A comparative account of the suprasegmental and rhythmic features of British English dialects

This research seeks to establish an inventory of the suprasegmental acoustic cues that are relevant to the automatic typology and identification of the dialects of British English. Using evidence from traditional dialectology suggesting that the dialects of the British Isles exhibit differences at the suprasegmental level – and, in particular, in terms of rhythm – we apply procedures that have been successful for inter-language purposes. This preliminary report focuses on durational features and vowel reduction (centralization). We show that the dialects of the Celtic countries (especially Ireland) are singled out on the basis of their durational features. The overall pattern for vowel reduction reveals a difference across genders, not dialects.