Lexical Exceptionality in Yorkshire English

In some dialects of northeast England, the definite article exhibits variability, labeled Definite Article Reduction [DAR], in which vowel elision occurs and a range of reduced variants results. The current study augments the existing account of DAR in York English through an analysis of the effects of the conditioning phonological environment on the realization of a zero form of the definite article. An analysis based on the Obligatory Contour Principle is suggested. In addition, the sociolinguistic patterning provides an illustration of the recurrent phenomenon by which young women are often simultaneously conservative and innovative in their speech. Although the young York women use the standard full form much more frequently than any other group, they are also introducing a new patterning of constraints for the use of reduced variants into the grammar of York English. Adapted from the source document