Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to our video summarising all you need to know about accents and dialects and in this video we'll be looking at regional variation in language. Now to begin, regional variation in language, what does this mean? So in studying accents and dialects, we're concerned with regional variation in language use through received and standard English and though they are respectively an accent and a dialect, they're no longer regionally based. Social variation is also really relevant in this study because the speech of people higher up the social and occupational ladder tends to have fewer regional features than that of people lower down. So in this video of course, in addition to looking at received pronunciation and standard English, we'll be looking at the different types of accents and dialects. Now firstly, some key definitions. Accent refers to the pronunciation of words. A regional accent is an accent spoken in a particular geographical region. Dialect refers simply to vocabulary and grammar. It's a broad term and sometimes includes accents as well. A regional dialect is a dialect of a particular geographic region. Received pronunciation, which has been mentioned just now, which is RP, is an accent associated with upper class speakers. It's also known as BBC English and unlike other accents, it does not indicate a speaker's regional origin. Standard English is the dialect associated with educated speakers of English and it's a form of English considered as formally correct and it's used in most written texts. Now when it comes to attitudes towards accents, people make assumptions about others based on their accents and research finds common attitudes towards accents are the following. So RP, which means received pronunciation, is the most socially prestigious accent associated with Welshness status. RP is also associated with competency and authority. Surveys show many associated with intelligence and self-confidence. RP speakers are however seen less favourably in surveys than speakers with a regional accent in terms of qualities associated with sincerity, good-naturedness and sense of humour. And rural accents such as the Somerset accent are viewed more positively than more urban accents such as Cockney. When it comes to attitudes towards accents, the most interesting experiment is one run by Howard Giles and his capital punishment experiment really suggested that people find regional accents more persuasive than the RP accent. And to go into detail on the experiment itself, so he presented five groups of students with an identical set of arguments against capital punishment. One group read a printed text whilst the other four groups heard an oral presentation. The four oral presentations were given by speakers with different accents and one group heard an RP speaker, another a Somerset speaker, another a South Welsh speaker and the last group a Birmingham speaker. The students were firstly asked about how impressive they found the presentations and those who read the printed text and those who heard the RP speaker were most impressed. However, least impressed were those who heard the Birmingham speaker. That being said, when asked about the persuasiveness of the presentation, those who heard the regional speakers were more likely to report they changed their minds than those hearing the RP speaker or the person reading the printed text. So now when it comes to reasons for attitudes towards accents, here are some possible reasons for varying attitudes towards accents which include RP which is seen as the accent of the upper classes, hence people associated with authority and status. However, most people don't belong to this class, thus they feel socially distanced from it, hence they also don't associate RP with warmth and likeability. People also make connections between accents and regions from which they derive, so most people have a positive view of the countryside associating with beautiful landscapes, tranquillity and so on and as such they respond quite favourably to rural accents. Stereotypes associated with some accents are often reinforced and perpetuated by the mass media. Now, this is interesting to consider positive and negative discrimination towards accents. These attitudes mean people may encounter positive or negative discrimination as a result of their accent. In the workplace, you'll find call centres are often located in certain parts of the country as companies feel certain accents make customers respond favourably. Research suggests that the legal system might be biased against specific accents. People with these accents are more likely to be suspected of a crime. Now, when it comes to accents in the media, common attitudes towards accents are often reinforced by the media. In the early years of broadcasting TV and radio, the presenter often spoke with RP accents and RP was believed to be an accent that was easy to understand by everyone and it carried an air of authority. Today a wider range of accents can be heard, though national news bulletins are still likely to be read by RP speakers. Regional accents are more likely to be heard in local TV and radio stations. Comedy and drama shows often feature regional accents that play up to the stereotype and sport commentators' accents interestingly reflect the social standing of the sport. For example, dark commentators often have strong regional accents to reflect the sport's working class image. However, sports like tennis or horse racing often have commentators with RP accents. Now, when it comes to accents, a really important accent to be really aware of is what we call Estuary English. And Estuary English really describes the accent that originated in London and the South East. Estuary is a specific reference to the Thames estuary. And Estuary English interestingly has spread outwards to several other parts of the country and researchers claim to have identified elements of Estuary English pronunciation several hundred miles from London. Now, to go into some detail, Estuary English is a kind of modified version of Cockney and features include the glottal stop, so removing T from words like butter to pronounce it as buh, and pronouncing L as W, for example, milk is pronounced as milk. And one reason Estuary English has spread is due to Londoners moving away from the capital. Another reason is that Cockney speakers have modified the speech and softened it more to move it closer to RP. And another reason is Estuary English has become considerably more fashionable, especially among younger RP speakers who have adopted it. So that's it when it comes to accents. If you found this video useful, do subscribe to our channel and give it a thumbs up. 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