accent and dialect theorists Flashcards
What is MLE?
MLE originated among young, working class people in East London and has spread across the country
Mixture of London English and Jamaican Creole
3 features of MLE
- Shorter trajectories for the vowel sound in FACE and GOAT etc.
- Word-initial stopping- ‘th’ pronounced as ‘d’
- Pragmatic marker “you get me?”
What is MBE?
From MLE. Drummond argued MBE emerged, which reflects a variety of English used by people across the UK
Contains features of MLE, alongside a local accent or dialect
What is RP?
Perceived as the standard and most prestigious form of English, associated with London and South-eastern England
Adopted as the official standard by the OED in the late 19th century, and by the BBC in the 20th century
3 features of RP
- Long sounds of vowels in ‘bath’, ‘palm’ etc.
- Non-rhoticity- not pronouncing /r/ at the ends of words like ‘mother’
- /h/ retention- it is always pronounced
What is SSBE?
Standard Southern British English has emerged as an updated form of RP
Speakers tend to be white British and more women e.g. Ellie Goulding and Prince Harry
What are the features of SSBE like?
Majority of the same features of RP, but there are differences in the way speakers pronounce words like ‘goose’ with the tongue further forward so it sounds like ‘geese’
RP and SSBE statistics
- 3% of the UK speak RP (Trudgill)
- Amanda Cole found 49% of a sample spoke SSBE- suggests RP is no longer the dominant accent in London- EE and MLE combined was spoken by a higher proportion of people (51%)
What is Estuary English?
Rosewarne coined the term Estuary English, predicting it as having the strongest native influence upon RP
Mixture of non-regional and local South-eastern English pronunciation
Middle ground between RP and Cockney
It is in a strong position to exert influence: used by Adele, House of Commons etc.
Peter Trudgill
Norwich Study
1. Lower classes pronounced the -in ending more frequently
2. Men were like to pronounce the -in ending in all social classes
3. Links to covert prestige: non-standard dialects are regarded as higher prestige by members of a speech community, even though speakers considered that dialect to be inferior
4. Women= overt prestige: standard, formal features to express power and status
Watt and Gunn
The Sound of 2066
1. In 2016, HSBC explored how regional changes are taking place in Birmingham, Glasgow, London, Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle
2. Conclusion pointed to a homogenisation of English and that dialect levelling would take place to a greater extent by 2066
Paul Kerswill
Dialect Levelling
1. Increased mobility and greater communicative freedom increases hearing different dialects from our own
2. Features in large, urban areas are likely to take over specific regional features in smaller, rural areas
3. Southern speakers had a more standard speech, but Hull had more localised pronunciation. He determined this was because Hull is a less prosperous place= less social mobility
General Northern English
Associated with middle-class educated speakers
Regarded as evidence of dialect levelling in Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle and Sheffield
Howard Giles (matched guise study)
- Asked 177 students from South Wales and South West England to listen to a range of accents in 1970
- They were asked: how pleasant, how much status and how comfortable they would feel with the speaker
- RP= most pleasant, highest in all categories (long vowel sounds, /h/ retention)
- Birmingham= least appealing (downward intonation, monotone)
Cockney= very low (th-fronting, t-glottalisation)
Queen Mary University and University of York Accent Bias study- 2020
- Attitudes to accents remained largely unchanged
- RP is still rated positively against working-class and ethnic minority accents - however, the difference was smaller
- Lawyers and recruiters did not let accent bias interfere with their judgements
