Accent and Dialect

• What did Labov find about accent and dialect in the Martha’s vineyard study?

  They investigated [au] and [ai] sounds by interviewing 69 people of different age and social group on the island, finding that fishermen produced the sounds more prominently to distinguish themselves from the tourists
• What did Ives find about accent and dialect?

  Children at a school in Bradford would code switch from speaking English to parents but Punjabi to friends and staff also code switch so it isn’t age related and even white pupils at a London school used MLE influenced by Afro-Carribbean culture, thus it is about a group identity not a cultural identity
• What did Kerswill find about accent and dialect?

  Young Londoners don’t use h omission anymore - language is more age related than ethnicity related as many words have originated in Jamaica Like ‘my ends’ even amongst white Londoners
• What did Milroy find about accent and dialect?

  Belfast - Those with a close-knit network use more non-standard forms than those with an open-network, with men using more non-standard forms than women, however this was reversed by the high unemployment retakes leading to men searching for work outside the community
• What did Giles find about accent and dialect?

  When given an oral presentation on capital punishment, participants found the Received Pronunciation speakers the most impressive and more intelligent but persuaded to change their opinions more by the Birmingham accent
• What did Trudgill find about accent and dialect?

  In Norwich, people in lower classes dropped the g in ing words more commonly, with women dropping it more than they thought and men dropping is less than they thought, both pronounced it more when focused on speech and men were less formal than women in all cases
• What did Cheshire and Edwards find about accent and dialect?

  In over 80% of UK schools there was unmarked plurality , demonstrative use of them/those, should ‘of’ and never as past negation for a single event
• What % of business people did the Azis cooperation find thought a strong regional accent was a disadvantage?

  79%
• What % of business people did the Azis cooperation find thought home countries accents were successful?

  77%
• What % of people did the Azis cooperation find thought Scottish was trustworthy?

  31%
• What % of people did the Azis cooperation find thought the Scouse accent was trustworthy?

  8%
• What did the Azis cooperation find people thought of Geordie?

  Warm and caring
• What did the Azis cooperation find people thought of Indian and Asian accents?

  Hardworking and reliable
• What % of gen Z and millennials communicate digitally more than in person?

  65%
• What did Choy and Dodd find about accent and dialect?

  Teachers had lower expectations of those with regional accents which can lead to a selffulfilling prophecy
• What did the bBC find about accent and dialect?

  78% of respondents enjoy hearing a variety of accents
• How did Wells try to preserve dialects?

  By producing a dictionary called ‘Longman pronounciation dictionary’ which considers local dialects
• What did Kerswill say about accent and dialect?

  Urbanisation (1831 = 34%, 1991 = 90%) increased social mobility and travel, breaking down many accents, but the present tense ‘s’ has survived in the south
• What did Drummond find about accent and dialect?

  Polish immigrants who wanted to stay in the UK adapted their language to the local accent, those who wanted to go back to Poland didn’t
• What did Blom and Gumperz find about accent and dialect?

  They researched a Norwegian village called Hemnesberget where the villagers used two dialects, one informal one called Ranamal (Rana is the district and mal means language) and one formal one called Bokmal (book-language), switching between unconsciously
• Three examples of British vs American words

  • Pavement vs sidewalk
  • Petrol vs gas
  • Rubber vs eraser
• Geordie


  Might could, cannae, disjacket
• In areas where English has been introduced more recently, such as Australia, regional variation is less common
• What is a splinter called in area A?

  Splinter

  
• What is a splinter called in area B?

  Shiver

  
• What is a splinter called in area C?

  Splint

  
• What is a splinter called in area D?


  Spell

  
• Though maps suggest varieties of languages are compartmentalised, areas near country borders often speak links on a dialect chain, e.g. Paris -> Nice -> Turin, thus language is more about identity than actual speech
• What type of accent is RP?

  Social accent, not regional accent
• What is an example of levelling?

  The accent triangle used to have RP at the very top but now is flat at the top, including accents like Estuary English
• What % of British citizens regularly use ‘standard English‘?

  15%
• What are vernacular dialects/langauges?

  Informal langauge used by a specific group of people
• What is prestige like with vernacular dialects and languages?


  They lack overt and covert prestige but are values within the group as a means of solidarity
• What is a caste dialect?

  A dialect associated with a specific social class or caste.