Wrong

Question 1

Rosewarne on why people speak EE

Answer 1

It obscures sociolinguistic origins 
The motivation, often unconsciously of those who are rising and falling socio-economically is to fit into their new environments by compromising but it losing their original linguistic identity
Developments may be seen as a linguistic reflection of the changes in class barriers in Britain

Question 2

/r/ in Estuary English

Answer 2

Rosewarne noted the used of the voiced post alveolar approximant /r/
Can sound similar to general American /r/ but it does not have retroflection
In RP the tip of the tongue is held close to the rear part of the upper teeth ridge and the central part is lowered to make the /r-
In EE, the tip of the tongue is lowered and the central part raised to a position close to, but not touching, the soft palate. Not in RP or Cockney

Question 3

Coggle on EE

Answer 3

1993 book, ‘Do you speak Estuary English?’
“There are significant numbers of young people who see EE as modern, up-front, high on ‘street cred’ and ideal for image conscious trendsetters. Others regard it as projecting an approachable, informal and flexible image”

Question 4

Vowels of EE

Answer 4

Vowel qualities in EE are a compromise between unmodified regional forms and those of general RP
Vowels in the final position in EE, such as the /i:/ in ‘happy’, are longer than normally found in RP and may tend towards the quality of a diphthong
Due to the generally southern locations and the use of it in RP, the ‘a’ in ‘grass’ etc is likely to be the long /a:/

Question 5

Dialect levelling

Answer 5

Process that is a form of standardisation whereby local variations of speech lose their distinctive, regional features in favour of a more urban or mainstream dialect 
Claimed that all accents naturally evolve 
Dialect levelling is a much wider phenomenon and geographical movement stemming from changes in class structure

Question 6

Trudgill on dialect levelling

Answer 6

Dialect levelling explains the wide spread of EE and the use of it amongst different classes

Question 7

Kerswill on dialect levelling

Answer 7

Rosewarne was “misguided”
1994
Considered the changes he documented a result of dialect levelling and “just a standardised form of speech with South Eastern phonology”

Question 8

Wells on dialect levelling

Answer 8

The features of EE are spreading geographically and socially, meaning that people lose the localisability
Argued that EE is a “new name, but not a new phenomenon”

Question 9

Origins of MLE

Answer 9

Homegrown but cuts across ethnicity and race due to the multiple and varying influences
Jamaican e.g. “bare”, “blood”, “mandem” and “yout”
Australian e.g. “nang” and “dag”
Homegrown e.g. “my ends”

Question 10

Why people speak MLE

Answer 10

When asked, young Londoners said that cockney was spoken by older people and insisted “Hackney’s not really cockney”
Extremely fast moving, excludes non-speakers. Cool- “slang” to speakers
Low disposable income= relatively static communities, rooted in locality, close knit ties- links to Milroy’s social network studies, likely to be linguistically homogenous

Question 11

Kerswill on who speaks MLE

Answer 11

Kerswill said it was “no accident that teenagers should be early adopters of MLE” as “adolescence is the life stage at which people most willingly take on new visible or audible symbols of group identity/identification”

Question 12

Who speaks MLE

Answer 12

Those who use it most strongly are those of second or third generation immigrant background, followed by white boys of London origin and then while girls of London origin” 2006, ‘From the mouths of teens’
Groups of students from white Anglo-Saxon backgrounds, along with those of Arab, South American, Ghanaian and Portuguese descent, all spoke with the same dialect- same article
People are beginning to sound the same regardless of their colour or ethnic background, Sue fox from article

Question 13

Grammar of MLE

Answer 13

Use of non standard indefinite article e.g. ‘A hour’ instead of ‘an hour’
Noun “man” is used in place of pronoun. Like patterning of non-gender specific third person pronoun “one”?
Quotatives when describing speech e.g. “This is me”
Present tense us to describe a completed action e.g. “We drive all the way here”

Question 14

Kerswill on spread of MLE

Answer 14

“It is a real dialect rather than simply a mode of speech, and there’s already evidence that it’s spreading to other multicultural cities like Birmingham, Bristol and Manchester. It’s become more mainstream through force of numbers and continued migration, and because it’s considered cool”

Question 15

Spread of MLE and dialect levelling

Answer 15

“The rise of MLE is happening at a time Kerswill and his team are seeing a general trend across the UK towards dialect levelling”, November 2006 ‘from the mouths of teens’
“Researchers have found that while most traditional cockney speech patterns have followed traditional cockneys as they’ve migrated out to Essex and Kent”
100 languages in a single London borough, 300 spoken in London schools

Question 16

Sue Fox on MLE

Answer 16

Six year study at queen Mary university London about the dialect innovation that is MLE
“It is likely that young people have been growing up in London exposed to a mixture of second language English and varieties of English from other parts of the world, as well as local London English, and that this new variety has emerged from that mix”
Believe a “perfect storm” of circumstances has arisen to ensure the rapid dissemination of MLE: a nexus of immigration, population mobility and a wave of successful London garage stars”

Question 17

Giles & Sassoon

Answer 17

Consistent finding emerging from the language attitudes literature is that listeners evaluate anonymous, standard accents more favourably across status traits (intelligence, success, confidence) than their non-standard counterparts
Standard-non standard accent/dialectal usage may well pale in evaluative significance across a number of dimensions when a person’s socioeconomic standing is known- use accent to aid judgement

Question 18

ITV Tonight Programme

Answer 18

2013
Poll of 4000
Accents in Liverpool and Birmingham were considered unintelligent
More than 50% thought that the Devon accent was friendly
Londoners & Scots felt discriminated against because of their accent
Scouse=least intelligent, friendly and trustworthy
RP and Manchester=38% friendly
Edinburgh and Cardiff=51% friendly

Question 19

Hugh Muir on regional accents

Answer 19

In the Guardian on attitudes to regional accents
“Dr Alexander Barratta” spoke of “accentism” and likened it to racism
“The responsibility of the listener is to be tolerant, celebratory perhaps, and to adapt when necessary. The requirement on the speaker is to make themselves understood, whatever lilt they choose”

Question 20

Jane Stuart Smith

Answer 20

In the guardian wrote on regional accents, particularly Glaswegian
“Across the UK there has been much levelling out in the way we speak during the 20th century. Linguists have linked this with the unusually large population movement during the Second World War and the postwar years of urban regeneration”
“Local features of traditional regional dialects have consequently been worn away”
“Characteristics from elsewhere have spread-particularly a set of consonant sounds usually associated with London”
“Glaswegian has adopted a few UK changes but retained local features so firmly”

Question 21

Petyt Bradford study

Answer 21

Bradford, West Yorkshire in 1985
Focused on ‘h-dropping’- omission of ‘a’ in initial position
Investigating a correlation between this and social class
Measured the frequency of the use of h-dropping by people from a variation of social classes
Found that people belonging to the lower working class used ‘h-dropping’ at almost every opportunity within speech
People belonging to the upper middle class would only do it once in ten opportunities 1:10
The results illustrate the divide between the middle and working class in terms of speech features, as the largest gap in the results is between the lower middle-class at 28% and the upper working class at 67%

Question 22

Trudgill’s ‘Four Ideas’

Answer 22

Why women might be more status-conscious than men

• women are more closely involved with child rearing and the transmission of culture (socialisation). Thus more aware of the importance, for their children, of acquiring prestige norms
• women have a less secure social position than men, may use linguistic means to secure and signal their social position
• women have been discriminated against occupation and earning-rated instead on how they appear
• also suggests (as does Labov) that w-c speech has associations with masculinity in terms of ‘roughness’ and ‘toughness’ which are generally not desirable, feminine attributes for women

Question 23

David Shariamadari

Answer 23

The guardian
“The way we speak will always be a focus for anxiety. It’s because it encodes so much of what is important to us”
Lincolnshire, Cockney, Forest of Dean- dialects at risk. All are though
“Changes in the way we pronounce things ripple through populations, setting off further unpredictable changes with their own knock-on effects until things get very complicated”

Question 24

Imitation study

Answer 24

Adank, Stewart, Connell and Wood
Accent initiation positively affects language attitudes
Tendency to imitate each other’s speech patterns in conversation serves to increase liking between partners in the exchange
Vocal imitation increased when perceived social/general attractiveness was higher
Overt vocal imitation affects attitudes

Question 25

Peter Garrett

Answer 25

University of Cardiff, language attitudes and language ideologies permeate our daily lives
Our competence, intelligence, friendliness, trustworthiness, social status etc are often judged by our accents
Social advantages to certain types of language

Question 26

Richard Alleyne reporting on the Aziz Corporation Poll

Answer 26

Telegraph 2012
“Neutral accents are the best if you want to get ahead”
“The worst accent for a top job is working class Essex, according to a poll of business executives”
70% of respondents have doubts about employing an Essex speaker
61% said that Home Counties and American accents are most likely/closely associated with success. 46.8 % Scottish
More than 41% of respondents associated the Scouse accent with a lack of success. 33% about Birmingham and 32% about EE and Cockney
1/3 of business leaders would have second thoughts about employing an executive that sounded like prince Charles
Professor Khalid Aziz- the survey shows that “many potential business leaders may be condemned by their accent”
In the last six years attitudes have not changed much- hardened in regards to Scouse

Question 27

BBC voices

Answer 27

Respondents indicated a preference for accents relatively local to them
78% enjoy hearing a variety of accents
Thought that a standard English accent would be more beneficial when applying for jobs- most wished for
59% wish at least occasionally that they had a different accent
4 in 5 admit to changing their accent on occasions

Question 28

Liaison (segmental phonology)

Answer 28

Process changes the pronunciation of words at boundary points by the insertion of a linking /r/
This occurs in continuous speech where a word ending in a vowel or approximant is followed by another word with a vowel in the initial position e.g. Law and order

Question 29

Reduction (segmental phonology)

Answer 29

Tends to occur in monosyllabic function words e.g. ‘Of’ ‘at’ ‘and’ or in unstressed syllables in longer words
Front and back vowels are replaced by the weak central Schwa

Question 30

Elision (segmental phonology)

Answer 30

Phonemes often omitted in conversational speech
Occurs at word boundaries
Completely disappearance/dropping of a sound
Even RP speakers elide the initial position /h/ in informal speech
Where a fricative is followed by an alveolar plosive /t/ or /d/ and meets a consonant in the initial position of the next word e.g. ‘Next day’ ‘last week’
Also occurs in verbal negative contractions

Question 31

Assimilation (segmental phonology)

Answer 31

The process in which two phonemes occurring together are influenced by each other, making the sounds more alike
Assimilation is particularly noticeable in conversational speech- utterances are unplanned and exchanges tend to be fast
Some assimilations are inevitable and should not automatically be regarded as lazy pronunciation
Number of phonemes in the word stays the same, sound quality changes
E.g. ‘I can go’

Question 32

Sara Thorne on RP and SE

Answer 32

“There are no linguistic reasons for describing RP as the ‘best’ accent,but socially it is associated with respectability, good education and high social status”
Standard English- a form of English which has been accepted as norm. It is the variety with which other forms of English are compared
Exists in a variety of forms an “provides the country with a unified means of communication”
SE is a prestigious language form because it is associated with government, the law, education, the church and the financial world- taught to second language speakers as it is universally understood and perpetuates cultural values
Non standard varieties are not wrong, just different
The use of RP is no longer a prerequisite to social status

Question 33

Levey and Harris

Answer 33

Study on “accentual compromise”/ EE
“Certain sectors of British society are fearful and disapproving of EE”
“There has never been, and never can be, an age of phonetic perfection”
“RP has undergone considerable changes”
“The Estuary snowball rapidly gained momentum during the 1980s and 1990s”
“Grew out of a combination of demographic factors”- increased social mobility during the 1960s, wartime education, “new hybrid pronunciation consolidated by the following generation”
“Status of EE is questionable” e.g. John Maidment in 1994 expressed doubts about the legitimacy of classifying it as an accent. Nothing “phonetically new”
“Fundamentally non-class based accent”
“EE offers some sort of refuge”
“Accommodation theory can go a long way to explaining the sociolinguistic effects of EE”
“In many ways, adopting EE is a compromise”
“Relative neutrality has its advantages”
“Today it may even be considered a handicap to speak in what some might deem to be a posh accent”. “The rigid British class system of old is gradually breaking down”
On a global and local level “it is increasingly necessary to communicate with a wide variety of English accents and pronunciation”
“The future of communication in a wider context depends on tolerance and a capacity for adaptation”
“Must tolerate changes like EE due to changing society”

Question 34

Lynsey Hanley

Answer 34

Writing in the guardian 
"Dominance of middle class values and identity is becoming more powerful" 
Alexander Barratta reported that "trainee teachers from the north and Midlands are being asked by their supervisors to lose their regional accents in order to be better 'role models' for schoolchildren" 
"Linguistic prejudice" 
"Northern accents are perceived to be exclusively working class" e.g. New morrisons casting for advert wanted "proper working class people"= northern speakers 
"An education system designed to produce essentially, identical types of people" "people with identical accents, communication styles and methods of personal presentation are well primed to work in the private sector" 
"Such simplistic logic denies the experience of social mobility ... Involves being asked to change fundamental aspects of who they are in exchange for achieving their ambition" 
"The urge to devalue regional accents is part of a deliberate process"

Question 35

Daily mail 2013

Answer 35

1 in 5 change their accent to impress depending on occasion
5% proud enough to thicken their accent
6% toned down accent
Job interviews and dating- motives
8% tried to make themselves sound more posh
4% tried to sound less posh
Brummies most likely to tone down accent- 16%
Only 2% of scots have changed the way they talk
PM and royalty- sometimes aim to sound less
“The queen has become more estuary English than before
6% tried using a different regional accent

Question 36

Hannah Furness

Answer 36

Reporting on a University of South Wales study in the telegraph 2015
Speaking in a Birmingham accent is now viewed as being less attractive than staying completely silent
“Received so negatively”
“Academics found people with a Brummie twang are better off saying nothing at all if they want to succeed in life”
Study into dialect and perceived intelligence
Proffesor Lance Workman
Regional accents did not have an effect in the perceived attractiveness of the speaker, they do have a significance effect on perceived level of intelligence 1) Yorkshire 2) RP 3) Brummie
Negative associations of Brummie may be due to flat vowels
Jasper Carrott criticised the findings of the study
Report from the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission revealed recruits favour certain accents over others, regardless of academic merit”
Prof Carl Chinn said that “this so called study continued to reinforce negative stereotypes fuelled by the long-standing prejudice against people who speak in a regional accent”
“Commission needs to address the ignorance and prejudice which mistakenly links intellect and attraction with speech pattern”

Question 37

Lancashire accent

Answer 37

‘Area’ general RP vs Lancashire= /eəriə/ /eə:riə/

‘Lancashire’ general RP vs Lancashire= /lænkʌʃə/ /lænkəʃə/

Question 38

West Country accent features

Answer 38

H drop
Some denasality
Metathesis in words with pre-vocalist /r/ e.g children is “chillurn”
Short ‘a’
/ei/ for the ‘y’ at ends of words e.g. Silly
Rhoticity
Final position /ae/ becomes ‘aw’ in Bristol
Largely rural area of England with regions including Somerset, Bristol, Devon and Wiltshire. 5 million live here
Stereotypically associated with farmers- rural and coastal tradition
Contemporary pirate films, Poldark, Doc Martin and ‘Hot Fuzz’
Phil Harding from Wiltshire

Question 39

The economist on MLE

Answer 39

2013 article
Zadie Smith “all kids, whatever their nationality seem to express scorn with a Jamaican accent”
“Increasing numbers of school leavers who fear they are incomprehensible in job interviews”
“MLE is a hybrid dialect that emerged from the intermingling of West Indians, South Asians and speakers from Cockney and EE”
“Young Afro Caribbean men may have adopted a new style of speech as they sought to forge an identity in an often hostile society. Others were thought to have copied them”

Question 40

MLE 2010 article

Answer 40

Called ‘Cockney to disappear from London’
“Cockney will be replaced by multicultural London English… It will be gone within 30 years”
“MLE is a new hybrid language”

Question 41

Mail online article about MLE

Answer 41

2006 mail online
“If you struggle to understand cockney, brummie, Geordie and Scouse, then stand by for an even bigger challenge”
“Multi-cultural hybrid”
“Beginning to eclipse traditional accents”
“Inner city white youths pick up the speech patterns of their black and Asian classmates”
“Not white youngsters trying to be cool”
“Traditional long cockney vowels are becoming shorter e.g. Face sounds like ‘fice’ in cockney but more like ‘fehs’ in jafaican”

Question 42

MLE ‘from the mouths of teens’

Answer 42

November 2006 article from the independent
“An emerging linguistic phenomenon”
“Multiculturalism may have become a political hot potato for everyone”
“Teenagers in inner London, one of the worlds most ethically diverse areas, are forging a separate multi ethnic youth speak based on common culture rather than ethnic or social background”
“The dialect is heavy with Jamaican and Afro Caribbean inflections”
“The term jafaican gives the impression that there’s something fake about the dialect, which we would refute”
“People are beginning to sound the same regardless of their colour or ethnic background”
“The crunch for MLE could come when its adherents move out of their close-knit teen community”
“Concerns have been raised about its ubiquity, with the Lilian Baylis school in Kensington, South London, banning the patois as part of a ‘government pilot to improve results’”

Question 43

MLE and humour

Answer 43

Guardian article in 2013
MLE deemed “rich pickings for modern comedy”
“Comedians and writers who attended exclusive private schools and top universities and who speak perfect RP are mocking those who they see as lacking intelligence and blindly copying a Caribbean patois”