Stressed vowels FACE/STAY and GOAT/SNOW

The regional patterning of two characteristic sounds of Welsh English, the long monophthongs [e:] and [o:], is complex. They occur in both the main northern and southern areas in words such as bacon, break, great, make (FACE) and coal, road, spoke, toe (GOAT) respectively. In these cases, the monophthongs can be regarded as phonemic, but overall their distribution is complicated by their occurrence also in words such as clay, drain, weigh, whey (STAY) and cold, shoulder, snow (SNOW). In STAY and SNOW, it is difficult to argue that the monophthongs are phonemic, for in these groups diphthongs, [ei] and [ou], are more likely. In addition, diphthongal forms can occur in FACE and GOAT. Table 2 summarizes the situation for the whole of Wales, outlining the competition between monophthongs and diphthongs in FACE, STAY, GOAT, and SNOW.

[e:] occurs most commonly in FACE, being dominant (in these words) in the north and south, and in the northern peripheries. [ei] in FACE is dominant only in the southern peripheries. In STAY, however, the diphthong is prevalent throughout the south, whilst the monophthong is dominant in the north. The sequence is the same for the [o:] – [ou] pair: the monophthong is dominant in GOAT everywhere but the southern peripheries, and in SNOW the diphthong dominates in the south, the monophthong in the north.

A number of processes have produced this pattern. Firstly, the Welsh language has no diphthongs of the /ei/ and /ou/ types, and the Welsh monophthongs /e:/ and /o:/ have exerted an influence in Welsh English over words which have  and  in RP. Running counter to this are spelling pronunciations affecting STAY and SNOW, leading to the diphthongal forms, the general rules being: spellings with <ai>, <ay>, <ei>, <ey>, encourage [ei], and spellings with <ou>, <ow> encourage [ou], with <ol> spellings falling in with SNOW rather than GOAT. Furthermore, there has been influence from neighboring accents of English English: [e:] and [o:] have been reinforced in the north of Wales by the influence of monophthongs occurring in the north-west of England; [ei] and [ou] have been supported by the diphthongs of the west and south-west of England, as well as those of RP, of course.

It is worth emphasizing that Table 2 simplifies a fluid situation. For example, the accents of particular localities or even individuals exhibit register-sensitive movement between monophthongal and diphthongal types, especially in the FACE and GOAT groups. Table 2 also simplifies the overall regional pattern: we can note here, for example, that neither monophthong nor diphthong dominates in STAY and SNOW in the northern peripheries.