Accents Flashcards
Define an accent?
Languages can be pronounced in different ways.
These differences in pronunciation are called accents
2)Define dialect?
dialect covers variation between grammar and vocabulary-different words for alley/ginnel/walkway
3) Explain how language variation can be represented by a sociolinguistic pyramid/triangle?
- working class= wider range of geographical variations
- Upper middle class= RP- no variation
- upper class individuals will sound the same whether they live in Newcastle/ London
4)Language variation can be subdivided into?
- regional variation
- social variation
Regional variation is accepted e.g. accept someone from manchester will have a different variety of english than someone from london
-Social varaition is more controversal-reflect life experiences/age/ gender/ social class/ religion/media
5)
4 accents?
- Received Pronunciation,
- Modern General British (GB) or Non-regional pronunciation (NRP)
- Standard Southern British English
- Estuary English
6) Short description of Received pronunciation? (RP)
- Considered to be a ‘prestige accent’
- Often associated with London
- There are different types of RP
7) Short description Modern General British (GB) or Non-regional pronunciation (NRP)?
- A neutral type of modern British English
* Lacks obvious local accent features
8) Short description of Standard Southern British English (SSBE)?
- The same as NRP
* Phoneticians have a preference for using the term SSBE
9) Short description of Estuary English?
- The estuary is the Thames
- Name given (in 1984) to an accent considered to be a compromise between traditional RP and popular London speech
- The verdict is out as to whether or not this really is a new variety of accent
10) Queens Christmas speech ?
Harrington et al. (2000) analysed the queens Christmas speech 1950 and 1980’s and found that the queen’s accent had changed -some of her vowels had become less RP and more SSBE maybe from influence of younger members of the royal family SSBE
11) English throughout the world
British English in relaity is a monoirty form
- USA-English the first lanaguge for more than 220 million people
First Language –
Canada/Australia/ new Zealand/ South Africa/ countries of the Caribean
Second Language- Southern Asia (e.g. India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka), African countries
12) Which type of accent variation (regional or social) is going to be of most interest to speech and language therapists and why?
Regional variation
-need to be able to know what is relevant from a clinical point of view/what is their accent
13) State four types of variation that are frequently used to classify differences between accents
Silly Dogs lick Rosie
- Systemic variation
- Distributional variation
- Lexical variation
- Realisational variation
14) Three types of variation at the phonological level.
- Systemic variation
- Distributional variation
- Lexical variation
15) One type of variation that is used to classify differences between accents at the phonetic level
-Realisational variation
16) What’s systemic variation ?
Systemic variation
(also know as a difference in phoneme inventory)
◦ One accent may contain more or fewer phonemes than another accent in a particular part of the sound system
17) Examples of systemic variation between accents include.
a) /ɑː/ versus /æ/
palm /pɑːm / vs. Pam /pæm /
No contrast: south west, Scotland, Northern Ireland- only use /æ/
Contrast: everywhere else including SSBE
b) /ʌ/ versus /ʊ/
cud /kʌd / vs. could /kʊd /
No contrast= /ʊ/ Northern English
Contrast= /ʊ/ - /ʌ/ SSBE
c) /w/ versus /ʍ/
witch /wɪtʃ/ vs. which /ʍɪtʃ/
No contrast: SSBE
Contrast: Scottish, Irish and some American speakers
18) What’s distributional variation?
Also known as phonotactic distribution)
◦ The list of phonemes in one accent may be the same as another accent (no difference in phoneme inventory)
◦ But the phonetic environment or context in which a particular phoneme occurs is different.
◦ The distributional variation is not restricted to a particular set of words but operates ‘across the board’
19) 1st example of distributional variation?
1) Rhotic accents versus non-rhotic accents
Collin et al. 2019- it’s quite significant split between two accents in English
- Rhotic accents (Scottish, Irish, SW England ) /r/ is produced in all phonetic contexts
- Non rhotic accents (SSBE/ other variations of English) /r/ is only produced before a vowel and usually across word boundaries.“car”
Rhotic /ˈkɑ:r/
Non-rhotic /ˈkɑ:/
20) 2nd example of distributional variation?
2) Vowels in word final open unstressed syllables
In ‘happy’ words e.g. happy, pretty, Julie, Committee
Scottish, Northern Irish and most Northern English,RP accents use /ɪ/ as in KIT
London, Birmingham and SSBE accents use /i:/ as in FLEECE
[h æ p ɪ] vs [h æ p i:]
21) What’s lexical variation?
When the pronunciation of a word or list of words differs depending on accent
-where the phoneme chosen for a word /specific set of words is different in one accent as compared with another
22) 1st example of lexical variation?
1) In ‘bath words’ list of words e.g. bath, pass, dance
Set of bath words includes words that are written where the letter ‘a’ occurs before
-a nasal (+ consonant)
-a fricative (+consonant)
/æ/ vowel: speakers from Northern England and the Midlands.
/ɑ:/ vowel: speakers of Cockney and SSB English.
23) 2nd example of lexical variation?
Retention of the /æ/ vowel by northerners and midlanders with an otherwise fairly ‘standard’ accent is referred to as ‘accent loyalty’, i.e. keeping a characteristic of their local speech.
2) Words spelt _ook e.g. book, took, look, foot etc
Parts of Lancashire the vowel /u:/
In other English accent /ʊ/ is used
Except some words e.g.- snooker/spooky
24) What is realisational variation?
◦ Also known as a difference in phonetic realisation
◦ It encompasses all variation not covered in any of the other categories
◦ It relates to the way in which phonemes are realised or produced.
