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Education NewsA Stokie study; Hannah focuses on the Stoke accent for her postgraduate dissertation
Our local dialect is the focus of a new study as former Sixth Form College student Hannah Leach returned on the prowl for vowels in order to sample strong Stoke accents from our students. The research is in aid of her dissertation for her MA in English and Linguistics at the University of York. “Stoke-on-Trent has a prominent accent”, said Hannah. “I looked around to see if any studies have been done previously on it and found that there hadn’t, so it was a chance to undertake a new piece of work. I’m looking at studying both older and younger people, and whether they are proud or if they try and disguise their accent. The way in which the people of Stoke pronounce their vowels is something that I have noticed.”
Hannah’s study involved students speaking into a microphone and recording 300 sentences in order to study the linguistics of the people of Stoke. “I appreciated the time that the students gave up to do this. It is an unusual thing to be asked to do. My former teacher Stewart McNicol has been amazing. We’ve stayed in touch and when I asked for volunteers, he asked his students and a few came forward.”
“To give something back, I also took some time to speak to the Stewart’s English class about my university experience. I told them what English and Linguistics is all about as many of them didn’t know what it involves. There are many practical uses for it such as forensic linguistics and neurolinguistics. I also gave them advice for projects, data collection and how to choose a subject to study. I said that if you’re interested in something, turn it into a project.”
Having studied here between 2005-2007, this was Hannah’s first experience of the new building. “It’s gorgeous”, she said. “It’s very modern, bright and airy, a lot more open plan than the old place at Fenton.”