Elision - or what's left out!

I would like to dedicate this post to my Dad who is recovering from a heart attack in hospital!
Looks like I'm going to hear the dialect again sooner than I thought.


Elision is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) as follows:

Elision

noun

[mass noun]

• the omission of a sound or syllable when speaking (as in I’m, let’s):the shortening of words by elision

Elision is an important part of the Warrington dialect, and it has come up in a couple of comments, so I would like to elaborate on it here.

As the definition suggests, elision is concerned with leaving certain sounds out. But it is not solely confined to contractions such as I'm (I am), they're (they are), isn't (is not), etc. The most apparent incidence of elision in the dialect occurs with the definite article, or "the", when it precedes a word that begins with a vowel sound.

In the case of elision, it is important to be precise when talking about the beginnings of words; here we I will be referring to sounds and not letters. This becomes apparent when we take into consideration the common phenomenon of h-dropping. H-dropping, as the name suggests, is the phenomenon of leaving the "h" sound unpronounced at the beginning of words in which it is usually pronounced (words such as hour, honour, honesty, to name but a few, are never pronounced with the initial "h").

H-dropping is by no means specific to the Warrington dialect, but it is a clear feature of the dialect, and can be heard in the speech of the majority of Warringtonians. Words such as horse, house, heater, etc are pronounced without the initial "h" as follows: 'orse, 'ouse, 'eater; the "h" is replaced by an omission apostrophe as in the previously mentioned contractions.

The frequency of h-dropping in the dialect provides speakers with ample opportunity for definitie-article elision because the lack of the initial "h" frees up, as it were, the initial vowel sounds. Thus, 'orse, 'ouse, and 'eater begin with the sounds /o/, /a/, and /i/ respectively.

The elision occurs when the definite article "the" is required. The "e" in "the" is lost and the remaining "th" is combined with the subsequent word as follows: th'orse, th'ouse, th'eater; the horse, the house, and the heater, respectively.

However, I suspect that this particular type of elision is either on the way out, or possibly has disappeared from the speech of younger generations in the town!

For example, among my own peer group (born early to mid 1970s), I do not remember hearing it used hardly at all. An example of one of the different types of elision arising at the time can be seen in references to the Warrington hospital.

As a young man, I would have said "I am going to the hospital" as follows:

"Am gooin the ozzy"

whereas my parents generation (born 1930s & 1940s) still pronounce the same sentence as follows:

"Am goin' t'th'ospital"

There are various phonetic differences that I am unable to transcribe here, but the main difference is in the elision between "the" and "hospital". My parents' generation maintain the elision described above th'ospital. My idiolect (the form of the dialect that any given individual speaks) does not show any elision between "the" and "hospital" at all. In fact, there is an intrusive /j/ (pronounced like "y" in yoga) between "the" and "hospital" as follows: the (y)'ozzy.

What is your experience? Think about what you say and how you say it, and post your comments here!