Sociolects and dialects in England’s Social classes
The social structure of England has been highly influenced by the different social classes. There are two ways the social classes are described, you have the more informal classification with the ‘main’ social classes are the Underclass, the Working class with the ‘sub’ groups, the unskilled working class and the skilled working class, the Middle class with the ‘sub’ groups, lower middle class, middle class and upper middle class, the Upper class. The Great British Class Survey divided the social system into 7 classes: 1. The Elite 2. Established middle class 3. Technical middle class 4. New affluent workers 5. Traditional working class 6. Emergent service worker 7. Precariat Every social class has a different variety of the English language. This means that someone from the Underclass can or will use different words than someone from the Upper class, articulates the words in another way or uses different rules regarding to grammar. In almost every social class you have different ‘sociolects’. The difference between a dialect and a sociolect is that a dialect is identified by its geography, in which region the dialect is spoken, while a sociolect is the way a person speaks in a certain group. This can regard to someone’s ethnicity, age, gender etc. People who use the same rules and norms when it comes to language are called a speech community. People who study the relation between language and society are called sociolinguistic. But there are also some accents and/or dialects that are commonly used in a particular social class. For instance, the London Cockney accent is commonly spoken by the lower and working class people living in (east). Some dialects have very distinct ways of pronunciation and have difference in ways of grammar, vocabulary and/or pronunciation. As I mentioned earlier there are several accents and/or dialects that are commonly used in a particular social class. This is more commonly the case in the lower class and the working class. Lower and Working class Now I mentioned that it’s not uncommon that a certain accent and/or dialect is used in a particular social class. Here are some of the accents most commonly used in the Lower and Working class: The Scouse accent, is the accent and dialect of Liverpool, it’s commonly used by the working class people in the Merseyside area. Cockney as mentioned earlier is the accent commonly used by the working class people in (east) London. Multicultural London English is a dialect which is mainly spoken by younger people of the working class in London. It’s considered a ‘hybrid language’ with elements from the languages of the Caribbean. Some sociolinguistics predict that this dialect will in time replace the cockney accent. Now to give you a better insight on how the Scouse accent is spoken: 1. The CK or K sound is often replaced by a kind of Dutch G sound. You would say pig, gan of goge, lige. Instead of pick, can of coke, like. 2. The T sound at the end of a word is sometimes replaced with a weak H sound. This can happen with multiple words, for example that. 3. The word book can be pronounced differently, for example as bewk, while other words like took or look are often pronounced as tuck and luck; To give you an insight on how the Cockney accent is spoken: 1. The H is often dropped at the beginning of words, for example, you would say ello instead of Hello; 2. The TH sound is often replaced by a F sound, For example, if you would count it will go like one, two, free. Think will become Fink etc.; 3. The TH sound can change into a V sound in the middle of a word. So instead of saying bother you will say bover. 4. And to continue on the previous point, the R at the end of words can be replaced by a AH sound. So instead of saying Brother, you will say bruvah 5. And It’s not uncommon that the G will not be uttered at the end of words. For example you will say Flyin, instead of Flying, or fightin, instead of fighting. An example sentence: I have been thinking about what your brother said. I have been finking about what your bruvah said. Multicultural London English can be considered as a rather new dialect (and/or sociolect) as it emerged in the late 20th century. As mentioned earlier Multicultural London English is a dialect (and/or sociolect) from London and there are some sociolinguistics who predict that this accent will replace the Cockney accent, but if you look closely at both dialects you will see that they are very alike. Upper class vs Middle class As I have mentioned earlier: ‘every social class has a different variety of the English language. This means that someone from the Underclass will use different words than someone from the Upper class, or perhaps articulate the words in another way.’ Now I will show some of the differences in words, grammar and pronunciation between Upper class (AKA RP (Received Pronunciation)) and the middle class. For middle class I will use Estuary English as an example. I will first give you a small introduction to RP. Received Pronunciation, is considered to be the standard accent or to be standard English in the United Kingdom. And although it’s considered to be standard English, only a low percentage of 3% of the people in Britain actually speak Received Pronunciation. The most famous speakers of RP are: The Royal British Family and David Cameroon The Prime Minster of the United Kingdom. Estuary English is considered a milder (and closer to RP) form of the London and or Cockney accent. It can be considered as a working class, lower middle class and middle class accent. This accent of English is widely spoken in the Southeast of England. Although it’s considered more a middle class accent than a working class accent, there are debates among linguistics about where Cockney (a typical working class accent) ends and Estuary English begins. Upper class The language of the upper class is known by language experts as URP: Upper Received Pronunciation. The clipped phrases and lengthened vowels characterise the posh social dialect. This archaic type of speaking can lead to embarrassing situations where the speaker is simply not understood. According to a manual from 1869, the ‘best accent’ was taught at Eton and Oxford. For some that still holds true, although now it is socially acceptable to choose whether to retain or even acquire this social dialect. What is it that makes the speech patterns of the upper class distinct from other speakers of RP? Every syllable is sounded but some letters are clipped, ‘I’, ‘e’ and ‘a’ coming in for some particularly rough treatment. Other URP speakers seem to start their sentences with a bang and trail away to a whimper. In the 1920s, Lord Reith, director general of the BBC, believed that there was a right way to speak and insisted that his announcers should all speak properly and all sound the same. He saw it as his duty to ensure that the public knew the right way to speak. The acme of aristocracy is the royal family, but even the Queen’s English has changed over the years since her coronation in 1952. The queen speaks posh and so does the whole Establishment. Certain sectors of the English populace are very good at posh – they perfected it down to a T > a phenomenon of England. Some people think that the word posh originated from the dandies of former times. Posh means smart, refined and elegant. A ‘posh’ in Regency times in England was a stylish, highly affected man, elegant in dress and manner. Nancy Mitford The concept of U and Non-U English, with U standing for upper class and non U representing the middle classes, was introduced by Mitford in her essay ‘Noblesse Obliged’ in the magazine Encounter in 1955. The article caused degree of uproar although Mitford meant it very much tongue in cheek. Posh Posh is an accent only spoken by people in the Upper class. It uses other words and even has some of their own words in comparison with other accents and/or dialects (like Estuary English). To give you an insight, here are some words only people with a posh accent will use: Pip Pip, which is a posh way of saying goodbye; Jove, is an abbreviation of ‘Jehova’ which stands for god; Poppycock, means nonsense; Spiffing, is a posh way of saying excellent; Beastly, is a posh way of saying that something is very unpleasant; Jolly, is a word to make things sound more British English, for example: We’re having a jolly good time. Sources http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-22007058 April 3th 2013 and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_British_Class_Survey Labov, William. Dialect Diversity in America : the Politics of Language Change. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2012. 6. Print. Finding http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociolect Wells, John C, Accents of English, volume 1, 2, 3 (1982), found: http://ic-migration.webhost.uits.arizona.edu/icfiles/ic/lsp/site/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10473059, July 1st 2010 http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/text-only/england/birkenhead/ Trudgill, Peter, The Dialects of England (1990), found: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scouse#cite_note-18 McDavid, Raven I. (1965), American Social Dialects, College English 26, finding: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Received_Pronunciation Wells, John C. (2011), John Wells’s phonetic blog, the evidence of the vows, http://phonetic-blog.blogspot.nl/2011/05/evidence-of-vows.html Well, John C. (2007), John Wells’s phonetic blog, any young U-RP speakers?, http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/wells/blog0707a.htm Well, John C. (2010), John Wells’s phonetic blog, EE, yet again, http://phonetic-blog.blogspot.nl/2010/04/ee-yet-again.html http://www.funtrivia.com/en/subtopics/Are-You-Proper-Posh-278613.html |
Some posh words versus middle class words.
Napkin is the correct term. Serviette is a middle class attempt to sound classier by using a French word. Apparently the word napkin was too close to nappy (the British English word for a diaper) for middle class sensibilities. You don’t say evening meal, it is dinner in the evening. Only if you are referring to an evening meal. The upper classes may sometimes refer to the evening meal as supper. It is pudding for the upper class. Dessert is sometimes used by upper middles, but afters and sweets very clearly put you below stairs. If you call a seat for two or more people a couch you are at most middle class. Couch is becoming more acceptable higher up the class ladder thanks to American media influences, but the accepted term for the uppers is sofa. You would find a sofa in the drawing room of an English upper class house. The uppers call it a drawing room (short for withdrawing room), but if they have a smaller house than Buckingham Palace then this often seems overblown, so sitting room is often used instead. If you are not of the upper classes and call your item of furniture a settee, then you would place it in what you call your living room. Such a place would not exist in an upper class home. According to social experts, if you are of the English upper class you would be rich instead of wealthy. Whilst many of the upper classes would now plead poverty, if they do have money then they are very definitely rich. Wealthy is how an aspirational middle class would describe themselves.. If you want to pass of as a truly posh English person you should never use the word ‘posh’. Its T. The English upper classes would consider the correct word to use as ‘smart’. It is considered an irredeemably low class word.
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