Estuary English is a dialect that originated in the Thames Estuary region of southeast England. It is a hybrid accent between Received Pronunciation and Cockney accents. The pronunciation practices of Estuary English signal group identification for those who use it, as it is a non-localized accent that can be used across social classes. While a new term, Estuary English represents the ongoing trend of accent change and convergence between traditional upper and working class dialects in England over centuries.
Estuary English is a dialect that originated in the Thames Estuary region of southeast England. It is a hybrid accent between Received Pronunciation and Cockney accents. The pronunciation practices of Estuary English signal group identification for those who use it, as it is a non-localized accent that can be used across social classes. While a new term, Estuary English represents the ongoing trend of accent change and convergence between traditional upper and working class dialects in England over centuries.
Original Title
Chapter 1- language and social variation (main points)
Estuary English is a dialect that originated in the Thames Estuary region of southeast England. It is a hybrid accent between Received Pronunciation and Cockney accents. The pronunciation practices of Estuary English signal group identification for those who use it, as it is a non-localized accent that can be used across social classes. While a new term, Estuary English represents the ongoing trend of accent change and convergence between traditional upper and working class dialects in England over centuries.
Estuary English is a dialect that originated in the Thames Estuary region of southeast England. It is a hybrid accent between Received Pronunciation and Cockney accents. The pronunciation practices of Estuary English signal group identification for those who use it, as it is a non-localized accent that can be used across social classes. While a new term, Estuary English represents the ongoing trend of accent change and convergence between traditional upper and working class dialects in England over centuries.
卖花女 Some Features of Cockney English: Glottal stop喉塞音: a speech sound produced by closing the vocal cords and then opening them quickly so that the air from the lungs is released with force Scotland = Sco'land statement = Sta'emen network = Ne’work A little bit of bread with a bit of butter on it = A li'le bi' of breab wiv a bi' of bu'er on i'. Dropped ‘h’ at beginning of words: house = ‘ouse hammer = ‘ammer TH fronting: (the pronunciation of the English “th” as “f” or “v” thin = fin brother = bruvver three = free bath = barf Diphthong (双元音) alterations: /eɪ/ → [æɪ~aɪ] take = tike. make = mike Received Pronunciation (RP) Now turn to Page 9-10 and read the following part. (“This is the British English accent”...... “they can’t speak English”). Circle those words which tell you the key features of RP.
• Standard English; BBC English; Public School English
• RP is not associated with any particular location within England. • Because it is thought of as an “educated accent”, it appears characteristically in upper and upper middle class speakers and is more sociologically defined rather than geographically defined. • It is not, however, used by a large percentage of the population. • RP is the prestige accent---other varieties: deviation from a norm(标准、规范)? non-localized accent pinnacle 小尖顶
as the pyramid narrows to its
vertically homogeneous, up the social scale
horizontally
Now please turn to P. 25 and read the first paragraph.
• Regional (geographical) variation is represented along the broad base of the pyramid while the vertical dimension exhibits social variation. • It can be seen that working class accents display a good deal of regional variety, but as the pyramid narrows to its homogeneous, up the social scale, it’s also apparent that upper class accents exhibit no regional variation. • Thus by definition, any regional accent would not be considered upper-class and the more localizable the accent, the more it will be described as a "broad" accent. broad accents reflect:
• regionally, the highest degree of local
distinctiveness • socially, the lowest social class • linguistically, the maximal degree of difference from RP. • -Wells(1982) • social-class dialects/ sociolects • grammatical differences • phonetic and phonological differences • social-class accents • Why does social differentiation have its effect on language? • A particular type of social differentiation illustrated in the example of speakers A and B
• --- social stratification(社会分层)
social stratification Any hierarchical ordering of groups within a society especially in terms of power, wealth and status. (p. 19) social classes
Linguistically, social-class dialects
• Social-class stratification is not universal, however (p. 20) Why? Now please read the two paragraphs (from “in India” to “the more heterogeneous is its language”) and circle key words to answer the question.
• stable and rigid ⎯ castes(印度的社会等级)
• fluid and fluctuating ⎯ classes
Language and Social Variation
Session 2 William Labov
American linguist, widely regarded
as the founder of the discipline of variationist sociolinguistics (变异社 会语言学). He has been described as “an enormously original and influential figure who has created much of the methodology” of sociolinguistics. The Social Stratification of English in New York City
first published in 1966; the 2nd
edition: 2006 (500-page book)
One of the first accounts of
social variation in language, this groundbreaking study founded the discipline of sociolinguistics, providing the model on which thousands of studies have been based. • Hypothesis Non-prevocalic /r/ usage would be correlated with social class.
Sales people in the highest ranked store will have the highest values of (r); Those in the middle ranked store will have intermediate values of (r); and those in the lowest ranked store will show the lowest values. The three stores which were selected: • “rapid and anonymous” survey • “Excuse me, where are the women’s shoes?” • “Fourth floor” • “Excuse me?” • “Fourth floor”
• The expected answer ‘fourth floor’ was carefully
chosen, as it contains two examples of the ’r’ he was looking for: in fourth the ‘r’ occurs before a consonant (辅音), and in floor it occurs at the end of the word. • When the clerk answered, he noted whether the [r]'s in the words were pronounced, and then asked "Excuse me?" to get a more emphatic, careful pronunciation as well. • Then he jotted down the pronunciations and basic details about the clerk (sex, age, race, job). • Overall stratification of (r) • The results of the study showed clear and consistent stratification of (r) in the three stores. divide all informants into three categories: all (r-1): some (r-1): no (r-1): those whose records show only (r-1) and no (r- 0); those whose records show at least one (r-1) and one (r-0); those whose records show only (r-0)
We see that a total of 62 percent of Saks employees used all or some (r-1), 51 percent of Macy’s, and 21 percent of Klein’s. The stratification is even sharper for the percentages of all (r-1). As the hypothesis predicted, the groups are ranked by their differential use of (r-1) in the same order as their stratification by extra-linguistic factors. (Labov, 1966) A precise replication of the department store study was done by Joy Fowler of NYU in 1986. Fowler retraced Labov’s steps as carefully as she could, substituting May’s for S. Klein, which had gone out of business. In emphatic pronunciation of the final (r), Macy’s employees come very close to the mark set by Saks. It would seem that r-pronunciation is the norm at which a majority of Macy employees aim, yet not the one they use most often. In Saks, we see a shift between casual and emphatic pronunciation, but it is much less marked. In other words, Saks employees have more security in a linguistic sense. (Labov, 1966) • (r) stratification is an integral part of the linguistic structure of the New York City speech community • The overall results show that the clerks pronounced [r] more often when they worked in a higher prestige store. • (r-1) is one of the chief characteristics of a new prestige pattern which is being superimposed upon the native New York City pattern. • the absence of (r-1) pronunciation in New York City in the 1930s
Implications? How socially significant a relatively trivial feature of accent can be the Study of Martha’s Vineyard ⏤the demonstration of the social motivation of sound change • Exercise: Read the introduction to this study in the handout and use the following key expressions to retell it. (P. 13-14) • the vowel sound of words • low-prestige, old-fashioned pronunciation • RP and some mainland American prestige accents • become exaggerated; occur more frequently; • the subjective attitudes; natives; the massive invasion of outsiders; identify with the island way of life; signal their separate social and cultural identity; • conscious; prestige form; • group identification; group solidarity; the signaling of difference Language and Social Variation
Session 3 Estuary English (EE)
• Where? -origin • How?-pronunciation practice • Why?- implications Where? -origin • a term coined by David Rosewarne, a lecturer in linguistics at the University of Surrey, in a ground-breaking article published in 1984 in The Times Educational Supplement (London). • The term “Estuary” reflects the starting point for this dialect as being the region along London’s River Thames and its estuaries.
• The area around the Thames and its estuary is supposed to
be the cradle of this type of speech, but the influence of EE is felt in the whole of the south-east. • An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish (somewhat salty) water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea Estuary English (EE) • Estuary English is a new name. But it is not a new phenomenon. It is the continuation of a trend that has been going on for five hundred years or more.
• He places Estuary English speakers on a
continuum of accents between RP and Cockney (London speech) somewhere in the middle. Why?- implications • Estuary English can be used by those who hold power, as well as working-class members. Its attractiveness lies in the premise that it “obscures sociolinguistic origins”, thus preventing a person from sounding too posh （上等阶层 的）and too common.
• Those who have come from a traditional RP background,
adopt it because it increases “street credibility”,
• and those who have local accents adopt it because it sounds
more “sophisticated”. Estuary English (EE) • Rosewarne sees the acquisition of Estuary English as part of the process of accommodation and a shift to the “middle ground” so that the RP accent is accommodated “downwards” and the local accent is accommodated “upward”, resulting in accent convergence. Wrap-up • 1. Discuss the following terms: social-class dialects, social-class accents, social stratification (castes, classes). • 2. In his book Sociolinguistics (1983), Peter Trudgill presented to us his famous accent triangle. Please explain the social and regional accent variation in England depicted in that Figure. • 3. The American linguist William Labov carried out a research on the pronunciation of ‘r’ among the workers at three New York department stores. Discuss the implications of this research. • 4. Discuss the implications of EE. • 5. Discuss the relationship between language variation and social attitude. Use specific examples to illustrate your point of view.
