Dialect Flashcards
London Case Study- CRS Cockney Rhyming Slang
- Cockney rhyming slang (CRS) is a dialectal variation found in London (not really anymore, though) that originated from the criminal underworld in the 1800s as a way of communicating without the police knowing of their doings.
- Examples include ‘brown bread’ for dead and ‘trouble and strife’ for wife.
- CRS stopped being used by criminals when it was adopted into common usage by non-criminals. In other words, it stopped being deictic.
Spreading of CRS
‘Porky pies’… ‘donkey’s ears’- You probably know it as ‘donkey’s years’ or simply ‘donks’ – here, you can see how the dialectal term has broadened and become part of common usage.
CRS ON EASTENDERS
While the dialectal terms of CRS are very rarely used now, a weakened version of the Cockney accent is still in use, propelled by the popular TV soap ‘Eastenders’.
London Case Study- Estuary English
- **Linguist David Rosewarne coined the term ‘Estuary English’ **(occasionally called ‘London Regional General British’) to describe the variation that arose from around the Thames Estuary.
- This is defined as the mix of RP and Cockney.
EE Features
- Glottal stop (missing out the ‘t’ in the middle of words like ‘butter’).
- The dark l (/ɫ/) – pronouncing ‘l’ sounds with an ‘ulll’ sound.
- The /aʊ/ (ow) pronunciation in words like mouth closer to /eə/ (air) in words like hair.
- TH-fronting – pronouncing the ‘th’ words with an ‘f’ sound. For example, ‘thing’ becomes ‘fing’.
Bridge between Cockney and RP
- Estuary English acts, as Paul Coggle suggests, as a bridge between Cockney and RP speakers and so serves as a bridge between the classes in South East England.
- In addition, Estuary English has spread all over the UK with there being speakers with EE elements spotted as far away as Glasgow. Almost classless
Spreading of MLE
- MLE has spread, and is now becoming a part of the speech of teenagers up and down the country, spread mostly by grime music as exemplified by Stormzy.
- This issue for linguists comes when we have to draw the line between what an idiolect (your personal language), sociolect (the language of a social group) and dialect.
- Many news publications will use the term ‘Jafaican’ to describe MLE (fake Jamaican).
Features of MLE
- Indefinite pronoun ‘man’: man’s not hot.
- **‘Why…for?’ question frame: **why you revising English for?
- **/h/ retention **(keeping the ‘h’ sound in): house.
- Jamaican slang like ‘blood’ for friend.
- TH-stopping (creating a harsh stopped ‘t’ sound instead of a ‘th’ sound): MLE is a mad ting.
Some limitations of accent and dialect
- Dialect levelling
- emerging adults
- Beth Kemp university effect
- BBC website ‘voices’:
3 quarters of people in UK think they hear a lot more accents in everyday life & on BBC Tv & radio than they used to and 78% enjoy hearing a variety of accents
Where somebody comes from can also affect people’s morphosyntactic choices: many regions have non-standard variations in some areas of syntax.
African American Vernacular English (AAVE), Southern American English, and some British regional dialects use what we sometimes call negative concord constructions
- double negatives. (‘I didn’t do nothing.’ = I didn’t do anything.”)
- Other examples of morphosyntactic variation might include the variations permitted in your region of
- He gave it me
- He gave me it
- He gave it to me
Other than where someone comes from, what also influences speech
gender, age, class, ethnic background, and (sometimes) sexual orientation.
They will also look at the context of their interactions:
* Are they speaking professionally or informally?
* Does their interlocutor speak in the same way?
* What do they want from the interaction?
* What kind of self-image do they want to portray?)
Sometimes these things will influence a person’s choice to either converge or diverge from their regional norm.
What is an idiolect?
Someone’s unique use of language depending on friends, family, hobbies, occupation etc.
What is a dialect?
A way of speaking that’s influenced by geography.
What is the definition of idiomatic phrases?
Groups of words with an established meaning unrelated to the meanings of the individual words.
E.g. break a leg.
What is social mobility?
A person’s ability to move between social classes.
Where and when did Cockney rhyming slang originate?
East London during the first half of the 1800s.
Who researched the additions of Cockney rhyming slang and what did he find?
David Crystal found it was due to the nation’s obsession with celebrity culture and its representation in TV, pushing the notion of it improving covert prestige.
What negatively affected perceptions of Cockney rhyming slang?
The revival of notorious gangs in the East End in the 50s and 60s, and more geographical mobility.
What does more geographical mobility mean in the context of Cockney?
Being more mobile means Cockneys mixed more with regular Londoners, causing them to use Common Reporting Standard (CRS).
In what regions is the replacement of ‘were’ and ‘was’ common?
North and Midlands.
E.g. I were late.
What is a dialect?
A variety of language distinguished by social group or geographical location.
What is an example of lexical variation?
Gravy ring meaning sugar ring doughnut in Northern Ireland.
How does Cockney rhyming slang work?
By replacing a word with a rhyming word or expression, using idiomatic phrases.
Ing endings
Before the 19th century, -ing was pronounced -in, even by mid/upper classes
