Abercraf English (also known asAbercrave English) is a dialect ofWelsh English, primarily spoken in the village ofAbercraf located in the far south ofPowys.
Abercraf English is distinct from other accents in its county, such as the one spoken inMyddfai, due to separation by theBrecon Beacons, creating a substantial communication barrier between the two localities.[citation needed] It is more appropriate to associate it with neighbouringSwansea Valley, particularly the speech in northern areas (esp.Ystalyfera andYstradgynlais) since they are more similar to Abercraf than ones in its county. This could be seen from a survey where speakers could not discern the origins of the speech ofYstradgynlais and their hometown, but were able to discernCwmtwrch with other villages in the valley.[1]
Abercraf was entirely Welsh-speaking untilWorld War II, when English-speaking evacuees settled in the village.[1] It is a relatively young acquired dialect. This can be seen from generally less assimilation and elision and clear articulation unlike other accents in Powys or Swansea.[2] As a more modern accent, it is restricted to the last two to three generations, with younger people being much more likely to speak it — though much of their daily life is conducted in Welsh, leadingEnglish to be taught as a second language.[3]
Like many other accents in Britain, Abercraf's consonants generally follow that ofReceived Pronunciation, although it does have some unique innovations common for South Wales dialects:[4]
As inPort Talbot, consonants can begeminated by any preceding vowel except long non-close vowels, and is most noticeable infortis plosives and when they are in intervocalic positions.[5][6]
Strongaspiration for the voiceless plosives/p,t,k/ as[pʰʰ,tʰʰ,kʰʰ] in stressed syllables when in initial position.[4]
RegularG-dropping, where the suffix-ing is pronounced as/-ɪn/.[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 particleright.[4]
The-esmorphemic suffix in words likegoes,tomatoes is often voiceless/s/ instead of/z/ found elsewhere.[4]
Like withScottish English, the suffix-ths such as inbaths,paths andmouths 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]
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]
FLEECE andGOOSE are close to cardinal[iː] and[uː].[11]
TheHAPPY vowel is always tense, being analysed as theFLEECE vowel, where conservative RP has the lax[ɪ].[12]
NURSE is unrounded and mid[ɜ̝ː]. Unlike other accents inWest Glamorgan which have a rounded[øː], Abercraf's realisation is identical to RP; a similar articulation had also been recorded inMyddfai.[13]
There is no phonemic distinction betweenSTRUT andCOMMA, 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⟩, theDRESS vowel is preferred, such ascricket,fastest andmovement. Likewise when spelt with⟨a⟩, it varies fromTRAP toSTRUT.[15]
There is nohorse–hoarse merger, with the first set pronounced as[ɒː], and the second[oː] respectively.[12]
Like all accents of Wales, theSQUARE–DRESS,PALM–TRAP andTHOUGHT–LOT sets are based more on length rather than vowel quality; creating minimal pairs such asshared–shed,heart–hat andshort–shot.[16][17]
TheSQUARE–DRESS vowels are close to cardinal[ɛ].[18]
THOUGHT andLOT are close to cardinal[ɒ]. In the case of the former, its articulation is considerably more open than the corresponding RP vowel.[11]
PairsPALM–TRAP are relatively centralised, althoughTRAP may approach to the front.[11]
Thetrap–bath split is completely absent in Abercraf English unlike other Welsh accents which have lexical exceptions.[12][19]
The offsets of the fronting diphthongs are near-close[ɪ], whereas the offsets of the backing diphthongs are close[u].[20]
TheCHOICE onset is closer to open mid[ɔ], despite its transcription as/ɒ/.[18]
There are no minimal pairs betweenPRICE words such asaye/I andDai/Di, unlike in Port Talbot. Like in Myddfai, the onset ofPRICE 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:
WhenGOOSE is spelt with⟨ew⟩, diphthongal/ɪu/ replaces monophthongal/uː/, thusblew/blue andthrew/through are distinct.[23]
The sequence/juː/ is pronounced as/juː/ when⟨y⟩ is represented in the spelling, otherwise/ɪu/, as inyou/youth as opposed touse/ewe.[23] When unstressed and after non-coronal consonants,/juː/ uses theFOOT vowel instead.[24][25]
Absence oftoe–tow andpain–pane mergers, therefore there are distinct monophthongal and diphthongal pronunciations ofFACE andGOAT 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 wordplay-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, butFACE is slightly different in Abercraf:[23]
The monophthong is generally used before nasals and in the sequence⟨-atiV⟩, thereforestrange andpatience is pronounced/eː/.[23]
Certain minimal pairs that are not distinct in Port Talbot English, but are in Abercraf, such aswaste/waist. In Port Talbot these two are pronounced monophthongally.[23]
NEAR andCURE are not centring diphthongs as in conservative RP or long monophthongs as in modern RP, but rather a disyllabic vowel sequence consisting of theFLEECE andGOOSE vowels, respectively, as the first element, followed by theCOMMA vowel, such that these words are pronounced[niː.ʌ] and[kɪu̯ː.ʌ] respectively.[23]
Like Port Talbot English,NEAR has a monosyllabic pronunciation/jøː/ word-initially, including after dropped/h/, makinghear,here,year andear all homophones. Likewise,heard also has this vowel.[4]
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/ ingovernment is elided.[4]
Unlike other colloquial accents in Britain, elision alveolar plosives/t,d/ before consonants is not common./t/ was elided infirst job andnext week but not insoft wood, on the other hand/d/ is rarely elided inbinds andold boy and clearly rendered incould be,headmaster andstandard one.[33]
/s/ is retracted to/ʃ/ before another/ʃ/ as inbus shelter but not beforepalatal/j/ inthis year (seeyod-coalescence).[8]
The vowel/ə/ is not elided, thusfactory,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]
