Ethnicity and language

• The diversity in Britain has led to increasing variation in the usage of English speakers with different ethnic backgrounds.
• New languages are formed when two or more languages have contact. Forms appear by the exchange of grammatical, lexical and phonological elements e.g CEP - Chinese Pidgin English. CPE began in 17th century, it was used between English and Chinese traders.
• Pidgins- This evolved from a main soure of language, usualy taking the majority of their vocabulary but are less gramatically developed. Pidgin is spoken when in social contexts rather then having native speakers. However, non pidgin speakers but speak one of the contributing languages used are unable to understand pidgin.
• Creoles: Creoles grew out of Pidgin as it became more established as it is begining to be used by second generations. The grammar is usually derived from source languages in a simplified.

MARK SEBBA: London Jamaican

• He identified the main choices of young, new generation speakers born into London Carribbean communities as effectively being between Carribbean creole forms.
• he defines London Jamaican as a language with a combination of phonological, lexical and grammatical elements.
• it is influenced by Jamaican Creole, which had an impact on British colonists since 17/18th century

SUE FOX:   multi ethnic youth dialect

• He research showed a variety of 'multi ethnic youth dialects' which she had termed down to 'Multicultural London English.' This form of multicultural dialect is is gaining ground with youths in Birmingham and Bristol.
• Culturally diverse youth population of London has formed fertile conditions for the growth of the variety.
• It is also a rapidly changing dialect . Words, phrases and even pronounciation features are adopted and adapted by/to its speaker. it reflects the semi-parodied firms of language used by Ali G.

My experience of getting my recording

When I first got given my assignment to find or take a recording to deconstruct later on for my next piece of coursework. I had honestly believed it would be an easy concept, I had no idea what was about to come from it...

                I had finally chosen what text I would be using for this assignment, I would be using a recording of Barack Obama’s inauguration speech from 2009 when he had won the presidential election. I still strongly believed this was an easy concept as I had to only download the video, I was still extremely wrong.

                Once I had chosen the correct video, I had faith in this text and project as it had perfect sound quality, which will be able to transfer into a transcript later on. I had to then find a YouTube video converter. This was my first obstacle creating mayhem and a lot of distress for me, causing me to lose faith and belief. I could not a converter which would be able to download and convert my video they provided me with a ‘pop up’ saying the file was either too big or was too long in length as it was over 21 minutes long!

After a couple of hours I had finally I had found a converter which was able to download my project; this happened to be my second obstacle as I only needed the sound and not the video as well. As a result of this I had to find a different converter which was able to download the sound. After an hour and a half I managed to convert the file, only to be presented with another obstacle. This time I was unable to download the file onto the Apple Mac so to fix this reoccurring process of failure, as I was beginning to lose hope in my project, I had to move onto a Dell computer which had brung hope of being able to successful download my project, which I was able to! After all these obstacles and beginning to lose hope due to the amount of failures which had occurred I was able to burn the file onto a disc, which then I was able to present to my teacher at a later date.

Potential coursework

1. i would quite like to do my coursework on spoken speeches e.g Barack Obama, Nelson Mandela etc.
To see different conventions and how they become effective through speech e.g Emphasis

2. I have a strong interest in law so if theres a possible way of how i could find youtube clips of a professional lawyer speaking this would be interesting.

descriptivists vs. prescriptivists

Prescriptivists like Simon believe you need prescribed rules to preserve language.

Descriptivists like Sheidlower and other dictionary makers are content to describe language as it changes. 

I think that you need both prescriptivists and descriptivists to have both traditional and new language in the English language. By having prescriptivists it helps to keep the English tradition alive and well known. However, like the narrator said pop culture and hip hop have a huge impact on the language today so English language is naturally going to change regardless of prescriptivists. 

Dictionaries

What i found interesting about researching dictionaries was finding out that James Murray died before releasing his Oxford Dictionary. Also, that Dr Samuel Johnson's dictionary had over 42,000 words.

Liverpool accent

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

The Liverpool accent also known as 'Scouse' accent:

　

1) What has had an influence upon the accent/dialect:

• The influence of these different speech patterns became apparent in Liverpool and Birkenhead, distinguishing the accent of its people from those of the surrounding Lancashire and Cheshire areas. It is only recently that Scouse has been treated as a cohesive accent/dialect; for many years, Liverpool was simply seen as a melting pot of different accents without one of its own.
• The major influence comes from the influx of Irish and Welsh into the city. The mixing of these different accents and dialects, joining with words and sayings picked up from global maritime arrivals, all fused together to create the unique Scouse sound. Every tide brought ashore a new imported verb and many stuck becoming part of everyday language.
• The influence on the local accent may go back even further to Viking times. Many local areas of Liverpool have Viking names such as Crosby, Formby and Kirkby due to Viking raiders settling in the area of the River Mersey.

2) Where does it orginate from?

• Originally a small fishing village, Liverpool developed as a port, particularly with

Ireland, and after the 1700s as an international trading and industrial centre. By this point a city, it became a melting pot of several languages and dialects, but primarily Lancastrian English, Irish, Welsh, Dutch, Scandinavian, German and Scottish. As a result the Liverpool accent often has more in common with accents from other European and British port cities such as Glasgow, Dublin and Amsterdam than it does with local towns such as St Helens.glottal stop

　

　

3) What is characteristic about this accent?

• areas of Liverpool have their own impenetrable language ‘backslang’ a linguistic ploy that splits words, rendering them incomprehensible to the uninitiated.
• The scouse is sometimes difficult to include/understand for the english-speaking living outside Merseyside. Its comprehension thus represents a major challenge for the foreigners controlling the British English standard, known as "of the sovereign", because its pronunciation is, in some cases, radically different and its flow is fast.

• The final letters of many words are often lost in a
• The tongue tends to be swallowed, cutting off nasal passages and making it sound as if the speaker has a cold.
inflected manner of speech, with a range of rising and falling tones not typical of most of northern England inflected manner of speech, with a range of rising and falling tones not typical of most of northern England port of sea of the England, was opened with various influences and was known important a Immigration coming from the four corners of British Isles, its prosperous industry and its port activities attracting of many Welsh, Écossais and, especially, Irish fleeing the miséreuses living conditions of their region. All these linguistic influences, including some keys of French, German and Dutch, were grafted with the local accent of the Lancashire to form, during the centuries, a single and original mixture
　
　
　
　
4) Examples of famous people with the accent
• The Beatles
• Steven gerrard
• Mel Chisholm (ex spice girl)
• Cilla Black
• Alex Currran
• Coleen Rooney
• Liz McClarnon
　
　
6) Make a note of examples of words and phrases that are typical
• ‘I haven’t seen nothing’ or ‘I haven’t been nowhere’ where you’ve got two negatives in the same sentence.
• Ear: Lugole instead of ear
　
• Legs: Dollypegs instead of legacy
　
• Hands: Mitts instead of hands
　
• Face or stops: Gob instead of face or mouth
　
• Nose: Ooter instead of nose
　
• Thank you: Your instead of thanks
　
• Me: Uz instead of I and me
　
• You: Yer , Yis instead of you
　
　
• You: Yews instead of you
　
• Hospital: Ozzy" " instead of hospital"
　
• Goodbye: Tared instead of good bye
　
• cigarette: bifter
　
• blow of head: scouse KIS instead of headbut
　
• hairdresser: Ali instead of barbershop
　
• drink: bevy instead of drink (more often used for beer
　
　
7) Details of the accent
• The scouse is sometimes difficult to include/understand for the english-speaking living outside Merseyside. Its comprehension thus represents a major challenge for the foreigners controlling the British English standard, known as "of the sovereign", because its pronunciation is, in some cases, radically different and its flow is fast.
• A fast, highly
　
　
　
　
　
　
8)historical factors that may have influenced the accent
• Viking invasion
　
• the Liverpool, a long time most important
　

• Diminutive ending in "there" : A characteristic of the scouse is to use the most possible diminutives to indicate the names of people and places
• Highly distinctive
• A fast, highly

Language Change is it good or bad?

i think that language change is a good thing as it represents the change in society and how our lifestyles are changing for example due to technical advancements such as the internet (facebook). Although some people believe that the English Language should be kept traditional i disagree as most people these days don't live a traditional lifestyle.

what i have learnt ....

i learnt this was the time period of middle english - early modern english where english is just beginning to sound familiar to what we say to but with less pronouniciation and unrecognisable words.

in the 12th century i found it interesting that language we use today was vaguely used back in this century. latin dominated education and the church and french was the language of law, as well as 10,000 french entering the language.

1476- william Caxton invented the 'Printing press' were mahcines were made to make and print books instead of scribes being used to write out the book. also, in this century East Midlands dialect had established standard english.  spelling became more standardised.

1500- 1650, new used were being created by using prefixes e.g UNhappiness. a fresh interest in classical language and literature had begun leading to momentous developments in medicine,science and the arts.

i found it interesting that we still use words from the 12th century and the earliest book was made by RObert Cawdrey which included 3000 words.

What i have learnt today...

i have learnt the difference between dialect  and accent.
Accent  - the sound patterns of specific dialects
Dialect - is a specific variety of english that differs from other varieties.
Also, i have learnt that language we use today is influenced and from Vikings, Anglo Saxons and The Norman Conquest.

Birmingham Accent

from looking at articles on the internet most articles state that the 'Brummie' accent is undesirable, unemployable, lacks in social status and is unpleasant to listen too. it also is bottom of british accents along with Liverpool accents. However, foreigners like the sound of Birmingham accents as they are unaware of the negative connatations that go with the accent caused by social snobbery.

- Were you aware of your own attitudes towards the accent?
no i wasn't, i havent really thought about the Birmingham accent as i dont regularly hear it as much as i hear other accents such as American or West Country.

- Do you think that having a Birmingham accent puts people at a disadvantage?
yes i do because it states in some articles that people with strong accents or 'undesirable' accents are at a disadvantage especially with employability as it's unlike by most people living in Britain. it also says that people are beginning to neutralise their accents to become employable.

- Do you think accents matter? Why/why not?
i think that accents don't necessarily matter but they do create an identity which is important as it shows who you are and some of your background.

 Were these ideas new to you?
yes, i would of thought that the Brummie accent would of been quite popular.