An Intraspeaker Study of /t/-glottaling in Scottish English

Abstract

Recent sociolinguistic research suggests that the previously-stigmatised glottal replacement of /t/ has begun to appear more frequently in more standard varieties of Scots and Scottish English, as well as further south in RP. This study investigates the patterns of /t/-glottaling used by Scottish television presenter Lorraine Kelly and whether her rates of /t/-glottaling differ by interlocutor, by comparing two audio clips where she acts as interviewer and interviewee respectively. Whilst a high rate of word-final /t/-glottaling is found, there is no difference in /t/-glottaling between the two contexts, making it difficult to explain this variation through contextual social factors.