Dialects and accents
Slide 1. Hello! Let me introduce myself. I am Vasyurina Svetlana, the 3rd year student of the faculty of foreign languages of Bryansk State University. I work as an English teacher in the secondary school of town of Bely Tver region. My work is “Dialects and accents”. Academic supervisor is Sleptsova Larisa Arcad’evna.
Slide 2. Nowadays, almost the whole world speaks English. Therefore, when we go to Britain, we sure that we will hear exactly the British version of English, but in practice, it is quite difficult to understand native speakers. Why?
Slide 3. Few people know that there are over 30 dialects and accents of the British version of English language in the United Kingdom. Each variant differs in its structure, vocabulary, grammar and phonetics.
Slide 4. Dialect is a type of language that differs in its grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary and spelling. Accent is a special manner of pronunciation that is characteristic of a group of people in a particular area.
Slide 5. There are more than ten accents of the United Kingdom:
Newcastle/ Geordie
Lancashire
Liverpool
Birmingham (brummie)
Estuary (coastal settlements along the Thames)
Cockney (East London)
Posh English(aristocratic)
Welsh
Somerset (South of England)
Cornish (South-Western England)
Glasgow (Glaswegian)
Edinburgh (accent of the capital of Scotland)
Northern Irish
And now let's look at some of the most widely used accents and dialects.
Slide 6. The Cockney English. This is the dialect of the working class of the English society of East London, which is considered unattractive. It is one of the most famous types of the London vernacular, from the middle and lower strata of the population.
Slide 7. Look here. You can see the differ in the words, “L” in the word milk pronounces “W”, so, milk is miwk, etc.
Slide 8. The Scottish version of English is different from the British one. Even residents of the United Kingdom do not always understand their compatriots. For example, during debates, members of Parliament sometimes ask representatives of Scotland to speak more slowly and write down some phrases on paper.
Slide 9. They change words. Sometimes SSE speakers change words so that they are easily confused with other English vocabulary. For example, the verb “ken” sounds like a modal “can”, but means something completely different. With the word “how” they replace the adverb “why” and use a phrase that misleads even the British.
Slide 10. In this slide you can see the features of pronunciation: R is always pronounced, the word “CAR” we hear as “KAR”, the letter “T” disappears in the word “computer”.
Slide 11. In this slide I can read some phrases.
Slide 12. And in this slide we can read and understand the 1st statement. But pay attention at the western and eastern pronunciations! Sorry me, but I can’t even read that!
Slide 13. Singing intonations of Wales
Slide 14. They can use some negations, while it is forbidden in English. In English we use, e.g, I see nobody, I can’t see anybody. They also use irregular verbs forms:
Slide 15. Some their words can differ in meaning:
Slide 16. There are words, that according to the people of Wales, untranslatable into English:
Slide 17. The Irish English
Slide 18. The do not answer yes or no questions:
Slide 19. In this slide you can see some features of pronunciation:
“r” is always pronounced, instead dj we hear dʒ, instead tj we hear tʃ.
In some accents we hear tink instead think, and dat instead that
Slide 20. Linguists count dozens of English variants in the UK. I did not name Lancashire, Pitmatik, Liverpool, Sussex and many others dialects. As you see, English is much more diverse than it seems at first look.
Slide 21. Thanks for your attention!
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