language diversity: regional dialect Flashcards
what is meant by the term ‘dialect?’
- variation in words and structures associated w/ a particular geographical region
- can be lexical features or variations in grammar
what is meant by the term ‘accent?’
- variation in pronunciation associated w/ a particular geographical location
what is meant by the term ‘standard English’
- dialect of English that is considered to have the most prestige and is used in the educational system and in formal written texts
what is meant by the term ‘slang’
- referring to words and phrases which are considered informal
What is meant by the term ‘taboo’
- lexical choices that can be deemed offensive e.g. swearing, using words that are considered inappropriate and unacceptable
what is meant by the term ‘technology influenced words and phrases’
- evidence that certain social groups use words and phrases in their speech which are normally associated w/ written technology forms e.g. tweets, texts etc. like ngl - not gonna lie
what is meant by the term ‘occupational register/ jargon’
- words and phrases that are largely based on shared understanding between certain groups or individuals
what is meant by the term ‘received pronunciation’
- ## used in teaching English as a foreign language and in dictionaries that give pronuncations
Dixon, Mahoney + Cocks (2002)
- listened to conversation between policeman + suspect – suspect was perceived to be more likely to be guilty when they used a non-standard Birmingham term
- used ‘matched guise’ approach to see if there was a correlation between accent + how we perceive someone’s guilt
Choy and Dodd (1976) – teachers and students
- teachers make judgements on a students ability and their personality based on the way they speak
Shell (company)
- surveyed more than 2000 people across the UK
- “Geordie accent isn’t only the friendliest in the UK, it’s also most likely to put you in a good mood” according to respondents
Paul Kersmill — ‘dialect levelling’
- “increased interaction w/ people of other speech varieties”
- possible cause of dialect levelling- the movement of people led to greater dialect contact
Paul Foulkes + Gerrard Doherty (1999) – their book ‘urban voices’
- “th” replacement w/ “f” or “v” spread from London area to the South East (Reading, Milton Keynes) to central England (Midlands) to the Northern England (Hull) to the North East of England + Lowlands of Scotland (Newcastle, Glasgow)
Thomas Pear (1931) – perceptions of speaker
- people had different perceptions of a speaker according to the accent they heard them speak w/
Howard Giles
- 17 year olds rated the RP speaker higher in terms of intelligence over a Birmingham accent
- used the matched guise approach
what is the ‘matched guise approach’
- experimental technique used to determine the true feelings of an individual or community towards a specific language, dialect, or accent
- involves participants listening to the same speaker using a range of different accents and them passing judgement on each different variant
John Ayto’s oxford dictionary rhyming slang
- Cockney rhyming slang originated in the East End of London during the first half of the 19th century e.g Joanna = piano, barnet = hair
Paul Kerswill (2013) "youth slang"
- “youth slang” and “core users of MLE and to them it’s a dialect and an accent and it doesn’t have slang in it”
- ” a lot of core speakers are in the East End of London” - speaking is used as an ‘exclusionary strategy’
Gary Ives (2014) Bradford and London [DETAILS]
- case study carried out in Bradford (where 95% are from Pakistani backgrounds) and London (where there’s a wide range of ethnic backgrounds – participants were questioned + discussed their lang. use and their dialect
Gary Ives (2014) Bradford and London studies [CONCLUSIONS DRAWN]
- even though many people have a fixed notion of dialect and there’s an assumption that a dialect doesn’t change and this proves otherwise
- lang. is not fixed and due to ethnicity, but is also a matter of where you live
Gary Ives (2014) -Bradford and London studies [FINDINGS]
Bradford: when asked why they speak like do: “everyone speaks like this” “it’s natural” “it’s where we live” – when pushed – they decided it wasn’t natural “we mix Punjabi w/ English” - an influence of music and divergence from “freshies” (those born in Pakistan” + used to create a social identity
South London: used words like “bare” “calm” “bruv” “live” “neek” “mandem” “yard” – some of these originate from Afro-Caribbean and Jamaican words
Lowth (1775)
- short intro. to English grammar
- “two negatives in English destroy one another, or are equal to an affirmative”
- e.g ‘no I couldn’t hear nothing’ = ‘no I couldn’t hear anything’
Jenny Chesire and Viv Edwards (1997) – ‘them’
- found use of “them” as a demonstrative e.g. ‘them clothes’ instead of ‘these clothes’ was reported by 97.7% of the schools who took part in the survey
Kortman and Szmrecsany (2004) –‘them’
- indicates use of “them” is part of all English dialects (except Orkney/ Shetland)
Arther Hughes, Peter Trudgill and Dominic Watt (2012)
“city” – Northumberland final sound is pronounced /iː/ , Bradford /I/, Norwich /iː/, London and South East /i:/ , Liverpool /i:/ and West Midlands /i:/
Leslie Milroy (2002) – ‘geographical mobility’
- increased geographical mobility leads to “large scale disruption of close-knit, localised net-works that have historically maintained highly systematic and complex sets of socially structured linguistic norms”
Martha’s vineyard
– locals on an island (a popular tourist destination) resisted pressure to change from British tourists to maintain their identity
acrolect, basolect and mesolo
Acrolect: has fewer differences from other varieties of SE e.g. RP English
Basilect: a variety least comprehensible to a speaker of SE e.g. cockney
Mesolect: intermediate varieties which fill the space between acro and basilect e.g. Estuary English
