DIALECT & ACCENTHenna & Siiri

Dialect

• In Finnish: murre• Simplified meaning: “Differences in words and

grammar that reveal which country or part of the country a person comes from.” (Lockwood)

• There are many different dialects of English spoken around the world. e.g. in U.S.A, Scotland, Ireland, England, Jamaica, Australia. (Shiach)

• It is not true that standard English has correct grammar and other dialects English don’t Each dialect has grammar that is suitable for that specific dialect. (Shiach)

http://zyiyi.wordpress.com/category/accent-and-dialect/

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/04/02/1080544691661.html

Standard and Nonstandard English

Standard English • is the most common dialect of English• is used in: newspapers, magazines, television and radio

as well as educational, legal and other important documents (Shiach)

Nonstandard English• Most words can be used in both standard and

nonstandard English. Main differences to standard English are in the use of pronouns and specific forms of verbs

e.g. standard: He doesn’t trust me OR He did it himself

nonstandard: He don’t trust me OR He did it hisself

(Warriner)

Differences in Vocabulary• There are also differences in the vocabulary between different

dialects.

e.g. British English and American English:

American British

- truck - lorry

- cookie - biscuit

- fries - chips

- chips - crisps

- the movies - the cinema

- pacifier - dummy

- mail - post

(English Club)

Accent• In Finnish: Aksentti• Accent is the way a person pronounces words• Can differ between social groups and different areas.

(Lockwood)• Different countries and different parts of countries have

different accents •     (e.g. England, Scotland, northern & southern•     U.S.A., Japan, etc.)• Accent has nothing to do with how to spell a word. Even

though words like ”lorry” and ”truck” are often stated only as different accents, they are actually only different dialects.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-en-iDeZEE&feature=youtu.be&t=2m35s

Received Pronunciation (RP)

• Also known as the Queen’s English (bl.uk)• Described as ”typical English” (bl.uk)• Though is estimated that only 2-3% of the population of UK are RP speakers (Trudgill, bl.uk)

• It is the accent that doesn’t tell from which region are you from (bl.uk)

• Standard English is usually the dialect for RP (bl.uk)

• Phonemic transcriptions in dictionarys are based on RP (or RP & General American) (Szynalski, bl.uk)

Works Cited• English Club. "British English/American English Vocabulary." British

English/American English Vocabulary. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Aug. 2013. <http://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/british-american.htm>.

• Lockwood, Liz. English to 14. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996. Print.• "Received Pronunciation." Received Pronunciation.N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Aug. 2013.

<http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/case-studies/received-pronunciation/>.• Shiach, Don. Grammar to 14. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. Print.• soundlyawake. "35 Accents in English Language". Youtube. 12.11.2010. <http://

www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-en-iDeZEE>• Szynalski, Tomasz P. "Introduction to Phonetic Transcription." Antimoon: How to

Learn English Effectively. Antimoon, n.d. Web. 26 Aug. 2013. <http://www.antimoon.com/how/pronunc-trans.htm>.

• Warriner, Jhon. English Composition and Grammar. Orlando: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Publishers, 1988. Print.

• •Trudgill, Peter. "The Sociolinguistics of Modern RP." Sociolinguistics of Modern RP. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Aug. 2013 . <http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/estuary/trudgill.htm>.