Variations in accents

 In this tutorial we look at accents in English and variation in accents.  The difference between accent and dialect: accents consist of pronunciation;  dialects consist of grammar, word, meaning and pronunciation.

 RP phoneme inventory: CONSONANTS  /p/ poppy /f/ fife /h/ ha-ha  /b/ bible /v/ verve /m/ mimic  /t/ totter /0/ thigh /n/ nine  /d/ dad /o/ they /nj/singing  /k/ kick /s/ sea-sick /l/ loyal  /g/ gag /z/ zoos /r/ rarer  /tf/ church /f/ shush /j/ yo-yo  /dg/ judge /g/ azure /w/ wayward 

 RP phoneme inventory: VOWELS  /i:/ peat /U/ put /I?/ pier  /I/ pit /u:/ pool /e?/ pear  /e/ pet /3:/ pearl /U?/ poor  /a/ pat /eI/ pail /?/ banana  /^/ putt /?U/pole  /a:/ part /aI/ pile  /D/ pot /aU/ foul  /?:/ port /?I/ foil

 The desirable accent held up as a model is Received Pronunciation RP (received in courts), a social rather than regional British English accent associated with positive implications (Queen’s English).  Accents = pronunciation of consonants and vowels + patterns of intonation.  Accents vary regionally and across different social groups.  Social judgements are made about different accents and their speakers. (low, middle, high)

 RP = standard pronunciation used by the educated classes and intended as a guide for students of ESL.  RP is idealized as a model, but also has three main varieties:  1. General or mainstream RP is used as a teaching model  2. Conservative RP, spoken by the older generation (Queen, Lords)  3. Advanced RP, spoken by the younger.

 In RP stress falls on the first syllable of the words.  Conservative RP was created as a result of a sense of distance between royalty and commonality (p.261) /pa:lis/ (powerless); /ri’feind/ (refined)  Tables 7.1 and 7.2 p. 262 display consonant and vowel phonemes in RP.  Accents vary with respect to:  1. Extending vowel sounds; 2. Pronunciation of R.  A phoneme may be pronounced differently in different accents. A phoneme may be pronounced differently depending on its position in a word.

 Rhythm = use of stress to mark syllables in an utterance  Prosody p.267 Intonation = change in pitch  These are called supra-segmental features because they operate above the level of individual sound segments (they are sounds of sentences).  Intonation groups mark usually a break in grammatical structure:  [When I went to London] [I wanted to go to the zoo].  Variation in prosodic features mark differences in meaning. Accents vary and change across geographical regions.

 Great vowel shift: long vowels in English became closer; food became /fud/;  those that were already close became diphthongs. Innovative pronunciation followed the movement of the wealthy and influential people.

 William Labov (p.276): the relationship between accent and a particular social group from New York.  - Pronunciation of non-prevocalic (r) by New York speakers.  - Pre-vocalic r: r followed by a vowel  - Non pre-vocalic r: r when not followed by a vowel; like car, cart.

 Labov divided informants into six groups based on their socio- economic class.  Upper class informants pronounced the non- prevocalic r consistently; while lower class informants had the least /r/ pronunciation of all the socio-economic groups.  Pronunciation of /r/ in NY is associated with high status and prestige.

 Speakers are sometimes aware of the social stratification of their accent and may wish to vary it intentionally.  Research has shown that women are more conscious of “prestigious” norms and try to use them more frequently than men.  A combination of factors may account for linguistic variation: gender, situation, social background, age, education, etc.

 Labov emphasized a further category in variation; the problem of informants varying their accent in the presence of a researcher (outsider) to impress, to imitate high class persona…  He explained that researchers often face the problem of “the observer’s paradox” when they try to get natural data, and the data are altered by their mere presence

 Attitudes to a language may influence speakers’ variation. Speakers may converge towards the prestigious accent or to mark a specific social identity or membership of a social group.