accent article- with theories

Audience: people who read the guardian and have an interest in everyones accents


                                Does accent have anything to do with your own socialect?

 

Many people associate the English language being ‘posh’ or ‘well-spoken’ when in fact only a small percentage of the country does so. Across the UK accents can sometimes change when people move around or when they are with different people.

Some people’s accents can be similar to their families as they might be influenced by their language choice because they live in the same house. This would be different if they are with other people such as close friends. You wouldn’t talk the latest slang to your family would you? Well… Unless they are up to date with the trend. At interviews, people tend to change their accent and dialect to persuade and encourage the interviewer that they are right for the job. At job interviews people might use this technique because of covert prestige which is the idea of changing your accent because it is ‘bad’. This then makes them more suited for the job as they think where they come from might have some low hope. People’s voice also tend to also change when they use the phone as they could be answering to someone who they have never met e.g. a teacher therefore they would be converging their language. Milroy’s Belfast study indicates that women talk differently when with different social groups. This means that there overall accent is weaker than men. It shows that women can speak how they are if they are travelling across the country, seeing family and even in a work environment and still have a small accent but not as recognised. This then creates dialect levelling.

When people are with their friends, dialect is changing as there could be more slang, banter and more influences. The media and the social group that you are in have a big impact on how every person’s sociolect/dialect is. This is because of the celebrity influences and also who you hang around with. Discourse communities make you feel like there isn’t much accent or dialect change until you are with other people such as your family. However when people meet new friends such as in school they might converge to make themselves sound friendlier but also close friends might also take the mick out of each other and then diverge their language. Cheshire’s reading study links as when in a social situation boys tend to use more non- standard forms compared to girls. This could be down to group pressure but also their own background. Milroy’s Belfast study also links as men have a closed network meaning they talk the same to everyone making their accent stand out more. Men tend to keep to the same group compared to women who like to be friends with multiple groups therefore weakening their accent.

Many people’s accents and dialect also change when people go abroad or move somewhere else in the country. For example if someone from Bristol went to University to Birmingham they could pick up some dialect and maybe accent if they are staying there for a while. This also links into dialect levelling as people could pick up dialect and it not change their accent therefore making all the accents merge into one. As a discourse community people tend to pick up more and be influenced to use it. When meeting new people, they could recognise where you come from by your accent. Gile’s theory suggests that rural accents are more trustworthy therefore people could find you more reliable and friendlier whereas RP is more convincing. Eckert’s theory also suggests that people using non-standard forms are the ones who are ‘likely to fail’ as people who use RP are considered ‘intelligent’.

Ed Miliband is a well-known politician who is considered intelligent and uses RP. This all changed when he met Russel Brand. The politician changed his accent and dialect to suit Russel’s as he probably felt more comfortable around him making his accent slip into Russel’s ‘infamous mockney’. Could he be doing this to be more influenced by the public? Y changing words such as ‘yes’ to ‘yeah’ and ‘aren’t’ to ‘aint’ suggests that he is informal and started picking up Russel’s idiolect. Glottal stops were also enforced when speaking making Ed’s own idiolect stand out too. Ed is not the first politician to change his accent/dialect as Margret Thatcher did the same to sound more convincing to the public. This figure of ‘prestige’ shows that everyday people have to change their way of speaking just so they are taken seriously nowadays.