English Language - Language Diversity

Accent

Phonological and pronounication

Dialect

Lexical and grammatical

Distribution

Where a feature of language is used, within the language inventory of an individual or group

Inventory

A list of items e.g. in phonology a list of sounds used in an accent

Rhotic

The hard pronounication of the ‘r’ sound (e.g. car)

Received Pronounication

What is seen as the ‘standard’ or ‘proper’ accent

Glottal Stop

The omission of the ‘t’ sound e.g, wa’er, bu’er

‘h’ dropping

e.g. -appy instead of happy

Post-vocalic ‘r’

When the ‘r’ sound is produced in a word when it a occurs in the spelling of a word after the vowel e.g. work

Convergence

To lower or higher your language (accent + dialect) to show that you and the other person are equals and that you respect them

(The opposite, doing it to show difference, is divergence)

Overt prestige

Everyone/Society thinks it is prestigious

Covert prestige

Only a certain group of people think it's prestigious (solidarity and group loyalty)

Dialect levelling

A form of standardisation where local variation of speech lose their distinctic features in favour of a mainstream dialect

Trudgill (2000)

-RP speakers at perceived as haunghty and unfriendly by non-RP speakers

-some teachers evaluate children with working class accents and dialects as having less educational potential

Howard Giles (1970)

-Tested responses to different accents using 3 main parameters:

-Status (how important speaker was perceived to be)

-Personality (what traits of character came across)

-Persuasiveness (how persuasive the person seemed)

Results:

RP - Self confident, intelligent, ambitious, cold, ruthless

Northern - Honest, reliable, generous, sincere, warm, humourous

Match Guise

An experimental technique where a single actor puts on different accents for different audiences but the content is the same (criticism: whether or not the accents are convincing)

Cockney rhyming slang

Examples:

-Pork-pies = lies

-Donkey’s ears = years

-Scooby Doo = clue

Believed to have originated in the mid 19th century in the East End of London and that it might have been a cryptolect at first

Not used commonly anymore due to dialect levelling

Standardisation

A process where language shifts towards a "standard” commonly accepted variety

Milroy (2002)

Increaded geographical mobility leads to the “large-scale disruption of close-knit, localised networks that have historically maintained highly systematic and complex sets of socially structured linguistic norms”

Kersmill (2001)

Reduction in rural employment and construction of suburbs causes social mobility and “the consequent breakdown of tight-knit working class communities”

Stats:

1831 - 34% of people live in cities (in England)

1992 - 90% of people live in cities (in England

Descriptivism

Objectively analyzing and describing how language is actually used (or how it was used in the past)

John Honey

Prescriptivist who wanted only Standard English

David Crystal

Descriptivist

Estuary English - David Rosewatne, 1984

‘A variety of modified regional speech […] a mixture of non-regional and local southern English pronunciation and intonation (Estuary English is perceived to be in the middle of RP and London/Cockney accents)

Features of EE - Pronounication

-Glottal stop

-L vocalisation (focus on L e.g. milk said as “mlk”)

-TH fronting e.g. “fink” instead of think

Features of EE - Grammar

-'Confrontational' question tag e.g. “didn't I?” and “innit?”

-Certain negative forms e.g. “never” refering to a single occasion (I never did)

-The omission of the -ly adverbial ending (e.g. you’re turning too slow)

Basil Bernstein - Codes (1971)

-felt that working class people had a ‘restricted code’, which meant that they weren't able/less likely to change your language/register

-felt that middle class people had a ‘elaborated code’ could change their register as they have more access to talking to others more and are more educated

Code-switching

Changing your register

Gary Ives (2014) - Summary

Commissioned two case studies to be carried out in London and Bradford

In each study the participants were questioned and subsequently discussed their language use (more specifically their dialect)

Bradford = 95% Pakistan Students

Gary Ives (2014) - Bradford Answers

“We mix Punjabi and English”

“It's all about our area”

“We might speak English to mum and dad but to our friends we add in Punjabi”

-The students also distinguished themselves from those they termed “freshies” (those born in Pakistan and then move to England)

-Students identified themselves as ‘British Asian”

-Also offered a distinction in their language use based on postcode (their language = BD8)