UNIVERSITY OF ŽILINAFaculty of Science

Department of English Language and Literature

BRITISH ENGLISH – ITS FORMS,

DIALECTS, ACCENTS, SLANG, AGE, GENDER AND

SOCIAL DIFFERENCES

Silvia Frišová

2007

6

UNIVERSITY OF ŽILINA

Faculty of Science

Department of English Language and Literature

BRITISH ENGLISH - ITS FORMS, DIALECTS, ACCENTS, SLANG,

AGE, GENDER AND SOCIAL DIFFERENCES

Diplomová práca

Silvia Frišová

Školiteľ: doc. PhDr. Anna Hlavňová, CSc.

Komisia pre obhajoby: Katedra anglického jazyka a  literatúry

Predseda komisie: prof. PhDr. Stanislav Kavka, CSc.

Stupeň odborovej kvalifikácie: magister

Dátum odovzdania práce: 2007-04-15

Dátum obhajoby: . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..

Žilina 2007

7

ABSTRACT

FRIŠOVÁ, Silvia: British English – its forms, dialects, accents, slang, age,

gender and social differences. [Diplomová práca]. Žilinská univerzita

v Žiline. Fakulta prírodných vied; Katedra anglického jazyka a  literatúry.

Školiteľ: doc. PhDr. Anna Hlavňová, CSc. Komisia obhajoby: Katedra

anglického jazyka a  literatúry.

Stupeň odbornej kvalifikácie: magister. Žilina: FPV, 2007. 80 strán.

Diplomová práca sa zaoberá problematikou britskej angličtiny, jej

formami, prízvukmi, dialektmi, slangom a  rozdieloch jej použitia podľa

veku, pohlavia a sociálneho zaradenia v spoločnosti. Jej hlavným cieľom

je oboznámiť čitateľa s  hovorovou angličtinou a  inými prízvukmi ako

štandardným. Prvá kapitola je venovaná rôznym formám britskej angličtiny

a rozdielom medzi nimi, druhá kapitola porovnáva štandardnú angličtinu

a jej prízvuk s  ich neštandardnými obmenami. V ďalších kapitolách sa

rozoberá hovorová angličtina,  rozdielne používanie slovnej zásoby

a gramatiky ovplyvnené vekom, pohlavím a  sociálnym postavením a

pôsobenie emailu na anglický jazyk. Práca obsahuje aj názorné ukážky

praktického využitia.

Kľúčové slová: Štandardná angličtina. Prízvuky. Dialekty. Vplyv veku,

pohlavia a  sociálneho postavenia na jazyk. Slang. Email.

This thesis deals with the topic of British English, its forms, dialects,

accents, slang, age, gender and social differences. Its main objective is to

supply a reader with spoken English and other accents than is the modified

Received Pronunciation. The first chapter deals with different forms of

British English and differences among them, the second chapter compares

Standard English and its accent with their non-standard varieties.

Following chapters analyse slang, distinct use of vocabulary and grammar

when taken into consideration age, gender and social class and the

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influence of email on English language. This thesis also contains some

practical exercises for teachers of English language.

Keywords: Standard English. Accents. Dialects. Age, gender and social

differences. Slang. Email.

9

FOREWORD

Firstly, I  would like to express my thanks to all the people who helped

me to complete this thesis, especially to doc. PhDr. Anna Hlavňová, CSc.

As my tutor, she gave me valuable pieces of advice and instructions and

was very helpful throughout the entire project.

I have chosen this topic mostly because of personal experience. After

several years of studying English, I visited Great Britain and was rather

surprised. English that I had expected to hear on the streets of England did

not coincide with English I was taught to. I was not ready for everyday

spoken English and all its slang. For this reason, this work introduces

´other´ sides of British English as is the Standard written which Slovak

students are usually in contact with.

This thesis also contains several exercises which are oriented on

spoken English and its slang and which, I believe may not only positively

enrich lessons of English but also bring practical value for students in the

future.

Grammar, the preferred element of studying the language in Slovakia,

is clearly not always the basis for everyday communication.

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CONTENT

0 INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................13

1 BRITISH ENGLISH AND ITS FORMS.........................................................15

1.1 STANDARD ENGLISH .........................................................................................15

1.2 ENGLISH AND ITS FORMS .................................................................................16

1.2.1 Formal English..........................................................................................16

1.2.2 Informal English.......................................................................................17

1.2.2.1 Usage of Formal and Informal English ......................................18

1.2.3 Spoken and Written English ..................................................................18

1.2.3.1 Differences between Spoken and Written English ...................19

1.2.3.2 Other features of Spoken and Written language ......................21

2 ACCENTS AND DIALECTS..............................................................................27

2.1 REGIONAL DIALECTS AND STANDARD ENGLISH ........................................27

2.2. REGIONAL ACCENTS AND RECEIVED PRONUNCIATION ..........................31

2.2.1 MAIN PRONUNCIATION DIFFERENCES BETWEEN RP AND OTHER

ENGLISH ACCENTS ....................................................................................................32

2.2.2 BASIC DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SE AND NE............................................34

2.2.3 SCOTTISH ENGLISH .......................................................................................36

2.2.4 WELSH ENGLISH ............................................................................................37

2.2.5 ENGLISH IN NORTHERN IRELAND ..............................................................38

3 SLANG.......................................................................................................................40

3.1 CHARACTERISTICS OF SLANG .........................................................................40

3.2 ORIGINS OF SLANG............................................................................................41

3.3 WHAT SLANG IS NOT ........................................................................................41

3.4 WHY PEOPLE USE SLANG.................................................................................42

3.5 MY FAVOURITE SLANG WORDS ......................................................................44

3.6 COCKNEY ENGLISH ...........................................................................................47

3.6.1 Etymology of Cockney English .............................................................47

3.6.2 Cockney speech and its features ..........................................................48

3.7 COCKNEY RHYMING SLANG...........................................................................50

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3.7.1 Sociolinguistics of Cockney Rhyming Slang .....................................51

3.7.2 Examples of Cockney Rhyming Slang.................................................53

3.8 EXERCISES ...........................................................................................................57

4 SOCIAL, AGE AND GENDER DIFFERENCES.........................................59

4.1. SOCIAL CLASS DIFFERENCES .........................................................................59

4.2 AGE DIFFERENCES .............................................................................................64

4.3 GENDER DIFFERENCES ......................................................................................67

4.3.1 Do women speak more ´correct´ than men? ......................................67

4.3.2 Do women speak more politely than men? ........................................69

4.3.3 Do women talk more than men?...........................................................72

5 LANGUAGE IN EMAIL MESSAGES.............................................................74

5.1 EMAIL...................................................................................................................74

5.2 EMAIL STYLE......................................................................................................74

5.2.1 Typical characteristics of email language ........................................75

5.3 EXERCISE .............................................................................................................78

6 CONCLUSION ………...…………………………………………………………75

ATTACHMENTS

Recordings 1 - 6 a CD

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0 INTRODUCTION

British English, its sub variations, dialects, accents and slang. Subjects

or better said main concerns of many linguists who try to point out, even

for native speakers, differences between written, spoken English and

slang.

Age, gender and social differences can also cause some uncertainties when

it comes to the use of language.

In casual oral communication it is not normal to reflect on the correct

use of English grammar and vocabulary. Indeed to correct a person who

may use grammatically inappropriate words or sentence constructions

would be accepted as rude or impolite in British society.

Learning the English language, I have been dealing with this matter

from my early arrival in England. I have started to compare it from the

very first day of arriving to the British Isles. I guess it was highlighted by

the fact that the lady of the family I stayed with was Australian and her

husband was British. This was the beginning of my ´exploration.´ I have

lived in the UK for some time and enjoyed many opportunities to meet

people from not only different age and gender groups but also social

classes. I must admit, it was interesting, and, in hindsight, very helpful for

my thesis, to watch sometimes trivial, sometimes greater differences and

sometimes bizarre peculiarities in the usage of this dominant international

language.

My first chapter deals with Standard English, its forms and differences

between them. It is accompanied by a sample of spoken English on which I

tried to depict all its typical characteristics.

In the second passage, I compare Standard English and Received

Pronunciation with other British accents and dialects and point out the

main distinctions. All theory is supported by examples which I used either

from my experience or from the attached recordings. Due to the

restrictions of the length of this work, I was not able to use and analyse

more recordings.

13

Slang, Cockney English and Cockney Rhyming slang is another, and

perhaps my favourite and most entertaining, part of this work. This section

reveals the real and truthful English. It contains a very useful language for

everyday communication in Britain. Once again, everything is

demonstrated by examples with some supporting, practical exercises.

Some interesting data and results depending on age, gender and social

class differences are presented in the fourth chapter.

The last section shows the influence of email onto the language; how it

changes written English and declines its quality and on the other hand,

how popular it is among people.

Awright… so, take a momun´, make Bruce Lee, turn off da Sharon

Stone, put yaaahr dog´s meat up an´ hairy knees, read dis work. ´ope yew

´ll enjoy it ;-)

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1 BRITISH ENGLISH AND ITS FORMS

1.1 Standard English

Standard English is a term used to denote a form of written and spoken

English that is thought to be normative for its users. It is regarded by

many as the most ´correct´ form of English and as Gardiner (1, p.35) says

“is the variety that children are taught to write.” Unlike languages like, for

example, French, Chinese or Dutch, English has no set rules, no principle

of origin or no governing body to establish usage. There is no academic

authority to rule on what good English is or is not. Moreover, English has

become the most widely spoken second language in the world with

numerous dialects. Still, the English have developed their standards. They

are set for a very simple reason – to communicate with as a wide audience

as possible.

According to Trudgill (3) “Standard English is a set of grammatical

and lexical forms which is typically used in speech and writing by

educated native speakers. It includes the use of colloquial and slang

vocabulary, as well as swearwords and taboo expressions.” It is not a strict

definition, only its characterisation. Trudgill does not refer to

pronunciation, only to grammar and vocabulary. He claims that only about

15% of the population of the British Isles speak Standard English. He says

that Standard English is not a language; only a dialect, the variety of

English that differs from others in that it has greater prestige and the one

which is normally used in writing and printing, the variety associated with

the education system in all the English-speaking countries around the

world.

David Crystal (4, p.34) offers an alternative, not the less interesting

definition of Standard English. It consists of five key features:

15

1. It is not regionally based.

2. It has distinctive features of grammar, vocabulary and orthography

(spelling and punctuation), but not of pronunciation.

3. It is the most prestigious variety of English, associated with people

of high social status.

4. It is the variety of English promoted by educational institutions and

is used in government, law and the mass media.

5. Standard English is the variety that is commonly used in printed

texts. However, only a minority use it when they speak.

In English, as in any language, different styles of expressions are

appropriate in different situations and that is why we can go from the

formal to the informal or from the written to the spoken. It is evident that

written English is not quiet the same as spoken English and people often

speak of Standard English as Standard written English (SWE).

1.2 English and its forms

1.2.1 Formal English

People often speak of language as being correct or incorrect. It would

be more accurate to refer to particular language structures as being formal

or informal, appropriate or inappropriate for a specific context. In

everyday conversation we do not have to follow the rules of grammar as

carefully as we would in a formal address or a business letter. Official or

important situations are often signalled by the use of formal language (it

has a more serious, distant and impersonal tone) while everyday or

ordinary situations are characterised by the use of informal language (it is

relaxed, familiar and conversational). Formality of language depends on

factors as public v. private occasion, the size of the audience, the

relationship of the speaker/writer with the audience, and so on. The ability

16

to change your language according to the situation is often regarded as a

mark of an educated person.

Formal English is, for the most part, a written language. In general, it

is confined to the realm of the serious: textbooks, academic or technical

works, and most essays written at university. You would write formally in

a letter of application for a job. It follows rules of grammar very strictly.

Sentences tend to be longer, more complex and complete, language is

likely to be impersonal and precise; the vocabulary is elevated, using more

specialised and complex words and avoiding slang or vernacular. It avoids

e.g. abbreviations, contractions, split infinitives and prepositions at the

end of sentences.

Principals of English formal style:

a) The more formal a document  is, the more it will use inanimate nouns

as subjects of a sentence.

b) The more formal language is, the more it is likely to use passive

constructions.

c) The more formal language is the more verbal nouns it will use.

d) The more formal a document is the more words of Latin origin it will

contain.

1.2.2 Informal English

Informal language is characterised by a simpler grammatical structure

(e.g. loosely-connected and shorter sentences and phrases), personal

evaluation, and a colloquial or slang vocabulary. Newspaper articles and

columns are usually written informally, and we use informal language

when we write to our friends.

Principles of English informal style:

a) The more informal or spontaneous language is, the more it will use

17

humans as the subjects of sentences.

b) The more informal a text is, the less it will use passive structures.

c) The more informal a text is, the more it will use verb structures

(where a choice is possible).

b) The more informal or spoken a text is, the more words of Germanic

origin it will contain.

1.2.2.1 Usage of Formal and Informal English

The register must be appropriate to the subject, the situation and the

intended audience.

Formal Informal Slang (Chapter 3)

e.g. comprehend understand get it

intoxicated drunk wasted

exhausted tired bagged

dejected sad bummed (8)

Here are some examples; in each case the same idea is expressed using

different levels of formality:

1. a) The inclement climatic conditions obliged the President to return

earlier than scheduled .

b) The President had to go back sooner than he’d planned because the

weather was so bad.

2. a) Please wait instructions before despatching items .

b) Don’t send anything off until you’re told to do so.

3. a) Prior to the discovery of America, potatoes were not consumed in

Europe.

b) Before they discovered America, Europeans didn’t eat potatoes . (6)

1.2.3 Spoken and Written English

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The purpose of all languages is to communicate - that is, to move

thoughts and information from one person to another. “There are always at

least two people in any communication. To communicate, one person must

put something "out" and another person must take something "in". We call

this "output" and "input".” (7)

Josef Essberger (7) explains this statement as following:

I speak to you (OUTPUT: my thoughts go OUT of my head).

You listen to me (INPUT: my thoughts go INto your head).

You write to me (OUTPUT: your thoughts go OUT of your head).

I read your words (INPUT: your thoughts go INto my head).

So language consists of four "skills": two for output (speaking and

writing); and two for input (listening and reading). We can say this in

a different way - two of the skills are for "spoken" communication and two

of the skills are for "written" communication:

Spoken:

>>> Speaking - mouth

<<< Listening - ear

Written:

>>> Writing - hand

<<< Reading - eye

1.2.3.1 Differences between Spoken and Written English

What are the differences between spoken and written English? Are

there any advantages and disadvantages for each form of communication?

When we learn the first (native) language, speaking comes before

writing. “In fact”, as John Essberger (7) says, “we learn to speak almost

automatically. It is natural.” But somebody must teach us to write. It is not

natural. In one sense, oral communication is the "real" language and

writing is only a representation of communication orally.

19

Although there has been a growing recognition of the value of spoken

English in the recent years (partly because speech is central to a number of

technological developments – e.g. telephone, radio, television, film),

people have regarded writing as superior to speaking for centuries. It has a

higher "status". The probable reasons for this include the following:

1. In the past almost everyone could speak but only a few people could

write.

2. Teachers don’t have to teach children to speak; they do have to

teach them to write (so writing seems more valuable and more

prestigious).

3. Higher education is almost completely delivered via textbooks, and

its social significance adds importance to the written language.

4. “Great literature reaches most people in the form of books and lends

its dignity and value to the written language.” (14, p.3)

5. “Most spoken English is uttered ´off the cuff´, spontaneously, and

so it is less formal, less tidy and grammatically structured than

writing – and teachers in higher education dislike work that is

untidy, disjointed, and ungrammatical.” (14, p.3)

Written and spoken modes of a language use different styles, different

registers. Generally speaking, written English is always more formal than

its spoken variety. Nevertheless, there are informal forms of written

English (e.g. press style) and formal styles of spoken English (e.g.

prepared speech).

The two distinct communication systems convey different forms of a

single language. The spoken mode is coded in sounds , while the written

mode is coded in symbols and these two separate codings bring with them

significant features. However, many people still presume spoken and

written English are closely related notions. Various examinations analyse

that there are as many differences as there are connections.

The written mode uses its own versions of speech features and its most

important characteristic is that, unlike the immediacy of speech, there is

the opportunity to revise and correct. Another important difference

between oral and written English is that written is usually more durable or

20

permanent. When we speak, our words live only for seconds; the vast

majority of speech is transient. When we write, our words may be

preserved for days, years or even centuries. This is why writing is usually

used for recording of events, for example business agreements or legal

documents.

1.2.3.2 Other features of spoken and written language

Spoken Written

Two-way activity ; interaction means One-way activity ; no possibility

immediate feedback (if a teacher is of immediate feedback . The

explaining something to a class, for distant from the reader who is

example, their body language makes it in different place and at a

obvious that they are bored or confused different time. Written language

so he/she can adopt a different approach). is often addressed to an

Spoken encounters usually take place unknown audience (e.g. an

face-to-face with a particular person or anthology of poetry).

persons. A telephone conversation is a

notable exception. Interruptions and

overlaps allowing the addressee to

participate are common.

_____________________________________________________________

Spontaneous, unplanned and instant. Planned and organized ; time lag

It contains many non-fluency features between production and

reception.

such as false starts or so-called self- Careful sentence structure ,

corrections (e.g. I have – I am twenty ), punctuation and formatting .

fillers (e.g. well, you know, I mean…),

repetitions (e.g. I need five return tickets,

no, six return tickets to Waterloo…),

hesitations (e.g. Have you seen a film

21

called … uhm… Love Actually? ), ellipsis

(e.g. Going to the party? ), elision (e.g.

pop, laptop, pub…), contractions (e.g.

can´t, she´ll…), non-standard vocabulary

(e.g. gonna, wanna, wassup…),

non-standard grammar (e.g I don´t know

nothing about it), incomplete

constructions (e.g. Owen to Beckham).

Unclear sentence boundaries.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Context-bound and can, therefore, Non context-bound . No

afford to be inexplicit; e.g. interaction interaction, no shared context

means the listener can ask for further with audience means the text

explanation . has to explain everything

explicitly and clearly to

make sure there are no

misunderstandings.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Time bound and dynamic. Space bound and static.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Informal colloquial vocabulary (e.g. Formal vocabulary , including

I gave my mate a tenner for it ). It can words which are not normally

include slang (Chapter 3), swearing, used in spoken language;

nonsense and made up words , sometimes technical jargon .

contractions and vague language

(e.g. kind of, sort of).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Prosodic features – includes features Formatting – pages,

such as stress, rhythm, pitch and capitalization and lines.

tempo . Intonation and pauses are used Timetables and graphs cannot

to mark the grammatical boundaries cannot be expressed verbally.

utterances.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

22

Paralinguistic features – can convey No visual aids – can use

meaning through non-verbal signals, graphology, such as layout ,

such as gestures , facial expressions , punctuation ( ., ;:-), fonts and

eye contact and other non-verbal pictures to convey meaning.

elements (e.g. laughter) to add meaning

to the speaker’s message beyond the

words being spoken.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Coordinated or incomplete sentence Usually fully formed , long and

constructions. balanced sentences which

include multiple subordination .

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Opportunity to rethink or rephrase Errors can be eliminated.

an utterance, but errors cannot be Interruptions and overlaps do

withdrawn. Interruptions and not apply .

overlaps are common .

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Frequent and seamless change of Topic change by sentence or

topic , not logically structured , paragraph; more carefully and

loosely connected subject matter . logically structured .

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Phatic communication – conversational Facts, lists, the communication

utterances that have no concrete of complicated ideas, tasks of

purpose other than to establish or memory and learning.

maintain personal relationships.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Accent and dialect (Chapter 2) Standard English is used;

can be used. accent and dialect are only

represented in dialogues

between characters.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Great use of pronouns . Nouns are preferred to

pronouns.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Use of ´and´ to link ideas. Much variation in linking

words, e.g. because, in order

to, although , etc.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Has to be deliberately preserved or Permanent – has to be

recorded for future access and reference. deliberately destroyed ; can

therefore be referred to many

times.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Both, oral and written communication, have their distinct advantages

and disadvantages. The question of which is superior is mostly incidental,

as we rarely have to make a choice. If we meet some friends in the street,

we inevitably speak to them; if we want to remember a recipe heard on the

radio, we write it down. Each mode is appropriate to different situations.

We especially favour speech for the purposes of social interaction. It is a

useful tool which can develop relationships and convey attitudes, feelings,

opinions and thoughts. On the other hand, a written text is useful for

recording facts and ideas; making notes; and offering large-scale fiction.

Recording 1 (9a, Sample 4): An example of spoken language (and its

transcription):

(* = vocal pause)Born in Birmingham in the West Midlands in England. *Lived in Stratford-

up...well the family home's been in Stratford-upon-Avon, all of my

life..um... Went to boarding school when I was eight to *Abberley Hall in

Worcestershire for five years. And then *went to another boarding school,

Eton College in Windsor for another five years. And then I've *went to

Exeter University and I'm on my exchange programme. Well, I 'm doing

American and Commonwealth Arts, it 's a, you do kind of have a look at

everything from photography, films, literature. And *our third year we

take a y.. take a year out. It 's actually my fourth year 'cause I've changed

courses. But *our third year, we take a year out 'n' we get a choice of

24

Australia, Canada, or the States. And I chose the States and then they

choose the appropriate university depending on what kinds of things you

want to learn over here. So here I am. Eton was excellent, I loved it. I

real.. , I think it 's one of those places you either love it or you hate it. But

*I d'know, I've played lots of sports. I was always busy. And *I've, I 've

got quite used to boarding school, which some people when they first

arrive, specially 'cause it 's got so many strange traditions and customs and

things like there's funny little rules, like no eating in the streets and

having to "cap" masters, which means like kind of sticking your finger in

the air 'n' waving it about and *it 's just the funny names: teachers are

called "beaks" and *kind of recess is called "chambers" and *tea's called

"messing". (9)

It is a speech of an English male who was born in Warwickshire;

attended a boarding school in Abberley Hall in Worcs, Eton College in

Windsor and Exeter University. He has a faint Midlands dialect.

The analysis of his speech:

- it seems to me that this speech is ´half-planned´ and spontaneous;

that means that someone asked the man to say something about his

life, especially about his school years and he had a minute or two to

think about it

- several false starts (e.g. I´ve.. went; I real… I think , etc.)

- some fillers (e.g. well, so like, etc)

- repetitions (e.g. I´ve, I´ve got…; … there, there are ..)

- ellipses (e.g. Born in Birmingham…)

- hesitations (e.g … all of my life..Um.. Went to…)

- sentence boundaries are unclear (e.g… from photography, films,

literature. And *our third year.. .; … I was always busy. And *I've,

I've got quite used to…). As the examples show, there is no clear

evidence where the sentence ends/begins and the word ´and´ is the

most frequent conjunction to link phrases and clauses

- slang (e.g. beaks= teachers), made up words (e.g. messing = tea) and

vague language (e.g. kind of)

25

- contractions – very typical for spoken English (e.g. I´ve, it´s, I´m,

there´s, etc)

- a great use of pronouns (e.g. I – the most oft-repeated, you, my, it ,

etc.)

- it is clear he rethinks and rephrases the thoughts (e.g. … all my

life...Um.. went; … films, literature… and ٭ our third year…)

- the discourse is dynamic

- there is no non-standard vocabulary. In my opinion, the reason why

it is like that is the man has studied at prestige schools and a

university and the surroundings make him speak proper English.

(Chapter 4 gives more information about how social class, gender

and age influence the language).

26

2 ACCENTS AND DIALECTS

„You can spot an Irishman or a  Yorkshire man by his brogue. I  can

place any man within six miles. I  can place him within two miles in

London. Sometimes within two streets.“

Henry Higgins, a  character in Pygmalion by G.B. Shaw

(cited in 1,

p.32)

At the beginning of this chapter, I  would like to explain the difference

between dialect and accent – an important matter that confuses many

people.

Every language is usually subdivided into several dialects; dialect , one

of the varieties of the language, is the term used to the different kinds of

vocabulary (the most conspicuous feature) and grammar (distinctive

grammar in dialects may be very difficult to detect sometimes) used by

different groups of people. As Gardiner (1, p. 32) says “dialects are

mutually intelligible versions of the same language”, in other words,

speakers of one dialect understand speakers of the other dialect

(obviously, of the same language).

Accent , on the other hand, refers „only to pronunciation that indicates

where a person is from, geographically or socially” as Sara Thorne (10,

p.139) says, although “some linguists include accent along, with lexis and

grammar, as a  feature of dialect. “ (11)

27

In this section, I will be dealing with regional accent, though social

accent and personal accent are another two key areas for l inguists when it

comes to pronunciation. Regional accent is the most dominant of them;

speaker’s individual style, cultural and educational backgrounds only

modify i t.

2.1 Regional dialects and Standard English

When we talk about dialects, we normally refer to regional dialects –

that is, different varieties of language spoken in different geographical

regions.

The ´top´ dialect is, already mentioned in Chapter 1, Standard English –

highly valued by many people and a model variety of English language.

It also gets attributes as, ´beautiful´, ´pure´, ´nice´ and so on.

British English is divided into many branches:

o ENGLAND

Received Pronunciation (Queen's English, BBC English)

Northern English

East Midlands English

West Midlands English

East Anglian English

South East England

West Country dialects

o SCOTLAND

Scottish English

Highland English

o WALES

Welsh English

North East English

Pembrokeshire dialect (12)

28

Many linguists do not agree with the idea that any dialect is something

´less´ than Standard English since the distinctiveness of a dialect consists

in those things that are different from the Standard. It is appropriate to

mention that Standard English is no longer found in any region of Britain

(originally, a dialect spoken in south-east England).

Regional dialects in Britain have huge local support and are usually

much more important to individuals than the standard variety. They are

best found in spoken language although a surge of interest in recent years

has caused that dialects often occur in written forms too.

Barrie Rhodes (11) notes:

“This is what has been termed ".. .the tyrrany of the standard"

which gives the impression that there is something called

"English" and all other varieties are, somehow, degraded,

deficient, "incorrect" forms of this. [The idea of convergence

towards this standard] for me, reinforces the impression that

there is some set-in-stone ideal towards which people should

strive. Some observers would claim that this is what made

people uncomfortable and ashamed of their native speech

modes.. .The notion is very strong and well established that

there is something called "English".. .And everything else is a

deviation from this, arrived at through ignorance of the

"proper" form. When I give talks to various groups, I find the

biggest challenge is to get people to accept that there are

many Englishes, all with an equal and valid claim to be

"proper" within their own contexts. Only historical and

geographical accidents brought prestige to what today we call

the standard. But students could usefully ask (within a

sociolinguistic paradigm) why people still choose to use non-

standard speech when "... they should know better". My

paternal grandmother...heard on the radio, understood and

wrote Standard English (very well) - but she never spoke it.

Had she done so, she would have soon found herself socially

distanced from the close "West Riding" speaking community

29

she lived in. There are all sorts of identity and self-esteem

issues here that are worth investigating.”

He describes ´standard´ as a human choice that could have been

otherwise and compares it to driving on the left or the right side of

the road. I more or less agree with his opinion. I suppose that

everybody should speak or know how to use ´correct´ English. It is a

kind of respect to the country. People travel, meet others and I do

not think that using dialects in certain situations is suitable. When

talking to someone from the community, from the same area, I do

not see the reason why one should not use its own dialect. It is all

about the right decision when to use it so everybody around can

understand.

Peter Kerswill (11) contrasts traditional (regional) dialects with

modern (non-regional) dialects. The traditional dialects are varieties

spoken by people in a given geographical area - in this sense we can

regard the speech of the Black Country, East Yorkshire or Cardiff, for

example, while the modern dialects are varieties spoken in urban areas. He

explains: “As anyone who travels round Britain quickly discovers, there

are distinctive ways of speaking in each town and city.” Sometimes the

differences are rather large and can cause difficulties even for native

speakers of the British Islands. When talking about urban dialects, they are

becoming undistinguishable (especially south-east/south-west areas around

the capital) so it is quite difficult to tell where a person comes from. The

differences are totally minor, clearly phonetic ones. I have lived in south-

west area for more than five years and I only must agree with this verdict.

Another interesting point is that as (14, p.49) says “Standard English is

not completely uniform throughout the country.” Many linguists, Hughes

and Trudgill are among them, have made many researches and have shown

that variations exist. The difference is, for example, between north and

south, in the use of contracted negative forms:

e.g. North South

I’ve not got it I haven’t got it

30

She’ll not go with them. She won’t go with them.

Does he not like the idea? Doesn’t he like the idea?

If there are differences within the ´prestige´ form of English, it is

needless to speculate if there are many more between Standard English and

regional dialects.

The most typical regional dialect variations:

• double or triple negatives (SE uses only one)

e.g . I´ve not seen nobody.

She couldn´t get none nowhere .

• ain´t (SE – aren´t, haven´t)

e.g. I ain´t been there.

• I aren´t (SE – I´m not)

e.g. I aren´t his girlfriend .

• ´No´ or ´nae´ in Scotish dialects (SE uses not or no)

e.g. He´s no nice.

I´ve nae got time .

• the past participle (SE uses past tense)

e.g . She seen him on Friday.

They done it last week .

• omission of ´-s´ from third person singular

e.g. She go to school .

• addition of ´-s´ to all persons of the verb

e.g. We sings it.

I likes him. .

• different preposition patterns

e.g. She live at London.

• double comparatives and superlatives

e.g. He´s more nicer than her.

She´s the most kindest person I´ve ever met.

These are only several contrasts; obviously there exist many more.

31

2.2. Regional Accents and Received Pronunciation

Regional accents can be characterized in the manner of regional

dialects. It is believed that they are deviations of standard pronunciation

which is called Received Pronunciation (RP), an accent that as Peter

Trudgill (13, p.7) says “only occurs together with Standard English”,

although as Russell (14, p.7) explains “it is not necessary to speak RP to

speak Standard English.”

RP is a socially prestigious accent, a pronunciation connected with

middle and upper-class. According to Russel (14, p. 54), it is also “the

voice of authority and of power.” RP is also known as ´Oxford English´ or

´BBC English´. Originally, it was the accent in the south-east, the area

associated with culture, wealth and royalty. It was preferred and popular in

public schools and among high-ranking officials. Gardiner (1) says:” When

Britain’s political power was at its height it was known as ´the voice of

empire´.”

Today, only a small elite speaks pure RP (somewhere around five per

cent of the population). However, many people speak what is known, as

Gardiner (1, p.35) explains “modified RP. This is an RP accent with

regional features and it is spoken by people whose original regional accent

has shifted closer to RP.” It is also an accent which is used for non-native

speakers learning British English.

2.2.1 Main pronunciation differences between RP and other English accents

This list provides as Sara Thorne (10, p.142) says “a starting point for

analysis of regional accents in Britain.”

Recording 2 (9a, Sample 7) represents RP.

• the phoneme /h/

RP pronounces /h/ in the initial position, while most regional

accents do not. That causes that some words are pronounced

likewise.

e.g. air / hair /eə/

32

eat / heat /i:t/

at / hat /æt/, /hæt/ (recording 2)

• the phoneme /ŋ/

The pronunciation of ´-ing´ form differs in regional accents. RP users

pronounce it as /ŋ/ (e.g. during /djuəiŋ/ - recording 2) but most

speakers utter it as /n/ (e.g. reading /ri:din/). Furthermore, some

accents in the Midlands area and in the north pronounce it as /g/ (e.g.

writing /raiting/).

• consonant followed by /u:/

In RP, a great number of words beginning with a consonant and

followed by the pure vowel /u:/ are pronounced with a /j/:

e.g. news /nju:z/

knew /nju:/ (recording 2)

during /djuəiŋ/ (recording 2)

Still, this manner is dying out, especially in words beginning with /r/

and /s/, althought in some regional accents, the loss of /j/ is common in

many words.

e.g. RP regional accents

beautiful /bju:tiful/ beautiful /bu:tiful/

• the glottal stop

In RP, the glottal stop is not used very often; on the other hand, it is

very popular in regional dialects, particularly amongst young people in

urban areas. “It frequently occurs as an allophone of /t/ in the medial

and final position”. (10, p.142)

e.g. RP regional accents

water /wo:tə/ water /wo:ʔə/

later /leitə/ later /leiʔə/ (recording 2)

shooting /∫u:tiŋ/ shooting /∫u:ʔin/ (recording 2)

butler /bʌtlə/ butler /bʌʔlə/ (recording 2)

• vowel a

When the vowel a precedes a voiceless fricative or a consonant cluster

with the phonemes /m/ or /n/ in the initial position, it is pronounced as

/a:/. However, most Northern accents use the short /æ/.

33

e.g. RP regional accents

bath /ba:θ/ bath /bæθ/

sample /sa:mpl/ sample /sæplm/

after /a:ftə/ after /æftə/ (recording 2)

past /pa:st/ past /pæst/ (recording 2)

last /la:st/ last /læst/ (recording 2)

Obviously, there are more differences when comparing accents. Some

vowels are, for example, absent from regional accents and for that reason,

linguists create so called “PHONEME INVENTORY – a list of the

phonemes that are or are not used” (10, p.143).

When talking about regional accents, they are said to be based on the

pronunciation of Middle English. Nevertheless, “the most obvious division

is”, as (14, p.52) says, “between north and south”. Northern type of

English (NE) constitutes a larger domain and as Štekauer reports

“undoubtedly represents a less advanced stage of development than the

Southern type (SE).”

2.2.2 Basic differences between SE and NE

(Recording 3 (9a, Sample 49)-SE and 4 (9a, Sample 16)-NE)

• vibrant articulation of the consonant [r] in careful pronunciation

distinctly differs from the post-alveolar frictionless continuant of SE

• pronunciation of ´wh´. It is known that the SE does not distinguish ´ wh-´

and ´-hw´ in pronunciation. In the NE, ´wh-´ is pronounced

as voiceless ´w´ , which makes it possible to distinguish such pairs as

witch/which, wine/whine , etc.

• SE [æ] is replaced in NE with [a].

e.g. SE NE

man [mæn] man [man]

cat [kæt] cat [kat]

e.g. (recordings) SE NE

have [hæv] happy /hapi/

back /bæk/ back /bak/

34

family /fæmili/ and /an/

exam /igzæm/

track /træk/

• SE [Λ] is replaced in NE with a sound similar to [u].

e.g. SE NE

much /mʌʧ/ much /mut∫/

e.g. (recordings) SE NE

but /bʌt/ but /but/

come /kʌm/ come /kum/

funny /fʌni/ couple kupl/

stuff /stʌƒ/ must /must/

double /dubl/

company /kumpəni/

summer /sumə/

• The tendency in NE towards monophthongization: in SE [ei] in some

positions becomes [e:] and [əu] becomes [o:]

e.g. SE NE

face [feis] face [fe:s]

goat [gəut] goat [go:t]

e.g. (recordings) SE NE

home /həum/ home /ho:m/

change / tʃeindʒ/ weight /we:t/

race /reis/ stone /sto:n/

place /pleis/ moment /mo:mənt/

go /gəu/ going /go:iŋ/

smoky /sməuki/ load /lo:d/

host /həust/ again /əge:n/

• One of the most typical features of NE, absolutely unknown to SE,

concerns its coronal vowels. This term denotes vowels whose articulation

is concluded by a raising of the tongue-tip towards the articulatory

position that used to be typical of the coronal (inverted) r-sound.

(Štekauer, p.17, 18)

This implies to words in SE with pronunciation of /ə/, /ə: /, /a: / , etc.

35

e.g. hair, short, first

e.g. (recordings) SE NE

years years

here here

where service

church work

there

weird

2.2.3 Scottish English

The standard grammar and spelling of Scottish English follow the

rules of Standard English. However, there are some unique features,

mainly phonological and phonetic systems, many of which distinguish

Scottish English from other branches.

Typical characteristics of Scottish English (compared with SE);

Recording 5 (9b, Sample, 2) – all examples are from the recording:

1. the consonant /r/ is trilled (e.g. here, sort, thirty, etc .)

2. voiceless pronunciation of the written ´wh´, just like in NE (e.g.

what)

3. pronunciation of /a/ instead of /æ/ (e.g. back /bak/)

4. pronunciation of /a/ instead of /o:/ (e.g. call /kal/, smaller /smalər/)

5. elision of f in of

6. the abundance of long vowels and the scarcity of diphthongs

(e.g. town is pronounced as /tu:n/ instead of /taun/, Scotland

/sko:tlənd/, college /ko:lidʒ/)

7. the non-existence of the centring diphthongs (e.g. about is

pronounced as /abu:t/ instead of /əbaut/; town /tu:n/, south /su:θ/,

etc.)

8. Scottish English lacks the long mixed vowel (e.g. work /wərk/

instead of /wə:k/, thirty /θərti/ instead of /θə:ti/, etc.)

9. SE /o:/ is in Scottish English pronounced as /or/ (e.g. born /born/)

36

10.The Scottish English keeps pronouncing of ancient r-sound between

the vowel and a pause, or a following consonant (e.g. are /ar/

instead of SE /a:/, farm /ferm/ instead of /fa:m/, Ireland /airland/

instead of /aiələnd/)

11.use of dark l (e.g. like, live, long, collection, etc .)

2.2.4 Welsh English

There is a wide range of regional accents within Wales. South Wales

accent is associated with a ´sing-song´ effect (Catherine Zeta-Jones has

this accent); North Wales accent is less ´sing-song´, with “a more

consistently high-pitched voice and the vowels pressed to the back of the

throat.” (29)

North East Wales and South East Wales are influenced by English West

country accents. West Wales is said to be one of the most beautiful British

accents to listen to.

It is worth noting that accents in Wales vary even within a relatively

short distance. There is, for example, a striking difference within Swansea

itself; west accent differentiates with the rest of Swansea, north accent is

different again.

Typical characteristics of Welsh English (accent around Cardiff area

compared with SE). Recording 6 (9c, Sample, 2)

1. distinctive pitch differences giving a “sing-song” effect

2. elongation of stressed vowels and diphthongs in most of words

(e.g. possible /po:səbl/, bizarre /biza:r/, etc.)

3. pronunciation of /e/ instead of /ei/ (e.g. race /res/ instead of /reis/,

mate /met/ instead of /meit/)

4. pronunciation of /a/ instead of /æ/ (e.g. hat /hat/ instead of /hæt/, had

/had/ instead of /hæd/ or /hed/)

5. pronunciation of /o:/ instead of /əu/ (e.g. most /mo:st/ instead of

37

/məust/, road /ro:d/ instead of /rəud/)

6. pronunciation of /i/ as /e/ (e.g. charity / tʃa:reti/ instead of / tʃæriti/)

7. lack of affricates (e.g. orange is pronounced as /orintʃ/ , college as

/koli tʃ/ , etc.)

2.2.5 English in Northern Ireland

„Generally speaking, English spoken in Northern Ireland (also called

Ulster) has much in common with the Scottish type of pronunciation.“

(Štekauer, 2000, p. 19) It is caused by political factors.

Typical characteristics of English in Northern Ireland

1. the consonant r has a trilled pronunciation

2. wh- is voiceless

3. both, the phonetic and phraseological features appear to be based on

some peculiarities of Celtic Irish (some English sounds are replaced by

native sounds and their combinations)

4. frequent occurrence of assibilation, especially after /d/

e.g. duke is pronounced as /dʒu:k/

produce /prədʒu:s/

5. if /s/ or /z/ is followed by an alveolar sound it is often realized as /∫/ or

/ʒ/ respectively

e.g. fist / fi∫ t/

street /∫tri:t/

6. long closed e-vowel pronounced in words like in words like easy,

clean ,

etc.

7. frequent occurance of /e/ before /r/ (Southern English has /i/)

e.g. spirit /sperit/

miracle /merikl/

8. strong reduction of unstressed formal words or word-elements

e.g. by /bi/

38

my /mi/

9. radical reduction in non-formal words

e.g. ornary instead of ordinary

garner instead of gardener

10. fricative /θ/ at the end of words is usually pronounced as /t/

e.g. bath /bat/

11. in some positions, phonemes /t-θ and /d-ð/ lose their phonemic status

and become combinatory variants

e.g. true is pronounced as /θru:/

butter /baθə/

39

3 SLANG

„Slang is the poetry of everyday life“. 

      (15, cited by S. I. Hayakawa, Language in Action , 1941) 

„Slang is language which takes off its coat, spits on its hands and goes to

work."  

      (4, p. 182, cited by Carl Sandburg)

„Slang, at its worst, it is stupidly coarse and provocative.   At its best, it

makes Standard English seem pallid. “ 

      (15, cited by J. E. Lighter, chief editor of Random House Historical

Dictionary of American Slang )

„Slang is one of those things that everybody can recognise and nobody can

define. “

(1, p.100, cited by Paul Roberts)

3.1 Characteristics of slang

Slang is a way in which a language changes and is renewed. It is often

described as informal and non-standard, fulfilled with collocations which

tend to originate in different groups of a society. Microsoft Encarta (15,

cited in MSN Encarta) states: „Slang expressions often embody attitudes

adopted by members of the subculture. Slang has no social boundaries or

limitations as it can exist in all cultures and classes of society as well as

in all languages.”

Although it is hard to define, I can summarise some of its

distinguishing characteristics:

• it is informal (often characterized as original and rebellious)

(e.g. the first recorded use of ´booze´ for ´alcohol´ was in 1325)

• it is usually found in speech rather than writing and generally

40

refers to vocabulary rather than grammar

• as Gardiner (1, p. 100) says, it is often short-lived. New slang

expressions enter the language all the time. Many disappear

quickly, though others are remarkably lasting. Some slang

expressions are not considered as slang anymore and are regarded

as normal, standard usage (e.g. pub, bike, phone are no longer

thought of as slang).

3.2 Origins of slang

Generally, it is considered that slang is as old as human speech; “as

long as people have spoken formal ´standard´ language, they have created

its informal alternatives. Slang was the main reason for the development of

prescriptive language in an attempt to slow down the rate of change in

both spoken and written language.” (15)  

However, as Green (16) states in his work, slang lexicography goes

back only to the 16 t h century.

Slang expressions are created in basically the same way as standard

speech; it means they may take form as metaphors, similes and other

figures of speech; new comparisons are invented (e.g. ´ not playing with a

full deck´, ´the lift doesn’t reach the top floor ´ and so on).

More commonly, slang gives old words new meanings (as e.g. ´ hot´ is

used to mean ´sexy´ and ´bread´ is used to refer to ´money´), narrow

meanings of words may become generalized, some slang words are

clippings (e.g. ´ciggie´ for ´cigarette´), etc. Sometimes, there is an

inversion of a meaning like, for example, ´ bad´ and ´wicked´ both mean

´good´. Moreover, words may be put together to create new compounds

(e.g. ´rip-off´). A lexicographer Jonathan Green (1, p.101), who is

concerned with slang, says there have been about 2  500 expressions for a

term ´drunk´. However, in order for an expression to survive, it must be

accepted by some group of people who would use it.

41

3.3 What slang is not

According to Johnson and Fox (15), slang is not:

• DIALECT: regional and socioeconomic varieties of a language

• CATCH PHRASES: they derive their meanings from a cultural

reference with which the speaker and listener must both be familiar

e.g. Who loves ya, baby?

• JARGON: the technical language of a special field

e.g. computer jargon

• SLOGANS: catchy, mind-grabbing utterances which will persuade

people to buy something or behave in a certain way

e.g. Make love, not war.

fingerlickin´ good!

• GRAFFITI: any spontaneous and unauthorized writings or drawings,

especially humorous and rude, on the walls, buildings and other public

places

e.g. Peter loves Lisa

Madonna Woz Here

• SOLECISM: a grammatical mistake

e.g. He don’t know anything.

• ARGOT or CANT: words and expressions used by small groups of

people and which are not easily understood by other people (17)

e.g. thieves´ argot

• COLLOQUIALISM: an informal word or expression which is more

suitable for use in speech than in writing

3.4 Why people use slang

Slang is often subversive, reflecting a desire to rebel against

respectability and society’s conventional norms and values. According to

Eric Partridge (15, from Slang: Today and Yesterday , 1933, Ch.2), who is

perhaps the best-known collector of unconventional English of the 20 t h

42

century, there is a great deal of reasons why people use slang. I will

mention only several of them:

1. As an exercise either in wit and ingenuity or in humour.

2. To escape from clichés, or to be brief and concise.

3. To enrich the language (Cockney rhyming slang forms the most

notable exception; it is literary rather than spontaneous).

4. To show that one belongs to a certain school, trade, or

profession, or social class.

5. To be secret – not understood by those around (children,

students, criminals in or out of prison, members of political

secret societies are the chief exponents).

6. To reduce, perhaps also to disperse, the formality, the

excessive seriousness of a conversation (or of a piece of

writing)

7. To induce friendliness or intimacy of a deep or a durable kind.

8. To be ´different´, fashionable, up-to-date. This explains its

appeal to young people.

9. To be picturesque (either positively or negatively).

10. To express abuse.

Slang, as mentioned above, often expresses membership of a social

group. It can be a kind of secret language that strengthens the feeling of

solidarity among the members of the group while excluding others. The

first slang dictionary was a collection of words used by criminals,

compiled by a judge in 1565.

e.g . a young or novice criminal = Newgate bird or

Newgate nightingale

(16, p. 306)

a housebreaker = mill ben, snudge, glazier, snakesman,

creeper, etc. (16, p.308-309)

a shoplifter = pitch fingers, lugger, skin worker, etc.

(16, p.321-322)

a prisoner = a queer bird, canary, fish, a government man,

etc. (16, p.329-330)

43

prison = the slammer

Teenagers are another social category strongly associated with slang. It

emphasizes their separation, their strength during their troublesome

teenage years from the world of adults and that makes them feel different

and probably more important. Each new generation is non-identical and

distinct and for that reason slang of youth is constantly changing.

Most of free-time activities and hobbies create their own slang.

Skateboarding, dancing and ice-skating are good examples – I am sure

everybody has heard some of their expressions and had no idea what they

mean.

Other, very fertile sources of slang are fields associated with sex,

alcohol and money.

e.g. a mistress = a jam, a smock toy, a bit of spare (16, p.208)

caresses = bush patrol, finger pie, pecking and

necking,etc.(16, p.210)

a homosexual = a four-letter man (s-h-i-t or h-o-m-o), mincer

a five-letter woman (b-i-t-c-h) (16, p.232)

making love = making whoopee

a pound = quid

twenty pounds = score

ten pounds = double-finnup or tenner

five pounds = a fiver, a finnif, jacks (= Jack´s alive- rhyming

slang) (16, p.183)

one thousand pounds = grand, large

hangover = heebie-jeebies, snakes in the boots, blue devils,

black dogs, etc. (16, p.176)

brandy = French cream, red tape, etc. (16, 164-165)

gin = blue tape, white tape, giggle juice, etc. (16, 162-163)

champagne = fizz, chammy, sham, shammy, simpkin, etc.

(16, p.160)

44

3.5 My favourite slang words

I have always been interested in hearing new words, expressions and

sayings. People in Great Britain use slang quite often in everyday speech

and generally, I reckon that it makes the language more attractive and

playful.

I have chosen only a narrow selection of slang words which I have

come across the most often and which I think enrich and make

conversations more interesting:

babe = a sexually attractive young person

She is a really hot babe ٭� .

bloke = a man

.Peter is a nice bloke to be a friend with ٭�

crap = something worthless or of bad quality

!Oh, this book is such crap ٭�

cool = excellent, very good

.I like this song. It´s really cool ٭�

cuppa = a cup of tea

?Penny, would you like a cuppa ٭�

daft = crazy, stupid

.It was a pretty daft idea to do it ٭�

dork = a stupid awkward person

!I can’t stand Michael. He is such a dork ٭�

dosh = money

I haven’t got much dosh on me ٭� .

gutted = not happy, disappointed

Lucy was gutted to finish the relationship with John ٭� .

fag = a cigarette

?Can I have a fag, please ٭�

footie = football

Daniel is a big footie fan ٭� .

guts = bravery

It must have taken him a lot of guts to go and talk to ٭�

45

her.

jerk = a stupid person, usually a man

That guy over there is such a jerk! I talked to him for ٭�

five minutes and had enough.

knockout = a beautiful, attractive girl/woman

!I must admit that Daisy is a real knockout ٭�

mental = crazy

Jack, I think you should call her; otherwise she’ll go ٭�

mental.

nick = to steal

Hey guys, I managed to nick some money from my ٭�

mum’s purse.

pee = to urinate

!Silvi, I need to pee ٭�

pins = legs

!Wow, look at her lovely pins ٭�

plonker = a foolish or stupid person

?Why did you do it, you plonker ٭�

sacked = get dismissed from work

My cousin got sacked from his work last week ٭� .

screw up = make mistake, make unhappy

It wasn´t me who screwed up that relationship ٭� .

scrummy = delicious

!Thanks Richard for dinner. It was scrummy ٭�

shades = dark sunglasses

Has anyone seen my new shades? I can’t find them ٭�

anywhere.

shag = have sex

.He shagged her in the backroom ٭�

skint = have no money

I am skint at the moment so I can’t buy that D&B jacket ٭�

now.

snog = kiss

.Paul caught Peter snogging Georgina ٭�

46

telly = television

?What’s on telly now ٭�

wanker = a very stupid, useless person, usually a man; an idiot

!What kind of a wanker you are ٭�

wicked = excellent

!I’ve got some wicked news for you ٭�

3.6 Cockney English

Cockney is considered to be the broadest London local accent. It refers

to speakers within the city. While many Londoners may speak to so-called

´popular London´, it does not necessarily mean they speak Cockney. There

are some differences between these two forms of English; one of which is

that the popular London accent can be found outside of the capital while a

true Cockney is a person who is born within the hearing distance of the

bells of St. Mary-le-Bow church in Cheapside in the city of London. A

study was done by the city in 2000 to see how far the Bow Bells could be

heard and it was estimated that the bells would have been heard six miles

to the east, five miles to the north, three miles to the south and four miles

to the west. “Thus, while all East Enders are Cockney, not all Cockneys

are East Enders.” (18)

This traditional working-class accent is also associated with other

suburbs of the city such as Stepney, Hackney, Shoreditch, Poplar,

Whitechapel, Millwall, Mile End and Bow.

Generally, the Cockney accent is considered not only as the above

mentioned broadest London accent but also as the most expansive British

accent.

3.6.1 Etymology of Cockney English

47

The term was used for the first time by Samuel Rowlands in his satire

The Letting of Humours Blood in the Head-Vaine as ´a Bow-bell Cockney´

in 1600.

Francis Grose´s A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1785)

derives the term from the following story:

“A citizen of London, being in the country, and hearing a horse neigh,

exclaimed, Lord! how that horse laughs! A by-stander telling him that

noise was called Neighing, the next morning, when the cock crowed, the

citizen to shew he had not forgot what was told him, cried out, Do you

hear how the Cock Neighs?” (18)

A more plausible derivation of the word can be found in Webster’s New

Universal Unabridged Dictionary : London was referred to by the Normans

as the “Land of Sugar Cake” (Old French: pais de cocaigne), an imaginary

land of idleness and luxury. A humorous appellation, the word “Cocaigne”

referred to all of London and its suburbs and had a number of spellings:

Cocagne, Cockayne and in Middle English, Cocknay and Cockney. The

latter two spellings could be used to refer to both pampered children and

residents of London and to pamper or spoil a child was ´to cocker´ him.

(18)

The term is originated from cock and egg, meaning first a misshapen egg,

then a person ignorant of country ways, then, as mentioned earlier, to one

born within the sound of the Bow bell.

Anyway, no matter what is the origin of Cockney English, no matter

where it comes from – the important thing is it exists; it is here today just

as it has been for many, many years and can provide a wonderful,

colourful language in everyday life.

3.6.2 Cockney speech and its features

Cockney speakers have a distinctive accent and dialect and frequently

use Cockney rhyming slang. There are several borrowings, for example

48

from Yiddish. A fake Cockney accent, as used by some actors, is

sometimes called ´Mockney´.

Typical features of Cockney speech include:

• Monophthongisation

- this affects the lexical set mouth vowel

e.g. ´down´ is not pronounced as /daun/ but as /dæ:n/

- /æ/ in e.g. ´bad´ is lengthened somewhat. This feature, in addition

to the monophthongisation, means that in some dialects the words

´math´ and ´mouth´ rhyme

• Mouth vowel

- Wells (19) believes that it is widely agreed that ´mouth´ vowel is a

„touchstone for distinguishing between „true Cockney“and popular

London“.

e.g. mouth is pronounced as /mæ:f/, not as /mæuf/

• Glottal stop

- “it can be manifested in different ways such as “t” glottaling in

final position” (19) (e.g. vet) or as “internal intervocalic /t/” (19)

e.g. Can I have a bottle of water, please?

A little bit of bread with a bit of butter on it.

- “a 1970´s study of schoolchildren living in the East End found

/p,t,k/ almost invariably glottalized in final position” (19)

e.g. cat

up

sock

• Dropped ´h´

- “in the working-class accents throughout England, ´h´ dropping at

the begging of certain words (voiceless glottal fricative) is heard

often, but it is certainly heard more in Cockney and in accents

closer to Cockney.” (19) Its usage is strongly disapproved by

teachers and other standard speakers.

49

e.g. half is pronounced /a:f/

hump is pronounced /ump/

house as /ouse/

• TH fronting

- this very well known characteristic of Cockney involves the

replacement of the dental fricatives /ð/ and / θ / by labiodentals /v/

and /f/ respectively (19)

e.g. thin = fin /fin/

brother = bruvver /bravә/

bother = bovver /bovә/

three = free /fri/

with = wif /wif/

• Use of ´me´ instead of ´my´

• Use of ´ain´t´ instead of isn´t, am not, are not, has not and

have not

• Use of ´”in´it” to question a positive when making a statement

(18)

e.g. Lovely day today, in´it?

Most of the above mentioned features have, in recent years, spread into

more general south-eastern speech, giving the accent called Estuary

English (or modified Cockney); however, an Estuary speaker uses some

but not all of the Cockney features.

3.7 Cockney Rhyming Slang

This phenomenon is a gift to world culture. It is the most interesting

and famous of Cockney slang. It is said “to be at the opposite end of the

spectrum from politically correct language.” (20, p.7)

50

This form of slang is almost certainly not as old as one might assume;

the likelihood being that it came into existence at the beginning of the

twentieth century.

The origins of Cockney rhyming slang are uncertain. It 's not really a

language since the words spoken are clearly English; on the other hand,

it 's not a dialect either, since the speakers of this slang are also perfectly

capable of not using it! Some stories go that this slang originated in the

market place so that the vendors could communicate without the customers

knowing what was being said - you wouldn't want your customers knowing

that you were going to lower your prices in ten minutes so you could go

home early.

Another possibility is that it came into being as a means of keeping the

police ignorant; it means that criminals and thieves could keep

conversations and pass secret information to each other without anyone

knowing what they were talking about.

It is very difficult to define what rhyming slang is without giving some

examples. Basically, the way it works is that a particular word we intend

to use or say is replaced with a phrase of two or three words in which the

last term rhymes with the original word. For instance, as explained in

Wikipedia (21) the expression " boat race" would be used to refer to one's

face, as "race" rhymes with " face". Often, to quicken speech, the phrase is

abbreviated to only the first word or syllable. So, in a similar fashion,

"plates" would mean " feet" ("plates of meat"), and "bees" would mean

"money" ("bees and honey") or “China” would mean “mate” (“china

plate”).

Jeremy Alderton (22) says: “Some slang words can have more than one

meaning (for example, ´ iron´ can be a bank (Iron Tank) or a homosexual

(Iron Hoof - this rhymes with poof which is a particularly English

expression for homosexuals), so context is everything! There - clear as

mud.”

3.7.1 Sociolinguistics of Cockney Rhyming Slang

51

This rhyming slang is very popular in culture. Many musical artists

apply it in their songs. Musicians such as ´Chas & Dave´ or bands like

´The Streets´, ´Sham 69´ use this kind of slang in almost all of their songs.

Books are another field we can come across Cockney rhyming slang.

Anthony Burgess and his work ´A Clockwise Orange´ or Irvine Welsh’s

´Trainspotting´ are good examples.

The area of Cockney English and its colourful characters and accents

are often foundations for British ´soap operas´ and other television

broadcasts. Since 1985, the BBC has been showing one of the most popular

soap operas set in this area ever - ´EastEnders´. “The characters´ accents

and lives within this television program provide wonderful opportunities

for observers of language and culture.” (19)

Its language is very informal, overloaded with Cockney slang and it

was a bit of ´struggle´ for me to get used to not only the accent but also a

different vocabulary and expressions they use there. I think it is a very

good way how to learn slang but it is essential to watch it with a native

speaker who can give, from time to time, some proper explanations on

mentioned phrases as it is impossible to perceive the ideas completely.

Actually, I found out that even native speakers do not understand every

single sentence said in that series.

Conspicuous representatives of the film area, where this subject matter

can be found, are e.g. ´Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels´, ´Austin

Power in Goldmember´, ´Mr. Lucky´, etc. “The film Green Street

Hooligans (2005) features usage of Cockney rhyming slang as well as a

brief explanation of the process the slang is derived from.” (23)

Wilson, a character from the film called The Limey (1999), is a

Cockney man recently released from prison and who spices his

conversation, full of rhyming slang:

Wilson: Can't be too careful nowadays, y'know? Lot of "tea

leaves" about, know what I mean?

Warehouse Foreman : Excuse me?

Wilson: "Tea leaves".. . "thieves."

Wilson: Eddy... yeah, he's me new "china."

52

Elaine : What?

Wilson: "China plate"... "mate."

Wilson: I 'm gonna 'ave a "butcher's" round the house.

Ed Roel : Who you gonna butcher?

Wilson: "Butcher's hook"... "look." (23)

3.7.2 Examples of Cockney Rhyming Slang

There are hundreds of expressions to choose from. Ray Puxley, a

famous British collector of slang, wrote several interesting books and

dictionaries about rhyming slang which he picked up straight from the

streets (including the original crudeness of the words and swear words).

Moreover, in his works he gives the clear definitions and explanations how

his ´slangs´ originated.

e.g.

Adam and Eve 1 Believe

- a very old and very common and often

expression of disbelief

e.g. I can’t Adam and Eve you said that .

2 Leave

- when it is time to go, it is time you were

´Adam and Eveing´

Bubble Gum Bum

e.g. A lovely bubble, that of a curvaceous

woman.

Big Mac Sack

- a contemporary term

e.g. He got the big mac from his boss for being

53

drunk at work.

Calvin Klein 1 Fine

e.g. I am calvin today.

2 Wine

e.g. We had pizza and a bottle of calvin last night.

Can of Coke Joke

- a contemporary piece of young people talk; a lad

waiting an age to be served in a crowded pub was

heard to declare:

“This is an effing can o´coke this gaff .”

Cigarette Holder Shoulder

Heard at a football match on a freezing day:

Her: Got a hanky? My nose keeps running.

Him: No. Use your sleeve.

Her: (annoyed) No. This is my new coat. It cost a

lot of money.

Him: Well, I’ve been using your cigarette.

Cow and Gate Late

- when a woman is ´cow and gate´ for her period it

is usually a sign that she will soon be buying baby

food

Duke of York 1 Cork

2 Fork

e.g. Keep your fingers out of your grub man. Use a

duke.

3 Talk

4 Chalk

e.g. All I got for my birthday is a bit of duke .

5 Pork

54

6 Walk

e.g. After a heavy meal I like quick duke around

the park.

Brown Bread Dead

e.g. I´m telling you mate. He´s brown bread .

Garden Gate 1 Eight

e.g. We have garden people coming for dinner

tonight.

2 Magistrate

- old but still used as in ´going up before the

garden´

3 Mate

e.g. He’s an old garden gate from school.

Posh ´n Becks Sex

e.g. He had a bit of posh with his missus last night.

Lemon Drop Cop

- a warning cry from a lookout: “Watch it! Lemons !”

Michael Tobacco

Schumacher - a recent middle-class term based on the German

racing driver who has long been associated with

Marlboro cigarettes in a business largely sponsored

by tobacco companies

Mona Lisa 1 Freezer

2 Pizza

Needle(s) and Twin(s)

Pin(s) - like the well-dressed dwarf who sat on a tack, this

is short, sharp and to the point. Pins and needles are

55

identical, except around the eyes.

Plate(s) & Wish(es)

Dishe(s) - as written on greeting cards and signed by authors

of books on rhyming slang

e.g. ´Best plates & dishes…´

Dead Horse Sauce

e.g. Can you pass me the dead horse?

Sharon Stone Phone

- a new term that has been mentioned in relation to a

mobile phone

e.g. ´Lost your Sharon? Well, leave me your number

and if I find it I´ll give you a ring.´

Texas Ranger Stranger

e.g. This nightclub is full of Texas Rangers tonight .

Steffi Graf 1Bath

e.g. I´m just going for a Steffi.

2 Laugh

- the newspeak version of ´You must be joking ´ is

´You´re having a Steffi.´

Tom Cruize Booze

- a modern piece based on the American film star who

famously played a barman in the film Coctail

e.g. I need some Tom .

Wooden Leg Egg

- interesting to see the reaction of a waitress when

she is asked for a couple of wooden legs on toast

56

Imagine a conversation like this (22):

1. “Allo me old china - wot say we pop round the Jack. I 'll stand you a pig

and you can rabbit on about your teapots. We can 'ave some loop and

tommy and be off before the dickory hits twelve."

To translate:

“Hello my old mate (china plate) - what do you say we pop around to the

bar (Jack Tar). I 'll buy you a beer (pig's ear) and you can talk (rabbit and

pork) about your kids (teapot lids). We can have some soup (loop de loop)

and supper (Tommy Tucker) and be gone before the clock (hickory dickory

dock) strikes twelve.”

2. "Got to my mickey, found me way up the apples, put on me whistle and

the bloody dog went. It was me trouble telling me to fetch the teapots."

which really means,

"Got to my house (mickey mouse), found my way up the stairs (apples and

pears), put on my suit (whistle and flute) when the phone (dog and bone)

rang. It was my wife (trouble and strife) telling me to get the kids (teapot

lids)."

Slang and rhyming slang in their full loveliness; very popular features

which playfully enhance the language. The rhymes often refer to people

who are ´in´ or topical at the time the rhyming phrase is coined but

unfortunately, phrases occasionally survive their popularity. Thus, as

Kirkpatrick (20, p.7) says, “rhyming slang becomes easily obscure. She

also reports that “rhyming slang has not only survived the decades but it is

currently enjoying something of a revival; a revival seemingly helped by

the Internet.

3.8 Exercises

1. BODY SLANG (Gap-filling exercise)

57

bean beak belly button choppers claws crows feetdogs dukes gut honker kisser love handles

noodle paws peepers pinky rump schnoz seat smacker sniffer snout spare tyre tush

eyes ……………

eye wrinkles ……………

nose …………… …………... …………… ……………

…………...

mouth …………… ……………

teeth ……………

head …………… ……………

hands …………… ……………

fists ……………

little finger ……………

waist …………… ……………

navel ……………

stomach …………… ……………

buttocks …………… …………… ……………

feet ……………

2. Translate the Cockney Rhyming slang lines into English:

a, I was chatting to me soap and lather on the dog and bone when I

suddenly let out an enormous bread and cheese. (20, p.25)

b, My best finger and thumb played the Joanna at my bottle of water´s

wedding last year. We kicked and pranced through the night. (20, p.41)

c, Last week my trouble and strife was making some needle and thread, but

accidentally added in some frisk and frolic. Boy did we Wallace and

Gromit when we ate our sandwiches that night! (20, p.50)

58

d, Getting up the old apples when you´ve had a few Britney Spears and are

feeling completely cream crackered is no bubble bath, believe you me. (20,

p. 79)

e, I was having a right old top hat with the bloke in the strange ´n´ weird

when that lemon curd splashed pig´s ear all over my working classes. (20,

p.98)

4 SOCIAL, AGE AND GENDER DIFFERENCES

As mentioned in the previous chapters, language changes over time.

Not only does it, it also has different forms that exist simultaneously.

People grow up and live in different communities and acquire their

language. They do not speak one identical form: their utterances vary

because of social, regional and cultural background. Moreover, language

alters not only from region to region and from one social group to another,

but also from person to person. According to Yule ( 25, p.190) two people

growing up in the same geographical area, at the same time, may speak

differently because of a number of social differences.

A variety of language associated with a particular social group is

called a sociolect. Age, gender, occupation and educational background

are the personal characteristics which linguists take into account when

talking about distinctive use of English.

In this chapter, I am going to look into the matter of social differences

and their subcategories - age and gender issues, from my point of view,

rather influential aspects of the language.

4.1. Social class differences

There are many forms of social differentiation of English language.

59

An alternative approach to the examination of social variation is the study

of social networks . Lesley Milroy pioneered this approach. He says (1,

p.93) “it is a group of people who regularly interact with each other. Any

individual may belong to several networks, interacting with different

groups of people at home and at work, for example.”

I am going to concentrate on social stratification – the particular type

of social differentiation; a term, according to Peter Trudgill (13, p.23),

used to refer to any hierarchical ordering of groups within a society. In

practice, “people’s lives are not so compartmentalized, and someone who

is working-class might well have middle-class friends or work colleagues”.

(1, p.93)

Imagine you hear talking two people – a speaker A and a speaker B.

Speaker A Speaker B

I done it yesterday. I did it yesterday.

He ain´g got it. He hasn’t got it.

It was her what said it. It was her that said it.

I am sure you would guess that B is a person with higher social status than

A and you would be right. How is it that we are able to do this sort of

thing?

The answer lies in the existence of varieties of language which have

come to be called social-class dialects . There are grammatical differences

between the speech of these two speakers which give us clues about their

social backgrounds. It is also very probable that these differences will be

accompanied by phonetic and phonological differences – so called social-

class accents. The internal differentiation of human societies is reflected

in the language. Different social groups use different linguistic varieties

which development can be explained in terms of social barriers and social

distance . (13, p.23)

Trudgill further explains that social barriers can be compared to

regional-dialect boundaries which can be compared to geographical

barriers such as mountains and rivers: for example, speakers in the area of

Britain north of the river Humber have monophthong in words like house

[hu:s], while speakers south of the river have some kind of diphthong in

that word [haus].

60

In case of social barriers, we are talking about social class, age,

gender, race, education, occupation or many other factors.

Social distance may have the same sort of effect as geographical

distance-the greater the geographical/social distance, the more dissimilar

utterances are linguistically.

A social class is not clearly defined. It is an entity of people with some

similar social and economic characteristics and according to Trudgill (13,

p.25) movement up and down the social hierarchy is perfectly possible.

That makes things more difficult for linguists as the more heterogeneous a

society is the more heterogeneous is its language. For that reason, many

linguists concentrate on the study of idiolect – “a term used for the

personal dialect of each individual speaker of a language” (25, p.193).

Not only the social factors I have mentioned but also factors like voice

quality and physical state determine each person’s idiolect. According to

Alan Gardiner (1, p. 33) individuals also have words, phrases and

expressions that they habitually use and grammatical constructions that

they favour. No two people in the entire world use language in exactly the

same way.

The usual method of researchers is to analyse the language of speakers´

samples drawn from various social classes. Respondents are usually asked

to read aloud some texts and to tell a story about an interesting experience.

Depending on the study, phonological and grammatical features are

considered and compared. Nevertheless, measuring the language is very

difficult.

As Gardiner explains in his work (1, p.93), Trudgill´s Norwich

research examined the relationship between social class and a number of

different linguistic variables.

▪ One of the things which he observed was the pronunciation of –ing

form at the end of words like ´shopping´ and ´singing´. He says, as he

expected, that the respondents lower down the social scale were more

likely to drop the ´g´ in their pronunciation (´shoppin´, ´singin´). He also

found that among all classes pronunciation of the – ing ending increased

according to the formality of the situation. This confirms that people are

61

conscious of their speech, adopting more socially prestigious features in

more formal contexts.

I am rather surprised with this conclusion as, from my own experience

(I have lived in south-east England, only about 40 miles away from central

London for five years and visited other parts of the UK like the south

coast, southeast of England and Midlands areas), I can say that people I´ve

met, I´ve talked to or listened to keep dropping the final ´g´ in the –ing

form. The only case of pronouncing it is one of the soap-operas on TV but

it is the matter of dialect, not of a social class.

▪ In Standard English the third-person present tense singular form of

verbs has an affix –s which distinguishes it from other persons. This

grammatical feature is often not present in everyday speech and Trudgill

(1, p.93) found out that this non-standard item is much more frequent

among working-class speakers.

e.g. Lucy like him very much.

She don´t know him, do she?

This coach go to Birmingham.

Trudgill´s Norwich research used six factors to divide his subjects into

five social classes: middle middle-class (MMC), lower middle-class

(LMC), upper working-class (UWC), middle working-class (MWC) and

lower working-class (LWC) (1, p.92). TABLE 1 shows the results of the

usage of –s :

TABLE 1: Verbs without –s

MMC 0%

LMC 2%

UWC 70%

MWC 87%

LWC 97%

62

As the chart indicates, the biggest gap is between LMC and UWC. On

this basis Trudgill suggests that the society can be divided into two main

class groups, ´middle class´ and ´working class´.

Still, I think we have to bear in mind the chosen factors of the linguist

and his division into five social classes.

▪ Other, from my point of view very frequent, grammatical feature

which correlates with a social class is the use of double or better said,

multiple negation. It is used everywhere and very often.

e.g. Georgina can´t eat nothing .

▪ Dropping of the ´h´ sound, as another phonological feature, at the

beginning of words such as ´hat´, ´house´, etc. was examined by Trudgill

in Norwich and by Petyt, who divides society into four social classes, in

Bradford. TABLE 2 and TABLE 3 show their results.

TABLE 2 (13, p. 36): Dropped ´h´:

MMC 6%

LMC 14%

UWC 40%

MWC 59%

LWC 61%

TABLE 3 (Petyt, 1, p.93): Dropped ´h´:

UPPER MIDDLE-CLASS 12%

LOWER MIDDLE-CLASS 28%

UPPER WORKING-CLASS 67%

LOWER WORKING-CLASS 93%

As the tables point out, both linguists proved that there is a close

relationship between ´h´ dropping and social class.

Paul Rayson, Geoffrey Leech and Mary Hodges undertook some

analyses of conversational English based on factors such as gender, age,

63

social group and geographical regions. They formed six social groups: A

(higher managerial, administrative or professional), B (intermediate

managerial and administrative), C1 (clerical or supervisory), C2 (skilled

manual workers), D (semi- and unskilled manual workers) and E (state

pensioners or widows). These are occupationally-graded categories and

they divided them into two large groups: into an “upper” (A, B, C1) and a

“lower” (C2, D, E). Their research (26) has brought following results:

WORDS USED MORE BY SOCIAL CLASSES A/B/C1:

- yes, really, okay, are, actually, just, good, you, erm, right, school,

think, need, your, basically, guy, sorry, hold, difficult, wicked, rice

and class.

WORDS USED MORE BY SOCIAL CLASSES C2/D/E:

- he, says, said, fucking, ain´t, yeah, its, them, aye, she, bloody,

pound, I, hundred, well, n´t, mummy, that, they, him, were, four,

bloke, five and thousand .

The examination shows greater use of second-person pronouns and

adverbs actually and really among A/B/C1 speakers. On the other hand,

there is a greater use of third-person pronouns, the verb say/says, numbers

and swear words among C2/D/E group. The other two noticeable

comparisons are couples yes and yeah , and guy and bloke . In both cases,

the former variant is preferred in A/B/C1 and the latter in C2/D/E.

4.2 Age differences

It is unquestionable to everybody that there is a difference between the

speech of teenagers and the speech of older members of the same

community. Youngsters prefer to say wireless rather than radio or gay

meaning happy or grotty for disapproval .

Nonetheless, the youth of today uses not only distinct vocabulary and

terms. “The links between age and language have also been seen through

phonology.” (27, 1991)

64

According to Giles and Coupland (27) “people react to a sentence read

by an older-sounding voice with a standard accent as ´egocentric, living in

the past and talking of trivia´, read by a young voice as ´arrogant and

pompous´, and read by an elderly voice with a non-standard accent as

´stupid and losing his grip´.”

Still, the main questions are the extent to which English people

categorise other people´s age through their vocabulary and which words

are associated with which ages.

Many researches have been done in this field and various linguists have

tried to offer us as the most accurate results as possible. As it is known,

there are other factors which influence this kind of study – the before

mentioned class and also gender are the leading ones. Most of the analyses

I went through divide the nation into five age groups, although the age

bands are a bit distinct. Basically, divisions contrast people of school age

at one end with senior citizens at the other.

I have chosen two distinctive researches concerning with this matter.

In the first one, its authors Rayson, Leech and Hodges (26), for simplicity,

divided the age groups into just two main classes: those under 35 and

those over 35. They sampled the population of the UK in the lexical

variation and came with following results: the words most significantly

differentiating the two classes and used more by under 35´s are:

- mum, fucking, my, mummy, like, na٭ , goes, shit, dad, daddy, me,

what, fuck, wan٭, really, okay, cos, just and why.

na ٭� is counted as a separate word in the combinations gonna and

wanna

Words used more by over 35´s are:

- yes, well, mm, er, they, said, says, were, the, of, and, to mean, he,

but, perhaps, that, see and had.

As the survey shows, older speakers tend to use the word yes . On the

other hand, younger speakers use its informal alternative yeah . It is also

related with the fact the younger speakers include certain interjections and

exclamations in their discourse like ah, ow, hi, hey, ha, ooh, wow, etc .

Another curiosity is that, although the youth has a noticeable tendency to

use specific taboo words like fucking, shit, crap, arse, bollocks, etc ., they

65

surprisingly show a strong tendency to use polite words e.g. please, sorry,

pardon and excuse . When examining the speech of older speakers, words

of hesitation and uncertainty are on the top of the chart. It is notable that

says and said are more favoured in the speech of elders while goes and

going are more used by younger generation. It may be caused by the fact

that young people use go as a verb of speech reporting.

The second study on the age and language interference was based on

the emphasis ´class-age´. “Some of the differences were anticipated to be

arbitrary lexical variation between the younger and older age, other

differences were anticipated to reflect certain plausible hypotheses about

vocabulary.” (27) Here are some of them:

a, Younger people tend to use short forms or “y/ie” form of first names.

e.g. Deborah – Debbie, Debs

Joanna - Jo

Robert - Robbie, Rob

b, Items dealing with new technology are used by younger ones.

e.g. television – TV, telly, tube, etc.

radio - wireless

refrigerator – fridge

record - CD, disc, etc.

c, Other word sets:

e.g. male person – chap,bloke, lad, etc.

drunk - pissed, sloshed, etc.

tea - cup of tea, cuppa, etc.

bicycle - bike, cycle

cinema - movies, flicks

I approve very much with this notion but there is one line, one example

which I do not agree with. The word tea, which is above connected with

older generation, is in my opinion more connected with the younger

English. Adults and seniors, especially women whom I talk to mostly,

favour cup of tea or cuppa which is even more popular.

66

Many linguists discuss general aspects of change in vocabulary when it

comes to ´age and language´ problem, they try to solve and find the answer

to the question where that change comes from. “One possibility is that

words are arbitrarily associated with age-groups and that they go forward

with the age-group cohort as they get older.” (27) That would mean

following: the word chap which is nowadays used more or less by older

speakers will retain in the lexicon of that generation. It automatically

means that the word should die with their speakers; “the old forms must in

principle disappear.” (27) Yet, many age-related words have existed in

English for many years. Chap is, for example, first found in Old English

Decade in 1716.

The second alternative is the approach of age-grading in language first

described by Labov (27): “Speakers adopt a form of language suitable to

their years. So chap may be permanently associated with the old and is

adopted when, say, the speaker passes fifty.” (27) He continues:

“Adolescents and young adults use stigmatised variants more freely than

middle-aged speakers”. (27) As the earlier mentioned cases show, sloshed

is a typical mark of the young while cycle a mark of the old.

This section indicates that there are notable differences between the

speech of teenagers and adults. Teenagers have constantly changing

lexicon of words and expressions and they use it not only to separate from

the world of adults but also to strengthen their identity as a social group.

4.3 Gender differences

Do women and men speak differently? Although this seems to be a

simple question, the answer is rather complicated and in fact it is a

besetting issue in sociolinguistic. According to John Gray (29, p.146), the

author of a well known book Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus ,

women and men communicate so differently that they might as well come

from different planets.

Obviously, there are many differences; some of them are small, some

of them are generally noticeable. It all depends on what we mean on

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´speak differently´. Do women use more ´correct´ English? Are women

more polite? Do they talk more than men? These are the questions I will

try to answer in the following lines.

4.3.1 Do women speak more ´correct´ than men?

Generally speaking, women and men respond differently in different

contexts and situations. However, it has been suggested that women use

greater amount of standard forms than men. In other words, as explained

by Bauer, Holmes and Warren (29, p.149) “It is not so much that women

use more standard forms but rather that the forms that women use become

the standard forms because the community expects women to model the

´correct´ forms as in many communities, women are expected to model all

kinds of ´good´ behaviour.” It all begins in childhood when boys´

misbehaviour is more tolerated by society than girls´. I am sure than all

girls have heard the expression ´behave like a lady´ many times and this,

of course, according Gardiner (1, p.94) includes speaking in an appropriate

manner.

Moreover, society expects women to play the dominant role in child

rearing which means providing children with models of ´correct´ speech

for them to imitate. However, this is not always true. As Thanasoulas (30)

says “interactions between a mother and her child or a husband are wife

are usually informal, interspread with colloquial or vernacular speech

forms.”

Trudgill (13, p. 70) suggests that women are more sensitive to the

nature of grammatical features than men. Gardiner specifies (1, p.95) that

this can be explained with the fact that men associate non-standard forms

with masculinity and toughness. They are rather proud of using such

language. It is said that men tend to desire covert prestige (it derives from

behaviour that goes against the norms and conventions of society), while

women seek overt prestige (it attaches to respectable, socially desirable

behaviour).

68

Jenny Cheshire (1, p.94) investigated the speech of adolescents at an

adventure playground and found similar patterns to those that exist among

adults. This suggests that differences in male and female language are

already evident in early years.

Here are the most noticeable speech differences between women and

men. Men are more likely to use:

- double/multiple negatives : e.g. I don´t want nothing.

We haven´t done nothing wrong.

- incorrect/incomplete tense : e.g. She never done that..

He come home late last night.

- ´seen´ and ´done´ as past tense forms :

e.g. I seen him last Friday…

He done it yesterday…

- ´ain´t´ : e.g. She ain´t going yet…

- ignorance of the third person singular : e.g. She´ve got…

Still, the most significant differences between men and women speech

within English are phonetic and phonological. One of the most noticeable

examples is the sound ´ng´ [ŋ] as opposed to ´n´ [n] at the end of words

like writing, singing , etc. Women tend to use the former one-more careful

pronunciation, while men the latter one- less careless and vernacular

pronunciation.

A similar patter can be found in the pronunciation of ´p´ at the end of

words. Bauer, Holmes and Warren (28, p.148) say that men more often

than women end words like stop and clap with a ´p´ which is ´glottalized´

(i.e. they cut the air off abruptly in the wind-pipe as they say the ´p´).

Another difference is that men are more likely to drop the sound ´h´ at

the beginning of words like ´hat´ or ´house´.

It is clear that standard speech is associated with femininity and

society also plays an important role here. Nevertheless, we can not forget

that not all men and women are the same. Everybody is individual,

everybody is different. “We often find that people use language in

sophisticated way and that their gender identity is only one aspect of a

complex picture.” (28, p.149).

69

4.3.2 Do women speak more politely than men?

Generally it is claimed that women are more polite than men, more

considerate of the feelings of others and more responsive to the needs of

others. According to Gardiner (1, p.95) women’s speech patters are created

by their subordinate role within society, which is male-dominated. Women

have not universally accepted the position in the lower ranks and using the

standard and polite forms of the language helps them to, somehow, balance

the unacceptable situation. Women use standard language as a non-

punishable way of rebelling.

American linguist Robin Lakoff (1, p.95) made a research on the

differences in speech of men and women. She says that women´s language

is distinct from men´s not only in using of standard and polite forms; she

also identified a number of other features, characteristic for women´s

speech – lack of confidence, less direct and less assertive. She offers us

following examples:

• hedges and fillers (expressions such as ´ sort of´, ´you know´, etc.)

• tag questions (e.g. ´That´s right, isn´t it? ´)

• indirect request forms (e.g. ´Would you mind closing the window? ´)

“Swearing, as another element when talking about politeness, is

generally considered to be rude and offensive. There is certainly evidence

that women tend to swear less than men – or at least in the contexts where

researchers have studied this behaviour. But, once again there are lots of

´buts´.” (28, p.150)

Swearwords can serve a range of functions. Most people use them when

they are angry or annoyed but as Bauer, Holmes and Warren (28, p. 150)

say, “… some people use them to strengthen a much wider range of

expressions”, as in the following examples:

Shit that was good

70

What a shit-hot game

Bugger I´ve dropped the pin

Don´t fuckin´look at me like that.

That´s fuckin´fantastic

You´re a bloody marvel

Abso-bloody-lutely mate!

I must only agree with this last statement as I, myself, have a girlfriend

who swears a lot but, as mentioned above, in a ´good´ way. We can go

around shops, try clothes on and she would say: “ Oh, get that hoodie! That

colour fuckin´ suits you.” And it is not only her. Although I do not think it

is appropriate to talk like that at all, I have heard many girls in England

using swearwords that way. However, if I compare it with swearing in

Slovakia I suppose we must admit that the Slovak, no matter whether they

are males or females, swear a lot and unfortunately, mostly because of

being angry or irritated.

Generally, it is acknowledged that women swear more when they are

mixed with men.

It all depends where we are and whom with. Different situations and

some workplaces are therefore another ´but´. Pubs, sports fields, even

´chat rooms´ on the internet are places where swearing is very frequent.

The survey done by Rayson, Leech and Hodges (26) confirms that

taboo words are typical for male speech. Actually, the most characteristic

word is the word fucking . Other most frequent words are: er, the, yeah,

right, hundred, fuck, is, of, two, three, ah, no, number, quid, one, mate,

which, okay, that, guy and yes. On the other hand, most specific ´female´

words are: she, her, said, n´t, I , and, to, cos, oh, Christmas, thought,

lovely, nice, mm, had, did, going, because, him, really, school, he, think,

home and me .

As the research indicates, except swear words, men have tendency to

use number words and informal interjections. Women make greater use of

pronouns, especially feminine and their language seems to be more

´standard-polite´.

71

As already mentioned, it all depends on the situation we are in. If we

need something from somebody, e.g. borrow new boots from our sister or

mum’s car, we tend to adopt a “politeness strategy” as Bauer, Holmes and

Warren (28, p.151) call it .

e.g.

Do you think perhaps I could possibly borrow the car tonight, Mum?

I thought maybe if you weren’t going out that maybe you might let

me borrow the car for a little while later Mum? (28, p. 151)

These examples point out that men can be as polite as women,

especially if their benefit is big and important. Bauer, Holmes and Warren

(28, p.151) name words used in the sentences above (e.g. perhaps, might,

could, just, possibly, I wonder, etc) ´hedges´.

Universally, I reckon it is all about how frequently women and men are

polite. And as said before, it mostly depends on the circumstances and

from my point of view, women are more often in a position where they

need to be well-mannered. In other words, Bauer, Holmes and Warren (28,

p. 151) suggest that status is typically at least as important as gender in

accounting for why people use ´hedges´ and for women who claim more

status in society, it is, as Thanasoulas says (30), “ inconceivable to use

´strong´ expletives.”

4.3.3 Do women talk more than men?

There are many conventional sayings in societies that suggest that

women talk more than men.

e.g.

Foxes are all tails, and women are all tongues.

(English proverb)

Nothing is so unnatural as a talkative man or a quiet woman.

(Scottish proverb)

The tongue is the sword of a woman and she never lets it become

rusty.

72

(Chinese proverb)

The woman with active hands and feet, marry her, but the woman

with overactive mouth, leave well alone.

(Maori proverb)

Three women make a market.

(Japanese proverb)

People talk a lot. They ask question, transmit and obtain information,

chat and gossip over coffee, discuss things, etc. They use language

formally and informally and this division helps us to draw the line who

talks more and when.

“Men tend to dominate public and formal contexts – they talk more in

public meetings and formal seminars, they ask more questions at

conferences, and tend to dominate formal business meetings. Women, by

contrast, tend to talk more in private.” (28, p.152)

Imagine a situation of a couple living together in the evening. They are

watching TV. A man would be probably lying down on the sofa, watching

quietly, while his partner would be trying to engage him in conversation…

I think this is typical picture for most households.

On the other hand, I have been to several formal seminars – most of

them were led by men. I know some managers and highly placed people in

business in England; once again, they are all men.

While in England I lived in a family where the man of the house was a

vice-president of an important music company. He worked from the house

from time to time. He spent hours on the phone, talking about the

business. He also attended many meetings where he had to present things

and talk. As soon as he sat himself down in the sitting room, you would

hardly hear him saying a word. Television and newspapers were his only

accompanists.

It seems to me that women tend to talk more when they feel some

friendly or ´relaxed´ atmosphere around themselves. If we compare two

lady-friends and two men chatting over a cup of tea or in a casual

conversation, I suppose that women would talk more as they have more

subjects to discuss (e.g. fashion and beauty, relationships, food and

73

overeating, health, etc…) than men who usually chat about work, women

and sport. It is said that women are more interactive and more supportive

in conversation. However, I have found that even though ladies are more

sympathetic, they are not as honest and straightforward as men and that

what counts I guess. But that is a different matter.

5 LANGUAGE IN EMAIL MESSAGES

5.1 Email

„E-mail colours digital diction. It seems to elicit succinct sentences

packed with colloquialisms and punchy Anglo-Saxon words.”

(Constance Hale, Wired Magazine, cited in 1, p.80)

New technology influences the way in which people communicate; and

as Fliss (31) says “email is undoubtedly the leading force in contemporary

communication exchange.” Gardiner (1, p. 80) describes email as

“occupying a space somewhere between the telephone and the letter,

combining elements of written communication and spoken conversation.”

Due to inexpensive cost (one and the same message can be send to

hundreds of people) and accessibility, email is without any doubts

replacing its ancestors, already mentioned, the telephone and the letter.

74

Email is both personal and impersonal. Researches show that there are

around 10 billion personal emails exchanged every day, not taking into

consideration business-oriented electronic post and I am sure this number

is still rising. For this reason it is clear that, as Baron (31) claims, “this

increasing level must necessarily affect the way users of email are

interacting with each other.”

5.2 Email style

Admittedly, email messages and their style are more informal that the

style of traditional letters.

Still, there are some common elements they share; for example, email

resembles the letter in the fixed structure of discourse that email messages

are composed from. They typically include a “To” and “From” address, a

subject header, a space for carbon copies and a message body.

Formal greetings and farewell signatures in email compositions are

often dispensed with due to introductory on-screen display.

“It is claimed that emailing should be regarded as more akin to talking,

rather than writing.” (14, p.192) This enunciation is, and not only in my

opinion, justifiable. According to Gardiner (1, p.80)”grammatical

constructions and lexical choice are often casual and spontaneous.”

The omission or inattention to punctuation is only one of many typical

characteristics (Subchapter 5.2.1) of informal correspondence and cause

that electronic mail has become a speech-like means of communication. In

most situations, punctuation is minimised and its non-standard use brings

text closer to speech. Repetition of a particular punctuation mark or a

combination with other punctuation marks can moreover add personal

emotion or further contextual emphasis.

e.g. Are you joking???????

I’m ashamed of myself!??!

As seen from above mentioned facts, breaking the rules of Standard

English system cause some kind of spontaneity of email. Moreover, its

75

language is dynamic, speedy, and somehow powerful and it is

phenomenally popular among all generation.

5.2.1 Typical characteristics of email language

• RANDOM USE OF CAPITALS (or not at all): lowercase letters are used

at the beginning of sentences, spelling of proper names, etc.

e.g. john and i are going x-mas shopping on sunday.

• USE OF CAPITALS TO EXPRESS EMPHASIS OR INTONATION

e.g. i DIDN´T say that.

you MUST be joking.

• PUNCTUATION, CONTRACTIONS AND SPELLING ARE OFTEN

INACCURATE, NEGLECTED and regularly left uncorrected

e.g. She couldnt attend daniels bday partya fter all.

• TRENDY ACRONYMS

e.g. ASAP as soon as possible

BBL be back later

CU, CYA see you

CUL8R see you later

BTW by the way

CIO check it out

F2F face to face

GR8 great

H&K hug and kiss

IC I see

KIT keep in touch

LOL laugh out loud

LY love you

QT cutie

76

SYS see you soon

TTYL talk to you later

TX/TA thanks/thanks again

TOY thinking of you

TOM tomorrow

TNT till next time

UR you are

WB welcome back

WTH what the heck

WUF where are you from?

YBS you´ll be sorry

X kiss

2NITE tonight

2DAY today

• INTENTIONAL MISSPELLING (e.g.“nite” for night , “gud” for good,

etc .), COLLOQUIAL ABBREVIATIONS (e.g. “plz” for please , “kay” for

okay ,”luv” for love, etc .) and SHORTHAND (e.g. “s/where” for

somewhere, etc .)- together with acronyms characterized as ´Netspeak´

e.g. kay, ill cu s/where round d skool at 1045 tumorow.

plz b there.

• OMISSION OF PRONOUS AND VERBS – this feature according to

Baron (31) resembles the telegram or the “cablese” jargon of cablegrams

e.g. Met Jo and went out with her. (omission of ´I´)

Just a quick ´Hi´… (omission of ´This is´)

• EMOTICONS: graphical symbols, also known as ´smileys´, which are

used to express facial expressions and body language

e.g. smile

anger, displeasure

>:P sticking out tongue

{ } a hug

:-{ sadness or moustache

77

;-) a wink

:-o shock, Oh!

(:/) sarcasm

:-.) Cindy Crawford

a kiss ٭�-:

:-# lips sealed

:-S makes no sense

::-) glasses

:-& tongue tied

@}--}-- a rose

:{) really happy

:-@ screaming

%-( tired

All the previously mentioned notes imply how email drifts towards the

informal communication. Email culture is enlarging and as (14, p.192)

says “it is becoming more and more commonplace”. It is seen by many as a

positive aspect of today’s world. However, there are people who worry

that email is destroying formal standards of letters on the one hand and

killing literacy, on the other hand.

I am personally a huge fan of email. It incredibly saves time, it is

cheap, it is fun and it makes life easier. It is a sociable tool of

relationships and business.

I am aware of the fact of its informal language and how it destroys the

English vocabulary/grammar system but I think most people use it only in

this case of communication, including short message service and chat

rooms, in order to make the conversation more interesting and quicker.

Even though, I must admit that using email abbreviations can affect

everyday life, especially the written language. It has already caused me

some troubles when teaching (e.g. I wrote ´ nite´ instead of a word ´night´

on the blackboard and I really must keep in mind how to spell ´ you´ as I

have a tendency to write down only its abbreviation ´ u´). It is very catchy

indeed.

78

5.3 Exercise

REWRITE FOLLOWING EMAILS INTO STANDARD ENGLISH:

1. Hi hon,

so hau´s it goin 2day? hau r u? thx 4 yr pressie had a gr8 wkd wth my

best m8

anyway, TOY loads ;-) goin out wth Emma fr Guildford 2nite;

BTW, some1 called me abt that US ting :{) ill tell ya more when u call

tmw.

Kay QT, G2G now ;-)

b gud and TCOY

luv me xxx

2. Hi Jo,

RUOK? H8 2 tell u this but cant make it 2day my mob was stolen &

2 b honest wth u, hav some personal probs :-@

do u no any1 who repairs cars?

ill call u prolly @ d end of d wk

tx Sil

PS: FC 4 yr exam tmw

79

CONCLUSION

Standard English, the cornerstone of proper English, is the variety

understood by everyone. It is said to be unchanging but its conventions of

grammar, spelling and so on can and do change over time.

When it comes to writing and speaking, in certain situations, writing

seems to be superior mode, although speaking is, for example, considered

as more important component of the English examination now. There is

also an argument that the reader absorbs a message more quickly than the

listener. Another benefit of written English is that most writings tend to be

in Standard English. Still, I think it is rather controversial issue to decide

which of them is more important. A situation and the audience are the

basic components when taking into consideration which mode of the

language is appropriate to use.

English and languages in general establish social relationships and on

the other hand, they convey information about the speaker. People often

make assumptions about others on the way they speak. Human beings are

different, everybody is an individual and in the same way they differ in

their language. When bearing in mind that there are exceptions when

80

taking into consideration gender, the basic ´rule´ is that people from

higher social classes, adults/older people and women, who according to

Gardiner (1, p.94) “try to make an effort to demonstrate their status and

respectability”, use grammatical features closer to Standard English.

It is known that Great Britain is replete with dialects. It is said that

there are as many dialects as there are hills and valleys. Due to the fact

that most people do not belong to the ´ruling´ class, regional dialects and

accents of English language are more widely used and are more popular

among people as their ´prestigious´ forms. Moreover, experiments confirm

that those who use RP are not seen as persuasive and trustworthy.

Slang, a controversial issue of any language, is particularly popular

among young people who feel somehow attracted to its inventiveness,

irreverence and some kind of independence. Slovak pupils and students

have an occasional opportunity to face this subject at our schools.

Personally, I think it is a shame as slang, and especially Cockney rhyming

slang, is a good fun not only for children but also for adults. Rhyming

slang is more about enjoyment – an item often missing on lessons, an item

which I believe would revive the learning process.

From my own experience, I can say that ´netspeak´, similarly as slang,

is used mostly by juniors as they want to be, once again, distinguished

from others, especially from adults.

I presume that email language has changed and of course is constantly

changing and renewing. It became more informal with the creation of chat

rooms when, as said before, children had to come up with ´a new language

´ to which parents would not understand.

As I mentioned before, I have lived in Surrey, very close to ´royal´

Ascot, only about 40 miles from the central London.

Personally, I found their accent very close to RP and the one heard on

television and radio. I have visited several parts of England and to sum up,

counties south of London have similar accents as the area I live while in

the UK. It is a different matter when talking about south-west counties like

e.g. Cornwall or Devon. I also often see my relatives in Birmingham and

whenever I go there, people always recognize my different, apparently

´southern´ and ´more posh´ accent.

81

The most typical feature found in discourse of native speakers – slang -

is an unthinkable element of English language. The English, and of course

other residents of Great Britain, use it daily and they love it. I am not an

exception.

It is clear to everybody that accents, dialects and slang make language

more interesting and lively. Email does a similar job, although it is a

´troublemaker´ when it comes to its informality and breaking the rules of

written mode.

Let us think for a moment. Even though we live in “an increasingly

technocratic global community” (31) and we incline to change things

constantly, I believe that we, the people of the 21 s t century, are intelligent

enough not to lose the beauty and the fineness of English language. Dr

Johnson, in his preface to A Dictionary of the English Language , said a

splendid thought which I am going to finish this work with and which I

can not agree more with:

“Tongues, like governments, have long preserved our constitution; let us

make some struggle for our language.” (1, p.34)

82

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