World Englishes/Accent And Dialect Theorists Flashcards
David Crystal
(Numbers may be outdated, but the theory is still relevant)
- there are around 400 million L1 speakers
- there are around 400 million L2 speakers
- there are around 600-700 million ELF speakers
First Diaspora
- 17th century
- First English settlements in America
- 1770 – Australia ‘discovered’ (became a penal colony), by 1800s British settlements began
- 1790 – English settlers move to New Zealand
- English became an L1
Second Diaspora
- Late 15th century in West Africa (during slave trade period)
- 1600s (South Asia, including India and Pakistan)
- Late 18th century in South Africa and South East Asia
- English became an L2
Streven’s World Map of English
- One of the first attempts to model the spread of English around the world.
- It illustrates the dominance of English and the separation of British English and American English
- Explores how the world has been affected by these Englishes
Kachru’s Circles Theory
Inner Circle: native language (USA and UK)
Outer Circle: 2nd language (India and Singapore)
Expanding Circle: ELF (China and Russia)
McArthur’s Circle of World Englishes
- Shows examples of different Englishes and dialects
- Doesn’t show how they’re linked or their history
Modiano’s Model
- English as an International Language
- positions EIL in the centre with other Englishes positioned as equals around it
Schneider’s Dynamic Model- How Englishes Have Evolved
Foundation: English is brought to a new territory, leading to an emerging bilingualism
Exonormative stabilisation: An elite bilingualism spreads, led by the politically dominant country
Nativisation: Bilingual speakers forge a new variety of English as ties with settlers’
country of origin weaken
Endonormative Stabilisation: After independence and inspired by the need for ‘nation-building’ a new linguistic norm is established and codified
Differentiation: This may follow, with international social group identities gaining importance and thus reflected in the growth of dialectal difference.
‘Inner Circle’ Variety- American English
Words: fall, trash, faucet (from Middle English), diaper (from French)
Theory:
-Noah Webster’s 1806 spelling reform (-ize not -ise, -or not -our, -er not -re)
-Jamestown in 1607
‘Outer Circle’ Variety- Jamaican English
- origins in the slave trade
- pidgin language became a creole
Features:
-no auxiliary verb ‘to be’
- passive constructions avoided (de grass cut)
- nouns tend to not have a plural form
- pronouns have alternate forms (I = mi, a You = yu, unu)
- th stopping, h dropping, consonant cluster reduction (respect/respeck)
Joanna Thornborrow
-“one of the most fundamental ways we have of establishing our identity, and shaping other people’s views of who we are, is through our use of language”
William Labov- Vineyard and Department Store studies
1:
-at Martha’s Vineyard
- pronunciation of diphthongs [aw] and [ay]
- a group of fishermen/up islanders pronounced the vowels differently to establish their identity and distance themselves from tourists
2:
-studied how the final or preconsonantal [r] was sounded in different words (guard, beer, bare)
- sound is associated with prestige
- compared Saks (used it most), Macy’s (greatest upward shift when asked to repeat) and Klein’s (used it least)
Paul Kerswill
- discusses MLE
- has West Indian, South Asian, Cockney, Estuary and Jamaican roots
- dialect is picked up at a young age by people with “low opportunities”
- an exclusionary strategy
Gary Ives
School A: Bradford (95% of students have Pakistani backgrounds)
- dialect is a conscious choice and code switching is frequently used
- “we mix Punjabi and English”
School B: South London (range of different ethnic backgrounds)
- use MLE terms like ‘bredrin’ and ‘bruv’ to “set them apart”
- dialects aren’t based on your ethnic origins/where you’re from, but based on where you live now
Leslie Milroy, and Paul Kerswill’s support
-geographical mobility “leads to the large-scale disruption of close knit, localised networks”, or dialect levelling
Kerswill:
-‘Mobility, meritocracy and dialect levelling: the fading (and phasing) out of Received Pronunciation’
- 1831 (34% of brits lived in cities) vs 1991 (90% of brits lived in cities)
- greater dialect contact results in standardisation and popularisation of features eg multiple negation
Paul Foulkes and Gerard Docherty
- replacement of ‘th’ with ‘f’ or ‘v’ has spread from its origins in London
- geographical and social mobility is also the reason why non standard forms are spreading across the country
Peter Trudgill
- views on RP: “guilty until proven innocent”
- views on regional dialects: “having less educational potential
- in all social classes, those speaking more carefully will use forms such as ‘running’ (with velar nasal). Women are more likely to exaggerate how often they use that instead of ‘runnin’
Howard Giles
1:
-matched guise approach
- RP vs Birmingham accent
- teenagers rated the RP speaker higher in terms of competence and intelligence
2:
-we adjust our speech to accommodate other people (convergence)
-we emphasise our own dialects to establish identity (divergence)
Dixon, Mahoney and Cocks
- matched guise approach
- standard English vs Birmingham
- Birmingham accent more likely to be seen as guilty
Neuliep and Speten-Hansen
- matched guise approach
- researched ethnocentrism
- ‘ethnocentric’ people have lower ratings to the non native speaker
Seligman, Tucker and Lambert
-teachers perceptions of students are heavily influenced by their speech
Choy and Dodd
-teachers make judgments on a student’s ability and personality based on their speech
Paul Coggle
- people are stereotyped by their accents
- “the stereotypes are the loving reminders of Britain’s continuing class system”
Jane-Stuart Smith
- explored why Glaswegian had more ‘English’ features such as TH fronting
- argued that it has been influenced by media such as Eastenders
Milroy
- took part in different communities as ‘a friend of a friend’
- tight knit social networks were more likely to use vernacular or non standard forms
Bernstein
- restricted and elaborated code:
- elaborated: syntax more formally correct (more subordinate clauses), more logical connectives (if, unless), less clichés, reference is more explicit, conveys facts and abstract ideas instead of attitude and feelings
- middle class children use elaborated code more and in appropriate contexts, working class children still use it but tend to use restricted code more
