Accommodation or political identity: Scottish members of the UK Parliament

Item also deposited in University of Edinburgh (Edinburgh Research Explorer) repository, available at: https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/accommodation-or-political-identity(b85753d3-9059-40c0-ae2c-8c5bcc9da890).htmlPhonetic variation among Scottish Members of the UK Parliament may be influenced by convergence to Southern English norms (Carr & Brulard 2006) or political identity (e.g., Hall-Lew, Coppock & Starr 2010). Drawing on a year's worth of political speeches (2011- 2012) from ten Scottish Members of the UK Parliament (MPs), we find no acoustic evidence for the adoption of a Southern English low vowel system; rather, we find that vowel height is significantly correlated with political party: Scottish Labour Party MPs produce a higher 'CAT' vowel (Johnston 1997) than do Scottish National Party MPs. The results contradict claims that Scottish MPs acquire 'Anglo-English' features while at UK Parliament. Rather, we suggest that the variation indexes political meaning, with a subset of individuals drawing on that indexicality in production.This research was supported by a British Academy Small Grant (SG130396), with funds from the Leverhulme Foundation, and also by a Small Grant from the Royal Society of Edinburgh.casl29pub4886pub