Heli Paulasto

Variation and Change in the Grammar of Welsh English

This chapter focuses on recent changes in the morphosyntax of Welsh English, a set of regional dialects of English with distinctive Welsh contact influence. I present fresh research on three contact-induced features—focus fronting, extended uses of the preposition with, and invariant question tags is it?/isn’t it?—across corpora from different parts of Wales and speakers of varying ages. The roles of language shift, language acquisition, community, and prestige intertwine in the observed patterns of variation in intricate ways, showing that while the most distinctive Welsh-induced characteristics are being levelled, the investigated features are also drawing on vernacular English English for support. Young Welsh English speakers, particularly in South Wales, are updating their dialect while maintaining its regionality.