Accent and Dialect

• matched guise 


  an experiment where one speaker speaks in a range of different accents in order for people to pass judgement about an accent
• shibboleth 


  a collection of features based on how language is used in a place
• G-dropping 


  the /g/ sound is dropped
• H-dropping


  the /h/ sound is dropped
• Yod-coalescence 


  the pronunciation of the /j/ sound in Tuesday
• Brummies


  speakers with a Birmingham accent
• Cockney 


  speakers with a london east accent
• glottal stop 


  the missing out of the /t/ sound in words
• Th- fronting 


  pronouncing the 'th' at the start of words as /f/ e.g. fing instead of thing
• Rhotic accent 


  prnounce the /r/ after vowels e.g car
• Received Pronunciation (RP)


  an accent which is typically described as posh

  used on the BBC and is associated with the Queen

  seen as correct english
• non regional 


  an alternative name for RP accent
• Slang


  language that is used in informal contexts and widley recognised
• standard English 


  a language system that acts as an agreed common language especially for formal uses (normally writing system)
• Prescriptivist 


  believe language should be prescribed, standardised and monitored and desire correct and incorrect ways of speaking
• Descriptivist 


  believe language should provide us with an identity and should represent who we are. we are all different and therefore language should be unique and different
• accent 


  refers to how you say something - this will vary dependent on where you live
• Dialect 


  refers to the words you use for something (mardy)
• covert prestige


  accent status gained from peer group recognition, rather than public widespread acknowledgement

  • this means your accent sharing peer group and social group provide your accent with prestigious
• overt prestige 


  accent status which is publicly acknowledged

  • this is demonstrated through use of accents with broadcasting, radio, television
• Giles 


  matched guise experiment found that RP speakers were judged as being

  • intelligent
  • Trustworthy
  • unfriendly
  • unsociable
• Kerswill


  Through a process called dialect levelling accents and dialects are becoming more and more similar
• Mugglestone 


  the number of RP speakers are decreasing
• Harrington 


  Over the last 50 years the Queen's speeches have been diverging from RP speak
• Giles and Powesland 


  Psychology lecturer experiment

  • the same lecturer delivered two lectures on in RP accent and the other in Brummie.
  • they found that the Brummie accent was rated less intelligent and was rated less favourable overall
• Montgomery 


  RP accent is used in TV adverts for serious and technical descriptions. Regional accents are used in food adverts
• Trudghill


  archaic forms are still used in Yorkshire thee and thou
• Mahoney et al 


  Guilt experiment

  • students were played recordings of fake police interviews with different accents
  • Brummie was more likely to be judged as guilty
• Giles


  Capital punishment study

  • 5 groups were given information about capital punishment in 5 different ways
  • the RP speaer and the written presentation were the most impressive
  • Brummie was the least impressive
  • The RP speaker and written presentation were the most likely to change peoples minds
• coggle


  Estuary english is the bridge between Cockney and RP
• Dent


  accents are like spoken birthmarks
• Labov - New York stores study

  • looking at the presence of a postvocalic rhotic /r/
  • its is seen as prestigious to pronounce
  • then compared the speech of sales assistants in 3 different stores of different classes

  Results:

  • Kleins (working class) used it the least
  • Macy's ( middle class) was not overly used when asked at first but used more when asked to repeat (convergence)
  • there language changes to suit the establishment
  • Saks (upper class) used it the most
• Petyt's bradford study

  • people moved up social class if they changed there language = more RP = higher up
  • dropping h = yorkshire accent
  • h dropping increases as you move down social class
  • as you go up the social class = h dropping decreases
  • link to social identity