Discourses around Accent and Dialect

Gala Bingo Study (2021)

favourite accent:

15%- scottish, associated with trust

12%-newcastle

3%- East Midlands

5%- scouse

RP-6%, but most intelligent

Bath Spa University Study

picture of same female model presented with a different accent, ratings of attractiveness and intelligence recorded

-attractiveness maintained across accents

-intelligence:

• yorkshire: 6.7/10

• RP: 6.67/10

• silence: 5.99/10

• Birmingham: 5.6/10

Giles-1970s

used matched guise technology where the same actor spoke to different groups with different accents

RP associated with self confidenc and intelligence but also coldness

Northern considered warm, honest and reliable

Dixon, Mahoney and Cocks (2002)

suspect more likely to be considered guilty when they had a Birmingham accent/non RP.

Giles’ Accomodation Theory

altering speech to fit the situation

-convergence: toward the norm

-divergence: away from norm

George Osborn and his ‘mockney accent’.

used a ‘mockney’ accent when speaking to people of a lower class

positive discrimination: aiming to attract a certain type of person

Giles: Language Attitudes in England (1969)

-gave accent names and asked people to rate on pleasantness and prestige

-from 1969-2004/2019: attitudes levelled slightly but general heirarchy maintained

foreign accents increased slightly in favour

Labov’s Department Store Study (1962)

-pronunciation of rhotic /r/, a sign of high prestige in NY

-3 dept. stores of middle, lower and upper class, employees asked to say ‘fourth floor’

the rhotic /r/ was most common in the high end store and the least in the lower

Trudgill

lower class people in Norwhich more likely to use nonstandard form of ‘ing’ at the end of ‘running’

Watson: Levelling

-differences in dialects slowly disappear, such as in estuary english

-however, it appears local scouse forms increasing in strength as opposed to features of many others

Milroy: geographic mobility

disrupts tight knit communities with strong accents

Kerswill

social mobility increases the breakdown of working class communities when accents are stronger

Manchester Voices

recorded 130 speaking who had lived in Manchester at some point

-lots of small differences in a small area

Multi Cultural London English

-th stopping

-slang and colliquial terms

emerged in London due to high levels of immigration and diverse population

Jenny Cheshire (1982) Reading Teenagers

studied 11 nonstandard english forms in schools

rebellious groups more likely to use the NS forms

attitude causes dialect, not class

Eckert: Jocks and Burnouts

-language differences more closely related to communities of practice rather than specific social differences

social categories influence linguistic choices

• jocks played active part in school life

• burnouts: working class, didn’t involve themselves in school activities

regardless of background, more likely to speak like someone who had an interest/activity in common than someone who didn’t.

Eden Valley Girls: Moore

-4 different groups of girls: townies, geeks, populars, Eden Valley

all used different variations of ‘were’

• populars: rebellious, anti school attitude

  • no favouring/disfavouring of ns ‘were’, ¾ had no use of it at all

• townies: riskier activities like drugs and sex

  • favoured non standard

• geeks: school oriented

  • disfavoured NS were

• eden valley: higher class, school oriented

  • standard almost all the time

Labov: Martha’s Vineyard (1961)

younger residents reverted to older (closed mouth ways) of pronouncing some vowels

-sound and boat= ‘seund’ and ‘beut’

-heaviest users were young men in fishing

-this was how they differentiated themselves linguistically from summer tourists

Gary Ives’ Bradford Study

8 teenage boys asked why they thought they spoke a certain way

• ‘it’s the way we’re born’

• ‘it’s where we live’

upon further questioning it was discovered that this wasn’t natural

• ‘we mix punjabi and English’

• ‘it’s all about our area’

‘postcode dialect’

• using dialect to exclude outsiders, deliberately diverging from local norms

South London

Afro Caribbean words are used by teenagers from all backgrounds to create a group identity

influenced by those around them, not geographical origins.

Ben Rampton: Crossing

-young people living in mutli cultural areas

-white teenagers used features from other accents/dialects

-implies breaking of social barriers

-creating ‘neotribes’.

Kate Becker (2014)

we prioritise ethnicity when describing linguistic differences between groups, ignoring other variables that may affect their use of language

• ‘African American English’: not all African Americans use AAE and not everyone who uses AAE is AA.

Rob Drummond: Multi Cultural british English

idea of overarching variety of English that is related to/has emerged from MLE

widespread especially in youth culture

Sharma: Southall study

studied three groups of punjabis living in Southall

1. came over from India as adults (first generation immigrants)

2. born here but when punjabis not a majority in southall

3. born here but when punjabis a minority.

british born groups used glottal stop /t/, non british did not

all groups used retroflex /t/

british groups retained this heritage because they had two linguistic identities due to working family firms and retaining connections to India.