] When unstressed and after non-coronal consonants, /juː/ uses the FOOT vowel instead.[24][25]
• Absence of toe–tow and pain–pane mergers, therefore there are distinct monophthongal and diphthongal pronunciations of FACE and GOAT lexical sets. They are diphthongs /ei/ and /ou/ when the spelling contains ⟨i⟩/⟨y⟩ and ⟨u⟩/⟨w⟩ respectively, otherwise they are monophthongs /eː/ and /oː/.[23][26] A good illustration is that of the word play-place /ˈpleipleːs/.[23]
  Monophthongal pronunciations /eː/ and /oː/ are both close-mid; they match their cardinal equivalents. The diphthongal pronunciations have less movement compared to other south Welsh accents, with the onsets of each evidently being close-mid.[27][28] Exceptions to this rule also exist similar to Port Talbot English, but FACE is slightly different in Abercraf:[23]
  • The monophthong is generally used before nasals and in the sequence ⟨-atiV⟩, therefore strange and patience is pronounced /eː/.[23]
  • Certain minimal pairs that are not distinct in Port Talbot English, but are in Abercraf, such as waste/waist. In Port Talbot these two are pronounced monophthongally.[23]

NEAR and CURE are not centring diphthongs unlike RP, rather a disyllabic vowel sequence consisting of the equivalent long vowel as the first element and the COMMA vowel, such that these words are pronounced /niːʌ/ and /kɪuːʌ/ respectively.[23]

• Like Port Talbot English, NEAR has a monosyllabic pronunciation /jøː/ word-initially, including after dropped /h/, making hear, here, year and ear all homophones. Likewise, heard also has this vowel.[4]

Abercraf English generally follows West Glamorgan lexical incidence patterns.[29][30][19]

• The first syllable in area may use the FACE vowel instead of SQUARE.[31]
• Only one syllable is in co-op, being homophonous to cop.[31]
• Haulier has the TRAP vowel unlike other accents which have THOUGHT.[31]
• Renowned was once pronounced with [ou], although this is a spelling pronunciation and standard [au] does exist.[32]
• Unstressed to regularly has FOOT over COMMA even before consonants.[15]
• Tooth has the FOOT vowel instead of GOOSE, which shares its pronunciation with the Midlands and Northern England.[31][19]
• Want has the STRUT vowel, although this pronunciation was known among non-Welsh speakers of English.[31]
• The vowel in whole uses GOOSE instead of the usual GOAT.[31][19]

As mentioned above, there is less assimilation and elision than in other accents, however some consonants can be elided:[15]

• /n/ is assimilated as /m, ŋ/ in the appropriate environments as RP. Likewise, the /n/ in government is elided.[4]
• Unlike other colloquial accents in Britain, elision alveolar plosives /t, d/ before consonants is not common. /t/ was elided in first job and next week but not in soft wood, on the other hand /d/ is rarely elided in binds and old boy and clearly rendered in could be, headmaster and standard one.[33]
• /s/ is retracted to /ʃ/ before another /ʃ/ as in bus shelter but not before palatal /j/ in this year (see yod-coalescence).[8]

The vowel /ə/ is not elided, thus factory, mandarin, reference always have three syllables, unlike many accents such as RP or even Port Talbot.[15]

Abercraf English is considered to have a 'sing-song' or 'lilting' intonation due to having high amount of pitch on an unstressed post-tonic syllable, as well as pre-tonic syllables having a great degree of freedom, with a continuous rising pitch being common.[15]