Pitch Alignment in Welsh English - The case of rising tones in Ceredigion

Welsh English and the Celtic Englishes in general are known for their preference for rising tones in declaratives. However, the statement that Welsh English has a preference for rising tones is insufficient to explain its main prosodic characteristics. The present investigation focuses on Ceredigion, a county in West Wales with a relatively high percentage of native Welsh speakers. Several excerpts have been collected from the interviews taken for the Survey of Anglo-Welsh Dialects (1977-1979) and processed through Praat with the aim of identifying and analysing prosodic features of Ceredigion English. For the analysis, three fundamental elements will be considered: alignment of the stressed syllable, characteristics of the upward movement, and pitch peak. Through this detailed prosodic characterization of Ceredigion English, it will be shown that prosody is a distinguishing feature of Welsh English accent.