Eng Soc Lecture 4 Dialects of English

QXL1113 ENGLISH AND SOCIETY

Lecture 4: Accents and dialects

Dr. Thora Tenbrink, [email protected] School of Linguistics and English Language

Room 306, phone 38-2263 Office hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays 12-1pm

Aims •  To gain insights about the linguistic variability across

English speaking countries in the world o  As mediated by social and situational factors o  As associated with different cultures and regions

•  To investigate which linguistic factors are likely to be varied, and which remain fairly stable

•  To gain insights into the linguistics terminology used to describe the variability precisely and systematically

Lecture Outline •  Regions where English is spoken

•  Starting point: British Isles o  Historical development (very brief) o  Variation in phonetic features – the different phonological

patterns in British dialects o  Variation in morphosyntactic features o  Presented along with some pointers to corresponding variation

elsewhere

Dark blue: Countries where English is the national language or the native language of the majority.#Light blue: Countries or regions where English is an official language #and language of science and high culture, but not the language of the majority .

h1p://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglosphere

h1p://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English-‐‑speaking_world

READINGS associated with this lecture:

•  Kortmann, B., E. Schneider, K. Burridge, R. Mesthrie & C.

Upton (Hrsg.) (2004). A Handbook of Varieties of English. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

AT LEAST read the General Introduction chapter (available on Blackboard, link Reading) and at least one synopsis Use the CD Rom and look up specific variables! à Library Short Loan •  The International Dialects of English Archive

http://web.ku.edu/~idea/index.htm standard reading passage: http://web.ku.edu/~idea/readings/comma.htm

& unscripted speech

Homework: Prepare tutorial & first assignment •  Identify your own dialect & accent within this

lecture and in Kortmann et al. Look closely at the specifications o  many files are online on Blackboard (specific chapters for British dialects in

a large zip file) o  the complete books (two volumes) are available on Short Loan, including

CD ROM.

•  Consider to what extent your experience with language use corresponds to their findings, where you disagree, and where you see the influence of social / situational factors.

INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

•  If you are not a native speaker of English, consider your knowledge and usage of English. Were your teachers trying to convey Standard British (or Standard American) English? Did they use Received Pronunciation? Did any particular region influence your use of English? Try to detect traces of English accents / dialect in your speech.

•  Also, if you know of particular features of your speech that can be traced back to the influence of your native language, try to specify these - as well as sources for error that may come from your native language. (Germans tend to put a comma before relative clauses starting with "that" ("I know, that this is wrong"), for instance - this is a feature of German!)

The British Isles •  Major differences between

o  Scotland o  Wales o  Ireland o  Northern England o  Southern England

•  Received Pronunciation o  supra-regional accent model o  (only) since 19th century o  frequently used in the teaching of English worldwide o  for purposes of wide communication o  not described as a separate accent in Kortmann et al.

Historical development •  Fusion of West Germanic dialects brought from mainland

Europe to the islands of Britain in the fifth and sixth centuries

•  Elements of Celtic, Norse, French, & many others •  Modern dialects: Many “echoes” of earlier phonology

and grammar o  e.g., English North and North Midlands:

words like strut and hut - pronunciation as in put •  goes back to Anglo-Saxon

o  Similarly: rhoticity – pronouncing the /r/ following a vowel •  as in star or start •  characteristic of Scotland, Ireland, south-west England, parts of Lancashire

and the Northeast, -- and North America o  multiple negation as in She couldn’t say nothing about them o  personal pronoun forms like thou and thee

•  Great Vowel Shift and other systematic developments o  Affected the South of England more completely than any other region

Vowel space: English

(from Finegan, E. 1989. Language: Its structure and use. Orlando: Harcourt.)

rounded vs.

unrounded

Describing Vowels

•  front vs. central vs. back •  high vs. mid vs. low •  rounded vs. unrounded

Vowel space: example words (from Finegan, 1989)

US

pronunciations

front central back

STRUT: Northern English: [ʊ], Southern & East Anglian English: fronted [ʌ] or the centralised [ɐ]. [ʌ] is typical of RP, & Ireland and Wales. West Midlands: considerable variation tending towards the Northern [ʊ]. [ɔ] in Orkney and Shetland, the Channel Islands, and British Creole.

Short vowels (Britain)

front low back / central

KIT: Widely realised as [ɪ]. Northern regions, Ireland, Scotland: lowering & and centralizing to [e]. A tense [i] is characteristic of the West Midlands, East Anglia, British Creole

TRAP: Principal variants [a] and [æ]. [æ]: Ireland, East Anglia, Channel Islands, Southern England. [a]: Orkney, Shetland, Scotland, North of England. Midlands: both. In RP, [æ] is traditional, whereas [a] is the usual modern realisation.

Audio (from CD with Kortmann Handbook)

KIT: [ɪ] in North America, the Caribbean, Australia, & the Pacific varieties. Lowering & and centralizing to [e] or [əә] in New Zealand and some Northern AE varieties, California, & Canada. Tense [i] is widespread in sub-‐‑Saharan Africa & South-‐‑East Asia, plus some dialects elsewhere.

TRAP: Principal variants [a] and [æ] globally. [æ] typical for L1: North America, southern hemisphere. [a]: Caribbean and L2 varieties in West and East Africa. Some raising variants in New Zealand, and in South African and South-‐‑East Asian accents.

Short vowels (elsewhere)


STRUT: Northern English variant [ʊ] almost not used anywhere else. [ʌ] globally used, plus centralization to [əә/ɐ] (especially in NZE and Pacific varieties), backing and lowering, e.g. to [ɔ], in some northern US, Caribbean, and African accents, and also, though less commonly, fairly front realisations.

Audio

Long vowels (Britain)


FLEECE: Typically [iː] throughout the region. Frequent tendency towards a short upgliding diphthong [ɪi]. North of England, West Midlands and South-‐‑east England, wider diphthongs [əәɪ] are found.

BATH: Systematic RP variability which sees Southern speakers using [ɑː] while Northern speakers use [a] in an otherwise uniform system.

THOUGHT, NORTH, FORCE: [ɔː] is a widespread realisation for these vowels, with a short vowel in THOUGHT in Scotland. [ɔː] is frequently diphthongised to [ɔəә] in South-‐‑east England, where [oː] is otherwise usual, as it is in Scotland in FORCE and, variably, in NORTH. NORTH and FORCE exhibit the characteristic if recessive feature of [ʊəә] in North-‐‑east England.

Audio

BATH: Three variants mark major L1 accents: a low back and long [ɑː] of southern EngE and RP, a low front [a] of northern EngE, and a front and slightly raised [æ] of AmE.

Long vowels (elsewhere)


FLEECE: A long high front [iː] is the main variant. Regional L1-‐‑dialects in AusE, Canada, & New Zealand tend to show upgliding (e.g., short [ɪi]). Shortening is rare in L1 but common in Africa, South-‐‑East Asia, and the Pacific.

THOUGHT, NORTH, FORCE: The most widely audible realization of the vowel in these words world-‐‑wide is a low back, rounded [ɔː]. Subject to lexical, regional, social, and stylistic conditioning a more closed [oː] is also widely used in most regions; no overall distributional pa1erning seems discernible. Other types, including [ɑː] and [aː], and various diphthongal realizations occur as well. Short forms of [ɔ] and [o] characterize African and Asian varieties.

Audio

Diphthongs •  FACE words

o  Diphthong as in RP: throughout North America, South Asia and the Cultivated accent of Australia

o  Socially marked in England: practically all regional dialects have alternative or at least additional pronunciations

o  Other diphthongs tend to be lower (as in AusE) o  Monophthong: a half-close monophthongal [e:] characterizes Scotland,

Ireland, Wales, northern England, most of the Caribbean, some North American dialects,

o  with a short vowel: East and West Africa, South-East Asia, and the Pacific.

•  Other diphthongs have similar effects o  PRICE, MOUTH, GOAT all have monophthongal variants o  Little variation in CHOICE

Stops (Britain) •  /P/T/K/ , /B/D/G •  Word-initial voiceless stops: aspirated in Ireland and

England and especially in Wales •  Glottalisation of intervocalic and word-final /t/

occurs everywhere in the British Isles, with considerable frequency: /p/ and /k/ are also glottalised, though not as regularly as is /t/.

•  There is a tendency towards unvoicing of word-final /d/ in the English of Wales where Welsh is spoken.

Stops (elsewhere) •  A weakened aspiration in word-initial voiceless stops

is most characteristic of the South Asian varieties of English, but also in some dialects in Britain, America, and South Africa

•  Replacing a word-final or intervocalic /t/ by a glottal stop is a process which is common throughout the British Isles and in Malaysia and sometimes found in dialects of AmE, AusE and NZE.

Fricatives •  TH, F/V, S/Z, SH, H/CH •  ‘th’ realised as [d] or [t] all around the globe

o  Regular throughout most of the Caribbean, in the Pacific contact varieties, in Africa and Asia

o  as well as in some dialects in America and Britain o  tends to be stigmatised

•  Deletion of word-initial /h/ o  variably in England, Wales, NfldE, IndE, MalE, AusE, NZE, and some forms of SAfE o  typically it is associated with lower sociolinguistic status and informality. o  Most regularly in the Caribbean and in the Pacific Pidgins

•  The opposite process, /h/-insertion as in haxe ‘axe’, is even less widespread and also largely restricted to the Caribbean

Sonorants (Britain) •  N, L, R •  <-ng>: Three variants [n] [ŋ] [ŋg] •  velar nasal /ŋ/ is realised as [ŋg] in all words with <ng> spelling

in the English West Midlands o  More specifically: an extended area stretching from Birmingham in the south to

Liverpool and Sheffield in the north.

•  The feature co-exists with both [ŋ] and, in <-ing>-morpheme representations, [n] realisation o  the alveolar nasal [n] for /ŋ/ is widespread in Northern and West Midland English as a

stigmatised feature.

•  Further variation with <l>: RP has clear [l] before a vowel and dark [ɫ] before a consonant or pause

•  Many different ways of pronouncing (or NOT pronouncing!) <r> o  Rhotic varieties: Scotland, Ireland, South-west England and part of Northern England

centred on southern Lancashire o  Non-rhotic varieties: Majority of England and Wales

Sonorants (elsewhere) •  N, L, R •  <-ng>: Three variants [n] [ŋ] [ŋg] •  [ŋ] standard •  [n] almost universally heard •  [ŋg]: English West Midlands, a small number of American

and some Caribbean varieties, a few more West African varieties, etc.

•  Further variation with <l> •  Many different ways of pronouncing (or NOT

pronouncing!) <r> o  Rhotic varieties: America o  Non-rhotic varieties: Majority of England and Wales, practically all of Africa

and almost all of the Asian and Pacific accents. But also some American accents, e.g. New England, New York City, and the South (with a tendency towards rhoticity)

Prosodic features •  While it seems quite clear that different intonation

contours characterize many varieties of English, and possibly play a major role in accent identification, little systematic research has been devoted to this aspect. One such feature that has been frequently observed and addressed in recent years is the use of a high-rising terminal contour (“HRT”) at the end of affirmative statements. This occurs fairly generally in British, American, Caribbean, Australian and New Zealand dialects and occasionally in Africa and Asia; in general, the phenomenon is assumed to be spreading globally among the young.

Tense, aspect and modality (Britain)

•  Levelling of difference between the Present Perfect and the Simple Past o  especially pronounced in ScE, IrE, and the Southwest

•  Use of be (rather than have) as a perfect auxiliary o  typical northern feature (Orkney and Shetland, IrE, ScE, North), but also at-

tested in the Southeast o  Orkney and Shetland Isles extreme - to the exclusion of have, as in I’m seen it

•  Special markers of habituality are characteristic of the SW, WelE and IrE o  As I do say to my niece … o  It’s better, because you be’s bored doing nothing at home o  They does be lonesome by night

•  double modals in ScE and in the Northeast, i.e. Northumberland and Tyneside o  They might could be working in the shop

Negation (Britain) •  Multiple negation everywhere in Britain except for

the Orkney and Shetland Isles o  I couldn’t find hardly none of ’em o  Multiple negation is far more frequently used in the South than in the North

of England

•  Another well-known negation feature in non-standard varieties: ain’t o  Found in far fewer varieties (and with more restrictions) than in the other

world regions of English o  Ain’t is primarily a southern phenomenon

•  negated form of have: Him and I ain’t been fishing for these last six weeks à Southwest, the Southeast and East Anglia

•  negated form of be: He ain’t heavy à it is found in these three varieties as well as in WelE and IrE.

Pronouns (Britain) •  me instead of I in coordinate subjects pervasive in all eight

varieties o  Me and my mam and dad are going out for a meal

•  Pervasive everywhere except in the Orkney and Shetland dialects is the use of them instead of demonstrative those o  Eat you them carrots

•  Another distinctive pronominal property of the British Isles varieties is the use of us o  in no other world region are there so many varieties which use us in functions

different from those in StE o  singular us ‘me’ (give us a kiss, you’re the first person that’s give us a tip), o  plural us ‘we’ in expressions like us kids o  possessive us, as in We like us town, which is largely restricted to the North o  in the North we also find us in subject function (Us’ll do it)

•  More variation: Second person plural “you” •  Reflexive pronouns: theirself, hisself, meself…

Morphosyntax in Britain: Northern peculiarities

•  special forms or phrases for the second person plural pronoun o  youse, y’all, aay’, yufela, you ... together, all of you, you ones/’uns, you guys, you

people

•  wider range of uses of the Progressive o  I’m liking this, What are you wanting?)

•  be as perfect auxiliary o  They’re not left school yet)

•  double modals o  I tell you what we might should do)

•  epistemic mustn’t o  This mustn’t be true)

•  resumptive / shadow pronouns o  This is the house which I painted it yesterday

•  lack of inversion / lack of auxiliaries in wh-questions o  What you doing?

•  lack of inversion in main clause yes/no questions o  You get the point?

Morphosyntax in Britain: Southern peculiarities

•  a-prefixing on ing-forms o  They wasn’t a-doin’ nothin’ wrong

•  ain’t as the negated form of be o  They’re all in there, ain’t they?

•  ain’t as the negated form of have o  I ain’t had a look at them yet

•  invariant tags o  innit/in’t it/isn’t in They had them in their hair, innit?

•  relative particle what o  This is the man what painted my house

Studies of accent and dialect

•  Eliciting language according to region (cf. last lecture)

•  Matched-guise technique o  Evaluating attitudes towards accents and dialects

•  Identifying cultural (or media) resources of dialects and accents o  poems, songs, stage plays, movies o  parodies, mock versions of accents, playing with the topic (e.g.,

"My Fair Lady") o  they typically convey some (hidden or overt) evaluation of a

particular code

Lecture Summary •  Scratched the surface of

accent / dialect variability across the world o Just examples seen so far – there is much

more out there! o Variability can be found on every

linguistic level •  The variability in the British Isles is

very often representative of the global distribution of English o But some features are only found in L2

varieties, etc.

Next week Social variation

Holmes, J. (2008) Introduction to Sociolinguistics.

London: Longman. Chapter 6

Eng Soc Lecture 4 Dialects of English

Documents

Transcript of Eng Soc Lecture 4 Dialects of English