4 cool things about the Manchester happY vowel - the 1 at the end of happy, city, Mike Somerby

Four cool things about the Manchester happY vowel - the sound at the end of words like happy, city, Mike Somerby. Two bonus cool things: 1. Manc happY also doesn’t show any gender variation. With stable consonant variables, like with TH sounds or -ing endings, men use them more than women. And with vowel sounds in the middle of change—and again, this is most sociolinguistically interesting vowel sounds linguists have ever observed—women are almost always in the lead of the change. But here: total gender equality. 2. Sheffield and Nottingham are the two other Northern English cities that have very open happY vowels. (And finally: yes, I do know that Phil Dunster, the actor who plays Jamie Tartt in Ted Lasso, isn't from Manchester. But he's hilarious, the accent's pretty solid, if slightly heightened, and this sound comes through particularly clearly.) #accents #dialects #sociolinguistics #Manchesteraccents #NotthernEnglishaccents