‘Happee’ or ‘Happeh’? New Lancaster study shows link between social class and pronunciation

According to new research led by Lancaster University and the University of Manchester’s linguistics departments, an individual’s accent can be a key indicator of their social class.

This sociolinguistic study focuses on Mancunian accents and the pronunciation of what is known as the “happy vowel” to linguists, with results suggesting that the pronunciation of the final vowel in words like “happy” and “city” differs based on the speaker’s social class.

Although Manchester is seen to have changed dramatically over recent decades – socially, economically and culturally – the findings of this study would prove that certain aspects of Mancunian accents have remained stable during this time frame, particularly within working class accents.

The research, published in the Language Variation and Change journal, indicates that middle class speakers are more likely to say “happee” and working class speakers are more likely to say “happeh.” Speakers in higher social classes are also more likely to use tenser vowels overall.

This pattern found in Mancunian speech is said to have remained consistent across several generations living in the city with little difference between the speech of younger and older Mancunians, demonstrating stability and continuity in an ever-changing Manchester.

The study draws on over 100 hours worth of recordings collected by the researchers from 109 speakers, aged 16 to 85, who grew up in Manchester and identify as white, black or British Pakistani – the three largest ethnicity groups within the city. This group aims to cover the full socio-economic range of the city’s habitants and act as part of a wider investigation into speech variation and change in Manchester.

The study also found that there is some variation across different ethnicities – Mancunian Pakistani speakers have “tenser realisations” of the “happy vowel” in comparison to black and white speakers, which may be explained as a heritage language effect.

Most Read

Full list of quotes for TikTok’s ‘1000 Little Things’ trend, that’s based on old Tumblr blog

An investigation into *that* filthy ‘leaked’ Justin Bieber video, as people demand an OnlyFans

Remember the YouTuber Fred? His life has changed 20 years on, and he’s married to a male model

Study lead author, Dr Danielle Turton, who worked alongside University of Manchester’s Dr Maciej Baranowski, said: “Our research in Manchester demonstrates how everyday speech can reflect long-standing social patterns.

“Working-class speakers tend towards a very open ‘eh’ sound in happy, almost rhyming with ‘yeah’, while upper-middle-class speakers use a tenser ‘ee’ sounding closer to the vowel in ‘bee’.”

She added that, as a Mancunian herself, she was unaware of this accent feature until she became a trained linguist and heard comments from those living outside of the Manchester area.

Dr Turton highlighted that prestige forms of the English language are still “based on those people with the money and the power.”

She said: “I am actually really hopeful, because I just think with things like more diverse voices on TikTok and podcasts and social media, and things like this, people are hearing different accents and they love them.

“I think when we don’t pre-judge, because we don’t have assumptions about how certain people should sound, then we actually love it.”

For more of the latest news, guides, gossip, and memes, follow The Lancaster Tab on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.