Dr Helen West

Modules I currently teach on and/or convene include:

• EN4305 Foundations of English
• EN4307 Language in Use 
• EN5315 Language, Identity and Popular Culture 
• EN5319 Language Acquisition and Development
• EN5316 Advances in English 
• EN6305 Topics in Sociophonetics
• EN6310 English Language Dissertation 
• EN7404 Research Methods in English Language
• EN7405 MA Dissertation
• EN7407 Contemporary Issues in English Language
• EN7408 Language and Identity
• EN7411 Changes in Contemporary English 

Postgraduate supervision
I welcome enquiries about research projects on:

• Sociophonetics and sociolinguistics 
• Phonetics and phonology
• Language and identity

My interests are primarily sociophonetic, identifying language variation and change in English dialects. In particular, my previous research has focused on urban areas which lie in between major linguistic zones, investigating the conscious and subconscious linguistic affiliation the people in these areas adopt, in conjunction with the internal processes which drive language change. My PhD thesis analyses two towns in the north west of England that are situated either side of the Merseyside/ Lancashire border, investigating the influence of internal, external (contact) and extra-linguistic factors (speaker attitude and identity) on the realisations of the NURSE and SQUARE vowels and the production of /t/ and /k/ in certain phonological environments.

I am currently investigating the accent and identity of Chester, and researching whether Cestrian English exists as a ‘perceptually real’ variety, as part of The Cestrian English Project. This project is an exciting new research initiative focusing on language in and around Chester as well as how the local area is represented in texts through time. The initial results of this investigation will be presented at the 10th Northern Englishes Workshop, organised by the Cestrian English Project team, in conjunction with the Chester Heritage Festival.

Recent essays, articles and book chapters

Humphries, E., & West, H. (forthcoming). Everything has changed or has it? A real-time sociophonetic analysis of Taylor Swift. 

West, H. (Forthcoming). NURSE~SQUARE and the Merseyside/Lancashire border. 

West, H. (2024). Urban varieties of English in the United Kingdom. In Bolton, Kingsley (eds.) The Encyclopaedia of World Englishes. Wiley Blackwell. 

West, H. (To appear) 'Urban Varieties'. In Bolton, Kingsley (eds.) The Encyclopaedia of World Englishes. Wiley Blackwell. 

West, H. (2015). ‘Language attitudes and divergence on the Merseyside/Lancashire border’. In Hickey, Raymond (eds.) Researching Northern English. John Benjamins.

West, H. (2013) ‘A town between dialects: accent levelling, psycho- social orientation  and identity in Merseyside, UK’. In Auer, Peter, Javier Caro Reina and Göz Kaufmann (eds.) Language Variation - European Perspectives IV. Selected papers from the Sixth International Conference on Language Variation in Europe (ICLaVE 6). John Benjamins.

Recent Conference Papers

'How Scouse are Southport and Ormskirk?'. Linguistics Research Seminar: English, History and Creative Writing: Edge Hill University (Invited talk). February 2019. 

‘Analysing variation on the Merseyside/Lancashire border using R and random intercepts’. Language Variation and Change Research Group: University of York. February 2013.

‘Does the political border affect linguistic production due to a heightened sense of orientation? Lenition in two towns either side of the Merseyside border’. Northern Englishes Workshop 5: Nottingham University. April 2012.

‘Speaker attitude and linguistic production: Overt and covert techniques to assess social and linguistic orientation’. Lab Lunch: University of Glasgow (Invited Talk). March 2012.

‘Social orientation and linguistic production: Divergence or convergence on the Merseyside/Lancashire border?’ Language Variation and Change Research Group: University of York. February 2012.

‘Does the political border effect linguistic production due to a heightened sense of orientation? Lenition in two towns either side of the Merseyside border’. Language in Context: University of Edinburgh (Invited Talk). November 2011.

‘Changes in Liverpool English interdental fricatives’ UK Language Variation and Change 8 (UKLVC): Edge-Hill University. September 2011.

‘Regions, Language and the North-West of England: An historical and sociolinguistic overview of the development of northern dialects of English’. International Summer Programme (Lecture): Lancaster University. August 2011.

‘A town between dialects: accent levelling, psycho-social orientation and identity in Merseyside’. 3rd annual Summer School of Sociolinguistics: University of Glasgow. July 2011.

• MA (Edinburgh)
• MSc (Edinburgh)
• PhD (York)
• PGC Teaching and Learning (HE)