While other accents merge and soften, Scouse gets stronger by the day. Laura Davis reports ADOPTED Merseysider and language expert Fritz Spiegl once described the Liverpool accent as "one-third Irish, one-third Welsh and one-third catarrh". Arguably one of the most well recognised in the world, many myths surround its creation, from the discarded theory that bad air conditions caused by burning coal led to a thickening of the vocal chords, to the more common idea that it arose from a mixture of accents entering the city through the port. Some of comedian Harry Enfield's success can be attributed to his unflattering Liverpudlian caricature and the accent was voted among the top 10 favourites in a Europe-wide survey carried out in 2000. Since the industrial evolution, as it became possible to travel the length of Britain in a matter of hours and television has increased people's contact with accents other than their own, the ways they pronounce words have generally begun to converge. Yet somehow Scouse has managed to maintain its individuality. Linguistics expert Kevin Watson, who has been studying changes in the accent, has discovered that, not only has it resisted the national trend of levelling out, it is actually becoming even more distinct. He says: "Scouse is becoming Scouser. "While certain features traditionally found in southern English accents are starting to creep into northern ones, there has been a general resistance in the Scouse accent." There are a few southern features which are starting to form part of the Liverpool accent however, including using a "f" or "v" sound instead of "th", as in "brother" to "bruvver" and "bath" to "baf". According to Mr Watson, who speaks with a slight Liverpool accent himself, Scouse is unusual because it traditionally contains a mixture of both northern and southern traits. Like other people in the North, Liverpudlians pronounce the words "cut" and "foot" as if they rhyme, they say "bath" with the same vowel sound as "cat" and not "calm" as in the South. "Look" is often spoken with a long vowel, as in "soup", and not with the short vowel in "foot". The vowels in "nurse" and "square" are also pronounced in the same way. However, Liverpudlians say words such as "rate", "note" and "right" with a southern vowel sound, rather than using the northern pronunciation of "note" as "nort". Mr Watson, a linguistics lecturer at Lancaster University who is presenting his finding at a language conference at Edge Hill College today, says: "Scouse also has lots of features that happen in not very many other places and some features that happen nowhere else at all. "It is the features in this category which are probably most recognisably Scouse so it is these we might expect to level out to become more like other accents. "But these aspects of pronunciation are spreading to occur in more words than they used to." Examples of these distinctive features include pronouncing "t" as an "h" as in "what" and "that" and using "d" and "t" for "th" like in "this", "that". Unusually, their usage is expanding to a wider selection of words. Mr Watson, who is currently completing his PhD in linguistics at Ormskirk-based Edge Hill College, says: "In the 1970s, people only replaced 't' with 'h' in short words like 'what' but they are now doing this with longer words as well like 'market'. "That feature is not used anywhere else in the country so the change cannot have happened as a result of outside influence. "We don't know why this is happening, but it's possible that socially Scouse speakers want to use language as an identity maker and don't want to become the same as anywhere else. "The interesting thing is that the features which are most recognisably Scouse are the ones that are picked up and used by comedians such as Harry Enfield. "If Liverpudlians wanted to distance themselves from that then these are the features they would try to get rid of but instead they are using them even more." Mr Watson's carried out his research by comparing data gathered in 1973 to the modern day accents of a group of schoolchildren, aged 12 to 17, from Vauxhall. He found, that although Liverpool accents are very distinctive, the dialect, in other words the vocabulary and grammar, is far less unusual. He says: "Scouse is very standard when it comes to dialect unlike some other accents. In Lancashire, people say 'Have you not?' but in Liverpool they would say 'Haven't you?' which is the standard grammatical form." Mr Watson, who grew up in Netherton and now lives in Wavertree, said having a Liverpool accent himself made his research more of a challenge. "In my head I sometimes hear things as normal because I am used to the way they sound, when they are specific features of Scouse and other people hear them as markers of a Liverpool accent. "But it means I am very interested in the subject and I would love to go round to different areas of Merseyside and study how accents there differ. "At least the accent is here to stay. If anything, Scouse isn't dying. Scouse is becoming Scouser." Speaking out for the Liverpool accent MANY famous Liverpudlians have steadfastly held on to their true accent and insist it has not stood in the way of their success. Yet some agree that negative perceptions of Scouse would have held them back in their career. Politician turned broadcaster Edwina Currie claims she is fiercely proud of her Merseyside roots but admits to adapting her accent to suit her audience. In the past, she has said: "I used to have a really strong Scouse accent and in the 1960s it would open all sorts of doors, but it has softened a bit. "When I was a Midlands MP I had a much stronger accent and if I am having an argument in the pub, I can do a Midlands voice as well as the rest of them." Liverpool-born broadcaster Winifred Robinson was believed to have been passed over for the job of presenter of Radio 4's Today programme due to having a Scouse accent. However, the BBC denied this was a factor in its not choosing Mrs Robinson, the fourth of six daughters raised in Norris Green, for the post. Formby-born novelist Dame Beryl Bainbridge, who was educated at Merchant Taylors' School in Crosby, believes that elocution lessons should be made available to all children. She is even quoted as saying that abandoning her Scouse accent has helped her progress her career. Perhaps the most famous advocate of elocution is Prof Higgins, in My Fair Lady, played by in the film by actor Rex Harrison, who was born in Huyton. | 
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