Accent+ dialect

• Petyt (1985)

  • Conducted research into "h-dropping" in Bradford
  • Found that the higher the social class, the less likely that the local accent would be used
  • Upper-middle-class "h-dropped" 12% of the time, lower working-class 93%
• Labov department stores

  • The socially-highest store (Saks) used the rhotic "r" the most
  • Also found an increase of the rhotic "r" in careful speech (when interviewees were asked to repeat their pronunciation)
• Labov- Martha's Vineyard

  • Residents of Martha's Vineyard would strengthen their accents to separate themselves from tourists
  • this is an example of covert prestige
• Code switching

  • switching between accents readily during social interactions
• Overt and covert prestige

  • men are more likely to use covert prestige and women overt- Labov
• convergence and divergence

  • moving your accent to match that of who you're talking to
  • Howard Giles accommodation theory
• Giles- matched guise

  • RP is seen as educated but less friendly
  • regional accents are seen as less intelligent but more friendly
• Gary Ives- Bradford

  • Boys in a school in Bradford used code-switching between English and Punjabi
  • They mainly used Punjabi when needing a secret language
• Watt et al- sounds of the future

  • 'th' to 'f'
  • yod dropping will increase
  • all for simplicity and ease
• Les Parrot- psychology professor

  • wearing the right clothing and speaking the right way is important in expressing affiliation with specific groups
• Coupland (1984)

  • Convergence was used by a woman working in a travel agency
  • convergence - Howard Giles accommodation
  • Could link occupational language with accent+dialect