standard English
dialect of English that is considered to have the most prestige
dialect
the lexical / grammatical features of a certain group
RP
- received pronunciation
- aka queen speech
- considered to have most prestige and exemplary for English language
accent
the way you pronounce certain words depending on your group
neologisms
creation of new words in dictionaries e.g. selfie
prescriptivist
- thinks rules of language must be followed / protected
- usually don’t want traditional rules of language to change
descriptivist
don’t perceive language change as bad, more open to change language
H dropping
evident in cockney accent
‘oliday, ‘appening
glottal stop
dropping ts in words
Estuary English
- recent accent variety
- using in south east England
- combined RP with aspects of regional southern accents
- more glottal than RP
- Ricky Gervais
dialect levelling
when the variation / diversity of dialects decline
Context of RP
- established mid 19th century
- emerged in private / boarding schools e.g. Oxford and Cambridge
- large middle-class basis
- more popular in 20th century with BBC
slang
- informal vocabulary
- neologisms
- semantic shift
- can be exclusive
- often reflects multiculturalism
John Honey
- 1977
- prescriptivist
- children should be taught Standard English in schools in order to have equal opportunities in their later life
Peter Trudgill Norwich Study
- 1974
- women were more likely to use overt prestige and me were more likely to use covert prestige
- found variation of speech styles parallels variation across social class
William Labov’s New York Study
- 1966
- concluded that individuals internalise class hierarchy and act it out - often unconsciously
Beryl Bainbridge
- 1999
- prescriptivist novelist
- believes all children should have elocution lessons to wipe out regional accents
- said that being taught to abandon her own Liverpool accent had helped her career
Lance Workman
- 2008
- to discover accent stereotypes
- Yorkshire accent = most intelligent + Birmingham accent = least intelligent
Howard Giles
- 1970
- After shown a presentation of arguments against the death penalty, students ranked RP accent the most convincing and Brummie the least
William Labov: Martha’s Vineyard study
Older islanders such as fisherman subconsciously maintained a dialect with vowel sounds being shifted backwards in an archaic manner
they were diverging from traditional American pronunciation and maintain their own
Worcester College Study
- 2002
- suggested that speakers with a Birmingham accent may be more likely to me presumed guilty when suspected of a criminal offence
John Pitts
Black speakers felt they were ignored and neglected from society, their own dialect began to emerge and to resist this, emerged MLE
Gary Ives
Interviewed Pakistani students who spoke different sociolects at home compared to school that outsiders didn’t understand. Potentially to diverge and rebel due to neglect from society.
Howard Giles Accommodation Theory
- 1973
- People change their speech, vocal patterns and gestures to accommodate others
- Divergence: aiming to be independent with lang
- Convergence: aiming to conform to lang standards of a certain group
