Accent And Dialect

Front 1

Koineisation

Back 1

Language which is produced when two dialects come into contact and create a new variety with influences from both.

Front 2

Status and solidarity values

Back 2

These are used to judge speakers according to how they sound.

Front 3

Dialect levelling

Back 3

The gradual loss of differences between distinctive accents and dialects. When nearby dialect forms come into contact, some features might transfer and become present in both.

Front 4

Code-switching

Back 4

Using different forms of English depending on where the speakers are and who they are with.

Front 5

Howard Giles' Attitudes to Dialect Study

Back 5

Four groups of people listened to different accents arguing against capital punishment. Although in the extracts, the South Wales, Birmingham and Somerset accent made the majority of topic shifts, the argument read in an RP accent was voted the best. This shows a preference for the RP accent.

Front 6

Milroy and Milroy, Belfast 1980

Back 6

Lesley Milroy's study revolved around social networks; she found that men belonged to larger, more tight-knit social networks than women. Her findings suggested that the higher the network score, the higher the use of vernacular or non-standard forms.

Front 7

William Labov and Martha's Vineyard

Back 7

Labov found that younger inhabitants of the island of Martha's Vineyard (off the coast of New England) tended to have more conservative Martha's Vineyard accents. This showed they wanted to diverge from the New England accents of the tourists who swamp the island every year.

Front 8

William Labov and the New York Department Stores (1972)

Back 8

Lavov collected data from sales assistants from in three Manhattan stores - Saks, at the top end of the price and fashion scale, Macy's in the middle, and Klein's at the bottom. Each was asked a question to which the response was "fourth floor". Labov listened for the preconsonantal "r" sound, which is considered prestigious in American accents. Sales assistants from Saks were found to use this sound the most, and those from Klein's the least. Macy's showed the greatest upward shift when asked to repeat the utterance.

Front 9

Peter Trudgill and his study of Norwich (1974)

Back 9

Trudgill studied the omission of "g" from "ing" sounds, glottal stops and the loss of the initial "h" in words like "hat". The lower the class, the higher the frequency of these occurrences. Women tended to think they were using the standard form of "ing" more often than they were, whereas men tended to think they were using the non-standard more often than they were.

Front 10

Accent

Back 10

Regional pronunciation of words, most easily distinguishable in vowel sounds.

Front 11

Dialect

Back 11

Vernacular vocabulary related to regions.

Front 12

MLE

Back 12

Multicultural London English; a combination of different cultures' dialects to produce a mixed London vernacular.

Front 13

Prestige

Back 13

The amount of respect an accent or dialect has.