Accent/Dialect Theories/Concepts

Question 1

John Ayton’s Oxford Dictionary of Rhyming Slang

Answer 1

Suggests CRS originated amongst thieves, beggars and street sellers.

Question 2

Museum of London

Answer 2

Survey suggests 80% of Londoners don’t understand many CRS phrases.

Question 3

James Orr (journalist)

Answer 3

Suggests CRS is dying out.

Question 4

David Crystal

Answer 4

Suggests the nation’s current obsession with celebrity culture has added new CRS phrases (Pete Tong, Brad Pitt, Calvin Klein)
CRS is now used outside of London in idiomatic phrases (porky pies, bread head) and has also grown because of the media.

Question 5

Daily Mail 2013

Answer 5

MLE is most prevalent in East London among people with few opportunities, it is a mix of West Indian, South Asian, Cockney and Estuary English.

Question 6

Gary Ives 2014

Answer 6

Study of language use in Bradford - found that students identified themselves as British Asian and did not feel connected to ‘freshies’ (those born in Pakistan who move to England). Also found that language use was based on postcode and sometimes music. Used Punjabi as a ‘secret language’ to create a group identity and exclude others.

Question 7

Shakespeare and Chaucer

Answer 7

Show evidence of using double negatives and this was considered normal at the time.

Question 8

Kerswill

Answer 8

Social mobility has increased, causing a break-down in close knit working class communities.

Question 9

Trudgill (2000)

Answer 9

RP speakers are seen as haughty and unfriendly. Children with working class accents and dialects may be evaluated by teachers as having less educational potential than those with middle class accents.

Question 10

BBC Website ‘Voices’

Answer 10

Standard English accents would be more beneficial when applying for jobs and Asian, Liverpool and Birmingham accents were all deemed both unpleasant to listen to and lacking in social status.

Question 11

Thomas Pear (1931)

Answer 11

Found people had different perceptions of a speaker according to the accent they heard them talk in.

Question 12

Giles (1975)

Answer 12

Teenagers listening to an argument about the death penalty were more likely to value the argument of a speaker using a more prestigious accent.

Question 13

Milroy (2002)

Answer 13

Increased geographical mobility leads to ‘large scale disruption of close-knit, localised networks’