Accent and Dialect

Question 1

Identity- Joanna Thornborrow 2004

Answer 1

Argues we create our identity chiefly through language 
Through 
-specific lexical choices 
-grammatical constructions 
-variations in phonology
Perhaps combination of all three ?

Question 2

Identity- William Labov 1961

Answer 2

• study
• Massachusetts Martha’s Vineyard
• Labov interested in pronunciation of particular vowel sounds

-small group of fisherman, Up-landers(original inhabitants) and people of the ages 31-45
= pronounced these vowels differently to the other islanders

• perhaps subconsciously to establish an identity for themselves as ‘Vineyards’. To distance themselves from tourists

Question 3

Identity- MLE

Answer 3

Cheshire et al 2008 identified a new form of English emerging MLE
New dialect
Migration - many new dialects from particular cultural groups e.g. Caribbean or Asian background
Most prevalent in East London- among people with few opportunities
Afro-American or Jamaican in origin e.g. ‘Bruv’ widely used in 1970s/1980s Black American speech
Exclusionary strategy and create some form of social identity
Key features
-replacing standard English verb form e.g. chatting-talking rubbish
-changing a noun to a verb e.g. hype-hyping
-changing an abstract noun to a less abstract form e.g. madness

Question 4

Identity-MlE- Paul Kerswill 2013

Answer 4

MlE has West Indian, South Asian, Cockney, Estuary roots
Most prevalent in east London = few opportunities
Most of the slang is Afro-American or Jamaican origin
Picked up at young age
Exclusionary strategy- unable to make progress in life, discriminated against speaking differently

Question 5

Identity - MLE - Gary Ives 2004

school B

Answer 5

Carried out two case studies in London and Bradford
Groups of teenagers interviewed about their language use and dialect

School B- South London. Culturally diverse. High percentage is EAL students. Highest proportion is Afro-Caribbean background

• word choices/ phrases set them apart
• e.g. bruv
• Jamaican or Afro-Caribbean roots
• Ives found several of the teens interviewed were white in origin
• Language is not about ethnicity
• Its about where you live

Question 6

Identity - Bradford Asian English

Answer 6

code switching - alternate languages when talking
Influenced by hip hop, rap, urban music
Common Punjabi words are mainly taboo words e.g. words for ‘bitch’- students use this as they find it funny
They will differentiate from other Pakistani background social group and will exclude them
Identity- language acts as a unifying mechanism for teenagers to exclude others

Question 7

Identity - MLE - Gary Ives 2004

school A

Answer 7

Carried out two case studies in London and Bradford
Groups of teenagers interviewed about their language use and dialect

School A-Bradford. 95% children from Pakistani backgrounds

• Conscious choice
• ‘all about our area, we mix Punjabi and English, do not mix with our parents and only to our friends’
• Ives discovered boys used ‘code switching’ = mostly for taboo words, they claimed they sounded funnier

Question 8

Dialect Leveling

Answer 8

Language forms of other parts of the country converge and become more similar over time. Loss of regional features and reduced diversity of language.

Question 9

Social Mobility

Answer 9

Person moving from one social class to another. This can occur through job, marriage, change in persons economic /financial situation

Question 10

Regional dialects becoming less prominent- Leslie Milroy 2002

Answer 10

Increased geographical mobility
large scale disruption of close knit, localised networks that have historically maintained complex sets of linguistic norms
Reason for dialect leveling

Question 11

Regional dialects becoming less prominent- Paul Foulkes and Gerard Docherty 1999

Answer 11

The phonological variant from its original origin of London - replacement of the ‘th’ with ‘f/v’
has spread

NOT only geographical and social mobility reasons for regional dialects becoming less prominent BUT ALSO non standard forms spreading across the country

Question 12

RP (received pronunciation)

Answer 12

Accent not dialect
‘Correct’ and most esteemed accent
Used in dictionaries which give pronunciations, used teaching English as a foreign language
Associated with prestige and formality e.g. Queens speech
Reveals a lot about someones social/educational background
2% speakers use it in the UK today
RP received its most impetus: Lord Reith (first General Manager of the BB) adopted it in 1992
hence the origins ‘BBC English’
He believed standard English spoken in a RP accent worst be most widely understood variety of English in the UK and overseas (at time of British Empire)

Question 13

Sub-categories of RP -Conservative RP

Answer 13

Traditional

Old speakers

Question 14

Sub-categories of RP-Mainstream RP

Answer 14

Extremely neutral

Question 15

Sub-categories of RP- Contemporary RP

Answer 15

Using features typical of younger speakers

Question 16

RP- Peter Trudgill 2000

Answer 16

• RP speakers are perceived haughty and unfriendly by non RP speakers
• Children within working class accents and dialects may be evaluated by some teachers as having less educational potential than those middle-class accents and dialects

Question 17

RP- Howard Giles 1975

Answer 17

• Took a ‘matched guise’ approach
• listening to the same speaker using a range of different accents & then passing judgement
• Two groups of 17 year olds
• Researched perception of RP and Birmingham accent
• Teenagers rated RP speakers high in terms of intelligence and competence
• Teenagers more likely to value arguments & opinions by a person who used a more prestigious accent

Question 18

RP- Dixon , Mahoney and Cocks 2002

Answer 18

• Used ‘matched guise’
• Correlation between accent and how we perceive someones guilt
• Results: Suspect was perceived more likely to be guilty when he spoke with a non-standard Birmingham form

Question 19

RP- Seligman, Tucker and Lambert 1972

Answer 19

Teachers perceptions of students were heavily influenced by their speech

Question 20

RP- Paul Coggle 1993

Answer 20

People may be often stereotyped based solely on their accent 
Stereotypes are the living reminders of Britain's continuing class system