Accent and Dialect Flashcards
Define Accent and Dialect
Accent refers to the way words are pronounced. E.g. in the South, phoneme ‘a’ is articulated in as an elongated vowel and in the Midlands and North it is articulated using a short vowel, ‘f-fronting’ and ‘l-vocalisation’ in cockney, rhoticity in West Country
Dialect refers to choices of vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation made by people in different geographical regions or social contexts. e.g. ‘breadcake’ in yorkshire and ‘stottie’ in North East
Why are regional accents and dialects prevalent?
Arise and are prevalent due to physical differences in where people live.
Interaction within these communities strengthens accents and they become an integral part of identity
Peter Trudgill- Isogloss boundaries
Idea that in England in the past people within areas were not able to leave that area easily. Self contained community.
However, these boundaries have now weakened due to transport improvements and modern media e.g. cockney rhyming slang in films such as The Italian Job
Communities of Practise - Lave and Wenger 1991
Communities who engage in joint enterprise have a shared repertoire.
Traditionally communities had a traditional occupation, which strengthened accent and dialect
Milroy and Milroy Belfast Study
Looked at inner-city Belfast in the 1970s and 3 working class communities.
Studied the correlation between the integration of people in the community and they way they speak.
They found that a high score for integration correlated with the use of more non-standard forms. This suggests that accent/dialect was strongly influenced by the level of integration into a social network.
Close-knit networks are important for dialect maintenance as it promotes solidarity and identity
Evaluation- Milroy lived within the community which reduced Hawthorne effect but also meant more bias and human error.
Labov Martha’s Vineyard
Small island that attracted many tourists from the mainland in the summer. Group of fishermen began to exaggerate a tendency already existing in their speech subconsciously, in order to establish themselves as an independent social group with a superior status to the tourists. Exaggerated pronunciation of vernacular vowels to differentiate themselves.
Malcolm Petyt Bradford Study 1985
Non-standard language and social class are linked
Measured frequency of H-dropping:
-upper middle class 12%
-lower working class 93%
Supported by Peter Trudgill’s Norwich study which found social class as more of a determiner of non-standard usage than gender. Lower class likely to ommit ‘g’ sound on ‘ing’ ending
Basil Berntein 1971
Classified language into ‘restricted code’ and ‘elaborated code’.
Restricted= substandard pronunciation, simpler syntax (associated with regional dialect)
Elaborated= standard pronunciation, more complex syntax eg use of subordinate clases. Associated with Recieved Pronunciation
Jenny Cheshire (1982) Reading study
Identified non standard features including multiple negation, use of contraction ‘ain’t’ and non-standard ‘was’ and measured their frequency in boys and girls
All children who approved of criminal activity conformed to non-standard varieties compared to those that didn’t, but more so boys.
This suggests that variations in dialect are a conscious choice, influenced by social attitude.’
Criticism= that the study was of children in a school environment so cannot be generalised to all of population in every situation
Howard Giles communication accommodation theory
Divergence- adapting your linguistic choices away from another social group.
Convergence- adapting linguistic choices to move towards language of another social group.
Negative opinions/ judgement regarding accents can lead to divergence from regional accents and convergence to RP.
Give data that backs up these judgements
UK Accent Survey – The Aziz Corporation (2005) 79% of businesses thought that a strong regional accent was a disadvantage.
Howard Giles matched guise test- Birmingham accent (flattening of vowels) rated least intelligent, RP voted most intelligent.
Impacts employability.
E.G.
Celebrity chef James Martin has accused the BBC of rejecting him from presenting jobs due to his Northern accent. Link to class bias
David Beckham’s language was studied by the Uni of Manchester. According to their findings, he has changed his accent to “sound less working class” by “dropping cockney vowels” and “hyper-correcting himself”, showing convergence to standard English. Frequency of h-dropping has decreased from 80% in 2007, to just 20% after moving to LA.
The Sheffield Star “Should dialect be allowed in schools?” Sheffield Springs Academy is enforcing use of standard English by banning use of ‘slang’, arguably linked to students regional identity.
Paul Kerswill- Dialect Levelling
A form of standardisation whereby local variations in speech lose their regional features. Caused by increased geographical mobility disrupting close knit localised networks that previously maintained linguistic norms.
2021 Guardian Article “Northern Accents becoming more similar, researchers find”. Linguists at the University of Manchester “found evidence of a pan-regional ‘general northern English accent’ among middle-class northerners.
David Rosewarne’s 1984 study of “Estuary English”
‘a variety of modified regional speech’
“between Cockney and the Queen”, in the words of The Sunday Times. E.g. some broad diphthongs (cockney vowels) and glottal stops but general omission of H-dropping.
Suggests that RP is no longer a neutral accent in many circles, and can even arouse hostility due to its associations with the elite in society, perception that it excludes others.
Nicholas Copeland Code Switching
How we speak changes depending on the context e.g. moving from public to private discourse e.g. speaking with standard English at work but non-standard with friends. Social context equally as important as where you are from.
Multi Cultural London English- Sue Fox
Dialect that has emerged since the 1980s combining lexical, grammatical variations from African and Caribbean influences. E.g. lexemes of Jamaican origin e.g. Bredrin.
MLE is spreading around the country, popular with young people.
E.g. Daily Mail Article “Why are so many middle class children speaking African Patois?” Dad voices concerns over 11 year old school girl from village in Surrey using features of MLE.
