Claire Slight

Two undergraduates who studied changes in the south-east English accent were given the rare honour of presenting their research to the country's leading language experts. 

Both Stephanie Sheehan and Claire Slight, who graduated with first-class degrees in English language and in Linguistics today (Friday), decided to investigate changes in the accent of south-east England involving the letter L. Their work was so good, it was accepted for presentation by the highly respected Manchester Phonology meeting. 

Stephanie, who comes from Devon, says: "Both Claire and I chose to write about phonology [the study of speech sounds in language] in our final projects and, by coincidence more than anything, we each chose a topic that involved the pronunciation of L in different environments." 

The students' research suggests that the representations of speech sounds in the brain are fairly abstract. 

Stephanie argued in her dissertation that the L-sound, although often realised as a vowel in the south-east (so that MIDDLE may be pronounced MIDDOW), is still processed as a consonant. The brain is therefore able to unscramble the difference between a true vowel and a 'fake' one. 

Claire, from Surrey, uncovered the workings behind a recent change, in which the  'aw' and 'oo' sounds before 'l' are merging, so that FALL and FOOL (and potentially FULL) sound identical. 

She found out how this change originated in London but changed its nature when it started spreading to the Home Counties; the exact workings of this change again suggest a fairly abstract level of sound processing in the brain. 

Stephanie says: "My results counteract traditional theories of phonology and phonetics and question established ideas about speech." 

Claire says: "The London way of speaking has recently become a prestigious form to which young Home Counties/southern English speakers socially aspire. But in adopting the London accent they over-generalise and use pronunciations that Londoners wouldn't." 

Claire went on to present their findings at the conference, with help from tutor Dr Christian Uffman, who says: "The south-eastern accent is currently undergoing significant changes but there is fairly little research on that, which means that students are able to produce original research. 

"Claire and Stephanie's dissertations are outstanding examples of that, showing that it is possible to make genuine discoveries in research at undergraduate level."