Accent and dialect Flashcards
Accent
The phonology ( the way it sounds )
Dialect
The lexis, phrases and grammar used by people
Received pronunciation
- The accent with the highest prestige and therefore more socially accepted.
- Doesnt reveal nationality of speakers.
- Typically associated with south east because of connections to the government and business but today can be found anywhere in the county.
- Most widely understood accent
Standard English
- Associated with mainstream usage.
- Considered the norm.
Non-standard English
- Less mainstream than standard and not considered the ‘norm’
Prescriptivism
- There’s only one accent that’s correct and the rest are wrong.
- Will say that Received pronunciation is the correct accent to use.
Descriptivism
- All accents are acceptable.
- No accents are better than others.
Overt prestige
- Generally socially acknowledged as ‘correct’.
- Therefore valued highly among all speakers of the language.
- I’m guessing RP.
Covert prestige
- non standard varieties of English.
- Not accepted in all social groups e.g. youth language.
Convergence
- When people shift their speech pattern to more resemble their audience.
Upwards convergence
- Speak more formally in social circumstances e.g. a job interview shifting the RP
Downwards convergence
- Speaking like the person your talking too. e.g. moving to uni in brum and using a brum accent.
Rhoticity
- Historical rhotic r in all contexts by speakers.
Divergence
- Trying not to sound like the person you are talking too.
- Emphasis you own accent
- Showing disapproval.
Glottal stop
- Some sounds are difficult to say as our voices are restricted.
- Some words can be hard to say like butter or water.
Multiethnicity
- 2 languages forming into one
Diphthong
- Two vowel sounds occurring in the same syllable
Dialect levelling
- Process of a person or groups language becoming similar to one another.
- This will result in the reduction of variation between dialects of the same language where speakers of these dialects being brought together.
Language attrition
- the process of losing a native or first language.
- Gradual over time
- Suddenly someone dies, only person speaking that language.
Restricted code
- Highlights speech patterns used by the working class
- Used language to bring unity between people
Elaborated code
- Middle and upper classes use this speech style to gain access to education and career advancement.
‘T’ Fronting
- When someone doesnt pronouce the ‘th’ and replace it with a ‘v’ and ‘f’ as its easier to say.
Estuary English
- English spoken with the accent of the south east of England.
Watson
- Compared 1970 recordings of young people with modern day speech patterns.
- certain features of pronunciation are happening more in every accent.
- For example ‘baff’ instead of ‘bath’
Multicultural London English
- sociolect of the English language.
- Predominantly spoken by young, working class. Normally in multicultural neighbourhoods like London.
What did Giles (1970) Accommodation theory
- 3 diiferent accents using these 3 main parameters:
- Status - Testing how powerful and important the speaker appeared to be.
- Personality - testing what traits of character came across.
- Persuasiveness - testing how believable the person seemed.
Ranking order of results:
- RP
- National accents
- Regional rural accents
- Regional urban accent
- However regional speaker are more trusted and warm hearted and honest.
Double Negation
known as bad English in regional bad English. You can also find some double negatives in standard English as well as non standard.
Labov Vineyard Study
- Labov investigated the au and ai vowel sounds in words like mouse and mice. In linguistic terms is called a diphthong.
- Martha’s vineyard, small island off north east coast of America.
- Population of 5,800 however on summer holiday up to 60k Americans would come.
- Labov found that the pronouciation of certain vowel sounds were changing from the standard American pronounciations and noted that locals pronouced these dipthongs were a more central point like eu and ei.
- They were rejecting the norm of mainland americans that they brought over.
