East Midlands Voices

Project Title: East Midlands Voices
Project Leader: Natalie Braber
Funded by: NTU

Description: This research includes the examination of accents and dialects in the East Midlands, an area of England which is highly under-researched. Nottingham Trent University has funded initial pilot projects examining variation, and the perception of variation in the East Midlands. Data from the SIS project (Stimulating Innovation for Success) in collaboration with Dr Caroline Langensiepen (Nottingham Trent University) investigated the possibility of generating synthesised voices that demonstrate local accents. A further project, SPUR (Scholarship Project for Undergraduate Students), allowed two undergraduate students to examine in detail the perception and recognition of accents in the UK, and showed that East Midlands accents are not easily recognised. Future work is planned with the British Library to examine language variation in the East Midlands in further detail. Linked to this, Natalie is part of the Academic Advisory Panel for Voices of the UK, a three-year project funded by the Leverhulme Trust from 2009 to 2012 at the British Library. Further collaborations include examination of the history of language in the East Midlands with Dr Diane Davies of the University of Leicester.

Further research is in progress to examine in more detail the extent of variation in accents and dialects around the East Midlands, and how these accents are perceived. It is hoped that this research will result in the publication of a book examining language in the East Midlands. This work is currently ongoing and is being presented at conferences and prepared for publication.

As a result of Natalie's interest in sociolinguistics and language variation, she is organising the Northern Englishes Workshop (NEW5) to take place at NTU in 2012. This is a biennial conference with previous conferences taking place at the Universities of Lancaster, Edinburgh, Salford and Sheffield. This will include researchers and academics presenting their work on the linguistic North with a special session on historical methodology.

Conference papers related to this project include:

• 2010: Borders and Identities Conference, Newcastle. Where do the East Midlands fit in the North/South divide?
• The fourth Northern Englishes Workshop, Sheffield. Variation and the Perception of Variation in the East Midlands.
• Sociolinguistics Symposium 18, Southampton. Is there a middle space in Britain?