Language Variety in England

One thing that is important to very many English people is where they are from. For many of us, whatever happens to us in later life, and however much we move house or travel, the place where we grew up and spent our childhood and adolescence retains a special significance. Of course, this is not true of all of us. More often than in previous generations, families may move around the country, and there are increasing numbers of people who have had a nomadic childhood and are not really 'from' anywhere. But for a majority of english people, pride and interest in the area where they grew up is still a reality. The country is full of football supporters whose main concern is for the club of their childhood, even though they may now live hundreds of miles away. Local newspapers criss-cross the country in their thousands on their way to 'exiles' who have left their local areas. And at Christmas time the roads and railways are full of people returning to their native heath for the holiday period.

Where we are from is thus an important part of our personal identity, and for many of us an important component of this local identity is the way we speak - our accent and dialect. Nearly all of us have regional features in the way we speak English, and are happy that this should be so, although of course there are upper-class people who have regionless accents, as well as people who for some reason wish to conceal their regional origins. The vast majority of the population, however, speak in a manner which identities them cis coming from a particular place. They speak like the people they group with, and in a way that is different from people who grew up somewhere else. Of course, people may change the way in which they speak during their lifetimes, especially if they move around the country, but most of us carry at least some trace of our accent and dialect origins with us all of our lives. Other people will use this information to help them decide where we are from, and will say things like 'You must be a Londoner'. 'You sound as if you're a southerner', 'Whereabouts in Scotland are you from?', 'I can't quite place your accent', or 'You're from Yorkshire, aren't you?'. And labels for people of different regional origin are freely used - you can get called 'Geordie', 'Cockney', 'Jock', ‘Tarty'. 'Scouse', and so on, depending on what you sound like when you speak.

all of us speak with an accent, and all of us speak a dialect. Your accent is the way in which you pronounce English, and since all of us pronounce when we speak, we all have an accent. Some accents, it is true, are more regional than others. Some people have very regional accents, so that you can tell exactly where they come from if you are clever enough at spotting accents. Other people have fewer regional features, and you might be able to place them only approximately - 'Y ou're from somewhere in the West Country, but I can't tell where.' And yet other people may have very few regional features at all, so that you might be reduced to saving something as vague as "You're a southerner.' There are even a small number of people — probably between 3 and 5 per cent of the population of England - who have a totally regionless accent. These are usually people who have been to one of the big Public Schools, or who want to sound as if they have. This accent is sometimes referred to as a 'BBC accent' because readers of the national news on radio and television are usually selected from this minority of the population.

Similarly, everybody also speaks a dialect. When we talk about dialect we arc referring to something more than accent. We are referring not only to pronunciation but also to the words and grammar that people use. Thus if you say

I haven't got any
and I say

I ain't got none

you and I differ in the grammar we use, and are therefore speaking different dialects. Normally, of course, dialect and accent so together.

If you speak Lancashire dialect, you will obviously speak it with a lancashire accent. But it is worth making a distinction between accent and dialect because of what happens with the important dialect we call Standard English. Standard English is the dialect which is normally used in writing, and which is spoken by the most educated and powerful members of the population: probably no more than 12-15 per cent of the population of England are native speakers of Standard English.

The fact is that everybody who speaks with a BBC accent also speaks the Standard English dialect, like, say, Anna Ford or Alastair Burnett. But not everybody who speaks Standard English does so with a BBC accent. Most people who speak Standard English - perhaps 7-12 per cent of the population of the country - do so with some kind of regional accent, like Melyyn Bragg or John Kettley. This accent and this dialect do not therefore inevitably go together, and it is useful to he able to distinguish, by using the terms dialect and accent, between speakers who do combine them and those who do not.

Standard English is not often referred to as a dialect, but since it is a variety of the language that differs from others in its grammar, it is clearly just as much a dialect as any other variety. Standard English uses grammatical forms such as

I did it

A man that I know
He doesn't want any
She isn’t coming
We saw him

In other, Nonstandard Dialects may use grammatical forms such as

I done it

A man what I know
He don’ t want none
She ain't coming
We seen him

So, the notion of different dialects is to do with boundaries - establishing how some speech is different to other speech and exploring what those differences are. Geographical area is an obvious focus in the study of differences in speech but there are other criteria under which people can be grouped into different speech communities. But, there are divisions and differences between speakers in the same geographical area depending on social class, age, gender, cultural origins. These are all ways of separating people out and classifying their speech. Each could be said to produce groups of dialect. Everyone has a dialect and in fact most of us are likely to speak many dialects.

As a result, often foreign learners of English first come to the British Isles, they are usually surprised (and dismayed) to discover how little they understand of the English they hear. For one thing, people seem to speak faster than expected. For another, the English that most people speak seems to be different in many ways from the English they have learned. While it is probably differences of pronunciation that will immediately strike them, learners may also notice differences of grammar and vocabulary.

Their reaction to this experience will vary. If they are confident in their own and their teachers' ability, they may conclude that most of the English (and Welsh, Scottish, and Irish) people that they hear cannot, or at least do not, speak English correctly. In this they would find many native speakers to agree with them. Indeed, there would even be some who would tell them that, since they have studied the language, they should know better what is correct.

Their problem is to understand what they hear, regardless of whether it is correct or not, it is subject to variation so complex and sometimes so subtle that even for native speakers it is often hard to explain the things which often puzzle them.

here is a brief summary of language differentiation in England.

The most prestigious British dialect is Standard English; the most prestigious accent is re It is with these that learners are most familiar. What they are not usually so familiar with, however, is the degree of variation to be found within Standard English and rp. This variation, part of it stylistic, part of it attributable to changes in the language, is not the subject matter of this book (but see the section on further reading). Nevertheless, it is important that learners should be aware of its existence, and not mistake it for the social and regional variation with which we are principally concerned.

Standard English is the dialect used by educated people throughout the British Isles. Nevertheless, most people in Britain (including many who would generally be regarded as speakers of Standard English) have at least some regional dialect forms in their speech. In general, the higher people are on the social scale, the fewer of these regional forms their speech will exhibit. The main ways in which regional dialects differ from Standard English are outlined in the next chapter.

rp is not the accent of any region. It is spoken by a very small percentage of the British population, those at the top of the social scale. Everyone else has a regional accent. The lower a person is on the social scale, the more obvious their regional accent will tend to be.

2. A Read the article “Attitudes to regional talk”, share the information in class.

Because of the mass media, a wide range of systems of communication and extensive mobility, most people are aware of some of the regional variations in talk that exist in Britain. Many people feel strongly that they prefer some types of regional talk to others. Some types of regional talk have also become closely associated with certain ideas about the people who speak it - regional talk has in some cases become linked to stereotypes.

Attitudes to regional talk include the following:

• Regional speech is likeable and has connotations of genuineness and warmth; hence many call centres are located in regions where the speech has been identified as suggesting trustworthiness and friendliness, such as the north-cast of England and Scotland

• People with strong regional speech features sound less well educated than those who speak in a more standard way and so may be excluded from certain professions and high-status jobs

• Regional speech suggests a genuine character who is not trying to pretend to be something they're not

• Regional speech is good because it shows a clear sense of identity with where you come from and pride in your roots

• Regional talk can sound "common' and is inappropriate in more formal contexts

• It is difficult to take people with regional speech as seriously as those with more standard speech features; thus many people say they would not be confident about a doctor or a solicitor with strong regional speech. Many comedians make use of this attitude and exaggerate regional speech features in their performances

The representation of characters who use regional speech on TV and in films and books is often closely linked to certain attitudes and ideas about regional talk. Inevitably this is then linked to stereotypes because the same ideas about regional speakers are then constantly represented. It is important to remember that such representations are not an accurate reflection of the diversity of people who really use different types of regional speech. The same principle applies here as with gender representation: the representation of regional speakers gives a mass of individuals a group identity which both reflects some commonly held ideas but also helps to create them.

Example:Characters who speak with an East London/cockney accent are often represented as being crafty, streetwise and scheming but frequently have a good sense of humour and ultimately a 'heart of gold". These characters often hover on the wrong side of the law and are usually presented as being fairly uncultured and not very well educated, these are stereotypical ideas that have become associated with that accent. Such representations on TV and in films both reflect these ideas and also help to create and reinforce them.

BRead the following article about the announcements made on the Wolverhampton-Birmingham Metro. As you read, think about the following questions:

What does the article claim the regional “voice” mean to the people of the Black Country?

What attitudes to regional speech are being reported here?

DRead the following extract. As you read, think about the following questions:

What attitudes to regional speech are being represented in this extract?

What ideas and attitudes are reflected in the representation of particular characters?

E Find examples of characters who use regional speech in TV programmes, films, novels, plays and poems in your country. Identify what ideas about regional speech and what attitudes towards it lie behind the representation of these characters.

WRITING

Write on opinion essay on the following issue “Regional talk and identity”.

NOTE! Discursive essays are formal in style. In this type of essay, the writer focuses on various aspects of the topic in turn. Some possible aspects to be considered are set out in the "discussion clock" on this page (moral, political, social, etc.). Each viewpoint is supported by examples. Opposing viewpoints should be mentioned as well. These essays do not aim to persuade the reader that the writer's opinion is the only valid one, but to make him/her consider a current issue from various angles, allowing him/her to form his/her own opinion or expand on the viewpoints already mentioned.

Date: 2015-12-17; view: 1054