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Regional accents and dialects - Coggle Diagram
Regional accents and dialects
UK accent features
Cockney - East London
Glottal stop (T)
eg /bʌʔə/, /wɔːʔə/
Th-fronting: th sounds /θ/, and /ð/ are replaced with /f/ and /v/
eg /fɪŋk/
H-dropping
eg /ɑʊs/ for house
L-vocalisation: l sounds at the end of words or before a consonant are pronounced as a vowel sound
eg /mɪʊ̯k/ for milk
Diphthong changes: distinguishes pronunciations of certisn diphthongs (vowel glides)
eg /mæʊθ/ for mouth
Liverpool - Scouse
Dentalised plosives: /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/, sounds pronounced with tongue touching back of front teeth
eg ticket (dental /t/)
Fricative /t/: the /t/ sound can become a fricative /s/ or /ʃ/, particularly after a vowel
eg 'get it' can sound like 'geh-sit'
Rhoticity (variable): younger speakers show some rhoticity in speech
Vowel sounds eg distinct pronunciations of the 'square vowel' as in 'hair' /ɛː/
Word stress: different word stress patterns than RP
Rising intonation: often used even in statements, giving it a melodic feel
Birmingham - Brummie
Goat vowel: words like goat, and home have distinguished pronunciation starting in the back of the mouth. /əʊ/ or /ɒʊ/
Mouth vowel: vowel in mouth, or out can be monophthong (single vowel sound) /aʊ/
Rhoticity (historically) Historically a rhotic accent, but now predominantly not. still used n older speakers/specific dialect words
STRUT vowel: vowel in strut or cup can be pronounced further forward and higher than RP, closer to /ʊ/
Intonation: Falling intonation at the end of sentences, sometimes perceived as flat.
West Country - South West England
Rhoticity (most defining feature)
Voicing of fricatives: /f/, /s/, /θ/, pronounced as /v/, /z/, /ð/
eg farm /vɑːrm/
H-dropping (variable): less consistent than cockney
Vowel sounds: 'trap' and 'bath' vowels are usually merged to a long /ː/ sound
Intonation: slower paced and distinctive melodic contours
Yorkshire - Northern England
Northern short /a/: absence of 'trap-bath' split, both words are pronounced with a short vowel /a/
eg /bæθ/
FOOT-STRUT split is absent: many speakers use /ʊ/ vowel as I foot for words the use the /ʌ/ vowel as in strut
eg cut /kʊt/
H-dropping (variable): especially in informal speech
eg hungry /ʊŋgri/
Giles'
accomodation theory
Key terms
Accommodation
- the process of adapting goes speech to make it more/less similar to that of the other participants in a conversation
Convergence
- when a persons speech becomes more like the other persons in a conversation
Divergence
- when a persons speech becomes more individualised and less like the other conversation participant
Upwards
- movement to standard forms
Downwards - movement away from standard forms
RP
- received pronunciation
SE
- standard English, universally accepted dialect of English
According to Giles, when speaking to another person we adapt our speech to accommodate them, usually subconsciously. Divergence can be used to create social distance and exclude people.
Matched guise experiments-
Carried out to discover peoples attitudes to different accents
Giles' test- RP more status than Somerset, northern accents. RP was perceived as more intelligent, ambitious, self confident, etc, and lower on humour and talkativeness.
RP accent
Origins
15th century London in court and administrative class
Public schools eg Eton, and older unis eg Oxbridge helped standardise and teach accent ensuring spread of it regardless of home region
"Received" status: RP term was popularised in 19th century using 'recieved' to mean well accepted by society
Broadcasting: in 20th century BBC used Rp as required accent for newsreaders and announcers, cementing status as the accent of authority and neutrality
Phonological features
Non rhoticity
eg /kɑː / car
TRAP - BATH split distinguishes short (/æ/ and long (/ɑː/) vowel sounds
H-retention
-Glottal stop absence
Lack of th-fronting
Clear /ʟ/ in all positions
Contemporary status - RP is used by a very small percentage of the population. A more modern less formal variant called Estuary English (mix of RP and South-Eastern non standard features) and Standard Southern British English (SSBE) are being used more as the non regional standard in media and education
Standard English dialect
Origins
Selection of chancery standard in 15th century
Introduction of the printing press 1470s where William Caxton chose chancery standard to print with
Codification in 18th century in dictionaries that attempted to 'fix' the language by making rules
Institutionalisation an education 19th century taught the standard and made non standard dialects stigmatised
Non standard dialects are often compared to SE primarily in grammar and vocabulary. this is historically used to show that non standard dialects are in deficit and are inferior, and frames non standard forms as errors (eg multiple negation). and deviation from the lexicon (eg regional words)
Modern research measurement is descriptive and comparative, focusing on the presence of features, rather than judging them as wrong.
variable rule application
-frequency and distribution : the frequency of use compared to the standard variant and then this is correlated with social factors
overt vs covert prestige
Modern research uses SE as a neutral reference point, whereas prescriptivists use it to condemn non standard dialects.
Grammatical and lexical variation -
Hughes et al
Non standard grammatical forms
Multiple negation
eg 'I didn't have no dinner'
Past tense of irregular verbs
eg regularisation of verbs
Present tense verb forms
eg north England use of -s on all forms: I likes it, we goes home
Relative pronouns regularised
eg reflexive pronoun 'hisself', 'theirselves'
Comparative's and superlatives
eg using both -er and addition of more in the same sentence: she's more rougher than he is
Demonstrative pronouns
eg Scottish dialects they can be use in the same place as them: look at they animals
Adverbs
eg non distinct adjective/adverb pairs: they done it very good
Unmarked plurals
eg a hundred pound
Prepositions of place
eg I walked down the shops = I walked to the shops
Couplands British sociolect features
These features are non standard, yet are found across different regional dialects. Coupland suggested these 7 features are so common that they should be considered British sociolect features as they are linked to socio economic background rather than regional origins. Couplands research is important as it showed language use is shaped by a mix of region, class, age, gender and style rather than the focus being purely based on region.
1 - Multiple negatives
2 - 'Never' as a past tense negative
3 - 'Them' as a demonstrative adjective
4 - Unmarked plural forms
5 - Adjectival forms used as adverbs
6 - Simplifying complex prepositional structures
7 - Regularising reflexive pronouns
Couplands research extended the focus onto context and style as factors in language use revealing use of code switching and accommodation, showing an understanding of dynamic social performance directed by social snd contextual factors.
Trudgill's dialectology research
Demonstrates that non standard forms of English are systematic and rule governed, providing evidence against the prescriptivism view that these forms are mistakes resulting from laziness or ignorance. His findings support a descriptivism view, showing all dialects are complex and equal.