accent and dialect

Suzie Dent ‘Tribes’

• ‘our lingo is our identity.’

• ‘who we are or want to be and where we fit (or don’t fit) in society.’

Eckert and Moore

community of practice - group of people in a shared activity or practice whose language is shaped by the activities they are mutually engaged in.

Moore’s Eden Valley Girls study

• 12-15 year old girls living in Bolton.

• use of non-standard ‘was’ and standard ‘were’.

• populars:

  • anti-school attitude and taking part in rebellious activities.

  • mixed frequency, and those that used ‘was’ frequently were from higher social class - overt prestige?

• geeks:

  • participated actively in school activities.

  • tend to use standard form because cared about school’s expectations.

  • those using ‘was’ = from lowest social class.

• eden valley girls:

  • actively engaged in school life but had ‘trendy teen style’ and liked activities like shopping/dancing.

  • only used standard were as higher class and lived in village further away from school.

• townies:

  • anti-school attitude.

  • mixed frequency but used non-standard was more frequently.

  • all had at least one parent born in Bolton.

  • friends with lower-class boys where non-standard more common.

• found girls used grammar to reflect social values, not class, e.g. 'populars' used non-standard forms, 'geeks' used standard grammar

Rob Drummond Manchester University

• speech of adolescents in PRU.

• ‘th’ variable as ‘t’= ‘TH-stopping.’

• no link to ethnicity- used by those who listen to lots of rap/grime and identify with urban culture.

• links to community of practice because influenced by music/culture and attempting to present themselves as tough + part of group.

Gala Bingo Survey 2021

• investigated ‘which is your favourite UK accent?’

• favourite- Scottish- 15%, trustworthy- 14%.

• least favourite- East Midlands- 3%.

• most intelligent- RP- 35%, least- Essex- 2%.

Amol Rajan- how to crack the class ceiling

• interviewed Chris from Hull.

• strong associations with sounding ‘posh’ and seeming clever.

• watched YouTube videos on ‘how to speak clearly,' and ‘really pronounce stuff.’

• employers prefer RP or middle-class accents.

• working-class people often code-switch to fit professional settings.

Giles (1969)- matched guise

• actor speaking to people in different accents.

• same speaker judged differently based on accent.

• RP rated most positively, Brummie least.

• RP rated as most intelligent, regional accents viewed negatively.

• eliminates variable of who’s speaking, however relies on ‘faking’ accent so not fully reliable.

• shows accent impacts perception of a person.

Dixon, Mahoney and Cocks (2002)

• research using matched guise.

• suggests people are more likely to treat a criminal suspect as guilty if they spoke with a Birmingham accent than if they spoke with RP.

• demonstrates accent bias in criminal perception.

Bath Spa University (2008)

• given a picture of a female model and were played an accented voice.

• asked to judge model’s attractiveness and intelligence.

• no difference in judging attractiveness.

• highest to lowest intelligence rating- Yorkshire, RP, silence, Birmingham.

George Osbourne

• comes from high class background and childhood- has RP accent.

• when talking to Morrisons’ workers in political campaign, changed accent to Mockney/Estuary English.

• shows how politicians style-shift for relatability and supports overt and covert prestige.

Labov’s overt and covert prestige

• overt prestige- converging to formal, standard language, e.g. RP, Standard English.

• covert prestige- converging to non-standard or local language (e.g., regional accents/dialects).