Dialect levelling
Encyclopedia
Dialect levelling is the means by which dialect
differences decrease. For example, in rural
areas of Britain
, although English
is widely spoken, the pronunciation
and grammar
have historically varied. During the 20th century people have been moving into towns and cities, standard
izing the English language. Dialect levelling can develop via the influence of various types of media. Television has broadcast Estuary English
through programmes such as 'Eastenders' over a long period of time. With more people viewing and listening to Estuary English, it becomes more widely used throughout the country.
Sociolinguists study relations between language and social groups. This includes topics such as the differences in language usage between men and women, older and younger people, lower and higher social classes and attitudes towards various language forms. The techniques developed by sociolinguists can be used to study the phenomenon of dialect levelling (Boves, & Gerritsen, 1995).
Historical examples show that dialect levelling generally takes place anywhere and anytime in situations of extensive mobility and cultural and linguistic mixing. One historical example of dialect levelling is the change in the London dialect that took place in the fifteenth century when Northern county immigrants moved to London. Their dialect diffused into southern forms and some elements were incorporated into standard English (Milroy, 2002). Dialect levelling has become a widespread phenomenon in Britain. Southern features seem to be spreading throughout the whole country and typical vowel sounds seem to be centred around big cities like Glasgow, Leeds or Newcastle (Kerswill, 2001).
Due to an increase in mobility, migration and the media, who portray variety in language as something positive, dialect levelling seems to take place more quickly than before (Kerswill, 2003).
Since the late 1970s a gap has been growing between the north and the south of England. The south has experienced economic growth while the north has seen a decline of its wealth. While southerners realize that using a standard language can increase work opportunities, northerners, discouraged by the high unemployment rates, don’t see why they should use the standard language promoted through education. Thus we notice more dialect levelling towards standard English in the south than in the north of England.
In towns that receive many immigrants of different social classes, children are exposed at a young age to different dialects and dialect levelling takes place unconsciously. To the contrary, in towns where this is not the case and families tend to stay in the same place for several generations, children mostly come into contact only with the dialect spoken at home.
However, even though northern youngsters don’t come into contact with many dialects other than their own, they do take over some non-standard southern consonantal variants. This may be explained by people who moved out of the area for a while such as students, people working in the military or people that worked outside of the area who then returned, bringing their altered accent with them. It may also be caused by TV and radio stations, many of which broadcast from London and the south.
• The survey of British Dialect Grammar in the metropolitan regions of Blackburn, Birmingham, Cardiff, Nottingham, Glasgow, London, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Preston, Sheffield, Teesside, Coventry, Swansea, Brighton, Leeds and Bristol (Cheshire, Edwards, & Whittle, 1989).
The major urban centres of Britain have certain grammatical features in common in their spoken English and so we could say that a ‘standardizing’ non-standard variety of English is developing.
• Social network and class culture as independent influences on language change (Kerswill, & Williams, 2000)
In Milton Keynes a new phenomenon has been investigated in linguistics research. A large group of working-class people have moved to Milton Keynes, away from their home town and kin, in the hope of finding better housing. Unlike traditional working-class communities they do not form close-knit networks and tend to keep themselves to themselves. This type of network is common with migrants everywhere. For some features, especially vowels, the levelling leans towards the Received Pronunciation norm. For other features, especially consonants, the levelling leans more towards a general, southern, non-standard norm.
Strong class awareness amongst youngsters and strong feelings against ‘posh’ people explain why standard English and Received Pronunciation are not fully adopted. For the working class of Milton Keynes it is priority to establish a distinction between them and the upper class. This indicated that mobility and social class appear to be two separate influences that do not necessarily go hand in hand.
• [θ]-fronting in Britain. This is when the -th- is pronounced as [f] or [v]” (Kerswill, 2003).
• The following are the 13 most reported dialect features in the metropolitan regions of Blackburn, Birmingham, Cardiff, Nottingham, Glasgow, London, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Preston, Sheffield, Teesside, Coventry, Swansea, Brighton, Leeds and Bristol according to The Survey of British Dialect Grammar.
o Them as demonstrative adjective (Look at them big spiders),
o Should of (You should of left half an hour ago),
o Absence of plural marking (To make a big cake you need two pound of flour),
o What as subject relative pronoun (The film what was on last night was good),
o Never as past tense negator (No, I never broke that),
o There was with plural ‘notional’ subject (There was some singers here a minute ago),
o There’s with plural ‘notional’ subject (There’s cars outside the church),
o Perfect participle sat following BE auxiliary (She was sat over there looking at her car),
o Adverbial quick (I like pasta. It cooks really quick),
o Ain’t/in’t (that ain’t working/ that in’t working),
o Give me it (give me it, please),
o Perfect participle stood following BE auxiliary (And he was stood in the corner looking at it),
o Non-standard was (we was singing) (Cheshire, Edwards, & Whittle, 1989).
• Estuary English is a new English variation found on the Thames Estuary. It is situated somewhere in the middle between popular London speech and received pronunciation. People arrive at it from above and from below. As people climb the social ladder they tend to correct their speech. They get rid of grammatically nonstandard features such as double negatives, the word ain’t and past tense forms such as writ for wrote and come for came. They also adapt their accent like pronouncing the instead of dropping it, replacing the glottal stops with [t] as in water and some vowels may change. Some claim that Estuary English is becoming the new standard, replacing received pronunciation and that received pronunciation speakers are adopting it themselves (Kerswill, 2001)(Milroy, 2002).
Dialect levelling is also occurring in some African languages
.
Over the past forty years people have moved out of the cities and into dormitory towns and suburbs. In addition thirty-five new towns, such as Milton Keynes were created across the country (Kerswill, 2001). Industrialisation often causes an increase in work opportunities in a certain area causing people to move and evoking a general willingness to adopt certain language features that are typical for this area (Milroy, 2002).
In general first-generation adult migrants only show slight language changes, whereas their children produce a more homogeneous language. When these children become teenagers, they often feel pressured to conform to the language of their peer group and thus a new levelled language variety starts to emerge (Williams, & Kerswill, 1999).
• Lateral (geographical) mobility
Modern transportation has made travel easier and more efficient. This results in people travelling larger distances to work and meeting people from different areas at work, which in turn exposes them to different dialects and encourages dialect levelling. It causes employers to expect that employees are flexible and willing to work at different locations or to change locations throughout their career. It produces language missionaries or people that move away from their native area for a period of time and then return, bringing with them some traces of a foreign dialect and it results in that fact that parents nowadays do not come from the same community, causing dialect levelling to take place within the family (Williams, & Kerswill, 1999).
• Vertical social mobility
When people are promoted they often feel the need to adapt their language so that a wider group of people will understand them more clearly. They often leave out typical regional varieties and use more widely known varieties instead. Schools realize the need for a common language variety and encourage pupils to adopt Standard English (Williams, & Kerswill, 1999).
• People approach new language forms positively
Popular media such as TV and radio stations broadcast mostly from London and the south, causing traces of southern accents to be found in the north. Nowadays however, one finds a generally positive attitude towards different language forms as Non-Received Pronunciation English can be heard on every radio and television station. BBC newsreaders still form an exception in this respect, though even there Welsh and Scottish accents seem to be accepted. This positive attitude towards different varieties of English seems to catch on with the general public (Kerswill, 2001)(Williams, & Kerswill, 1999).
• Women are generally more open to new language varieties
Several studies show that women adopt widely used language features more easily than men. The language of women tends to be more neutral and shows less regional varieties, though their language does not necessarily come closer to Received Pronunciation. Dialect levelling often starts with women but quickly spreads to the rest of the family (Kerswill, 2003).
• Speakers want to maintain a unique dialect that distinguishes them from others.
In some cases more than others, linguistic distinctiveness seems to be a sociolinguistic priority. When having a conversation with someone of a different dialect community, some people like to emphasize their own dialect (Kerswill, & Williams 2000)(Milroy, 2002).
Amongst youngsters of all classes there is often a strong class awareness. Working-class teenagers for example, are known to make strong statements against ‘posh’ people. These class-based norms influence a person’s willingness to adopt standard English and Received Pronunciation and their dislike for different language varieties (Kerswill, & Williams 2000).
• Natural factors
Not all language changes are caused by external influences. Sometimes language changes through the course of time. One example of such a change is [θ]-fronting (Kerswill, 2003).
Over the larger area of Great Britain, geographical diffusion tends to take place as opposed to dialect levelling. In this case specific language features spread out from a densely populated, economical and culturally dominant centre. Where dialect levelling takes place locally, geographical diffusion covers large areas (Kerswill, 2003).
• Social dialect
The Survey of British Dialect Grammar suggests the term social dialect as supposed to regional dialect because the dialect a person uses seems to be more closely related to a person’s social activities and relationships with other people than to the place where they reside (Cheshire, Edwards, & Whittle, 1989).
• Koinéization
Koinéization is the process by which speakers create a new language variety based on the dialects of the speakers whom they have come into contact with (Milroy, 2002).
• Standardisation of language
The formalization of a language variety with the intervention of an institution (Milroy, 2002).
Dialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
differences decrease. For example, in rural
Rural
Rural areas or the country or countryside are areas that are not urbanized, though when large areas are described, country towns and smaller cities will be included. They have a low population density, and typically much of the land is devoted to agriculture...
areas of Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, although English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
is widely spoken, the pronunciation
Pronunciation
Pronunciation refers to the way a word or a language is spoken, or the manner in which someone utters a word. If one is said to have "correct pronunciation", then it refers to both within a particular dialect....
and grammar
Grammar
In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...
have historically varied. During the 20th century people have been moving into towns and cities, standard
Standard language
A standard language is a language variety used by a group of people in their public discourse. Alternatively, varieties become standard by undergoing a process of standardization, during which it is organized for description in grammars and dictionaries and encoded in such reference works...
izing the English language. Dialect levelling can develop via the influence of various types of media. Television has broadcast Estuary English
Estuary English
Estuary English is a dialect of English widely spoken in South East England, especially along the River Thames and its estuary. Phonetician John C. Wells defines Estuary English as "Standard English spoken with the accent of the southeast of England"...
through programmes such as 'Eastenders' over a long period of time. With more people viewing and listening to Estuary English, it becomes more widely used throughout the country.
Background
Dialect levelling is a linguistic phenomenon studied and observed by dialectologists and sociolinguists. There are different researcher opinions on what constitutes a dialect in this context. Chambers and Trudgill (1984) choose to view a dialect as a subdivision of a particular language such as the Parisian dialect of French and the Lancashire dialect of English. They feel that standard English is just as much a dialect as any other form of English and that it is incorrect to suppose that one language is in any way linguistically superior to another.Sociolinguists study relations between language and social groups. This includes topics such as the differences in language usage between men and women, older and younger people, lower and higher social classes and attitudes towards various language forms. The techniques developed by sociolinguists can be used to study the phenomenon of dialect levelling (Boves, & Gerritsen, 1995).
The development of dialect levelling
Dialect levelling occurs mostly in socially and geographically mobile groups and in contexts where people have a tendency to adapt to their listener in order to ensure they better understand. People who come to a new town adapt their language and unconsciously leave out local language elements so that the hearer will understand them better. As a result, dialect forms that have a wide geographical and social range tend to be used more often. Eventually these short-term adaptions become long-term changes. Though most of the adjustments happen largely unconsciously, some people are more open to language change and adaptation than others and this influences the extent to which dialect levelling takes place (Kerswill, 2003)(Milroy, 2002).Historical examples show that dialect levelling generally takes place anywhere and anytime in situations of extensive mobility and cultural and linguistic mixing. One historical example of dialect levelling is the change in the London dialect that took place in the fifteenth century when Northern county immigrants moved to London. Their dialect diffused into southern forms and some elements were incorporated into standard English (Milroy, 2002). Dialect levelling has become a widespread phenomenon in Britain. Southern features seem to be spreading throughout the whole country and typical vowel sounds seem to be centred around big cities like Glasgow, Leeds or Newcastle (Kerswill, 2001).
Due to an increase in mobility, migration and the media, who portray variety in language as something positive, dialect levelling seems to take place more quickly than before (Kerswill, 2003).
Cases
The following are the results of several research projects with a focus on dialect levelling. They enhance our knowledge of the dialect levelling that is taking place today in Great Britain. There has been research on the phenomenon of dialect leveling in Hull, Milton Keynes and Reading (Williams, & Kerswill, 1999):Since the late 1970s a gap has been growing between the north and the south of England. The south has experienced economic growth while the north has seen a decline of its wealth. While southerners realize that using a standard language can increase work opportunities, northerners, discouraged by the high unemployment rates, don’t see why they should use the standard language promoted through education. Thus we notice more dialect levelling towards standard English in the south than in the north of England.
In towns that receive many immigrants of different social classes, children are exposed at a young age to different dialects and dialect levelling takes place unconsciously. To the contrary, in towns where this is not the case and families tend to stay in the same place for several generations, children mostly come into contact only with the dialect spoken at home.
However, even though northern youngsters don’t come into contact with many dialects other than their own, they do take over some non-standard southern consonantal variants. This may be explained by people who moved out of the area for a while such as students, people working in the military or people that worked outside of the area who then returned, bringing their altered accent with them. It may also be caused by TV and radio stations, many of which broadcast from London and the south.
• The survey of British Dialect Grammar in the metropolitan regions of Blackburn, Birmingham, Cardiff, Nottingham, Glasgow, London, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Preston, Sheffield, Teesside, Coventry, Swansea, Brighton, Leeds and Bristol (Cheshire, Edwards, & Whittle, 1989).
The major urban centres of Britain have certain grammatical features in common in their spoken English and so we could say that a ‘standardizing’ non-standard variety of English is developing.
• Social network and class culture as independent influences on language change (Kerswill, & Williams, 2000)
In Milton Keynes a new phenomenon has been investigated in linguistics research. A large group of working-class people have moved to Milton Keynes, away from their home town and kin, in the hope of finding better housing. Unlike traditional working-class communities they do not form close-knit networks and tend to keep themselves to themselves. This type of network is common with migrants everywhere. For some features, especially vowels, the levelling leans towards the Received Pronunciation norm. For other features, especially consonants, the levelling leans more towards a general, southern, non-standard norm.
Strong class awareness amongst youngsters and strong feelings against ‘posh’ people explain why standard English and Received Pronunciation are not fully adopted. For the working class of Milton Keynes it is priority to establish a distinction between them and the upper class. This indicated that mobility and social class appear to be two separate influences that do not necessarily go hand in hand.
Examples
The following are examples of new language features that are currently spreading throughout Britain. They are slowly taking the place of typical regional features. I have chosen to add Estuary English as an example of modern day dialect levelling because it is the well known result of dialect levelling that has been taking place on the Thames Estuary over the past twenty years.• [θ]-fronting in Britain. This is when the -th- is pronounced as [f] or [v]” (Kerswill, 2003).
• The following are the 13 most reported dialect features in the metropolitan regions of Blackburn, Birmingham, Cardiff, Nottingham, Glasgow, London, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Preston, Sheffield, Teesside, Coventry, Swansea, Brighton, Leeds and Bristol according to The Survey of British Dialect Grammar.
o Them as demonstrative adjective (Look at them big spiders),
o Should of (You should of left half an hour ago),
o Absence of plural marking (To make a big cake you need two pound of flour),
o What as subject relative pronoun (The film what was on last night was good),
o Never as past tense negator (No, I never broke that),
o There was with plural ‘notional’ subject (There was some singers here a minute ago),
o There’s with plural ‘notional’ subject (There’s cars outside the church),
o Perfect participle sat following BE auxiliary (She was sat over there looking at her car),
o Adverbial quick (I like pasta. It cooks really quick),
o Ain’t/in’t (that ain’t working/ that in’t working),
o Give me it (give me it, please),
o Perfect participle stood following BE auxiliary (And he was stood in the corner looking at it),
o Non-standard was (we was singing) (Cheshire, Edwards, & Whittle, 1989).
• Estuary English is a new English variation found on the Thames Estuary. It is situated somewhere in the middle between popular London speech and received pronunciation. People arrive at it from above and from below. As people climb the social ladder they tend to correct their speech. They get rid of grammatically nonstandard features such as double negatives, the word ain’t and past tense forms such as writ for wrote and come for came. They also adapt their accent like pronouncing the
Dialect levelling is also occurring in some African languages
African languages
There are over 2100 and by some counts over 3000 languages spoken natively in Africa in several major language families:*Afro-Asiatic spread throughout the Middle East, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and parts of the Sahel...
.
Influences on dialect levelling
• Migration within a countryOver the past forty years people have moved out of the cities and into dormitory towns and suburbs. In addition thirty-five new towns, such as Milton Keynes were created across the country (Kerswill, 2001). Industrialisation often causes an increase in work opportunities in a certain area causing people to move and evoking a general willingness to adopt certain language features that are typical for this area (Milroy, 2002).
In general first-generation adult migrants only show slight language changes, whereas their children produce a more homogeneous language. When these children become teenagers, they often feel pressured to conform to the language of their peer group and thus a new levelled language variety starts to emerge (Williams, & Kerswill, 1999).
• Lateral (geographical) mobility
Modern transportation has made travel easier and more efficient. This results in people travelling larger distances to work and meeting people from different areas at work, which in turn exposes them to different dialects and encourages dialect levelling. It causes employers to expect that employees are flexible and willing to work at different locations or to change locations throughout their career. It produces language missionaries or people that move away from their native area for a period of time and then return, bringing with them some traces of a foreign dialect and it results in that fact that parents nowadays do not come from the same community, causing dialect levelling to take place within the family (Williams, & Kerswill, 1999).
• Vertical social mobility
When people are promoted they often feel the need to adapt their language so that a wider group of people will understand them more clearly. They often leave out typical regional varieties and use more widely known varieties instead. Schools realize the need for a common language variety and encourage pupils to adopt Standard English (Williams, & Kerswill, 1999).
• People approach new language forms positively
Popular media such as TV and radio stations broadcast mostly from London and the south, causing traces of southern accents to be found in the north. Nowadays however, one finds a generally positive attitude towards different language forms as Non-Received Pronunciation English can be heard on every radio and television station. BBC newsreaders still form an exception in this respect, though even there Welsh and Scottish accents seem to be accepted. This positive attitude towards different varieties of English seems to catch on with the general public (Kerswill, 2001)(Williams, & Kerswill, 1999).
• Women are generally more open to new language varieties
Several studies show that women adopt widely used language features more easily than men. The language of women tends to be more neutral and shows less regional varieties, though their language does not necessarily come closer to Received Pronunciation. Dialect levelling often starts with women but quickly spreads to the rest of the family (Kerswill, 2003).
• Speakers want to maintain a unique dialect that distinguishes them from others.
In some cases more than others, linguistic distinctiveness seems to be a sociolinguistic priority. When having a conversation with someone of a different dialect community, some people like to emphasize their own dialect (Kerswill, & Williams 2000)(Milroy, 2002).
Amongst youngsters of all classes there is often a strong class awareness. Working-class teenagers for example, are known to make strong statements against ‘posh’ people. These class-based norms influence a person’s willingness to adopt standard English and Received Pronunciation and their dislike for different language varieties (Kerswill, & Williams 2000).
• Natural factors
Not all language changes are caused by external influences. Sometimes language changes through the course of time. One example of such a change is [θ]-fronting (Kerswill, 2003).
Related items
• Geographical diffusionOver the larger area of Great Britain, geographical diffusion tends to take place as opposed to dialect levelling. In this case specific language features spread out from a densely populated, economical and culturally dominant centre. Where dialect levelling takes place locally, geographical diffusion covers large areas (Kerswill, 2003).
• Social dialect
The Survey of British Dialect Grammar suggests the term social dialect as supposed to regional dialect because the dialect a person uses seems to be more closely related to a person’s social activities and relationships with other people than to the place where they reside (Cheshire, Edwards, & Whittle, 1989).
• Koinéization
Koinéization is the process by which speakers create a new language variety based on the dialects of the speakers whom they have come into contact with (Milroy, 2002).
• Standardisation of language
The formalization of a language variety with the intervention of an institution (Milroy, 2002).
See also
- Koiné languageKoine languageIn linguistics, a koiné language is a standard language or dialect that has arisen as a result of contact between two mutually intelligible varieties of the same language. Since the speakers have understood one another from before the advent of the koiné, the koineization process is not as rapid...
- Language convergenceLanguage convergenceLanguage convergence is a type of contact-induced change whereby languages with many bilingual speakers mutually borrow morphological and syntactic features, making their typology more similar....
- Dialect continuumDialect continuumA dialect continuum, or dialect area, was defined by Leonard Bloomfield as a range of dialects spoken across some geographical area that differ only slightly between neighboring areas, but as one travels in any direction, these differences accumulate such that speakers from opposite ends of the...
- Mutual intelligibilityMutual intelligibilityIn linguistics, mutual intelligibility is recognized as a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related languages can readily understand each other without intentional study or extraordinary effort...