Publications

Books

Journal articles and Book chapters

  • 2024. In press. (with Sadie Durkacz Ryan). Tackling linguistic prejudice through public dialogue: The Accentism Project and Accentricity podcast. In: Setter, J., Dovcin, S & Ramjattan, V (eds). The Oxford Handbook of Language and Prejudice.
  • 2024. In press. ‘Multicultural British English’ in Susan Fox (ed.), Language in Britain and Ireland. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • 2023. In press. (with Holly Dann, Sarah Tasker, Chris Montgomery, Sadie Durkacz Ryan, and Erin Carrie) ‘Broad, strong, and soft: using geospatial analysis to understand folk-linguistic terminology’. Journal of Linguistic Geography.
  • 2022. (with Holly Dann, Sarah Tasker and Sadie Ryan) ‘The Manchester Voices Accent Van: taking sociolinguistic data collection on the road’. Linguistics Vanguard. 8(1), 263-277. https://doi.org/10.1515/lingvan-2022-0050
  • 2022. (with Holly Dann and Sadie Ryan) ‘Social Meaning in Archival Interaction: A mixed-methods analysis of variation in rhoticity and past tense BE in Oldham’ English Language and Linguistics. doi.org/10.1017/S1360674322000119
  • 2022. (with Sadie Ryan and Holly Dann) ‘Really this girl ought to be going to something better: Rhoticity, gender and education in oral history data from Oldham’ Language in Society. doi.org/10.1017/S0047404522000215
  • 2021. ‘Accent and Identity in Ambridge: The Link between How We Speak and Who We Are’, In Headlam, N. and Courage, C. (Ed.) Flapjacks and Feudalism, Emerald Publishing Limited, pp. 149-166. doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80071-386-420211001
  • 2020. ‘Teenage swearing in the UK’ English Worldwide. [Available here (contact me if you don’t have access)]
  • 2019. (with Susan Dray). ‘Mixing methods? Linguistic ethnography and language variation’, In Tustin, Karin (Ed) The Routledge Handbook of Linguistic Ethnography. Routledge.
  • 2018. ‘Urban youth language’. In Clayton, Dan (Ed). Language handbook (2nd Edition). Key thinkers on key topics. EMC
  • 2018. ‘Maybe it’s a grime [t]ing. TH-stopping in urban British youth’. Language in Society. [Available here – open access]
  • 2018. ‘The changing language of urban youth’. In Braber, Natalie & Sandra Jansen (Eds) Sociolinguistics in England. Palgrave Macmillan.
  • 2017. ‘(Mis)interpreting urban youth language: white kids sounding black? Journal of Youth Studies. [Author version here] [JYS version here]
  • 2016 (with Erik Schleef). ‘Identity in variationist sociolinguistics’ In Preece, Sian (Ed) The Routledge Handbook of Language and Identity. Routledge.
  • 2015. ‘Non-native Northern English’ In Hickey, R. (Ed) Researching Northern Englishes. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins
  • 2014. ‘The role of orthography in (apparent) L2 dialect acquisition’. English Worldwide. 35, 3: 338-351.
  • 2013. ‘The Manchester Polish STRUT: Dialect Acquisition in a Second Language’. Journal of English Linguistics. 41, 1: 65-93. [pre-print copy here]
  • 2012. ‘Aspects of identity in a second language: ING variation in the speech of Polish migrants living in Manchester, UK.’ Language Variation and Change. 24:107-133.[download pdf here] [LVC online edition here]
  • 2011. ‘Glottal variation in /t/ in non-native English speech: patterns of acquisition.’ English Worldwide. 32, 3: 280-308 [download pdf here]

Newspaper/mainstream/A Level articles

  • 2021. ‘Accentism’. Babel – the language magazine. August.
  • 2020. ‘Accent Diversity at the Bar’. Counsel Magazine. [Available online here]
  • 2020. ‘The linguistic sophistication of swearing’. Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading Focus Paper. [Available online here]
  • 2019. ‘Apostrophes: linguistics expert imagines a happier world without them’. The Conversation. 5th Dec. [Available online here].
  • 2019. ‘Researching youth language’. Babel – the language magazine. May.
  • 2018. ‘Non-standard English is not sub-standard’. TES, 28th Sep. [Available online here]
  • 2018. ‘The Archers: an everyday story of accents, character and status’. The Conversation. 16th Feb. [Available online here]
  • 2017. ‘Style-shifting – The curious case of MLE and the interview candidates.’ English and Media Centre e-magazine, September, p62-64.
  • 2017. ‘Who do you think you’re apostrophising? The dark side of grammar pedantry’ The Conversation. 5th April. [Available online here]
  • 2017 (with Erin Carrie). ‘Why so many singers sound American – but British grime artists are bucking the trend’ The Conversation/The Independent/The Daily Mail. 9th Feb [Available online here]
  • 2016. ‘Leave off, will you? Britain should celebrate ‘regional’ accents’. The Conversation. 1st Nov 2016. [Available online here]
  • 2016. ‘Mind your language’. Inside Time, the national newspaper for prisoners and detainees. 29th Sep 2016. [Available online here]
  • 2016. ‘Skepta, grime, and urban British youth language: a guide’. The Conversation. 21st Sep 2016. [Available online here]
  • 2016. ‘Slang shouldn’t be banned, it should be celebrated, innit’. The Conversation. 3rd May 2016. [Available online here]
  • 2016. ‘What grammar pedants and fashion victims have in common’. The Conversation/The Independent. 3rd March 2016. [Available online here]

Blog posts

Conference Presentations and Invited Talks (selected)

  • 2022. ‘Accentism: Why should we care?’ III Seminario Internacional de Sociolingüística. University of Alicante, Spain, 18th May.
  • 2022. ‘Manchester Voices’. The Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society. 15th March.
  • 2021. ‘Language, diversity, and listening to how English actually works’. Diversity in the English Curriculum: A NATE online conference. Feb 2021.
  • 2020. ‘Public-facing awareness raising: insights, challenges, and rewards.’ PronSIG2020: Equality and inclusion in pronunciation teaching: providing global representation’.
  • 2019. ‘Language and Identity: In defence of the non-standard’. English Grammar Day, British Library, London. 8th July.
  • 2019. ‘Language, identity, and why we shouldn’t be so quick to judge.’ Annual Linguistics Lecture, Northumbria University, Newcastle. 20th June.
  • 2017. ‘Urban youth language, ethnography and impact’. UKLVC11. 29th Aug – 1st Sep, Cardiff University. [download pdf here]
  • 2017. (with Erin Carrie) ‘The Accent Van: Methods in community-oriented linguistics research. UKLVC11. 29th Aug – 1st Sep, Cardiff University.
  • 2017. ‘Maybe it’s a Grime [t]ing: th-stopping and urban British youth.’ iMean 5 Conference 2017. 6-8th April, University of the West of England.
  • 2017. ‘Utilising urban youth language research: helping teachers deal with things going wrong.’ iMean 5 Conference 2017. 6-8th April, University of the West of England.
  • 2017. Keynote Speaker. ‘Urban Youth Language: the Grimy Side of Linguistics Research’. English and Media Centre emagazine Student Conference for A Level English Language. 28th Feb.  Friends House, Euston Rd, London
  • 2016. ‘It’s a grime [t]ing: Exploring th-stopping in a challenging environment’. Guest speaker seminar series, Queen Mary University London. 16th Nov.
  • 2016. Plenary Speaker. ‘Linguistic research in a challenging environment: youth language and identity in urban Britain’. University of Huddersfield 2nd Annual Linguistics and Modern Languages Postgraduate Conference. 30th June.
  • 2016. (with Erin Carrie) ‘Posh, artsy, rough, country and working-class: Perceptions of urban language varieties in Manchester’ Sociolinguistics Symposium 21, 15-18 Jun, University of Murcia.
  • 2016. (with Susan Dray) ‘Becoming Jamal: the materials of ‘prestige’ amongst boys in a Pupil Referral Unit’ Sociolinguistics Symposium 21, 15-18 Jun, University of Murcia.
  • 2015. ‘’Gimme dat ting’: Word initial th-stopping among urban British youth’. NWAV 44, Oct 22-25, University of Toronto. [download poster here]
  • 2015. ‘Tales of the unpredictable: researching TH-stopping in urban British English’ UKLVC 10, 1-3 Sep, University of York. [download poster here]
  • 2015. ‘(Mis)interpreting urban youth language’. Journal of youth studies conference 2015. 30th March – 1st April, University of Copenhagen.
  • 2015. ‘Linguistic research in a challenging environment: youth language and identity in urban Britain’. 10th March. Linguistics Circle. Lancaster University.
  • 2015. ‘Urban youth identity and language’. Humanities in Public Seminar Series. 2nd March, MMU
  • 2015. ‘Linguistic research in a challenging environment: youth language and identity in urban Britain’. 25th Feb. SELLLS-CRiLLS Language & Linguistics Speaker Series 2014-15, Newcastle University.
  • 2013. ‘Adolescent identity construction through Multicultural (Manchester) English’. UK Language Variation and Change conference 9 (UKLVC). 2nd-4th September, University of Sheffield.
  • 2013. ‘Towards a Multicultural Urban British English’. 7th International Conference on Language Variation in Europe (ICLaVE). 26th-28th June, HiST, Sør-Trøndelag University College, Norway.
  • 2013. ‘Understanding Multicultural Manchester English: breaking down barriers for young people in Manchester’. Invited talk at MMU Centre for World Cultures and Languages Seminar Research Programme. Manchester Metropolitan University. 13th March.
  • 2012. ‘The blue GOOSE and the yellow FLEECE: a study into vowel/colour associations’. British Association of Academic Phoneticians (BAAP) Colloquium. 26th-28th March. Leeds University [download pdf here]
  • 2012. ‘Dialect acquisition in a second language – towards a usage-based explanation of vowel variation’. Invited talk at Northumbria University Linguistics Seminar Series. Northumbria University. 27th February.
  • 2011. ‘Dialect acquisition in a second language – towards a usage-based explanation of vowel variation’. The 8th UK Language Variation and Change Conference (UKLVC8). 12th-14th September. Edge Hill University
  • 2011. ‘Explaining variation in the acquisition of a local vowel variant in bilingual Polish/English speakers living in Manchester’. Invited talk at the ESRC Centre for Research on Bilingualism in Theory and Practice. 21st Feb. Bangor University.
  • 2011. ‘Dialect acquisition in a second language – a usage-based explanation of vowel variation’. Invited talk at the Language in Context Research Group. 16th Feb. University of Edinburgh.
  • 2010. ‘Poles in Manchester: social factors affecting the acquisition of local speech features’. Dialect and Social Change in Urban Diasporic Communities. 1st & 2nd July. Queen Mary, University of London.