ABSTRACT
This chapter examines Ian McMillan’s reading of his poem “Canal Life” in what he calls his “fruity Yorkshire brogue.” It focuses on the phonetic and phonological specificities of Yorkshire speech and traces them back to their historical origins. Traditional characteristics of Northern accents—like the FOOT-STRUT split or the TRAP-BATH distinction—are taken into account as well as a number of more specific Yorkshire features, both vocalic and consonantal.
Besides, it is argued that the distinctiveness of McMillan’s accent is not only due to his consistent use of a number of identifiable Yorkshire phonetic variants, but equally to his adopting a particular articulatory setting and specific intonation patterns.
In a parallel line of inquiry, this paper comments on Ian McMillan’s iconic use of rhythm, sonority, and structure to conjure up images of slowly moving water and show in what ways the distinctive characteristics of Yorkshire speech contribute to the evocative power of the piece.
Some of McMillan’s speech characteristics raise the issues of dialect levelling and innovation diffusion, two key concepts in sociolinguistics. These are briefly explained and applied to the poet’s elocution as well as to the message conveyed by his poetry.
