Dialect Flashcards
Peter Trudgill on dialectal words
- Peter Trudgill believes that we can classify dialectal words into two categories – traditional and mainstream.
- Traditional dialects use ‘old’ and often rural lexemes and grammatical constructions.
- Mainstream dialects are the more common lexical and grammatical constructions, used by a majority within a geographical area.
- Through a process called lexical attrition, the traditional dialectal words are dying out.
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
London Case Study- Multicultural London English
- Multicultural London English (MLE) is a variation that has arisen from migration bringing in speakers of English where English isn’t their first language.
- These groups of speakers have led to this new variation being spoken very broadly in diverse inner-London cities (like Hackney).
- Paul Kerswill believes that within 30 years, MLE will replace Cockney completely.
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.
Aston University study (Birmingham)
- people feel accents no longer hold a stigma
- connected them to where they grew up
- choosing certain features of an accent or dialect to mark an identity with a place rather social class or ethnic group
What did Ives find on immigrants? Links to Giles ACCOMODATION and code switching
Speakers of Bradford Asian English consciously mixed Punjabi and English to create a “British Asian” group identity exclusive to 2nd generation youth. Language use unifies them.
These people also ‘code switched’ using standard English in formal/professional contexts and their own dialect when in a social context.
What did Ives find on MLE?
Language use was based on area, not ethnicity, Londoners spoke the same regardless of if they were white or black.
Thomas Pear
People were judged differently according to the accent they spoke with.
Martha’s Vineyard 1963- Fishermen
- Fishermen centralise /au/ and /ai/ more than any other occupational group
- This was done subconsciously, in order to establish and identify themselves as Vineyarders, an independent social group rejecting the norms of mainland America which was bought over by the summer holiday makers.
