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Chapter 6. Regional and Societal Dialects

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33 views37 pages

Chapter 6. Regional and Societal Dialects

Uploaded by

Pamela
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Regional and social dialects

In the first sectic¡n of this book, the focus was on language variation in multi-
lingual communities. In this section, the focus moves to language variation in
monolingual communities. People often use language to signal their membership
of particular groups and to construct different aspects of their social identity.
Social status, gender, age, ethnicity and the kinds of social networks and com-
munities that pc<;ple belong to afe important dimensions of identity in many
communities.'§7e illustrate the way people use language to signal and enact such
affiliations in this second section of this book.

Example 1

Telephone rings.

Pat: Hello.
Caller: Hello, is Mark there?
Pat: Yes. Just hold on a minttte'
Pat (to Mark): There's a rather well-educated young lady from Scotland
on the phone for you.

'§7hen
you answer the telephone, you can often make some pretty accurate
guesses about various characteristics of the speaker. Pat was able to deduce
quite a lot about Mark's caller, even though the caller had saicl nothing expli-
citly about herself. Most listeners can identify when the caller is a child without
any problem.'When the caller is an adult, it rs usually possible to tell whether
a speaker is female or male . If the person has a distinctive r:egional accent, then
their regional origins wili be evident even from a short utterance. And it may also
be possible to make a reasonahle guess about the person's socioeconomic status
or educational background, as Pat did.
No two people speak exactly the same, which accounts for a myriad of accents
throughout the world. Therc are infinite sources of variation in speech. A sound
spectrograph, a machine which represents the sound waves of speech in visual
form, shows that even a single vowel may be pronounced in hundreds of minutely
different ways, most of r.l,hich listeners do not even re¡¡ister. Some features of

D Ot: 10.4324 I 97 BO3 67 821 8 s2-8 185


LANGUAGE VARIAT\ON: FOCUS ON USERS

speech, however, are shared by groups, and become important because thel-

I ferentiate one group from another. Just as different languagcs often serve a
fying and separating function for their speakers, so do speech charactcri
within languages. Duc to their regional dialects, the pronunciation,
and vocabulary of Scotttsh speakers of English are all in some respects quite
tinct from those of people from England, for example. Though there is vari
within Scotland, there are also some features which perform an overall uni
function. The letter r in words like girl and stdr is pronounced in a numbe:
English-speaking areas, and Scotland is certainly one of them. And a Scot is
more likely to say I'll nri dct it than I won't drt it, meet you dt the back
rather than sorne time after.f , and he liues c.tutw,ith Edinbwrgh rather thar
liues outside Edinb ur gh.
Similarly-, the pronunciation of bath with the same vowel as in
distinguishes a spcaker from the north of England from a southerner.
while many speakers of English use the same vowel in the three words
ruap and bad, wctrkers in Belfast pronounce them in ways that sound
Ibeg], fma:rp] ancl [bod] to English people. Speech provides social infor
too. Dropping the initial fhl in words like hctwse and heauen often indi
a lower socioeconomic background in English. And so does the use of
matical patterns such as they dctn't knc¡ut nothing tbem kids or I done t:
week. §7e signal our group affiliations and our social identities bv the
forms we use.

I nternational variet ies

Example 2

A British visitor to New Zealand decided that rn'hile he was in Auck


he would look up an old friencl frc¡m his army days. He found the
walked up the path and knocked on the door.
"Gidda¡" sard the young man who opened the door. "\7hat can I
for you?"
"I've called to see me old mate Don Stone," said the visitor.
"Oh he's dead now mate," said the young man.
The visitor was about to express concloiences when he was thumped
the back by Don Stone himself. Thc young man had said, "Here's dad
mate", as his father came in the gate.

186
REGIONAL AND SOCIAL DIALECTS

rcause they dif- - ie re are many such stories - some no doubt apocryphal - of mistakes basecl on
ien serve a uni- :.sional accent differences. To British ears, a New Zealander's dad sounds like an
r characteristics : slish person's dead,bad sounds like bed and slx sounds like s¿¿¿As. Americans
ation, grammar . j Austral:ians, as well as New Zealanders, tell of British visitors who were
spects quite dis- - ,:n pens insteacl of trtins and pans instcad of pens. On the other hancl, an
here is variation - :.rican's god sounds like an English person's guard, and an American's ladder
overall unifying . ::onounced identically with latter.
in a number of
\nd a Scot is far
* the back of L Example 3

h rather than he ,raffiti on a

owel as in sat
\\ellington sux
southerner. And
\uckland ni1
hree words áag,
that sound like
, ::ere are vocabular,v clifferences in the varieties spoken in clifferent regions
cial informatioa ' -\merican candies are New Zealand lctLlies and British sweets. South Africans
r often indicates
,: :hc. term robr¡t for British traffic light. Britrsh tuellies (Wellington boots)
rhe use of gram- -, \er.n Zealanci gummies (or gumbctors), r.l,hilc the word /ogs refers to very
or I done it last -r: jr'nt types of clothes in different places. ln New Zealand, /ogs are what you
es by the speech
:- in. In Britain you might wear them to a formal dinner.

ixercise 1

- irglish is used in your community, you may Iike to check out the extent of American vs.
:-:ish influence on vocabulary in your region. The following questions provide a simple
,:,,,of measuring this. Ask ten of your friends to answer them and work out how many
--erican items vs. how many British items they choose. You should allow for the fact
:-it some may use both. lf you are not sure which is the British item and which is used
- :re USA, check in a big reference dictionary such as Webster's Third New lnternotionol
s in Auckland, - -ilonory or the big Oxford English Dictionary.
rd the address,
ia) When you go window-shopping do you walk on the pavement or the sidewolk?
fb) Do you put your shopping in the car's trunk or in the boot?
[hat can I do r,c) When the car's engine needs oil doyou open the bonnetorthe hood?
id) Do you fill up the car with gas or with petrol?
r,e) When it is cold do you put on a jersey or a sweateí?
rO When the baby is wet does it need a dry diaper or nopptr
r,g) Do you get to the top of the building in an elevator or a lift?

s thümped on h) When the children are hungry do you open a con or a tin oÍ beans?
¡) When you go on holiday do you take luggage or baggoge?
Iere's dad now j) When you've made an error do you remove it with an eroser or a rubbefl

187
LANGUAGI VARIATION: FOCUS ON USERS

Pronunciation and vocabulary differences are probably the clifferences that


people are most aware of between different dialects of English, but there are
grammatical differences too. Can you distinguish the preferred American usages
from the traditional British usages in the sentences in example 4?

Example 4
(a) Do you have a match?
(b) Have you got a cigarette?
(c) She has gotten used to the noise.
(d) She's got used to the noise.
(e) He dove in, head first.
(f) He dived in head first.
(g) Did you eat yet?
(h) Have you eaten yet?

Speakers of American English tend to prefer do yow haue, th<>ugh this can
now also be heard in Britain alongside the traditional British English haue you
gol. Americans say gotten where people in England use gor. Many Americans
use doue while most British English speakers prefer diued.Americans tend to ask
did you eat while the Engiish ask haue you eaten. Are the American or the British
usages predominant where you live? In New Zealand,where American forms are
usually regarded as more innovative, younger New Zealanders say doue, whllc
older New Zealanders use diued.
The differences that English speakers throughout the world notice when
they meet English speakers from other nations are similar to those noted bl
speakers of other languages too. Spanish and French, for example, are languages
which are extensively used in a variety of countries besides Spain and France.
Speakers of Spanish can hear differences of pronunciation, vocabulary and
grammar in the varieties of Spanish spoken in Mexico, Spain, Argentina and
Paragua¡ for example. Native speakers of French can distinguish the French
used in Montreal from Parisian and Haitian French. There are differences in
the vocabulary of different varieties. So, for example, a Parisian's trauail (work
ís a diobe in Montreal. The word fr.r beggar ís mendiant in France but quéteux
in Quebec. And Canadians tend to use aller ttoir wn film, while Parisians prefer
aller aw cinéma. Even grammatical gender assignment differs in the two varieties.
Appétit (appetite\ and midi (midday), for instance, are feminine in Canada, but
masculine in France, while the opposite is true for atttomobile and oreille (ear:.
Clearly Canadian French and Parisian French are different dialects.
Sometimes the differences between dialects are a matter of the frequencie-s
with which particular features occur, rather than completely different ways of
saying things. People in Montreal, for example, do not always pronounce the
/ in phrases like l/ pleut aná il fait. Parisians omit the / too - but less often. Ii
you learned French in school you probably struggled to learn which verbs used
188
REGIONAL AND SOCIAL DIALECTS

he differences that " ,ir and which used étre in marking the perfect aspeu. Getting conrrol of these
r:fterns generally causes all kinds of headaches. It would probably have caused
{ish, but there are 'u even more pain if vou had realised that the patterns for using auoir and étre
d American usages
h4? ..: tlifferent in Montreal and Paris.

Exercise 2

"low do you pronounce botterT How many different pronunciations of this word have you
roticed? Use any method you like to represent the different pronunciations.

Answer at end of chopter

lntra-national or intra-continental variation

Example 5
e. rhough this can
h English haue you Rob: This wheel's completely disjaskit.
r. \Iany Americans -\lan: I might could get it changed.
re¡icans tend to ask Rob: You couldn't do nothing of the sort. It needs dumped.
:rican or the British
.\merican forms are
lers say doue, whlle :rs conversation between two Geordies (people from Tyneside in England) is
.-:rh' to perplex many English speakers. The double modal items might could is
n'or1d notice when :' :rcal Geordie, though it is also heard in some parts of the southern uSA. The
ro those noted by :-.-rression needs dump¿d is also typical Tyneside, though also used in scotland,
mp1e, are languages
.. is the vocabulary ítem disjasklf, meaning worn out or completely ruined.
- :.e q'ay English is pronounced is alsc¡ quite distinctive in Tynesicle, and per-
; Spain and France.
rn. vocabulary and
-::s especially the intonation patterns. Ilecause they like the speech heard in
taln, Argentina and .-'r programmes such as Verd, Auf Wiedersehen Pet, Geordie Shore and by TV
ringuish the French ::ionalities such as Ant and Dec, some people can imitate the tune of Geordie
e are differences in '-.ech - if nothing cise. We are dealing here not just with different accenrs but
stan's traudil (work\ ' :h dialect differenccs within a country, since the distinguishing forms involve
France but qwétewx ::.:-mmaticai usages and lexical items as well as pronunciation.
hile Parisians prefer Regional variation takes time to develop. British and American English, for
in the two varieties. : siance, provide much more evidence of regional yariation than New Zealand, or
r..::¡ralian English. Dialectologists can clistinguish regional varieties for almost
nine in Canada, but
,ile and oreille (ear). . . .ri' English count% e.g. Yorkshire, l.ancashire, Northumberland, somerset,
ila1ects.
,rnu,all and so on, and for many towns too. Some British dialects, such as
r of the frequencies '--ruse (heard in I-iverpool), cockney', and Geordie) even have distinct names
.-.¡rving how significant they are in clistinguishing groups from one anorher.
iv different ways of '"'.'::hin
A-avs pronounce the the London area, the Cockney dialect is quite distinctive with its glottal
r - but less often. If ,:op [?l instead of [t] between vor,r,els in words llke bitter and butter, and its
rn rvhich verbs used
189
LANGUAGE VARIATION: FOCUS ON USERS

rhyming slang: e.g. dpples and pears {or stairs, lean and lurch for chwrcb,the
undoubtedly sexist trouble and strife for wife, and the more ambiguous co¿¿ls
and kisses for the missws.
In the USA, too, dialectologisrs can identify distinguishing features of the
speech of people from different regions. Norrhern, Midland and southern are
the main divisions, and within those three areas a number of further divisions
can be made. Different towns and even parts of rowns can be distinguished.
§Tithin the Midland area, for example, the Easrern srates can be distinguished;
and within those the Bosron dialect is different from that of New York city;
and within New York Cit¡ Brooklynese is quite distinctive. The Linguistic Atlas
Projects (http://us.english.uga.edu/) provide a rich source of informarion on the
features of pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary which distinguish different
American dialects and an archive of recordings of these dialects (and many
others) can be found in the Internarional Dialects of English Archive (www.
dialeptsarchive.com). In the rural Appalachians, one can hear pronunciations
such as acrosst and clifft, as well as verbs with a- prefixes, such as a-fishin'
and a-comin'. lü/ords for dragctnfly in the Eastern States include darning needle,
mosquito bawk, spindle, snake feeder, snal<e doctor and snake wditer, but of
these only darning needle is used in New York. From darning needle, however,
New York has developed two new variants dining needle and diatnond needle.
(It becomes difficult at this point to remember that these are all names for an
insect not a sewing implement!)
In areas where English has been introduced more recenrly, such as Australia
and New zealand, there seems to be less regional variation - though there is
evidence of social variation. The high level of intra-nationai communication.
together with the relativelv small popularions, may have inhibited the devel-
opment of marked regional differences in these countries. In New Zealand, for
instance, there are greater differences among the Máori dialects than within
English, reflecting the longer period of settlement and more restricted means of
communication between people from different Máori tribes before European
settlers arrived. Máori pronunciation of worcls wrirten with an initial wh, for
erample, differs from one place to anorher. The Máori r.vord for fish is ika ín
most areas but ngohi in the far North, and kirikiri refers to grauel in the west but
sand ín the east of New Zealand. There are many more such differences.

Exercise 3

Can you guess what the following words and phrases mean?
They are all words collected from regional dialects of British English. A good British English
dialect dictionary will provide information about their meanings and where they are used.

(a) snowblossóm
(b) tjme for ou!" snap

190
REGIONAL AND SOCIAL DIALECTS

Í:b for cbwrch, the (c) mask the tea


re ambrguoLts cows (d) the place was all frousted
(e) clinker bells
ring features of the (O a great maMher
J and Southern are (S) l'm really stalled
oi further divisions (h) a bairn
(¡) an effet
rn be distinguished. (j) l'll fill up your piggy, it's time for bed
an be distinguished;
oi New York City; Answers ot end of chopter
The Linguistic Atlas
I
iniormation on the
distinguish different Figure 6.1 is a map of England showing where different dialect words are
ciralects (and many used for the standard English word splinter. The boundary lines are called
hsh Archive (www. isoglosses. This is just one word out of thousands of linguistic features which
rcar pronunciations '.,ary in different dialects, and which were documented by Harold Orton's com-
es. such as a-fishin' '§7hen
:rehensive Suruey of English Dialects in the 1950s. all the information
IuJe darning needle, ,u linguistic regional variation is gathered together on a map, with isoglosses
:t.zke waiter, but of i¡awn between areas where different vocabular¡ or grammatical usages or
hg needle, however,
-:ronunciations occur, the result looks something like a spider's web. Some of
ná diarnond needle. :he web's lines are thicker than others because a number of boundaries between
rre all names for an :eatures coincide.
But there is also a great deal of overlap between areas. The line between an
1r. such as Australia ,rea where people use [a] rather than [a:] in a word !íke patb, for example,
rn - though there is loes not coincide with the line which separates areas using haue you any swgar?
nal communication, :ather than haue you got any sugar? Areas which use the word eleuenses rather
inhibited the devel- -nan snap or snack do not all use different words for brew or snowflake or
¡L \ew ZeaTand, for n¡Jnure or s'plinter. The same vocabulary may be used throughout an area
ilalects than within -,r-herecontrasts in the pronunciation of words are quite dramatic. In other
: restricted means of -*-ords, defining linguistic areas is
not at all straightforward - a point which is
rs before European :llustrated very clearly in example 6 below For an interactive way of looking
rh an initial wh, {or :: this, a mobile app has been developed by researchers in Cambridge and in
rrd for fish is ika in S*-irzerland to update the regional patterns of English in the British Isles. The
:r:t el in the west but :pp is called "English Dialects" and is freely available for smartphones and
l Jiifercnces. :ablets.

Exercise 4

Where there are differences between regions, it is interestlng to discover the local names
r rcod British English for particular obiects. There are often regional differences i¡r the words used fór standard
r -e'e they are used.
English scorecrow, streom and cowpot, for instance.
lfyou live in a community where English is used, you could investigate such differences.
When asking people what they call these items, you should phrase your question so as to
avoid using the word you are interested in.

191
LANGUAGE VARIATION: FOCUS ON USERS

6.1 Words for splinter in English dialects


Figure 6.1
Se,urce : Trudgill (1994: 2L), w,rth permission of Taylor 6c Francis.

To exemplify, we have provided four questions aimed at eliciting labels for four more
obfects which often vary reg¡onally:

(a) What do you call a small round sweet cake with a hole in the middle?
(b) What do you call the vehicles people push babies round in?

192
RIGIONAL AND SOCIAL DIALECTS

(c) What do you call an item worn to protect clothing especially while cooking?
(d) What do you call the shoes people wear for tennis or running?

Collect information from a range of people on what they call these objects, and where
possible include older people who were born outside your area.

Exercise 5

Some words vary in pronunciation between different geographical areas in the UK and
lreland, yet in other English-speaking countries there doesn't seem to be a clear pattern to
the variation. The word scone ¡s one such example. Some people rhyme it with cone, while
others rhyme it with gone. Which do you do?
, Ask as many people as you can how they pronounce scone. Are there differences? Does
there seem to be any pattern to the variation? Do all of the people from the same place
say it the same way?

Cross-continental var¡ation: dialect chains

Example 6

Miriam learnt French and Italian at university and was a fluent speaker
of both. As par:t of her collrse, she lvas required to study for three months
in Paris and three months in Rome. Her time in Paris went well and she
clecided to take a holiday on her way to Rome, travelling across France to
Italy. She was keen to hear the varieties of French and Italian spoken in
provincial towns. She stayed in cheap pensions (French "bed-and-break-
fast" places), and she made a special e ffort to talk to the local people rather
than tourists.
Her Parisian accent u,as admired and she could understand the French
of Dijon and l-yon. But as she movecl further from Paris she found the
French more difficult to follow. Near the border berween France and
a::ls fo, four more Italy, in the town of Chambéry, she could not bc sure what she was
hearing. §7as it Italian French or French Italian? §Thatever it was, it was
difficult for her to understand, though she hacl no rrouble making herself
':cle? understood. Most people thought she spoke beautifully - especially for
a foreigner!

193
LANGUAGE VARIATION: IOCUS ON USERS

In Italy she found that the Italian spoken in Turin and Milan was very
i;---
E different from the Italian she had learned at university. As she approached
I
¡
Rome, however, she gradually began to comprehend more of what she
heard. And finally in Rome she found some kind of match between the way
she spoke and the way the Italians around her spoke.

Though a map suggests the languages of Europe or India are tidily


compartmentalised, in reality they "blend" into one another. The varieties of
French spoken in the border towns and villages of Ital¡ Spain and Switzerland
have more in common with the language of the next village than the language
of Paris. From one village and town to the next there is a chain or continuum.
(.[ust as an interesting aside here, Penelope Eckert, an American sociolinguist,
describes how Jules Gilliéron's Atlds Linguistique de la Franc¿, which is over
100 liears old, gives her "the shivers" because she finds it so exciting. She says the
Atlas provided great pleasure as she used it to trace sound changes wandering
and interacting across the French countryside.)
Dialect continuums or chains are very common across the whole of
Europe. One chain links all the dialects of German, Dutch and Flemish from
Switzerlancl through Austria and Germany, to the Netherlands and Belgium,
and there is another which links dialects of Portuguese, Spanish, Catalan,
F-rench and Italian. A Scanclinavian chain links dialects of Norwegian, Swedish
and Danish, so that Su,edes and Norwegians in adjacent areas can commu-
nicate more easily than fellow-Swecles from southern and northern Sweden.
The same kind of dialect chains arc- found throughout India and China. They
illustrate very clearly the arbitrariness of the distinction between "language"
and "dialect".
It is easy to see that if we try to define what counts as German vs. Dutch
or Swedish vs. Norwegian or italian vs. French using only linguistic features,
the task will be fraught with problems. Where should we draw the boundaries
between one dialect and the next, or one language and the next? The linguistic
features overlap, and usage in one area merges into the next. Intelligibility is no
help either. Most Norwegians claim they can unclerstand Swedish, for instance,
although two distinct Ianguages are involvecl, while Chinese who speak only
Cantonese cannot understand those who speak §7u, despite the fact that both are
described as dialects of the Chinese language.

Example 7

Ming is an elderly woman who lives with her son in a rural village near
the town of Yingde in Guangdong Province in sourhern China. The family
Épows vegetables for the local market. Ming speaks only her provincial

194
REGIONAL AND SOCIAL DIALECTS

ilan was very dialect of chinese, canronese. Lasr summeq Gong, an


official from *)eijing
e approached in the norrh, visited her virlage to check on rh" i.u"r of .i..
urd ginger
of what she production. ciong also spoke chinese, but his dialect
was Mandarin or
ween the way pwtonghua. Ming could nor understancl a single
word Ciong said.

Languages are not purely linguistic entities. They serve


social functions. In
ndia are tidily order to define a language, it is important to rook to
its sociar and polrtical
The varieties of functions, as well as its linguistic features. so a language
can be thought of as
and Switzerland a collection of dialects that are usually linguistically
similar, useci by different
an the language social groups who choose to say that ihey are speakers
of one language which
n or continuum. functions ro unire and represent them io oth., groups.
This definition is a
an sociolinguist, sociolinguistic rather than a linguistic one: ir incluáes
,ll th" linguistically very
:. rvhich is over different c-hinese dialects, which the chinese define as
one lnrrgrrng", while sep-
:ing. She says the arlling_the languages of scandinavia which are linguisti.ailf'ue.y
similar, but
Lnges wandering politically quite distinct yarieties.

; the whole of
Exercise 6
rJ Flemish from
ls and Belgium, (a) Define the difference between a regionar accent and
a regíonat diarect.
ranish, Catalan, (b) what do you think is the differenc."b.,*"un a regionar ald a
sociar diarect?
iveqian, Sweclish
:aS can commu- Answers at end of chapter
:,rrhern Sweden.

x
rnd China. They
reen "language"

3rman vs. Dutch Social variation


:guistic features,
r rhe boundaries Received Pronunciation: a soc¡al accent
« i The linguistic
rtelligibility is no
Ish, for instance, Exampfe 8
u'ho speak only
fact that both are Have ¡,ou heard - Jonathan,s engage d to that northern girl _
from Cumbrial
Reg: She ma,v be northern but I assure you she is
very acceptable.
Her father is a lord, ancl a rich orr. ,, thatl She has hacl
the best
education monev can buy. Those traces of northern
accent are
fashionable these days my dear!
al r.illage near
na, The family
her provincial In earlier centuries, you could tell where an English lord
or lady came from
bv their regional form of English. But bv the early
twentieth century, a person

195
LANGUAGE VARIATION: FOCUS ON USERS

who spoke with a regional accent in England was most unlikely to belong to
the upper class. upper-class people had an upper-class education, and that gen-
erally meant a public (i.e. private!) schor¡i where the.v learned to speak Rp. Rp
stands not for "Real Posh" (as suggested b,v a ,voung friend), but rather for
Received Pronunciation - the social accent of the best educated and most pres-
tigious members of English society. It is claimed that the iabel derives from the
accent which was "received" at the royal court, and it is sometimes identified
with "the Queen's English", although the accenr usecl by Queen Elizabeth II, as
portrayed so brilliantly bv Helen Mirren in the film The Qween, is a rather old-
fashioned variety of RP. Even the Queen's English changes over rime..|onathan
Harrington and his colleagues compared the Queen's christmas Day messages
from the 19.50s to the 1980s, and found that the Queen's speech has kept pace
with changes in RP, albeit a fcw steps behind.
RP was promoted by the BBC (British Broadcasting company) for decades.
It is essentially a social accent) not a regional one. Indced, it conceals a speaker's
regional origins. This is nicely illustrated in figure 6.2 (the accenr trianglc). As
the triangle suggests, most linguistic variation will be found at the lowest secio-
economic level where regional differences abound. Further up the sc¡cial ladder
the amount of observable variation reduces till one reaches the pinnacle of RP -
an accent used by less than 5'/" of the British population. So a linguist rrav-
elling round Britain may collect over a dozelr different pronunciations of the
word grass from the working-class pe ople she meets in difJerent regions; ancl she
will hear very much less variation from the lower-middle-class and middle-class
people. And, at least until recently, the upper classes would pronounce the word
as [gra:s] wherever thev came from in England. Things are changing, however, as
the exchange in example B suggests.

Highest class: RP

C
o
':
=

o
Lowest class:
¡'nost localised
accent
---.'--t
Regional var,alión

Figure 6.2 Social and regional accent variarion


Sc¡urce: From Trudgiil (1983). Reproduced by permissiorr ol penguin Books [.td.

Figure 6.2 captured the distribution of accents in England until recently. Today
a more accurate diagram might have a somewhat flatter top, suggesting accents
other than RP can be heard amongst those rvho belong to the highesr social class

196
REGIONAL AND SOCiAL DIALECTS

)long to (see figure 6.3 later in the chapter). in other speech communities, it is certainly
lat8en- possible to hear more than just one accent associated with the highest social
RP. RP group. Most well-educated scots, Irish and \x/elsh speakers of English do nor
rher for use RP, and there is more than one socrally prestigious accent in these countries.
rst pres- And in ex-colonies of Britain such as,qrrtr"lin ,rr.l clrradr, other accents have
rom the displaced RP from its former position as the most aclmired accent of English. In
Ientified fact, RP now rends to be perceived by many people as somewhat affected (or
th II, as realposhl).
her old- This kind of negative reaction to Rp has also been reported in Britain, espe-
rnathan cially among young l-ondoners, many of whom use an accent popularly labeieci
lessages "Estuary English" when it first attracted attcntion in the 1990s, because it is
:Pt pace claimed to have developed along the Thames Estuary. Some have labellecl it the
"new RP". In fact, like previous Lonclon-based linguistic innovations, features
iecades. of this m-q.dern urban dialect are rapidly spreacling both regionally anci socially
peaker's and it is a good illustration of the process of levelling. l-evelling involves the
Lgle). As reduction of diaiect andlor accent variation, and the r:apid spreacl of so-called
;t socio- Estuary English has certainly reducecl regional variation in a large area of the
I ladder south of England. It shares manv linguistic features with cockne¡ anorher
ofRP- variety r,l'hich dellneates both a regional and a social group, but speakers o{
ist trav- Estuary English don't usuallv drop their aitches or use [f] at the beginning of
s of the the word think,
and she
lie-class
he word Social dialects
\ eYer, as

The stereotypical "dialect" speakcr is an elderlv rural person who is all but unin-
telligible to modern city dwellers. But the term dialect has a wicler meaning than
this stereotype suggests. Dialects are linguistic varieties which are distinguish-
able by their vocabular¡ grammar and pronunciation; the speech of peoplJfrom
differcnt social, as we]l as regional, groups may differ in these ways.
Just as Rp
is a social accent, so standard English is a social dialect. It is the clalect usecl by
well-educated English speakers throughout the world. It is the variety usecl for
national news broaclcasrs and in print, and it is the variety generally taught in
English-medium schools.

Standard English

Example 9
y. Today
(a) l've not washed rhe dishes yer rodal.
; accents (b) I haven't washed rhe .iishes vet todái,.
;ial class

197
LANGUAGE VARIATION: FOCUS oN USERS

Standard English is morc accommodating than Rp anci allows for


some vari-
ation within its boundaries. This is represenred in figure 6.3 by the flat
top of the
trapezium or table-topped mountain. The flat top symbolises the
- i-
broader range
of variants (alternative linguistic forms) which quánry as parr of the stanclard
dialect of Linglish in an1, counrry. It is estirnat",l that ,rp to ti% of British
people
regularly use standard British English. so in stanclard English, a limitecl
nrrorn,
of grammatical variarion is acec'ptable. A spcaker «¡f sranclarcl English mighr
produce either of the sentences in example 9 above.

Highest class: standard dialect

c
;o
§
qc
Lowest class:
most locafised
non-standard
Segional variation

Figure 6.3 Social and regiolal clialect variarion


s.urce: From Trudgill (19s3). Reproducecl by permission of penguin Books
Ltcr.

. Jh. dialect we gracc with the name srancrarcl Engrish is spoken with many
different accents. But, as lllustratecl in the discussioriof regional clialects,
there
are also many standard Englishes. American standard English is
distinguish-
able from South African-standard English and Australian sándard
EngiisÍr, for
instance, and all three differ from the Brirish stanclard clialect.
ln social terms, linguistic forms which are not part of stanclarcl English are
by definition non-standard. Because the standard clialect is always
the fi"rst to be
codified, it is difficult to avoicl defining other dialects without
conrrasring rhem
with the standard. And then, because such non-standard forms are associatecl
wrth the speech of less prcstigious social groups, the labei inevitably
acquires
negative connotations (though, as discussecl in chapter 1.s, some
non-stanclarcj
dialects, associated with particular groups, arc positively evaluatecl
by their users
and by those who admire them). It is very important to unclerstand,
however,
that there is nothing lingr-iistically inferior nbort non-stanclard forms.
They are
simply different trom the forms which happen to be usecl by more
socially presti-
gious speakers. To avold the implication thrt.r,,r-rtrnclard
forms are inadequate,
deviations from the standard, some sociolinguists use the term ..vernacular,,
as
an alternative to non-standarcl, ancl we fc¡llow this practice.
Vernacular is a term which is used with a varie ty crf meanings in sociolinguistics,
as discussecl in chapter 4, but the meanings have something
in common. Just
as vernacular languages contrast with standarcl languages,'ue.r,a.u1ar
tlialect
features contrast with standarcl clialect features. Vernacular forms
tencl to be

198
REGIONAL AND SOCiAL DIALECTS

)long to (see figure 6.3 later in the chapter). in other speech communities, it is certainly
lat8en- possible to hear more than just one accent associated with the highest social
RP. RP group. Most well-educated scots, Irish and \x/elsh speakers of English do nor
rher for use RP, and there is more than one socrally prestigious accent in these countries.
rst pres- And in ex-colonies of Britain such as,qrrtr"lin ,rr.l clrradr, other accents have
rom the displaced RP from its former position as the most aclmired accent of English. In
Ientified fact, RP now rends to be perceived by many people as somewhat affected (or
th II, as realposhl).
her old- This kind of negative reaction to Rp has also been reported in Britain, espe-
rnathan cially among young l-ondoners, many of whom use an accent popularly labeieci
lessages "Estuary English" when it first attracted attcntion in the 1990s, because it is
:Pt pace claimed to have developed along the Thames Estuary. Some have labellecl it the
"new RP". In fact, like previous Lonclon-based linguistic innovations, features
iecades. of this m-q.dern urban dialect are rapidly spreacling both regionally anci socially
peaker's and it is a good illustration of the process of levelling. l-evelling involves the
Lgle). As reduction of diaiect andlor accent variation, and the r:apid spreacl of so-called
;t socio- Estuary English has certainly reducecl regional variation in a large area of the
I ladder south of England. It shares manv linguistic features with cockne¡ anorher
ofRP- variety r,l'hich dellneates both a regional and a social group, but speakers o{
ist trav- Estuary English don't usuallv drop their aitches or use [f] at the beginning of
s of the the word think,
and she
lie-class
he word Social dialects
\ eYer, as

The stereotypical "dialect" speakcr is an elderlv rural person who is all but unin-
telligible to modern city dwellers. But the term dialect has a wicler meaning than
this stereotype suggests. Dialects are linguistic varieties which are distinguish-
able by their vocabular¡ grammar and pronunciation; the speech of peoplJfrom
differcnt social, as we]l as regional, groups may differ in these ways.
Just as Rp
is a social accent, so standard English is a social dialect. It is the clalect usecl by
well-educated English speakers throughout the world. It is the variety usecl for
national news broaclcasrs and in print, and it is the variety generally taught in
English-medium schools.

Standard English

Example 9
y. Today
(a) l've not washed rhe dishes yer rodal.
; accents (b) I haven't washed rhe .iishes vet todái,.
;ial class

197
LANGUAGE VARIATION: TOCUS ON USERS

Sol
clifferent person you have to choose exactly the right words and the right
pronunciations. Almost every word rs different and they fit together in The term',so
patterns or levels, depending on who you are talking to. Because I am people which
weli-educated and come from a rich famil¡ I am erpected to use 6ve In most socie
different levels of language. not speak in t
on such statu
someone _ or
Javanese social status is indicated not just in choice of linguistic forms but in Western so
also in the particular combinations of forms which each social group custom- there are othe
arily uses, i.e. the varieties or stylistic leveis that together make up the group's penclently of r
distinctive dialect. In English, stylistic variation involves choices such as ta mdte respected!). S<_
vs. thank you so much. In Javanese, things are more complicated. There are share similarir
six distinguishable stylistic levels. Table 6.1 provides a couple of words from
different levels to show the overlap and intermeshing of forms involved. (This Vocabula
example is discussed fürther in chapter 10 where the reasons for the numbering
Social dialect r
system are made clear.)
tionship betwe
classes spcak d
Table 6.1 Tr,vo ]avanese words at different st,vlistic 1evels many ways th(
You Notu
they clearly ca
Stylistic level
pairs of words
padjenengan samenika 3a of upper-class I
sampéjan samenika 3
U speakers use,
sampéjan saniki 2
lauatory rather
sampéjan saiki la
-Vlitford novel p
pandjenengan saiki 1b
kowé saiki 1

S¡;urce: Adapted from Geertz (1960). \{/ith the permission of The Free Press, a division of Simon Example 11

& Schuster Inc.


Uncle Matthe

There are three distinct lavanese sociai groups and three associated dialects
(see table 6.1):

1 The dialect of the lowest status group, the peasants and uneducated towns- Aunty Emil¡
people, consists of three stylistic levels: 1.,1.a and 2. calml¡ but on
2 The dialect of urbanised pcople with some education consists of five stylistic the defensive:
levels: 1,1a,2,3 and 3a. Uncle Matther
3 The dialect of the highly educated highest status group also consists of five
levels, but they are different from those of the second social group: 1, 1 a, 1b,
3 and 3a.
In Javanese, then, a particular social dialect can be defined as a particular
combination of styles or levels, each of which has its distinctive patterns of
vocabular¡ grammar and pronunciation, though there are many forms which
are shared by different stylistic levels.

200
REGIONAL AND SOCIAL DIALECTS

Social class dialects


rds and the right
:r' fit together in The term "sociar class" is used here
as a shorthand term for difJerences
:eople which are associatecr with rerative between
ro. Because I am sociar prestige, wealth and education.
ecred to use five h mosr socieries, bank managers cro not talk like offic"'.i.;;;;r,
rot speak in the same way as the bur:glars ancl lawyers do
'n such status differences. they defend. cr".r, airirions are based
status r.firs to the deferenc. o. r.rp..,
i lmeone or don't give people give
- them, as the case may be and ,rr,r,
- generalry
hnguistic forms but 'l \x/estern society from the material resources a person can derives
:re re are other sourci.r ,1". Family commancl, though
;ocial group custom- background may be a soufce of status
::'ndenrly of wealth.(in Britain,,É. ynuig"rt inde-
n'rake up the group's chird of an eari may be poor but
oices such as ta mate r:>nected!)' so class is used here as
a convenient rabel for groups of people
,-a¡e similarities in economic and social who
mplicated. There are status.
cupie of words from
iorms involved. (This Vocabulary
,ns for the numbering
-iai dialect research in many different counrries
" :ship between social crass ancl Ianguage
has revealed a consistent rela-
patterns. peopre from different sociar
-':>scs speak differentry. The
-ort o-buiJ* diff.r.rr.", j ir-, uá.ruuiary _ are in
-:'i:r' ways the least ilruminating
f-rom a socioringuistic
"'v sls¿¡ly caprure foint of view, though
i¡ levei ¡lre niblic imagination. In the 19sbs in Engrand, many
::'s of words were identified which, ir was claimecr, ahtirr*Jir¡r.d the
: upper-class English people speech
1,,U speakerr"l frr- ir-r. *rr'i:Tr" , speakers,,).
- speakers used sitting riu* r^th"r than rownge (non-u), and referrecr
;"'ttory rarher than the (non-u) toilet. The to the
,lrliord novel provides an illustration.
r.il.*i"g iil;;, from a Nancy

ress, a division of Simon Example 1l

- ncle Matthew: I hope poor Fanny's school (the word school


pronounced in tones of withering
scorn) is cloing her
ee associated dialects all the good you think it is. Certainiy
,fr. fl._f., ;:;*.
dreadful expressions there.
rd uneducated towns-
.{unty Emil¡ Very likely she does. She also picks
up a goocl cleal of
,-alml¡ but on education.
onsists of five stylistic :he defensive:
lncle Matthew: Education! I was always lecl to believe that no
p also consists of five educated person ever. spoke of notepapel
ocial group: 1., 1.a, 1b, ,rr,i y.t
I
h:i. poor Fanny asking Sadie for,rot"prp.r. Whrt
is this education? Fanny talks about
mirrors and
efined as a particular mantlepieces, handbags and perfume,
she takes sugar
listinctive patterns of in her coffee, has a tassej or -h", umbrclla,
and I have
re many forms which no doubt that, if shc js ever fortunate
to catch a
husband, she wili call his father urla "rrough
*oilr., Father and
Mother. Will the wonderful eclucation
she is getting
LANGUAGE VARIATION: FOCUS ON USERS

make up to the unhappy brute for ali these endless


..: pinpricks? Fancy hearing one's wife talking about
notepaper the irritation!
-
Aunty Emily: A loi of men would 6nd it more irritating to have a
wife who had never heard of George III' (All the same,
Fanny clarling, it is called writing paper you know -
don't let's hear any more about note, please')

these vocabulary clifferences exist at all, they are rather like


those which
If
groups
clistinguish Brahmin and non-Brahmin castes - they distinguish
social
basis. You either use the U term or you don't. It is not
quite so
or. , á,"gorical
the boundaries of
simple, oi..oorr", since inevitably the U terms spread beyond
to maintain the distinction' By the
the U g.oup, and so new terms are introclucecl
:p7¡;o.riy ,rorr-U speakers, it was claimed, used handbag for IJ bag, a non-L
is no empir-
settee'wasitJ ,ofa,un,l yor. non-U relatiues were U relations.There
clues ar'
ical research to back up these claims, but even if they exist, vocabulary
superficial and conceal the complexity and relative fluidity of social class mem-
The barriers betweer
t"rrt ip in places like Britain, ancl even more so in the USA.
ur
grorp, ur. .rot insurmountable as in caste-based societies. People can move
the social ladder, and this potential mobility is mirrored more
accuí-
,rrd áo*n
ately in other aspects of their speech - such as pronunciation'

Exercise 7

A preference for different vocabulary by different social


groups is relatively easy to identify

and always fascinates people. Can you produce a list of words for your speech communrty

divides people into different groups according to their social


background?
that
influence of olcohol, for
ln English, words for deoth, lovotory, really good and under the
example, often vary from one social group to another'

Pronunciation

Example 12

Kim: f)nly uneducated people drop their h's'


Stephen: L.t', h"u, yt,ru say-"Have you heard about Hilda's new house
that her husbancl left her? It cost her a heck of a lot to
fix
you'11 sound
up." If you clon't clrop a single h in that sentence
lite one of Monty Python's upper-class twits!

202
REGIONAL AND SOCIAL DIALECTS

:. Jescribing differences between Canadian and Parisian French, we mentioned


endless
: -:¡ the differences are ofren not absolute, but rather matters of frequencies.
about
" ractl-v the same is true for the speech of different social groups. Groups are
::en distinguished by the frequency with which they use particular features,
o have a
:::rcr than by thcir use of completely different forms. This important point
ll the same,
-:: with a simple example. Usha Pragji, a New Zealand studenr,
be illustrated
r know - ::;r¡rded a radio broadcast of two elclerly people's accounts of their childhood
-. tdrvarcfian Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand. The rwo speakers
, ir¡asted on a ranÉae of social variables.
Iike those which
sh social groups Example 13
Ir is not quite so
he boundaries of \larjorie Lee lived in what she described as "a new large hideous Edwardian
,istinction. By the :-¡nsion". Her father was a lawyer. Her mother had been one of the first
: \t bag, a non-U li rrmen stuclents ar Canterbury College, part of the University of New
-here
is no empir- 7¡aland. Marjorie went to Miss llarber's Privare School until her early
abulary clues are :..ns rvhen she uras pr:ovided with a governess.
;ocral class mem- George Davies lived with four members of his family in a small house.
barriers between l:¡ mother was a solo parent w,hose only steady income came from
"ieeping grandmother". As George said, "we weren't hard-up, we were
,ple can move up
ored more accur- : rsolutely poverty-stricken." Illustrating this, he recounted that they some-
:::re s took palings off the fence for firewood, and "you couid pretty well
:.,1 the state of the family finances by whether Grandma's inlaid brooch
-.i
as in the pawn shop or not."

'. .asy t(r identify


,he two recordings were analysed to see whether there were differences
:eech cornmunity
:::r,\'een the speakers in terms of the numbers of [h]s they "dropped" in words
,: -t.¡d?
¡.= !:owse. unstressed words llke her and haue in example 12 were excluded.
.1,- 1f sfu ohol, for
.:a iound that Mar¡orie Lee did not omit a single [h] while George Davis
-: ¡ped 83% of the [h]s which occurred in his interview. The speakers'different
' -r.rl backgrounds w'ere cleariy signalled by the different proportions of this
r: rrure of their speech.
This speech variable is generally called [hl-dropping - a label which you
' ,'uld notc represents the viewpoint of speakers of the standard. The variable
,,:r be labelled (HDROP) and the two varianrs rhar are generally analysed are
- and 0, though in fact things are more complicated as you will find if you
::en carefully. There are degrees of aspiration or lh]-ness which are typically
, :lplified to fh] vs. 0 to makc the analysis easier.
F{DROP) has been analysed in many social dialect srudies of English.
h's new house
. .:ure 6.4 shows the average [h]-dropping scores for five different social groups
a lot to fix
i. Iwo different places in Engiand: west Yorkshire and Norwich. Different
r you'll sound
-:¡dies use different labels for different classes, so wherever we compare
--..ta from different studies we have simply used numbers. In this figure (and

203
LANGUAGI VARIATI0N: FOCUS ON USERS

throughout the book), group 1 refers to the l-righest social group (often called
the upper middle class or UMC) and group 5 to the lorn'est (usually called the
lower or working class).
-

01
C
'o-
o-
o-^
; ttu
E
di
C]
§40
c
CJ

ü
o-

Social qroups or classes

Figure 6.4 [h]-dropping in Norwich and'§lest Yorkshire social groups


Sr.turce: This diagrarn was constructed from data in Trudgill (1974) and Petyt (198-5)'

In both areas, the highest social group drops the least number of fh]s and the
lowest group omits the n]ost. The regularitv of the pattelns from one group to
the nexi seems quite remarkable when you first see a diagram of this kind, but
it is q¡itc typicai. The average scores for socially differentiated groups generally
follow .rn.ily this kind of pattern for any linguistic variable where there are
clearly identifiable standard and vernacular variants'
There are regional differences in that the Vest Yorkshire scores are systemat-
ically higher than thc Norwich scores, but the overall pattern remains the same.
'§7e
also neecl to remember that tl-rese are averages and within each social group
there is always a great cleal of individual variation. In the §lest Yorkshire stud¡
for example,-on" p..r.r, who belonged socially in the middle group (3) dropped
every [hl. From a linguistic point of view, taking account only of lhl-clropping,
they'sounded as if they came from a lower scicial gfoup' Averaging may conceal
considerable variation within a group.
The w,ay clifferent pronunciations fall into a sociolinguistic pattern indicating
the social class of their:speakers was first demonstrated byWilliam Labov in a studv
of New York City speech which is now regarcled as a classic in sociolinguistics'
He is also consiclerecl to be the father of "variationist sociolinguistics", another

244
REGIONAL AND SOCIAL DIALECTS

Broup (often called *rrr* ¡s¡ the quantitative


study of the systematic rerationship between
(usually called the social
"mu:xteristics and linguistic features. He áesigned u ro.ioffiisdc inrerview
#¡¡i'ir ¿ range of speech styres ro
1,rom r2}people Irom differenir"".irr
.t then he analysed_ their pronur.irtior* of a numbe, oi dlir"r.rrt backgrounds,
md vowels. He found regura, patterns r.r"r*g1h. consonanrs
r..trl .l*, or rrr. speakers to
oÍ standaid, ,s oppored to veinacurar, pronunciations
that they
*m:age
Some of the linguistic features he studied
have_been found ro pamern socially in
F-glish-speaking communities all
over the world. The variable (_ing) pronounced
s -i¡tg vs' -in' ([ia] vs' [in]) at the end of words tike steepng-^]rd
Lctance, distinguishes sociar groups in every ,*i**ing, for
Engrish;peiklrrg .orrr*unity in
,hich it has been invesrigateá. TÉe figures in taLre 6.i
demonstrare that, as
;iü. [h]-dropping, there are regional váriations between communities, but the
rgulariry of the sociolinguisric pamern in all four
.o*rrr.rriii"s is quite clear.l
rhp Brisban e da? was colreced irom adolescenrs,
while the data from the other
mmunities is representative of the communities as a whole.
In each commu_
lir, people from lower sociar groups use more .i;h. r'¡¡! vvrrlqv(
:L:n ¡fo6ss from higher groups. ""r"".rrr, [in] variant

T*6-2 Percentage ofvernacurar


[in] pronunciation for four sociar groups in speech
mmunities in Britain, the USA and Australia

:1985). " : -r1 group

:,., .-,1
31 .4 1
1L 91 100
rrK\lllIC
5 34
rer of [h]s and the ':.rrk 61 83
7 32 45 75
:om one group to
17 i1 49 63
r of this kind, but
I eroups generally
: u-here there are Example 14

fres are systemat- -- \eu'York city ín 1964, a man was observed in three dif{erent
depart-
remains the same. :rant stores asking one store ,"vorker after another: .,wher:e
are the women,s
:roeS?". The man appearecl not only to have
each social group a short memory, since he
t \brkshire stud¡ :;peated his question to a shop ,rrirtrnt in
each aisle on several difjerent
:-,¡ors, he also appearecl to be slightly cleaf
;roup (3) dropped since he ,rk.i .r.h o.rror, ,o
'of lhl-dropping, :Jpeat their answer to him. After receiving
the answer, rr" *orra scurry
-''u'av and scribble something in his notebuoi.
ging may conceal od.i"r, ,i rI, *¡.n he finally
r:ade it to the fourth floor where the women's
shoes were, he showed
raffern indicating arsoiuteiy no interest in them whatsoe'er
but wandered arouncr the floor
rsking, "Excuse rne, what floor is this?,,\x/hen
n Labov in a study q.,.rrior-,.J uy pu.rtra
r sociolinguistics. .tore detective, he said he was a sociolinguist! ^
¿uistics", another

205
LANGUAGE VARIATION: TOCUS ON USERS

One linguistic form which has proved particularly interesting to sociolinguists


like
studying English-speaking speech communities is the variable (r) in words
,o, iri ,orá, fo, ^rd form. Fot our purposes, there are two possible variants
É of (r). Either it is present ancl pronounced as something like [r], or it is absent
t01., If you listen tá a range of Jiule.ts,
you willfind that sometimes people pro-
noun.."(r) as [r] following a vowel in words |ke car and card, ancl sometimes
pres-
they don,t. In some regions, pfonouncing (r) as [r] is part of the standard
tige dialect - in the Borto¡ nn,l N.* York areas of the eastern USA, for example,
,.rd in Ireland ancl Scotland (though recent research suggests that this varies
with gender as well as class in the speech of working-class and socially mobile
p"optl" in Eclinburgh, ancl that a .hrr,g. may be happening in other parts of
(r) as
3.oilrrrd too). In oth., ur.ur, standard dialect speakers do not pronounce
describe it) in words llke car
[r] after vowels (or "post-vocalically" as linguists
have
and card..3 In areas where [r] pronunciation is prestigious, sociolinguists
founcl patterns like those <lescribed above for lhl-dropping and -in' vs'
-ing (fin]
vs. [i¡i) pronunciation. The higher a person's social group, the more [r] they
pfonounce.
In New York Labov conducted an interesting experiment demon-
cit¡
strating in a neat and economical way that pronunciation of post-vocalic [r]
variedln the city accorcling to social grotlp. As example 14 describes, he asked
a number of people in different department stores where to find an
item which
he knew *r, ,.ri.t on the fourth floor. Then, pretending he hadn't heard the
answer, he said, "Excuse me?". People repeated their answers and he obtained
a second and more careful pronunciation. so each person had four chances
to
in
pronounce the variable (r) as [r] or not: tw'ice fowrth andtwice infoor' This
i.rg.nioo, rapid and anonymous survey technique provided some interesting
patterns.
The results showecl clear social stratification of frl pronunciation' C)verall,
the "posher" the store, the more people used post-vocalic [r]. And even within
stores a pattern was evident. In one store, for instance, nearly half the socially
s,rperior .srpervisors usecl post-vocalic [rl consistentl¡ while only 1'B"A of the
less

statusful ,al"rpeople did, and the stock boys rarely used it at all.
Post-vocalii [r] illustrates very clearly the arbitrariness of the particuiar forms
which are consiclerecl standard and prestigrous. There is nothing inherently bad
or good about the pronunciation of any sound, as the different status of (r) in
clifierent cities illustrates. In New York Cit¡ pronouncing (r) as [r] is generally
consiclered prestigious. In Reacling in Englancl it is not. This is apparent from
the
parterns foi ,liffei.rrt social groups in the two cities illustrated in figure 6'5' In
post-
tne .ity (New york) the higher your social class the morc you pronounce
vocali«: (r) as[r]. In the other (Reading), the higher your social class the fewer
you pronounce.

206
REGIONAL AND SOCIAL DIALECTS

r sociolinguists
) in words like
xsible variants
or it is absent
res people pro-
end sometimes
standard pres-
{, for example,
hat this varies
iocially mobile
other parts of
onounce (r) as
words like car
rhnguists have
n'vs. -ing {lin)
more [r] they
Social groups or classes
iment demon-
rost-vocalic [r] Fieure 6.5 Post-vocalic [r] in Reading and New york social groups
ribes, he asked : urce: This diagram was construoed from clata
in Romaine (1,9g4: 86).
an item which
dn't heard the
rd he obtained Exampfe 15
our chances to Cholmondlei,: \ü7hich 'otel
are you staving at o1<1 chap?
:e in floor. This
me interesting

ation. Overall,
nd even within
alf the socially
l8% of the less

articular forms
inherently bad
status of (r) in
[r] is generally
nrent from the
r figure 6.5. In
:onounce post-
class the fewer
"l'n going to bontbard yau with graphs until
you agree wiÍh me"',

soarce: cartoon by Kaamran Hafeez. Reproduced


with permission of cartoonstock.

207
LANGUAGE VARIATION: FOCUS ON USERS

The same point is illustrated by [h]-dropping. Kim's comment rn example 12


expresses a wiclely held viewpoint - only uneducated people drop their lhls. I
Í
I Some claim that [h]-dropping is evidence of laziness or slovenlv speech. Yet \,
-_ *é_. well into the twentieth century, people who belonged to the highest social t
class in Englanil did not pronounce [h] at the heginning of words hke hr:tel l
and herb.Interestingly, initial fh] has reappeared in the speech of y6ung Sr

Londoners who belong to ethnic minority groups. Clearly, the particular lin-
guistic forms which peoplc regard as prestigious or stigmatised are in gen- {t
eral totally arbitrary. In New York City, older white residents of the Lower \4

East Sicle use non-rhotic pronunciations to assert their status as authentic p


New Yorkers since New York speech is traditionally [r]-less or non-rhotic. r(
The arbitrariness of the particular sounds invested with social significance a
is probably most obvious in the pronunciation of vowels where the precise s)
uri.r", of the standard forms are entirely determined by the speech of the most th
prestigigus social grouP.
\(
\tr
Example f6 ir
.ll
Sir §flhat is happentng to the humble letter "i" in New Zealandese?
- li-
In many mouths HIM becomes HUM,jIM is .|UM and TILI. is TUI-L' 1l-
I overheard a young girl telling her friend on the phone that she had )!

been to a doctor and had to take six different PULLS a day. After four ...
repetitions, she had to spell it to be understood. *tl
'..: ]

..:
In this letter, the writer is complaining about the way New Zealanders pro- .:
nounce a particular vow'el. The examples illustrate the difficulty of precisely
describing clifferences in tlre pronunciation of v<¡wels without the aid of a phon- :'
etic script. Measuring slight differences in the way speakers pronounce the "same"
vowels is also a challenging task. In his pioneering study of New York speech,
Labov measured people's pronunciation of five vowels as well as a number of I

consonants. Measuring thc presence or absence of [h] or [r], or the difference


between finl and li¡1, is difficult enough when you are listening to recordings of
:
interviews. Measuring small but significant differences in vowel pronunciations
can seem a nightmare. Labov developed a method which involved giving a score
to different pronunciations according to how close they were to the prestige pro-
nunciation or standard in the communit,v.
The scoring system is most easily understood by giving an example. In
New Zealand, a survey of 141people living in the South Island distinguished
three different social groups on the basls of the way speakers pronounced the
diphthongs (gliding vowels) in words such as boat, bite and bout. Four points
on a scale were used to measure the differcnt pronunciations. A score of 4 was

208
RTGIONAL AND SOCIAL DIALECTS

Lt in example 12 :llocated to pronunciations closest to RP, and a score of 1 to the "broadest"


drop their [h]s. \erv Zealand pronunciations, rvith two points in between. A pattern emerged
'nir. speech. Yet .r rth the highest social group scoring 60 or more (out of a possible 100) for

: highest social :irese diphthongs, the middle group scoring between -50 and -55, while the
;ords like hotel ,ru'est social group scored less than 43 (where 25 was the minimum possible
¡eech of young .;ore).
e particular lin- \Iany New Zealanders consider RP an inappropriate standard accent
sed are in gen- :-,r New Zealand but, at least in the late twentieth century when this study
:s of the Lower 'i'as undertaken, it was still an influential prestige norm. The systematically
us as authentic :¡¡terned scores for diphthong pronunciation in different social groups clearly
or non-rhotic. ..r'ealed the social basis of New Zealand patterns of pronunciation. The higher
:ia1 significance : person's social class, the closer their pronunciation was to RP. The scoring
le¡e the precise :',-Sterr allowed comparison of the way different social groups pronounced
ech of the most :rese vowels.
Another way of distinguishing different people's pronunciations of the same
'.
on,el is to analyse recordings of their speech using a spectrograph and some
.¡ecialised computer software. With high-quality recordings, it is even possible
:rr rhe software to find and identify the sounds by itself. This allows linguists
.:ud1-ing phonology to take precise measurements of the sound frequencies
Zealandese? :ioduced when saying the vowels and lets them find an average for each speaker.
-L is TULL. .his is a more objective way of doing the same kind of analysis as with the
hat she had ..oring system. With the increasing use of computer software in analysing lan-
r. After four
:iage) many sociolinguists (or sociophoneticians) who are interested in how
::fferent people produce the "same" sounds differently (or phonological vari-
::ron) now use this method. But there are still some advantages in using the
:,lre traditional auditory method, mainly because it better represents how the
Zealanders pro-
-siener perceives sounds. This is perhaps particularly the case for intonation,
rltv of precisely
'. irich involves a number of parameters and is often annotated using a combin-
e aid of a phon-
-'-:ron of auditory and acoustic analyses.
unce the "same"
:u'York speech,
as a number of Exercise 8
¡r the difference
will find that you can collect examples yourself to illustrate the patterns described,
'/,ou
to recordings of
:^ough it takes a bit of practice to accurately identify the sounds you are listening for.
pronunciations
Audio-record the best-educated person you know, and the person with the least edu-
:d giving a score
cation. Ask them to describe the first school they went to. Then choose a variable for com-
:he prestige pro-
oarison. ln Enqlish, you could count the number of [i¡]s they use compared to the number
of [in]s at the end of words like swimming and running.
an example. In Check whether any differences you find between your speakers in the numbers of [in]
,d distinguished vs. [i¡] are consistent with the findings reported in this chapter.
pronounced the
¡ut, Four points
I score of 4 was

209
LANGUAGE VARIATION: FOCUS ON USIRS

Example 17

Jean Charmier is a young Parisian who w'orks as a labourer on a con-


struction site. His speech rs quite different in many ways from the speech
of the news announcers on French national TV. One difference involves
his pronunciation of the ¿s in words like casser (bredk) andpas (not).He
says something which sounds mr-¡re like cosser for casser and instead of fe
ne sdis pas for I dc¡n't knctw, he omits the ne (as most people now do in
colloquiai French) and pronounces the phrase as something which sounds
like shop.

Although the sociolinguistrc patterns alrr:ady described have been most exten-
sively researched in English-speaking communities, they have been found in
other languages too. In fact, wc would expect to find such patterns rn all commu-
nrties which can be divided into different sr¡cial groups. In Paris, the pronunci-
ation of the first vowel in w<>rds llke casser and¡tas varies from one social ¡;roup
to another. In Montreal, thc frequency with which l1] is deleted distinguishes the
French of two social groups, as illustrated in tablc 6.3.

Table 6.3 Percenta¡¡e [1]-deletion in tu.o social classes in Montreal Frel.rch


'§Vorking
Professional class

il (impersor-ral) 8 9.8 99.6


e.g. i1 pleut (it is raining)
il (personal) / t.o 100.0
e.g. il part (he is leauing\
elle 29.8 82.0

S¡¡urce: Reproduced from Sankoff and Cedergren (1 971: 8 l. ).

Table 6.3 also inrroduces another interesting influence on iinguistic variation.


The pronunciation of a linguistic form often alters in different linguistic contexts.
This table shows rhat not only does l1]-deletion differ between the social classes,
it also differs according to the grammatical status of the word in which it occurs.
[1] has almost disappeared in Montreal French in impersonal i/.
The surrounding souncis also affect the likelihood of [1]-deletion. It is much
more likely to disappear before a consonant than before a vc¡wel. This is thc:
point being rnade by Stephen in example 12. Most people "drop their hs" in
an unstressed syllable. So linguistic as well as social factors are relevant in
accounting for patterns of pronunciation. Yet r,vithin each linguistic context the
social diffcrences are still quite clear.
Similar patterns can be found in any spccch community where there is social
stratification. In Tehrani Persian, as well as in the Swahili used in Mombasa, the

ZA
RTGIONAL AND SOCIAL DIALECTS

':ne relationship is found between speech and social class. The higher social
.:,-)ups use more of tlre standard forms, while the lowest groups use the fewest
.:,..ndard forms.
:r on a con-
n the speech
nce involves Grammatical patterns
ms (not).He
instead of ie
e now do in Example 18
rhich sounds
\\ hina is 8 years old and she is telling a visitor the story of a film she
las seen.
-\nd then these little flies went to go and they made a house by theirself,
:en most exten- and this big fly was playing his guitar. He play and play. Then the little
been found in ¡lies was making the house, and then the flies ,* ,.*, um these ieayes
s in all commu-
up all together.
, the pronunci-
ne social group
istinguishes the -:,! ls an extract from a recorded interview Whina was one
of g0 New Zealand,
--,Jren who were recc¡rded telling the story of a film they had seen. As the
:-,rrf,Ct shows, this was a good way of providing a natural context for the chil-
-i:l-i to use a large number of past tense fonns of verbs. It rvas then possible
: .ompare the proportion of standard verb forms in the speech of ihildren
class :: n different social groups. on average, ir was found that chilclren from lower-
---'-ss families used more vernacular verb forms than chilc'lren from midclle-class
: ri1ies.
--
This pattern has becn noted for a variety of grammatical variables. Here are
i :ire examples of standard and vernacular grammatical forms which have been
:-n¡rfied in scveral English-speaking communities:

¡- ¡rm Example
iistic variation. . ::t tense verb forms: I I finished that book yesterday.
,ulstic contexts. 2 I finish that book yesrerday.
e social classes, r;iellt
- tense verb forms: 3 Rose walks to school every day.
i hich it occurs. 4 Rose walk to school every day.
\rgative forms: .5 Nobody wants any chips.
ion. It is much
6 Nobody don't wanr no chips.
rel. This is the
rp their hs" in
r-11 L. 7 Jim isn't stupid.
B Jim ain't stupicl.
lre relevant in
;tic context the
-\s with pronunciation, there is a ciear pattern to the relationship between
::-ú qrammatical speech forms and the social groups who use them. i-igure 6.6
is social
r there
us¡rates this. The highcr: social groups use more of the stanclarcl gá*-n,-
-\Iombasa, the .'¡i form and fewer ins¡ances of the l,ernacular or non-stanclard form. As the

211
LANGUAGE VARIATION: FOCUS ON USTRS

grammatical pattern illustrated in figure 6.6 demonstrates, the third person sin-

I gular form of th. present tense regular verb (e.g. standatd sbe walk"s vs. ver-
ir.rla, she ualk),sharply distinguishes between the middle-class groups and the
lower-class groups. Sociolinguists describe this pattern as "sharp stratification".
People are often more aware of social stigma in relation to vernacular grammat-
icallorms, and this is reflected in the lower incidence of vernacular forms among
micldle-class speakers in particular. Note that this pattern is found both in a var-
iety of Ameriian English spoken in Detroit, and in a variety of British English
spoken in Norwich.

ñEI Norwich

W:Z.'trDerrait
q80
_o
(J

s
360

q)

(J

6 40
E

{)
e.- 20

Social grouPs or ciasses

Figure 6.6 Vernacular present tense verb forms (3rd person singr'rlar: she walk) in
Norwich and Detroit
Sr:turce:This diagram was constructed from data in Trudgill (1983) and §Tolfram and Fasold
(1e74).

Sentence (6) in the above list illustrates a pattern of negation which is some-
times callecl "negative concord" or "multiple negation".'§7here standard English
allows only one negative in each clause, most vernacuiar dialects can have two
or more. In some clialects, every possible form which can be negated is negated'
An adolescent gang member in New York produced the following:
It ain't no cat cún't get in no coctp.

212
REGIONAL AND SOCIAL DIALECTS

in context was:
person sin- Translatecl into standard English, the meaning of this utterance
/As vs. ver- There isn't any cdt that can get into any lpigeonl cctop'
rps and the
.tification". or, more simPlY:
r grammat- Nt¡ cat cdn get into anY coctP.
rms among
,th in a var- And from an adolescent in L)etroit:
ish English .Weain'thadnotrowbleabr¡utnoneofwspwllingoutnok.nife.
in all
Multiple negarion is a grammatical cc¡nstruction which has heen found
been done. In
English-speaking commu.,iri", where a social dialect study has
in lower-class speech than
every community stucliecl, tt is much more frequent
the
in micldle-class speech. In fact, there is usually a sharp stratification between
speech'
groups in the amount of mulflple negation used. It is rare in middle-class
i.tultipl" negation is a very "salienti' vernacular form. People notice it when it
pronun-
is used even once, unlike say the use of a glottal stop for the stanclard
generally
ciation [t] at the end <¡f , *ord, where the percentage of glottal stops
n..,1, to t. quit. high before people register them. The dramatic split evident
indicates this
between midclle-clas, ,rrd lo*.r-class usage of multiple negation
while lower-class speakers use it
salience. Miclclle-class speakers tencl to avoid it,
more comfortablY.
inev-
In reporting patterns relating iinguistic features to social status, we have
propor-
itably simpllfiáá a great dcal. Many factors interact in determining the
tion of vernacular or stanclarcl forms a person uses. Some of these are social
factors such as the agc or gender of tire speaker, and they will be examined
mentioned
in the next coupie of .Urp,..r. Another fa.inr, however, which was
Table 6'3,
briefly above, is the linguistic environment in which a word occurs.
of the linguistic environment
for example, providecl information on the effect
in which 1leletion in French occurrecl, In some varieties of E'nglish, it has
[1]-
before gof (e'g'
been found that people omit the auxiliary verb haue more often
alk) in
you got trt gct) thanteiore other verbs (e'g''yeru'ue done that)' The lexical con-
d Fasold i"r,Ipp"rrl to be relevant. Be{ore analysing the effects of s_ocial variation, then,
environ-
social iialectologists must take into account the effects of the [nguistic
ment in which the linguistic fcaturc occurs'
ich is some-
lard English
rn have two
I is negated.

213
LANGUAGE VARIATION: FOCUS ON
USERS

100
l

80

60
I Milton KeYnes,
a new lown
l-J Reading

ü t-tull

20

English towns
Figure 6.7 Vernacular forms in three
English rtses were: e'g' you Luas
Nr.rres: (1) vernacular wtts= use of ¡¿'¿s where standa¡d north of Londonl
late againiand (2) Mllto'-t Kefnts is a relatively nt* to*tt 80 kilometres
furthest nofth and over 200
Reading is 60 kilometre, *..i "i1."¿on;
and HLr1l is the

t lto*.ir., frum I ondon'


(2005), with permission of cambridge universitv
source:cheshire, Kerswiil and williams
Press, granted through P['SCIear'

betu'een l-ondon and other ciries


Map 6.1 Map of England showing distance

214
REGIONAL AND SOCIAL DIALECTS

A note about methodology

Example 19
He
My frien«l Terry taught sociolinguistics at a New Zealand university'
describecl to his ,,uJ".r,, how I ancl my colleagues Allan
Bell and Mary
dialect survey by
Boyce clesigned our sample for the vellington social
establishing a quota of five cells for each of our target groups: young
Pákehá -o*.rr, Máori men, and so on' After the exams' he
miclclle-age<l
our
rang to tell me that ,o-. of his students had clearly misunderstood
how we
*"iho,i of collecti,g data. In thcir exam answcrs, they described
hacl put people in ceils before interviewing them!

the
The term "cell" is usecl to describe the box rn a diagram which indicates
-
- :i.
Our goal was a minimum of five
target numbcrs for each group in a sample'
p"ápt. in each box or ..11 irr-th. diagram to represent each group, including
¡e .-\
*o*.r, ancl men, three age groups, tu'o ethnic groups (Máori and Pákehá) and
people
two social groups. W. n"r"n"'g.d to reach our target, but not by _capturing
Table 6'4 illustrates
ancl puttinlthem in cells tilithey agreed to be interviewed!
,rápl" oi 20 p.opl. clivide<l Uy ,g. and gender with a quota of five pe ople per
" you should be able to see from this that the more categories you have, the
cell.
f- more people you need in your sample'
I
people per cell
I Table 6.4 A sarnple of rwent.v by age and gencler, with a quota of five
I Age
ilt:
Young Middle-aged
l
Male 5 young males 5 middle-aged males
Gender
I
Female -! young females -5 middle-aged females
I
I

some of
collecting good-quality social dialect clata requires considerable skill.
I

I
the challeng-er-rr-r,t pitlrtts which face the social dialectologist will emerge during
mentioned the
the discussion in the next fe\,v chapters. ln this chapter, we have
I

I
use of rapicl ancl anonymous sur\¡eys as one useful technique
for collecting a
lot of daá very quickly. Labov usecl this method when he asked "where are the
l.
t

L, -,, r women's shoes?" in the New York Department store'


Another example is the usc of a street survey to ask people to
I .", l pronounce
.-:
certain words (presenting them rn written or visual form to
prevent possible
r,:ras bias from the intervie*..', pror.rnciation). This method allows the researcher
in a relatively short
to access fearures of the ,p...h of a large number of people

215
LANGUAGE VARIATION: FOCUS ON USTRS

time, and can provide interesting clues about what is \ .'orth studying in more to pr
detail. But it has obvious limitations. Though patterns of gender and age ancl tbey)
sometimes ethntc variation calt be detected using this approach, since we can socia
often guess these features when we meet someone) it is harder to be sure about In
the social background of spcakers when no social information is collected from has b
them. And, of course, the data is limited in quantity and style. A sociolinguistic c lass.
interview which attempts to eltcit a range of styles as well as collecting back- belon
ground information from the interviewee is thus much more useful. This is by tifiecl
far the most widespread method of collecting social dialect clata. But of course it macr(
is much more time-consuming and thus expensivc. uals u
peopl
ale m
Conclusion peopl,
the fir
The way you speak is usually a good indicator of 1,eu. social background. And wome
there are many speech features which can be used as clues. Sociolingutsts have with a

found that almost any lingurstic feature in a community which shows variation
will differ in frequency from one social group to another in a patterned and
predictable way. Some features are stable and their patterns of use seem to have
Met
correlated with membership of particular social groups in a predictable way for
many years. Va¡ation in pronunciation of the suffix -ing and [hl-dropping are To cc

examples of features which are usually stable. Grammatical features, such as .Ra
multiple negation and tense markers, are often stahle too. This means they are olr
good ones to include in any study of an English-speaking community. They are
'Str
reliable indicators of sociolinguistic patterning in a community' op
Sociai dialect surveys have demonstrated that stable variables tend to divide .So
Iinglish-speaking communities sharply between the midclle class and lower or thi
working classes. So patterns of [hl-dropping and [in] vs. finl pronunciation . Exr
clearly divide the middle-class groups from the lower-class groups in Norwich. var
Grammatical variables do the same, as figure 6.6 illustrated. Thcre is a sharp . Thr
rise in the number of vernacular forms between the middle-class groups and the lecl
lower-class groups both in Detroit and in Norwich, and the same pattern has to'
been observed in many other communities. As mentioned abovc, this pattern has the
been labelled sharp stratification. . Yot
Not all variation is stable over time, however. ln fact, variation is often used wor
as an indicator of language change in progress. New linguistic forms don't r The
sweep through a community overnight. They typically spread gradually from vari
person ro person and from group to group and they often stratify the popu- ala
lation very deiicately or finely. Unstable variation is thus associated with fine Clol
stratification and is a cluc ttt linguistic changes in progress in the community, a' phri
we will see in chapter 9. In this chapter, we haYC focused largely on pronunci-
ation and grammar, but social diaiectologists arc rncreasingly paying attention

216
REGIONAL AND SOCIAL DIALECTS

uJr ing in mor. :regmatic features too. The way people use Íag questions lisn't sbe, didn't
.r and age an- - . for example, or pragmatic particles such as you know, may also index
:l. :incc we cai. - :l group.
,r., irc sure ¿bou: -: erploring the relationship berween language and society, this chapter
. ;ollectecl fror ' r ' !e en concernecl almost exclusively with the dimension of social status or
t:ociolrnguistic . .... The evidence discussed indicates that the social class or group someone
;'rilecting back- : nEJs to is generallv srgnalled by their speech patterns. The patterns iden-
,. ful. Tjris is t'" --.j in the studies discussed in this chapter are thus correlations between a
Frut of ;ollrse 1: - .-:o-lcvel social category (social class) and linguistic variabies. But individ-
- r . lse language to construct various aspects of their social identit¡ and many
- : :le are not very consci«rus of belonging to a particular social class. They
-:- :r-ruch more aware of other aspects <¡f their social identitl, ancl those of the
:: :le they meet. A person's apparenr gcncler identity and age are probably
' ' j.ist things we notice about them. Thc next chapter explores ways in which
'
t.kcround. Anc :en and men speak differentl¡ and clescribes speech differences associated
:,,lrngulsts har'. :1 fge.
,hL»vs \ alatio!l
i i.itterrled ani
ir seem tO har'.
Methods
::;¡able wiry for
i -dropping ar.' -: collect information on regional and social dialects, the following methods are useful:
::tllres. SuCh at . lapid and anonymous survey, as described in example 14 and the note on method-
:rrans thcy arc' ology in this chapter.
l!iIilty. 'l'hey ar.' ¡ Street survey, as described in the note on methodology in this chapter. This provides an
rpportunity to elicit pronunciations of a greater number of words and phrases.
. :end ro riivide . Sociolinguistic interview, as described on page 205ff. and the note on methodology in
'. ¿nd lorn'er or :his chapter. See also the references list below.
:ronu ncration . ixercise 7 provides guidance on how to collect and analyse the variants of a specific
ll. tn Norwich. i'a riable.
':-,rre
iS a sharp . The media (TV, radio, films, internet etc) are further sources of regional and social dia-
Jr()ups and the iect data. You can select specific variables such as [h]-drop and f-ingl and relate them
::lt patrern has io the reg¡onal and social backgrounds of the speakers using social media to identify
:¡ r\ paltern has these features.
. \buTube can be used to compare the pronunciations of speakers using comparable
,1, ls of ten used
rvords. Try searching for "the accent challenge" to get some examples.
:., iornrs don't . There are some freely available resources online that you can use to explore lexical
ir-edua ily from variation. One of these is the website www.english-corpora.org. A corpus is essentially
::rt-v the popu- a large searchable database of language. One of the corpora on this site is called the
:::ted rvith fine Clobal Corpus of Web-bosed English. lt allows you to search for how frequent a word or
: ar)mm¡Jnlty, aS
phrase is, and tells you from which country the source text originates.
ir on pr onunci-
-1,, rng attcntion

217
LANGUAGE VARIATIoN: FOCUS oN USERS

Answers to exercises in chapter 6

Answer to exercise 2
using the system f,r representing sonnds in the Appen<lix,
your answer for
batter might include:
o fbate] a pronunciation considered
stanclarcl in Britain
t [bater] a pronunciation considerecr stanclard in North America
o [ba?e] a C-ockney pronunciarion
' [ba?arl and fbader] pronunciations hearcr in the §rest c-ountry of
Engiand.
There are many other possible pronunciations, incruding
one common in
Liverpool which sounds a ]ittre like
[batsal *irh'affncaiioi rrr.. the ftl; ancl
another which occurs in New zeaiind Engrish
which sounds like fbeta] to
British'ears.

Answer to exercise 3
(a) snowflake (Somerset)
(b) time for a snack_lXorfolk and elsewhere too)
(c) infuse or brew the tea (cumberrancl, I)urhaÁ,
Northumberland, yorkshire,
Scotland)
(d) the place was all untid¡ clisordered (Lincolnshire)
(e) icicles (Somerset)
(f) a. great-1o1sh awkward girl (Essex, East Angria an«l elsewhere)
I,ry. rea_lly fed up, wear). (yorkshire¡
Ípl child (Scottish)
(h) I
(i) newt (south-east) (
(i) a piggy is a hot water bottle (Scotrand, Nc.¡rthumberlanrl) {
t
Answer to exercise 6 a

a
(a) Accents are disting,ished from each other
by pronunciation alone. Different a
dialects a.e gere.ilry distinguishable by ur"ii p.."r".irffi
vocabularv and a
grammar.
a
(b) Regional dialects involve fe atures of pronunciation, vocabulary ancr grammar a
which differ accordlng to th." geog.aphi.rl ;;;; ih;;;l.r,
come from. a
Social dialects are disringuisheá h| f."tur", .rf
prurr.rri.iuiio.r, vocabulary
and grammar accortring to the ,oiinr g.oup
-the of_ihe ,p.;k;;r. Social group
is usually evaluated on basis of , ár,g. of featurás, ,r.t ,, eclucarion,
occupation, residential area and income lever. so
p"opr" *rro come from
different social groups speak cliffcrent social cliare.r,
words, pronunciations, ánd grammaricar f.;;;;.-E;ffi",
ir rn"y use crifferent
discussed in the next section o-f tl.,i, chapter.
of these are

218
REGIONAL AND SOCIAL DIALECTS

ff Answer to exercise 9
: Examples of points you might have made.
. The pattern of vernacular usage is consistent for both variables in all three
piaces.
ur answer for . Negative concord is slightly morc frequent than non-standard was ín two
of the three places.
. Vernacular was is particularly distinctive of Huli speech, where it reaches
almost 100ul or categorical status.
. The further north you travel from London, the higher the percentage of
vernacular forms.
r: England. . This table suggcsts that regional variation intersects with class variation
since, as the section preceding this exercise indicates, these vernacular
. comrnOn in forms typically stratify urban populations socially.
:r the [t]; and r Hull would be the equivalent of the lowest social class because the percentages
Lke [bete] to of vernacular forms are highest in Hull and lower social groups tend to use
nlore vernacular forms.

Concepts introduced
r:.1. Yorkshire, . -\ccent
r Regional dialect
. Regional accent
. Isogloss
. Dialect continuum/chain
. RP (Received Pronunciation)
o Social accent
. Levelling
. Social dialect
o American standard English
. \on-standard
one. Different
. Social variables
:cabulary and o \,ernacular
r \rariant
and grammar . Sociolinguistic patterns
's come from. r Sharp and fine stratification
n. vocabulary
Social group
as education,
ro come from
Notes
use different
Here and elsewhere, we have cornbined dara from groups 3 (upper u,orking class) and 4
; of these are ,middle rvorking class) in Norwich and \Vest Yorkshire for ease of cornparison with com-
munities which were analysed into onl1, four social groups.
L-or ease of discussion, rvc have representec{ the realisations of the variable (r) as [r] vs. 0
ior its absence), but t1-re precise phonetic realisations are very varied.

219
LANGUAGT VARtATION: FOCUS ON USERS

3 "Post-vocalic" is the term r,r,idely used for the [r] in u,ords like car and card rvhich is not
pronouncecl in many varieties of English, and we use this term throughout the book. Note,
ho*.r.., that stricrly speaking one should refer to non-pre-vocalic [r] in such conterts,
É since [r] is always pronounced between vowels rn words such as tuart, and carry.

References
The following sources providccl material for this chapter:
-.
-
Armstrong (1,996) on deletion of fll in French
Bayard (1.987); Bayard et al. (2001) for New Zealand dara
llecker (2009) on New York City and non-rhoticitv
-\rt
Bright (1.966) on Indian languages
\r
Bright and §.amanuian (7964) on Indian languages
Chambers and Trudgill (2004)
...:
-.
Dickson and Hall-Lew (2017) on Edinburgh speech
Eisikovits (1,989a) on haue deletion \F
Feagin \1979\ for data on Anniston ancl §7est Virginia
Finegan and Besnier (1,989:383) for definition of a language
Gordon and Deverson (198-5, 1989)
Ciuy (1988: 37) on "social class"
Harrington, Palethorpe and Vatson (2000) on changes to the Queen's accent
Kerswill (2001) on dialect levelling and Estuarv English
Kerswill, Torgersen and Fox (2007) on loss of fh]-dropping in speech of inner
London adolescents
l.abov (1966,1972a, 1972b), especially data on New York City
Lee (1989) on Brisbane adolescents'speech
McCallum (1978) on New Zealand children's past tense forms
Mitford and Ross (1980);'§7ales (1994) on "lJ" speech
Orton et al. (1998) on British English dialects
Petyt (1985) for §fest Yorkshire dialect data
Pragji (1980) on [h]-dropping
Romaine (1978,1984) on Edinburgh speech
Sankoff and Cedergren (1971.) on Montreal French
Shu¡'§Tolfram and Riley (1967) for Detroit data
Stuart-Smith, Timmins and Tweedie (2007) on (r) in Glasgow
Trudgill (1974,1983), especially data on l*Jorwich
\üolfram and Fasold (1974) for Detroit data

Quotations:

Eckert's comment about Gilliéron's French atlas is from Eckert (2018:3)


Example 11 is from Mitford (1949:29)
Example 16 is from Gordon and l)everson (1989: 35)

220
REGIONAL AND SOCIAL DIALECTS

f which is not Useful additional readinq


r book. Note,
tuch contexts, Becker (2017) on sociolinguistic interviews
wfry.
Bell (2014): chapters 7 and9
Chambers and Trudgill (2004)
t-oupland and Jaworski (2009): Part 1: Language variation
k llolmes and Hazen (2014): chapter 2 bi'Michol Hoffman on how to plan and
-ndertake a sociolinguistic interviern'
i-{orvath (2017) on observation in social clialect research
I{ughes and Trudgill (200-5)
\iesthrie et al. (2009): chapters 3 and 4
\ Ie r.erhoff (201 1 ) : chapters Z and 3
\ ieverhoff, Schleet an d MacKe nz;e (2015) on sociolinguistic methodology
\iilroy and Gordon (2003)
laeliafnonte (2006)
-:udgi1l (2009): chapter 2
'li arclhaugh and Fuller (2015): chapters 2 and. 6
-i liram and Schilling-Estes (2006)

een's accent

peech of inner

1018: -3)

221

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