DIALECTS & ACCENTS - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

DIALECTS & ACCENTSSlide2

intermezzo

What is dialect?

What is accent?

Are they same or different?Slide3

dialect

A variety of a language spoken by a

group of

people that is characterized

by systematic

features (

e.g.

,

phonological

,

lexical

,

grammatical

) that distinguish

it from

other varieties of that same

language.

Everyone speaks

a

dialect.

Idiolect

:

the speech variety of an

individual speaker.Slide4

Dialect (cont’d)

Language = a continuum of dialect

Dialect = a continuum of idiolectSlide5

Misconception about dialect

Dialect ≠ ‘substandard’

Dialect ≠ ‘incorrect’

Dialect ≠ ‘slang’

FACT: everyone speaks a dialect Slide6

Factors affecting dialect variation

Dialect can vary because:

Geographical Locations

Social Class

Educational Background or Occupation

(Yule, 2010:241-256)Slide7

Geographical location

People coming

from different places may have different dialects. For

instance, American

people speak different dialects such as

New England

English

,

Inland

Northern American English

,

Mid-Atlantic dialects

and so

forth. These

dialects are due to the

geographical locations.Slide8

Social classSlide9

Educational background or occupationSlide10

Ways dialect vary

Phonological (accent)

Morphological

Syntactical/Grammatical

Semantic/LexicalSlide11

Phonological (accent)

There are obviously many American English accents. For reference, here is a list of only the most common classifications in the United States and United Kingdom

.

General American

This refers to the spectrum of ‘standard’ English spoken by newscasters, TV actors, and a large percentage of middle-class Americans.

Prominent Features:

The

short-a

(as in

cat

) is raised and diphthongized before nasal consonants. Hence

man

and

can’t

are pronounced something like IPA

meən

and

keənt

(“meh-

uhn

” and “

keh-uhnt

.”)

Rhotic

, meaning the

r

is pronounced at the end of words like

car

and

mother.

Words like

lot

and

rod

are pronounced with an

unrounded vowel

, as

lɑt

and

ɹɑd

(“

laht

” and “

rahd

”).

The diphthong in words like

boat

and

rode

is pronounced relatively back:

i.e.

IPA

boʊt

and

roʊdSlide12

Eastern New England English

This describes the classic “Boston Accent.” It also refers to related accents in Eastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine, Eastern New Hampshire and Eastern Connecticut. The most important feature of this is

non-

rhoticity

:

unlike other American accents, New Englanders drop the “r” at the end of syllables.  Hence the famous phrase “

pahk

yuh

cahr

in

hahvuhd

yahd

” (Park your car in Harvard Yard).

Prominent Features

:

Non-

rhoticity

, as mentioned above.

Fronted pronunciation of words like

father

and

palm

, so these are pronounced IPA

faðə

and

pa:m

(i.e. this vowel is close to the vowel in words like “cat” and “mad” in General American).

Unlike most other American accents, the vowel in

lot

and

rod

is rounded as in most British dialects, pronounced IPA

lɒt

and

ɹɒd

(“

lawt

” and “

rawd

”). Note that this feature is less prevalent in some sub-dialects, such as Rhode Island

.Slide13

Received Pronunciation

Received Pronunciation is the closest to a “standard accent” that has ever existed in the UK.  Although it originally derives from London English, it is non-regional.  You’ve probably heard this accent countless times in Jane Austen adaptations, Merchant Ivory films, and Oscar Wilde plays. It emerged from the 18th- and 19th-Century aristocracy, and has remained the “gold standard” ever since.

Prominent Features

:

Non-

rhoticity

, meaning the

r

at the ends of words isn’t pronounced (

mother

sounds like “

muhthuh

”).

Trap-bath split

, meaning that certain

a

words, like

bath,

can’t,

and

dance

are pronounced with the

broad-a

in

father.

(This differs from most American accents, in which these words are pronounced with the

short-a

in

cat.

The vowels tend to be a bit more conservative than other accents in Southern England, which have undergone significant vowel shifting over the past century.

  Slide14

Cockney

Cockney is probably the second most famous British accent. It originated in the East End of London, but shares many features with and influences other dialects in that region.

Prominent Features

:

Raised vowel

in words like

trap

and

cat

so these sounds like “

trep

” and “cet.”

Non-

rhoticity

:

see explanation above under

Received Pronunciation

, above.

Trap-bath split:

see explanation above under

Received Pronunciation

.

London vowel shift:

The vowel sounds are shifted around so that Cockney “day” sounds is pronounced IPA

dæɪ

(close to American “die”) and Cockney

buy

verges near IPA

bɒɪ

(close to American “boy”).

Glottal Stopping:

the letter

t

is pronounced with the back of the throat (glottis) in between vowels; hence

better

becomes IPA

be?ə

(sounds to outsiders like “

be’uh

”).

L-vocalization:

The

l

at the end of words often becomes a vowel sound Hence

pal

can seem to sound like “pow.” (I’ve seen this rendered in IPA as /w/, /o,/ and /ɰ/.)

Th

-Fronting

: The

th

in words like

think

or

this

is pronounced with a more forward consonant depending on the word:

thing

becomes “

fing

,”

this

becomes “dis,” and

mother

becomes “

muhvah

.”Slide15

morphological

Unlike British English, American English has always shown a marked tendency to use nouns as verbs. Examples of ‘

verbed

’ nouns

are,

interview

, advocate, vacuum, lobby, pressure, rear-end, transition, feature, profile, spearhead, skyrocket, showcase, service

(as a car),

corner, torch, exit

(as in “exit the lobby”),

factor

(in mathematics),

gun

(“shoot

”).Slide16

Syntactic/grammar

Even British and American speak English, but both of them utilize different aspects of grammar

. Slide17

Semantic/lexicalSlide18

accent

An accent is

a certain form of a language

spoken by

a subgroup of speakers of that

language

which

is defined by phonological features.

Everyone has

an accent, just

as everyone speaks a

dialect. It's not a question of

“having”

or

“not having”

an accent or dialect, it's a question

of which accent

or dialect you speak with

.

Note that you can speak the same dialect

as someone

else while using a

different

accent (

though frequently

the two vary together). Thus people

from Boston

and Brooklyn use about the same

dialect, but

their accents are radically

different. Slide19

Dialect and accent in English

American English

1.Northern

(Northern New England, Boston, NY City, etc.)

2. Northern Midland

(Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Ohio-Plains, etc.)

3. Southern Midland

(Appalachia, Arkansas-Oklahoma)

4. Southern

(Virginia, Carolina, Texas, etc.)

5. Western

(Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, California, etc.)Slide20

Dialect and accent in English

British English

1.Northern

(Cheshire, Cumbrian, Geordie, etc.)

2. East Midland

3. West Midland

(Black Country,

Brummie

, Potteries, Telford)

4. East Anglian

(Norfolk, Suffolk)

5. Southern

(RP, Cockney, Essex, etc.)

6. West Country

(Anglo-Cornish)

7.

BristolianSlide21

Points to ponder

Dialects and accents are one of the variations in a language

i.e.

English. These two terms are not exactly the same. However, both of them are interwoven. Dialect is not a substandard of a language, it is not slang either.

Dialect

is a

variety of a language

spoken by group of people that is characterized by

systematic features

(

e.g.

phonological, lexical, and grammatical) that distinguish it from other varieties of that same language. While

accent

is only

variations in

pronunciation only

.

Thus,

accent

is a

subset of dialect

. Slide22
Slide23

Register

A register is a variety of a language used for a particular purpose or in a particular social setting

Registers can simply be described as variations of the language according to its use, while the dialect as a language variation based on users registers on this concept is not limited to the choice of words (such as the notion registers in the traditional theory) but also includes the choice of the use of text structure, and texture

.

Example : English journalistSlide24
Slide25

Style

Style relates to the typical ways in which one or more people do a particular thing.

Examples : - Formal

- InformalSlide26

SALAMAT

SHUKRAN WA ILA ALIQA’A