Welsh English: a 'mystery' for the kingdom

Abstract

Nowadays Wales is a country which is included in the United Kingdom (UK), and in which two different languages are spoken: the Welsh language and Welsh English, whose name is given partly due to the particularities it has when compared to the other dialects of the kingdom. These particularities seem to be the result of both the geographical and the linguistic isolation Wales has suffered from its origins, as well as of the strong influence Welsh language has had on Welsh English, as they are both coexistent. The aim of this dissertation is to analyse the phonological characteristics of the English currently spoken in Wales, based on the data collected from a recording made by two native speakers of the dialect. While some differences between participants were observed regarding the degree of adherence to Welsh English phonological descriptors, overall, they both displayed many prototypical features of Welsh English, but also showed a tendency to standardise their speech. This finding may be acknowledging the two opposing forces in the reality of dialects in the United Kingdom these days, levelling and/or standardisation, on the one hand, and language and dialect preservation, on the other hand, as might be the case of Welsh and Welsh English in Wales.