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English - Lang Change and Diversity > Regional Variation > Flashcards

Regional Variation Flashcards

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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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6
Q

List some dialects in the UK

A
  • Scouse
  • Geordie
  • Mancunian
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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’.
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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
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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
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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’.
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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.
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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.
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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

English - Lang Change and Diversity (11 decks)

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