accents and dialects Flashcards
what is joanna thornborrow’s quote about regional variation?
‘One of the most fundamental ways we have of establishing our identity, and of shaping
other people’s views of who we are, is through our language.
what was martha’s vineyard study?
by William Labov
This study identified that islanders subconsciously used diphthong variation to establish
their identity as ‘Vineyarders’. This was possibly to maintain social identity and to spread an
‘us’ and ‘them’ mentality towards visitors.
what was the New York Dept Stores Study?
by William Labov in 1966
he posed as a customer to get casual speech + got the data by specifically asking for the location of a product he already knew was on the fourth floor.
he then pretended not to hear employee so they’d repeat and he’d hear a more carefully spoken response.
The results of the study clearly showed that the linguistic variable (r) was an indicator of social stratification in New York across all three stores, therefore proving his hypothesis correct. Overall, the employees with higher socioeconomic status (working in higher class stores) pronounced the rhotic / r / more frequently than the employees with lower socioeconomic status.
what was dennis freeborn’s theory?
Dennis Freeborn summarised negative attitudes to regional varieties into 3 groups:
- The ugliness view – Freeborn believes that the idea that some accents don’t sound nice is
more linked to negative stereotyping and prejudice than truth. - The incorrectness view – the idea that Standard English is the one and only voice.
Freeborn refutes this and says RP only became popular because of fashion and social status
reasons – not because it is more correct. - The imprecision view - Some accents are labelled as sloppy or lazy. Freeborn says features
such as the glottal stop are logical developments in language. Some of these features even
occur in RP.
what were the findings of Giles’ study with the Matched-Guise Approach?
1970
This study found that people listening to arguments about capital punishment were more
convinced by prestigious accents. He later found that RP often rated higher in intelligence
and competence than the Birmingham accent.
what did John Dixon, Berenice Mahoney and Roger Cocks do?
2002
used the Matched-Guise approach to investigate the relationship between accent and the perception of guilt. Their research found that listeners were far more likely to judge someone with a Birmingham accent as guilty than a standard accent. furthermore, the brummie accent was rated as lower in superiority
what did Peter Trudgill and Lars-Gunnar Andersson find?
1992
found that negative views of regional accents were more linked to
negative stereotyping of location than actual features. Research into the attitudes of
American listeners found a lack of negativity to Birmingham voices.
what did Ellen Ryan find?
regional accents are more friendly – her status/solidarity scale showed the
importance of different types of power depending on context and purpose.
what did Paul Kerswill find?
spread of Estuary English relates to dialect levelling and is more about age and
social class than region.
social mobility has increased which has led to the consequent breakdown of tight knit working class communities
what did Chris Montgomery find?
This research showed a north/south divide linked to language and identity
but he found that the further away you were from a perceived divide, the less it mattered to
you.
what did the ComRes Poll for ITV Tonight programme say?
2013– Devon is the most friendly accent and RP the
most intelligent
what did Greg Smith: The Newham and Middlesborough Studies find?
Cockney children thought their
accent made them sound stupid or like criminals. The Middlesbrough boys on the ITV
documentary thought their accent would hold them back because they didn’t sound smart.
what did Lord Reith say?
n 1922 thought RP the most understandable accent for the BBC
People should change from regional accent to RP
what did Johnathon Harrington find?
found changes in vowel pronunciation in the Queen’s speech between 1960
and today, using Christmas Day broadcasts as models. This suggests her voice is converging
to the dominant voice of the South East (younger and lower class).
what did Dominic Watt find?
found that, unlike what many believed, not all regional voices were disappearing
and merging into one national way of speaking. Some regional ‘super-accents’ seem to be
not just surviving but spreading.
