Which “There” is There? George Harrison’s Dialect Shifting in His Late 1960s Songs

ABSTRACT

The Beatles exhibited certain Liverpool dialect features, and George Harrison retained many lifelong in song. Examined is the “hair” vowel, which Liverpool speakers previously pronounced like standard “her”; e.g. “there” in “the love there that's sleeping” in “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”. In 1966-1970, Harrison sang both pronunciations. We sought correlations between Harrison's pronunciation and song-internal and external factors. Two pronunciation connections emerged: (1) whether a song was an earlier vs. released version and (2) where the word occurred. Results suggest Harrison shifted from his native pronunciation to the standard for final versions and from within verses to prominent positions.

KEYWORDS:

• Singing
• vowels
• dialect

Acknowledgments

I wish to thank colleagues who read earlier versions of this research and provided input, especially William Stone. Any errors belong only to me.

Disclosure Statement

There is no financial interest or benefit to the author from this research.

Notes

1. An interactive version of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) can be found at http://www.internationalphoneticalphabet.org/ipa-sounds/ipa-chart-with-sounds/. Clicking on a symbol will produce a (near) facsimile of the sound it represents.

2. Trudgill’s work on the Beatles’ pronunciation, while helpful, tends to focus entirely on Lennon and McCartney, to the unfortunate exclusion of Harrison. He does not separate the individual Beatles’ dialects.

3. English speakers typically diphthongize this vowel to [i^y], but, for simplicity, that will be ignored here.

4. Formant measurements were taken using PRAAT software. As much as possible, vocals were isolated in the songs to enable better measurement.

5. The F0 formant is related to pitch.

6. One could argue that the record-buying public at large is the other side of the conversation, but those people are not immediately present to have influence.

Additional information

Funding

This work was self-funded.

Notes on contributors

Karen A. Duchaj

Karen Duchaj is an adjunct professor in the linguistics department of Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago. Her academic and personal interests have combined in work on Lennon’s consonant substitutions, Lennon and McCartney’s r-pronunciation in solo work, Harrison’s vowel alternation in his singing dialects, and using Lennon’s performed singing pronunciation to index social characteristics.