1.02 English: Language and Region Flashcards
People try to emphasise/minimise the social difference between the others who they interact with
Convergence: process where people tend to adapt to the other person’s communication characteristics to reduce social differences
Divergence: process where people emphasise the social difference when they’re communicating, possibly to gain power in the conversation
Giles and Powesland: Accommodation Theory
Despite scouse’s relatively low rankings in the ComRes surveys, it is beginning to spread throughout the country
Some features of this type of English are:
• Prosodic features, including distinctive rhythm and intonation (Knowles 1973)
• Book, look with the /uù/ vowel
Accent is self contained, shows solidarity - pride of where they come from
Kevin Watson: Liverpool English
He says: “This type of english is a variety of modified regional speech
• It’s a mixture of non-regional and local south-eastern pronunciation and intonation
If there was a continuum with RP and at one end and Cockney at the other, speakers would be found in the middle of the continuum”
It’s heard in the political circles, business circles advertising etc.
• It’s in a strong position to exert influence on the pronunciation of the future
Features include diphthong shift and realisation of /r/
David Rosewarne: Estuary English
They, as well as Jenny Cheshire, use this concept to explain differences between accents and dialects - looks at what people you interact with
A person whose personal contacts all know each other belong to a CLOSED network
A person whose contacts tend not to know each other belong to an OPEN network
L and J Milroy: Belfast - Change and Variation in an Urban Vernacular
He uses this concept to explain changes in accents and dialects across the country
Claims that really localised accent and dialects forms are merging together to form broader dialect areas - leads to larger homogenous areas
Is a form of standardisation - results in a reduction of language diversity
Factors like geographical and social mobility as well as economic change are involved in the process
Paul Kerswill: Dialect levelling (1999)
MK: Older residents used vowel sounds typical of the traditional, local accents
Newcomers spoke with a variety of regional accents
Children speak like their parents/caters for the first 4 years which had developed into Estuary English
R: Gradual change - children were influenced by their local-born parents and grandparents
H: Young speakers retained their older relatives’ northern accent but differed in the use of glottaling and /th/ fronting
He suggested an economic factor played a role - the prosperity of southern towns makes social mobility and achievable goal for young people
However, high unemployment levels in northern towns like Hull makes children unconvinced of education’s value and therefore reject the pressure from authoritarian systems such as the educational one to modify their accents
Paul Kerswill: Dialect levelling in Milton Keynes, Reading and Hull study
Is a sociolect of English that emerged in the late 20th century
Predominantly spoken by young, working class people in the multicultural neighbourhoods of inner-city London and it’s suburbs
Combines elements from Cockney, Jamaican and other Caribbean Englishes
Uses loanwords - EG: man/gyaldem and dutty, which both come from Jamaican Creole
As it gains popularity beyond London, it’s relevance starts to diminish
Kerswill: MLE
Kerswill (2014) describes media’s response to it - they referred to it as ‘Jafaican’ and that ‘it sounds black’
Researches at Lancaster University disagree and say it isn’t white kids trying not to sound black, it’s young people who’re exposed to different English varieties and they grow up and incorporate these into their speech
He also refers to comments from David Starkey - who made an explicit link between this type of language, violence and black culture
Starkey also stated that white people had bought into it, becoming black in the process
Attitudes to MLE
