Accent and Dialect Key Terms

What is an accent?

The way you pronounce words.

What is accentism?

Discriminatory or unfair behaviour targeted at someone due to their accent.

What is accommodation?

The way in which individuals adjust their speech patterns to match others’.

What is accommodation theory?

Developed by Howard Giles to explain how speakers adjust their language to create a positive or negative social distance with their audience.

What is code-switching?

The practice of alternating between two or more languages or varieties of language in the context of one conversation.

What is covert prestige?

When a positive value is assigned to a variety of language that is within a specific group.

What is a dialect?

The accent, lexis and grammar of a specific geographical area.

What is dialect levelling?

Where regional variations in language are reduced due to a range of factors such as widespread interaction and mobility, resulting in dialects becoming homogenous.

What is a diphthong?

A sound formed by the combination of two vowels in a single syllable, in which the sound begins as one vowel and moves towards another (e.g ‘coin’ and ‘loud’).

What is a familect?

A style of language used within a family.

What is a glottal stop?

A stop sound made by rapidly closing the vocal cords and opening them again (e.g ‘butter’ becomes ‘bu’er’).

What is g-stopping?

Where the final g in words such as ‘sipping’ is dropped (e.g ‘sippin’).

What is h-dropping?

Where the ‘h’ sound at the beginning of words is omitted.

What is an idiolect?

A speaker’s linguistic fingerprint, including their accent, pitch, word choice and style.

What is an isogloss?

A geographical boundary indicating where certain items of language are used (e.g dialects).

What is linguicism?

The unfair treatment of people based upon their use of language and the characteristics of their speech.

What is linguistic discrimination?

The unfair treatment of people based on their language use, including their first language, accent, dialect, or the perceived size of their vocabulary.

What is a monophthong?

A vowel sound pronounced as a single, unchanging sound, without any significant change in quality or length.

What are non-standard utterances?

An utterance spoken in non-standard English.

What is non-standard English?

The ‘informal version’ of English. It can change depending on where it is being spoken.

What is non-rhotic speech?

Where the letter ‘r’ is only pronounced in pre-vocalic positions.

What is overt prestige?

The prestige assigned to forms of language that are widely considered as “correct”.

What is phonetics?

The study and classification of speech sounds.

What is a phoneme?

The smallest and most basic unit of sound that distinguishes words from one another.

What is prestige?

The level of respect and status given to language varieties.

What is a prestige variety?

The variety of a language that is regarded as the most superior within a society. It is also known as the prestige dialect.

What is PRICE-monophthongisation?

Where the diphthong ‘my’ is pronounced as a single vowel sound.

What is Received Pronunciation?

The accent regarded as the standard and most prestigious form of spoken British English. It is not associated with a particular region, but was originally associated with educated people in Southern England.

What is rhotic speech?

Where the letter ‘r’ is pronounced in all positions in a word.

What is a sociolect?

The form of a language that people in a particular social group speak (i.e teenagers, the upper class, doctors etc.).

What is Standard English?

The form of the English language widely accepted as the usual ‘correct’ form.

What is th-fronting?

The pronunciation of "th" as "f" or "v".

What is th-stopping?

Where dental fricative sounds are replaced with alveolar or dental stops (e.g ‘tink’ instead of ‘think).

What is the vernacular?

The language or dialect spoken by the ordinary people in a particular country or region.