Regional Accents and Dialects Flashcards
(17 cards)
Bath tap split
Southerners say b-aa-th
Northerners say b-ah-th
But words like ‘cat’ are said the same.
Post-vocalic r
RP doesn’t use it.
Regional accents do, making them ‘rhotic accents’.
ing vs in’
The dropping of the ‘g’ sound is characterised as sloppy speech but is actually is a substitution based on accent and background
‘h’ dropping
H is often dropped in regional accents e.g. cockney which is then criticized. But in words like ‘hour’ and ‘heir’ it is not criticized and even done by RP speakers.
Glottal stop
It’s not a sound itself but a lack of sound: the closing off of vocal cords to prevent sound coming out.
It is not lazy or sloppy as it takes a lot of energy to produce.
What is self reported usage?
It is when a person reports their views on their own usage of the language
Trudgill found what about self-reported usage?
Men tent over report their own usage while women tended to under report - suggesting a connection with gender identity
Regional grammar - prepositions
Where’s he to? (South- west) = Where is he? (SE)
While (York) = untill (SE)
Regional grammar- pronouns
Liverpool uses ‘yous’
Hisself = himself
Theirselves = themselves
Was Vs were
SE: was= singular, were = plural
Cockney: we was, I were
Regional grammar- verbs
Some dialects have an ‘s’ on all present tense verb endings (not just 3rd person) E.G. I gets out the car and I says…
Double negatives
Are used in both SE and regional dialects. they are stigmatised in regional dialects as ‘bad English’. Historically double negatives were in common use.
Estuary English definition
Rosswarne defined it in 1984 as modified regional speech and placed it along a Continuum between RP and cockney. Linguist view it as a term that covers a range of Southern English dialects.
Key features of Estuary English
Glottal stops
L vocalization
confrontational tag questions E.G. I said I would, didn’t I?
Estuary English
Estuary English speakers are aiming for ‘classless profile’ avoiding negative connotations of RP whilst avoiding the uneducated stereotype of the regional accent.
Watson’s study of Liverpool (2008)
Found that Liverpool appears to be a dialectal Island as it avoids the spread of estuary English.
Daniel Jones (1909)
Wrote an introduction to a book on the pronunciation of English, claiming it’s just for people trying to get rid of an undesirable pronunciation. In 1915 he revised the book, and changed it to the opinion of the reader on how they wish to speak
