Language And Region Flashcards
Difference between accent and dialect
Accent refers to the way in which people pronounce sounds. Dialect refers to vocabulary and grammar
What are the two types of language?
Prescriptivism and descriptivism
What is prescriptivism?
Belief that there is an absolute authority determining what is correct usage, language is absolute and unchangeable, based on rules established in the past
What is descriptivism?
Correctness is dependent on context and should be defined by what is appropriate in any context, therefore depending on how the majority of people use language
Problems with descriptive approaches
The phonemic alphabet of English sounds is based on the RP accent, so other accents are described by saying how they differ from RP
Distribution
Where a feature is used, within the language inventory of an individual or group
Inventory
A list of items. Eg. List of sounds used in a person’s accent
Non regional
Alternative name for RP accent
Non standard
Different from normal or majority usage
Phonetic alphabet
Alphabet designed for transcribing the sounds of all of the world’s languages
How the phonemic alphabet can cause problems for some regional speakers?
Eg. Difference between northern and southern accents in the distribution of two pairs of vowel sounds:
/ae/ and /a:/ like bath and grass
Daniel Jones
Revised his book The Pronunciation of English in 1950.
“ it can no longer be said that any standard exists, it must be left to individual English speaker people to decide whether they should speak in the manner that comes to them naturally or whether they should alter their speech in any way”
Who was Daniel Jones? Attitudes to regional varieties?
Descriptive linguist. 20th C. Teachers of English were seen as missionaries of speech, whose job it was to correct aspects of regional language by removing them and replacing them with RP and Standard English- seen as hallmarks of refinement
Rhotic
Accents where speakers produce the post vocalic r, such as in many rural accents in the south west region of the UK
Judgments of the use of velar nasal /n/
In prescriptive, sometimes people talk about g dropping characterising as sloppy speech. This is not an accurate description of what is happening, because there was no g to be dropped in the first place
What does the attitude towards g dropping show about people?
People are thinking about writing, rather than spoken language
Glottal stop /?/
A closure of the vocal cords. Eg. Replacing /t/
Covert prestige
Status gained from peer group recognition, rather than public acknowledgement
Estuary English
A recent accent variety used in South East England which combines RP with some aspects of regional southern accents.
Linguistic variable
An item of language that is likely to vary and is therefore of interest to sociolinguists
Multicultural London English
A recent variety combining elements of the language of the language of different ethnic groups, particularly AfroCaribbean English
Overt prestige
Status that is publicly acknowledged
Self reported usage
People describing their own language use
Where are glottal stops also used?
Connected speech, alternatives for some plosives. Eg. /t/ in button
Trudgill’s accent variation investigation
Trudgill developed a complex and thorough method which involved recording people speaking in a range of different ways, to see whether increased formality of the context reduced the frequency of non standard features
Trudgill’s accent variation results
Men tended to over report their own usage while women tended to under report, suggesting a connection with gender identity
Dialect levelling
The way in which dialect terms have been dropping out of use
Isogloss
A geographic boundary indicating where certain items of language are used
Slang
Language that is used in informal contexts and widely recognised
Use of pronouns in regional speech
Eg. Liverpool- plural of you-yous- which is a subtlety that SE doesn’t have.
Reflexive pronouns, are often regularised in regional dialect grammar, so the system that begins with myself and yourself continues in some regional speech with hisself and theirselves
Shibboleth
A language item used as a marker or test of group membership
What did Labov’s early work of language on Martha’s Vineyard on accent variation show?
Offered insights into why low status varieties of language persists.
Showed how some younger residents were unconsciously adopting older, rural speech in order to show their resistance to the island’s commercialisation by tourism. Linked to covert prestige
Matched guise technique
Experimental technique where a single actor puts on a different accent for different audiences, but keeps the content of the speech the same
3 main parameters that Giles used to test different accents
Status- testing how powerful and important the speaker appeared to be
Personality- testing what traits of character came across
Persuasiveness- testing how believable the person seemed
Gile’s status ranking
RP, National accents such as Welsh and Irish, regional rural accents, regional urban accents
How was RP seen as?
In terms of personality, self confident, intelligent and ambitious, but also cold and ruthless
How was northern accented speech seen as?
Honest, reliable, generous, sincere
People’s attitudes to accents
although RP is associated with high social status (in terms of wealth, level of education and employment), regional speakers are trusted more (honest and reliable)
Estuary English
David Rosewarne. It’s a modified regional speech, placed it along the continuum between RP and Cockney
Attitudes to Estuary English
Speakers of this are though to be aiming for a classless profile-avoiding the privileged and unfriendly connotations of RP while also, for regional speakers, sidestepping the tag of being ill-educated. Represents a shift towards more centralised varieties. It can be heard all over the British Isles.
Eye dialect
Using the regular alphabet to represent sounds, rather than a phonetic or phonemic alphabet
Milroy and Milroy 2014
- Differences between the grammatical systems used by contemporary regional speakers
- Constructions which may appear to be ungrammatical are in fact perfectly grammatical and follow the rules which are unconscious to the native speaker
