Regional Variation Flashcards
1
Q
What factors influence the way we speak?
A
- Regional dialects/accents
- National/regional varieties: different words meaning same thing, e.g. ‘baps’ or ‘bread rolls’
- personal/social variables: age, gender, occupation
2
Q
What is identity?
A
- Permeates idea of what influences way we speak.
- Created by individual characteristics, linked to specific social group where members share common characteristics.
- Consensus: begin thinking about ID in teen years -> may be focused on appearance.
3
Q
Explain how identity is expressed through language (Joanna Thornborrow)
A
- Joanna Thornborrow: lang is ‘one of the fundamental ways of establishing ID’.
- Includes specific use of lexical choices, grammar constructions in speech and variations in phonology.
4
Q
Explain William Labov’s study on creating identity through language
A
- Matha’s Vineyard (USA), focused on dialect of popular tourist destination for wealthy.
- Dipthongs: /au/ and /ai/.
- Interviewed 69 people from different social groups.
- Asked questions encouraging use of words with certain vowels.
- Fishermen and up-islanders (natives) used dipthongs /eu/ and /ei/.
- Conclusion: done subconsciously to distance from tourists.
5
Q
What is dialect? (Geography)
A
- Way of speaking influenced by geography.
- Includes lexical variations and grammatical variations from Standard English.
- Accent and pronunciation is linked.
6
Q
List some dialects in the UK
A
- Scouse
- Geordie
- Mancunian
7
Q
What are the origins of the Scouse dialect?
A
- Liverpool
- Position as a port is influential factor.
- Influenced by arrival of migrant workers from Ireland
- A mix of many dialects.
8
Q
What are the origins of the Geordie dialect?
A
- North East
- settlement of Anglo-Saxons in North East approx 1500 years ago.
- evolved into several dialects including Geordie.
9
Q
What are the origins of the Mancunian accent?
A
- Manchester
- Similar to Scouse -> influx of migrant workers.
- Most prevalent when Manchester became a port during industrial revolution.
10
Q
Explain how geography plays a role in regional variation
A
- Despite areas being close, some have different dialects, e.g. Newcastle and Sunderland only 10 miles.
- Areas in Liverpool: St Helens, Southport, have distinctive dialect.
- Specific dialect could link to to ID + sense of pride.
- E.g. Facebook communities of specific areas of UK, ppl don’t want to be incorrectly ‘labelled’.
11
Q
What are the different lexis for ‘bread roll’ in different parts of UK?
A
- North East: bread bun, stottie
- Yorkshire: bread cake, scuffles
- North West: barm cakes, bottoms
12
Q
Explain the cockney dialect
A
- Slang words: replace word with rhyming word or expression, E.g. ‘Joanna’ meant ‘piano’ as it rhymes with pronunciation ‘pianner’, London pronnunciation.
- London Olympics: ATM machine gives English or Cockney options:
- Fast sausage and mash = cash
- horn of plenty = 20
13
Q
What are idiomatic phrases?
A
- phrase with meaning that is different from definition of each word.
- Cockney: ‘porkie pies’, some Cockney phrases used outside geographical area.
- ‘he’s part of the furniture’.
14
Q
What is social mobility?
A
- A phrase describing a person’s move from 1 social class to another.
- Changing jobs, getting married or change in financial situation.
15
Q
What is MLE?
A
- West Indian, South Asian, Cockney and Estruary roots, prevalent in East London, people with few opportunities.
- Paul Kerswill: it is youth slang, but also has core users and to them it is part of ID and inherent dialect -> does not have slang.
- Slang Afro-American or Jamaican in origin -> picked up at young age -> esp schools where 50% pupils’ English is a 2nd language.
16
Q
Explain Gary Ives study on Bradford Asian English and South London English (code switching)
A
- Studied growing use of code switching dialect in which speakers alternate 1st and 2nd langs.
- E.g. English and Punjabi.
- Conducted study in S London and Bradford.
- Bradford: 95% students from Pakistani background.
- South London: Range of ethnic, religious and cultural backgrounds, highest proportion of students from Anglo-Caribbean background.
17
Q
What were the findings of Gary Ives’ study on Bradford Asian English?
A
- 10 boys interviewed about lang use: ‘it’s the way we’re born’, ‘it’s where we live’.
- When pushed regarding comments, actually a conscious choice:
- ‘we use different lang so they don’t know’.
- ‘with friends we add Punjabi’.
- slang words ‘lot to do with music (rap)’ ID among peers -> ‘sick, shotta, bare’.
- All used lang to create social ID -> exclude others from social group.
18
Q
What were the findings of Gary Ive’s study on language of students in London?
A
- Used words which ‘set them apart’, e.g. ‘bare, calm, Bredrin (good friend), neek’.
- Lexis originate from other countries, subjects came from Jamaican/Afro-Caribbean background.
- Lang use not about ethnicity, but location -> white teens used lexis from Jamaican or Afro Carribean origin.
- Lang to do with ID rather than ethnicity -> teens want to be immersed in particular aspects of culture.
19
Q
What were the key points of the ‘13 year old boy’ article on MLE? (The Independent)
A
- ‘you hear the cool kids’ using new dialect, ethnicity not a major factor.
- Sue Fox, young people ‘exposed to mixture of 2nd-lang English’.
20
Q
What are grammatical variations in dialect (examples)?
A
- utterances may have non-standard Eng wording -> e.g. North and Midlands, replacement of ‘was’ and ‘were’ commonplace.
-> use past tense of verb ‘to be’ in grammar constructions.
-> ‘I were, you were, she were, it were.’ - Similarly in S East England they use unmarked version but instead use singular for ‘to be’ (‘I was, you was, they was’).
- Use of suffix ‘-ing’ or ‘ed’ after aux verbs ‘need’ or ‘want’ -> Scotland = ‘I want it cleaned’, ‘it needs cleaned’.
- ‘I like them shoes’ -> use of ‘them’ in place of ‘those’ -> survey by Jenny Cheshire, use of ‘them’ as a demonstrative reported by 97.7% schools.
21
Q
Explain the features of RP as a phonological variation (accent)
A
- not regionally specific, reveals lots about person’s social background.
- Sometimes called ‘BBC English’, now misleading term -> Director of BBC (Mark Thompson) called for more regional accents as part of drive to end dominance of RP.
-> some disagree with decision, prefer RP in some contexts, inference from comments is speaking with accent makes speaker less credible. - Used with standard Eng, avoiding slang/mixing dialect -> precise tones, seen as cold.
22
Q
What are some examples of RP speakers?
A
- Prince Charles, Jeremy Paxman, Boris Johnson, Joanna Lumley.
- Prince William + Harry (more modern accents).
23
Q
Describe the evolution of RP
A
- Traditional RP: long vowels and diphthongs.
-> E.g. ‘poor-er’ -> ‘poor’.
-> ‘he-ere’ -> ‘here’ - Modern = flatter
24
Q
Give some examples of phoneme variations (Northumberland, Bradford, Liverpool)
A
- words like ‘city’, final sound is pronounced as /I:/.
- ‘dance’ and ‘bath’, vowel sounds is ‘/ae/‘.
- no distinction between pairs of words like ‘put’ and ‘putt’.
-> both are pronounced as /pUt/.
25
Q
What is dialect levelling?
A
- Process by which language forms of different parts of a country converge and become similar over time -> loss of regional features and reduced diversity of language.
26
Q
What is Leslie Miroy’s argument on the possible causes of dialect levelling?
A
- Argues increased geographical mobility leads to large-scale disruption of close-knit networks that maintain socially constructed linguistic norms.
27
Q
What is Paul Kerswill’s argument to the causes of dialect levelling?
A
- due to ‘mobility, meritocracy (influence of social class with merit / well educated) and dialect levelling.’
-> 1831 -> 34% of population lived in cities.
-> 1991 -> 90% of population lived in cities. - Also argues ‘increased interaction with other speech varieties’.
- Movement of people to greater dialect contact -> led to radical changes in people’s social networks -> meeting people from different walks of life/background.
-> results in standardised dialect -> however some regional forms ‘surviving’.
-> multiple negation
-> use of ‘ain’t’
-> use of ‘never’ as a negative marker.
28
Q
What are ‘survivors’ / surviving forms of regional dialects? (Causes of dialect levelling)
A
- Kerswill: ‘survivors not common to one particular area, are characteristic features of range of dialects.
-> this is a form of standardisation - Standard Eng variants spreading across the country. - Paul Foulkes + Gerrard Doherty, ‘Urban Voices’ -> replacement of ‘th’ with ‘f’ or ‘v’.
-> spread from: London -> S East (Reading, Essex) -> Central Eng (Midlands, S Yorkshire) -> North Eng.
-> Same causes as dialect levelling -> geographical / social mobility.
29
Q
What is Peter Trudgill’s take on attitudes to dialect?
A
- there are ‘sweeping generalisations’, on ‘sound of someone’s voice’.
- RP speakers perceived as unfriendly by non-RP speakers, e.g. Jacob Rees-Moggs + Boris Johnson.
- Children with working class accents/dialects seen by some teachers as having less educational potential then middle class accents.
30
Q
State some opinions on UK accents
A
- Polls in papers to find sexiest accent -> Sun awarded title to Geordie accent.
- Daily Mail reported flyers find cabin crew from Liverpool to have friendliest accents.
- Daily Telegraph, public found London accent pilots to be least reassuring.
-> Some paper business execs admit if you have working-class Essex accent, they may doubt about hiring you.
31
Q
State the findings of the BBC survey on attitudes on accents
A
