Findings
Photo credit: Dan Duncan
Findings
You can watch a verbatim performance of project participants’ variable language use, and read about some of our preliminary findings – for example, older Tyneside adults’ pronunciation of <ing>, ‘custard’ and ‘cake’, their frequent use of the phrase ‘you know’, and their choice of local dialect words.
More detailed analyses are underway, and new findings will be shared on this page when they become available. Please check back regularly, or email us to receive updates.
Student Findings
You can read reports produced by students who have analysed older Tyneside adults’ language under the supervision of Dr Heike Pichler, on her module ‘Language and Ageing’ at Newcastle University.
Why older adults?
Eleanor Taylor & Natalie Day (class of 2021) explain why studying older adults’ language use is interesting and important.
The ol' adul'
Cara Walker, Holly Chinneck, Emily Clarke & James Fitzgerald (class of 2021) investigated older Tynesiders' pronunciation of <t> and <d> at the end of words (e.g., old adult vs. ol’ adul’), and found that those aged 70-75 skip their <t> and <d> more than those aged 76+.
I mean ...
Kit Matthews (class of 2022) explored older Tynesiders' use of the phrase ‘I mean’, and discovered that social isolation affects how often individuals use this phrase.
To <t> or not to <t>
Nathan Bunnie, Jack Devine, Eve Forshaw, Erin Slater & Jess Taylor (class of 2024) studied older Tynesiders' pronunciation of <t> in the middle of words (e.g. water vs. wa’er), and found that individuals’ choice of pronunciation is affected by how old they feel.