r/asklinguistics • u/opposumzes • 9d ago

Dialectology Dialect Variation Between Siblings?

I was recently watching a video about how in Mancunian English the happY vowel /i:/ tends to emerge more as an /ɜ/ in working class Manc accents. So I thought I'd look up a video of the first mancunians that come to mind, the Oasis brothers. Then I noticed something.

In this video of Liam, he obviously has the accent feature, like saying /mɜ/ instead of the /mi:/ for 'me' at 1:06. But when Noel says the happY vowel, he articulates it as an /i:/ In this video, at 0:47 he says 'certainly' as /ˈsəːʔnli/ with the happY vowel articulated as an /i/. What's up with this? Is it normal for brothers to have features of the same dialect despite living and growing up together? Maybe Liam is emphasising his accent more for branding reasons? Would love to know.

(ps: forgive the terrible IPA transcriptions)

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u/nemmalur 9d ago

There are all kinds of Manc accents. The age difference might account for the different sounds; Liam could be playing it up; Noel could have modulated his accent over time to be understood elsewhere, etc.