accents and dialect work

liverpool accent


what has had an influence upon this accent?
The major influence comes from the influx of Irish and Welsh into the city. The mixing of these different accents and dialects, joining with words and sayings picked up from global maritime arrivals, all fused together to create the unique Scouse sound. Every tide brought ashore a new imported verb and many stuck becoming part of everyday language.


where does it originate from?
The Scouse accent like much else in the city owes its roots to Liverpool’s position as a port. The melting pot created by the influx of people from far and wide was the foundation of the distinctive Scouse sound.


what is characteristic about this accent?
Scouse is noted for a fast, highly accented manner of speech, with a range of rising and falling tones not typical of most of northern England


Historical factors that may have influenced the accent
Originally a small fishing village, Liverpool developed as a port, particularly with Ireland, and after the 1700s as an international trading and industrial centre. By this point a city, it became a melting pot of several languages and dialects, but primarily Lancastrian English, Irish, Welsh, Dutch, Scandinavian, German and Scottish. As a result the Liverpool accent often has more in common with accents from other European and British port cities such as Glasgow, Dublin and Amsterdam than it does with local towns such as St Helens.


Details of the accent 
There are variations on the Scouse accent, with the south side of the city adopting a softer, lyrical tone, and the north a rougher, more gritty accent. Those differences, though not universal, can be seen in the pronunciation of the vowels. The northern half of the city more frequently pronounces words such as 'book' and 'cook' differently, whereas the southern half of the city is closer to the RP English pronunciation of these words.


Examples of words and phrases
The use of me instead of my was also attributed to Irish English influence: for example, "That's me book you got there" for "That's my book you got there". An exception occurs when "my" is emphasised: for example, "That's my book you got there" (and not his).

Other Scouse features include:

• The use of 'giz' instead of 'give us'.
• The use of the term 'made up' to portray the feeling of happiness or joy in something. For example, 'I'm made up I didn't go out last night'.
• The term 'sound' is used in many ways. It is used as a positive adjective such as 'it was sound' meaning it was good. It is used to answer questions of our wellbeing, such as 'I'm sound' in reply to 'How are you?' The term can also be used in negative circumstances to affirm a type of indifference such as 'I'm dumping you'. The reply 'sound' in this case translates to 'yeah fine', 'ok', 'I'm fine about it', 'no problem' etc.
• [k] pronounced as [x] at the ends of some words.

A map of the highlighted area



examples of famous people with the accent

Language Change - Good/ Bad?

Following our discussion of more recent examples of language change, looking at neologisms/popular slang words from 2001, many of which may have already failed to survive the test of time, I would like you to consider the following for your next blog entry:

- Summarise the arguments for/against language change 

For:

• To accomodate for technological advancements
• Keeps the language interesting, fresh and current
• Help to forge personal and group identity
• Multicultural/ Ethnic
• Change is good- Embrace it
• To reflect fashion, lifestyle, music of the time

Against:

• Not everyone can keep up- to- date - creates boundries between generations
• Socially inappropriate behaviour?
• Words can gain negative connotations due to societal views
• English should resist change to protect its history and tradition - Diluting
• ESOL - difficult to keep up with constant change

- What is your view on language change? 

Personally i think language change is a good thing, it is interesting to see how language has changed and think about what it might be like in the future. I think it would be very difficult for language not change as it is spoken every day.

 

- What do you think are the most important influences on language change? And why might this be the case?

There are many things that influence language change, for instants historical events, geographical issues such as immigration, politcs like political correction. I think the most influencal factor is social factors or social needs, similarly media as it has universal appear. As music and television is changing everyday this has a large impact of language. As people hear new songs or new programmes if they like it a lot they may reuse phrases from it, or make inside jokes from it where the language is changed creating new words.

 

- Do you think some of the more recent additions to the language will survive? (e.g. peng, bare, butterz, mandem, bbm, cba, lol, i-phone, i-pad, smart phones, fraped ....etc). 

I think that most words from recent slang is not likely to last for very long, just like when we looked at the words from 2001 not many of them had stayed in current language. Although things like the i-pad and smartphone are more likely to stay around because they are used to describe a new piece of technology and cannot be renamed but other slang words are always replaced with newer versions of the same word.

Also, don't forget to read each others! (And comment if it will let you..  :S )

Opinion!

I am quite supprised by how English langauge is changed, it does not even sounds like the same language when you first hear old English. I am quite interested in History although not particularly this period, but i still think if i can do next year it will be interesting

Exploring Dictionaries

The earliest book which listed English words was written by Richard Mulcaster's, called 'Elementaire' first published in 1582. Written as a pedagogical guide, an attempt to make English language and culture more respected and accessible.

The first alphabetical English- only dictionary was written by Robert Cawdrey, 'Table alphabeticall' published in 1604. It was the first single language English dictionary ever published. Listed approximately 3000 words.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary was different and considered so influences because i listed 40,000 words each defined in detial. Influenced future dictionaries.

The idea for the Oxford English Dictionary first started in 1850s, they planned to collect comprehensive middle English words, a lexicon of language more complete than any English dictionary maker had ever attempted.

The advantages of the English Dictionary Online is easy to use and updated often. The words 'gay' used to mean happy, joyful etc. But over recent years the meaning has shifted, in 2003 records new slang sense which is now commonly used by UK teenagers as homosexual. First citation of slang meaning from the US in 1978. Most recently entries has negative connations less assosated with homosexuality 

Language Change

Language is in a permanent state of flux
Language change is caused by a variety of factors affecting language such as:
- historical events
- geographical issues
- socail factors
- politics
- education
-technology

Origins of English - divided into 3 parts

• Old English (400-1150)
• Middle English (1150- 1450)
• Early Modern English (1450- 1700)
• Late Modern English (1700- present)

The origins of English - Part 2

12th century: the resurgence of English

• Renewed interest in Latin, Greek and Arabic which spawns numerous English translations.
• Wide spread increase in literacy while universities are established at Oxford and Cambridge.
• Hundred year war between England and France - decline in French spoken language
• English now many people's first language
• Parliament opens in 1962 - English, French dominates law and Latin dominates church and education.
• Words such as - brooch, bacon, biscuits, salmon, art

1476: The Printing Press

• Standard writing system, books more affordable, spread of literacy.
• Printing press by William Caxton in 1476 literacy output in Scottland reaches all time high in 15th century.
• Great vowel shift
• Latin words 15th century - contempt, genius, uncarnate, solar.
• Scottish English becomes a highley distinctive dialect

1500- 1650: The renaissance and influence of Shakespeare

• Sparks fresh interest in classical languages and their literature, leads to development in studies relating to medicine, science and arts.
• Time of great religious and political upheaval
• Discovery of Americans
• Union of English and Scottish crown sees first publication of an 'authorised' English translation of the bible.
• Words - baron, coroner, duke, crucifix, sermon, virgin, traitor, battle, enemy, warrant, lettuce, blue.
• Addition of prefixes creating many new words - forname, laughable, underground

The early origins of English lesson review

5th century: the anglo saxon invasions

• Four major dialects emerge in England: northumbrian in the north, merian in the midlands, west saxon in the south and west and kentish in the south east.
• Words borrowed from latin - angel, bishop, candle, giant, noon, street

8th century: the viking invasions

• 787 - vikings began raiding Britian and continued until 11th century - ruled most of England in less than 100 years.
• Anglo saxons strike back under Alfred the Great in 878.
• Danes restricted to the 'Danelane' by 980 by a series of 'fresh assaults', bring rest of England under rule of a danish king
• Kennings - 'Sail road' for sea, and modern Kennings 'karate juice' for alcohol
• Scandinavian loan words - awkward, crawl, knife, reindeer, weak

1066: The norman conquest

• 20,000 words from English, Latin and French - chancellor, government, mayor, abbey, miracle, bail, evidence.
• 1066 william of normandy invades England ushering a new social linguistic era.
• French is rapidly established as the language of power

Regional accents

An accent referes only to differences in the sound patterns of a specific dialect. A dialect is a specific variety of English that differs from other varieties in three specific ways
- Lexis (vocab)
- Grammar (Structure)
- Phonology

Received Pronunciation is an instantly recognisable accent often described as 'typically British'. RP is not a dialect, also regionally non- specific. It reveals a lot about people's social and/ or educational background. 2% of the UK population have an RP accent. It is important in language studies used in phonemtic transcriptions in dictionaries which are based in an RP accent, it is also used widely for teaching English as a forgeign language. Instituations in the south- east midlands such as London, Oxford and Cambridge helped develop high social status of RP. It was chosen as the 'BBC accent' in 1922 believed to be the most widely understood variety of English, they thought choosing a regional accent might alienate some listeners.

There are three different types of RP
- Conservative RP which is a more traditional RP accent
- Mainstream RP which is extremely neutral
- Contermporary RP which is typically a young speaker

Birmingham accent - research findings

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/3187433.stm

Researchers at the University of Birmingham found that the second city's much-maligned accent is highly favoured by foreign visitors unaware of the negative connotations the accent holds in Britain.

"Non-native English-speakers unaware of the social connotations which the accent possesses for British English speakers do not discriminate on the same grounds.

 

"This strongly suggests that attitudes towards the Birmingham dialect are influenced by factors such as social snobbery, negative media stereotyping, the poor public image of the city of Birmingham, and the North/South geographical and linguistic divide."

The study warns that the negative attitude towards the Brummie lilt can adversely affect speakers' health, education and career prospects.

http://www.almostwitty.com/242/weird/the-birmingham-accent-is-beautiful

Researchers – naturally from Birmingham – have apparently concluded that foreign people find the Birmingham accent “”lilting and melodious”. While I would hate to infer that the researchers from Birmingham University are biased, they are quite simply, wrong.