Accent and Dialect

• Accent


  A particular way of pronouncing language, usually relating to region or social class
• Dialect


  A variety of language that is distinguished by features of grammar and vocabulary
• Liverpool accent


  Scouse
• London accent


  Cockney
• Newcastle accent


  Geordie
• Birmingham accent


  Brummie
• Eye dialect


  A written way of representing an accent
• Prescriptivism 


  Stating what is good/bad language and what ways of using language are right/wrong
• Descriptivism


  Observing differences in language and grammar change without stating that it is right or wrong. Encouraging change and development
• Prestige 


  When something is well-respected or pf high status
• Received pronunciation (RP)


  considered to be the prestige accent
• Standard English 


  considered to be the prestige dialect
• Accommodation theory 


  Proposed by Howard Giles
• Accomodation


  Adjusting your way of speaking in a conversation according to the speech style of the other participant
• Convergence


  Moving your speech to be closer to that of those you identify with
• Divergence


  Moving your speech to be further from that of those you don’t identify with
• Reason for convergence


  To achieve greater social intergration
• Reason for divergence


  To assert or maintain one’s distinct identity
• Investigation of Labov’s New York Department Store study


  Investigating whether or not people pronounced the post-vocalic /r/ (post-vocalic means it’s immediately after a vowel)
• New York study findings

  Those in higher class stores pronounced the rhotic /r/ more than those in lower class stores
• Martha’s Vineyard study


  By William Labov
• Martha’s Vineyard study findings


  Fisherman on the island resented the tourists and had the strongest accents to distinguish themselves as Vineyarders
• Norwich study


  By Peter Trudgill
• Overt prestige 


  More standard language forms, associated with higher status and class
• Covert prestige


  Non-standard and vernacular language, associated with community and identity
• Norwich study

  Study into how social class and gender affect whether we use standard or non-standard forms of language
• Norwich study finding

  • People of lower classes were more likely to use non-standard forms
  • People of higher classes were more likely to use prestige language forms
  • Men were significantly more likely to use non-standard forms than women, regardless of class
• The effect of regional accent on the perception of intelligence and attractiveness

  By Lance Workman
• The effect of regional accent on the perception of intelligence and attractiveness

  • Four photos of women were presented to participants, each paired with a passage read in either a Brummie, Yorkshire, or RP accent, as well as a silent control condition.
  • Each participant was given four different face and voice pairings with the voices being randomly assigned to each face
  • Participants ranked the attractiveness and intelligence of each pairing on a scale from 1 to 10
• The effect of regional accent on the perception of intelligence and attractiveness - findings

  For both attractiveness and intelligence, the photos paired with a Yorkshire accent were rated the most highly, followed by RP, then the silent control, and finally Brummie
• Factors affecting accent and dialects

  • International migration
  • Lateral Mobility
  • Dialect levelling
  • Intra-nation migration
  • Identity
• Lateral mobility


  UK geographical mobility (lateral mobility) makes it easy for people to travel for work or social events and “exposes them to different dialects and encourages dialect levelling” (Kerswill)
• Dialect levelling


  The process of accents getting weaker
• International Migration


  Immigrants conform to the language of their peer group, so their way of speaking becomes more levelled
• Intra-national migration


  People adopt language features for the area they live in, even if it’s not the area they were originally from
• Identity


  Some people emphasis their own dialect when having a conversation with someone of a different dialect (suggests Millroy)

  Growing class awareness among teenagers and a growing perception of ‘posh’ as negative, which influences people’s receptiveness to RP and standard English (suggests Kerswill)
• What percentage of people speak RP?

  Around 2%
• Estuary English


  A mixture of southern English accents, including cockney and RP