Accent and Dialect- Dialect levelling

Question 1

Dialect levelling

Answer 1

The process by which distinct regional or social dialects of a language become more similar or converge over time

Question 2

Kerswill (2001)

Answer 2

Highlights the impact of urbanisation and migration on local dialects, causing dialect levelling.
Suggested that some features of dialects are surviving, like multiple negation and the use of ‘ain’t’.

Question 3

Neuliep and Speten-Hansen (2013)

Answer 3

Studied the relationship between ethnocentrism and perception of a non-native accent.
Graded participants’ ethnocentricity, then split into matched groups, one watched American speech, the other non-native speech, given by the same person.
Ethnocentrics gave lower scores on attractiveness, intellingence etc.

Question 4

Ethnocentrism

Answer 4

The belief that one’s own culture is the most important and is superior to others