British English
Prince harry Adopted Americanisms!!!
British Royal is speaking like an American????? [Published on 04-21-2022]
Queen's English Society
The Queen's English Society, referenced in Harrington's study of Queen Victoria's language change over time, still exists. They are self-described prescriptivists who want to protect the "clarity and elegance" of the English language. [Published on 02-24-2022]
Life of Brian - Latin Lesson - Romans Go Home!
Play video1979's "Life of Brian" comedically depicts the titular main character, played by Graham Chapman, defacing, in Latin, a Roman monument. A Roman centurion, played by John Cleese, stops him and punishes him for his "bad" grammar. The scene is largely a parody of the relationship between English schoolchildren and their teachers. Linguistically, it's interesting as a demonstration of prescriptive norms as well as the representation of different dialects. Cleese's dialect is meant to sound more elevated while Graham Chapman's, who is from Melton Mowbray, north of London, is meant to sound less elevated, which is supposed to add to the comedy. Funnily enough, I think some of Brian's usages correlate with changes that would end up occurring in Latin before it changed into the various Romance languages.
Response to Thanks Tik Tok
This Tik Tok is a joke about how Americans respond to thanks with Acknowledgments like "Yep." According to the creator, it's not as a common in Britain, and it might even be seen as a little rude.
Gob's Perception of the Effect of Skin Color on Voice
Play videoIn this very short clip from Arrested Development, Gob's puppet Franklin comes out of the dryer with the color drained from his cloth. Gob had always used AAL for the puppet, but in this clip he uses British English. Since Franklin's cloth/skin is light now, the joke is that he also lost his AAL repertoire and gained a British English variety of speaking. This is an example of the the oversimplified way that people often see language variants as stereotypically mapping on to people.
Linguistic adoration example from Love Actually
Play videoThis is a good example of linguistic adoration of British English in America as an attractive language for a man to speak. Colin explains that in America he could easily find a girlfriend because of his "cute British accent". Later in the movie he ends up in a dive bar in Milwaukee and is immediately surrounded by "hot American girls" who adore him because of his accent and later invite him over and basically have an orgy, proving Colin's hypothesis about his accent right.
Why Do Cartoon Villains Speak in Foreign Accents?
This article discusses a study similar to Lippi-Green's paper, along with work done by Calvin Gidney and Julie Dubrow, in which the trend of villains in children's media being voiced with non-American accents is analyzed. Isabel Fattal mainly focuses on British, German, and Slavic accented English.
[Published on 01-04-2018]
MLE
explaining how London youth speak: "One of our most interesting findings," she says, "was that we'd have groups of students from white Anglo-Saxon backgrounds, along with those of Arab, South American, Ghanaian and Portuguese descent, and they all spoke with the same dialect. But those who use it most strongly are those of second or third generation immigrant background, followed by white boys of London origin and then white girls of London origin."
Two-year old picks up on his dad's accent, and makes fun of it
A British two-year old finds his dad's Northern accent to be incredibly funny. He even goes so far as to mimic the accent.
Ideology from Friends
Play videoAn excerpt from a Friends episode where Phoebe attempts a "posh" British accent.
Listen To What Shakespeare Sounded Like In The Original Pronunciation From 1600s
Linguist David Crystal and his son Ben (an actor) present an argument which reconstructs the "Original Pronunciation" of Shakespearean texts through historical linguistics. They claim that these works were meant to be read/performed with rhoticity and vowel changes that don't correspond well to Modern British English.
CW: near the end of the video, a joke is reconstructed in OP that uses language some may find troubling [Published on 10-31-2016]
Emilia Clarke Can Talk Like a Valley Girl
Play videoDuring this interview, actress Emilia Clark puts on an "American accent" in a situation to avoid being recognized. What came out was a very stereotypical "valley girl" accent representing vocal fry. Both Jimmy Kimmel and herself laugh and all in good fun of her accent. Even pointing out, how she loved "Clueless" when Kimmel asked where the inspiration for the accent came from.
10 Things You Should Never Say To A British Person
The website shows the type of languages better to avoid using to British people. It also illustrate the reasons to avoid by explaining their cultural background and thoughts. By a negative approach, it shows some shared beliefs on the community. [Published on 12-13-2017]
Grammer Nazi
Play videoCW// Violence, blood. A satirical scene from the show That Mitchell and Webb Look—season 4, episode 1—depicting those who force their language ideology with regard to "correct English grammar" on others in an oppressive way. It comments on hegemony and the difficulty of conforming to the myriad of proposed rules by some, as well as the impossibility to conform perfectly even for those imposing such rules, since English borrows words from languages with different grammatical structures. Furthermore, it is entitled, "Grammer Nazi," indexing a notion of domination and violent imposition of rules by those who hold such views of "correct English."
The North Riding of Yorkshire
Play videoThis video shows how the Yorkshire Dialect relates to language contact we discussed in class. As it can be observed, the dialect uses words from Old Norse caused by warfare and migrations.
FTM Transgender: 3.5 Years on T voice comparison
Play videoA trans man gives examples of his voice across 3 and a half years of testosterone treatment
Ed Sheeran tries American Accents
Play videoIn this video, British singer Ed Sheeran is asked by a fan during a Q&A session to do his best "American Accent". He goes on to say that he can do three different ones, starting with the "Valley Girl from California" one, then moving to the "Regular" one and ending with the "Southern Draw" one. Since English is obviously one language in and of itself, but different English speaking countries have different accents. For example, Ed has a British English accent. But there are also Australian English accents, Irish English accents, and so on. There are different accents for different parts of the world, but there are also sub-accents in different parts of the same country, as shown here by Mr. Sheeran.
Martin Impersonates Daphne (Frasier)
Play videoA scene from the show Frasier which showcases Martin Crane teasing Daphne Moon's English Accent. I see a two linguistic-anthropology elements in the scene. First, by code-switching dialect during the interaction he is drawing attention to the fact that Daphne is not American. What this accomplishes is up for debate given that the two are friends and that the interaction was not hostile in nature. I'm guessing that the impression may mildly suggest that the two are not on equal footing; one is a "native" while the other isn't. This may work in elevating Martin's position in the argument. Second, Martin mentions how Daphne is always complaining about what to do with her hair. Here he is indexing a gender identity that might conflict with his own. In the reading I came across portions that relate language use as a form of identity expression and so while Daphne was being expressive of her female identity Martin, annoyed by her, replied with an antagonistic male critique of her speech.
Family Guy - Stewie Griffin & Eliza Pinchley.
Play videoSome popular TV shows that are based on more offensive humor are great places to find examples of problems with language such as hegemony and accents. This example shows how the american baby is upset with the thick British accent of the girl and demands that she learns the proper accent and pronunciation of English. It is a bit ironic that he too has a bit of a British accent but continues to throw insults about her language ideologies and the accent associated with the way she speaks the same language he is speaking. This example shows how even when groups use hegemony to get others to conform to their ideals that they are a bit ignorant to the flaws of their own ideals and would rather focus on others "wrong doings".
British English vs. American English
Play videoThis video depicts a great example of how language ideology plays a role in how you learn to speak and what sounds “natural” to you whether it be “correct” or not. I think this simple example with two different styles of the same language proves the bigger issue of trying to understand how words can or cannot directly translate in two different languages and how some things that are normal in one language can be offensive in other languages, I think it all has to do with ideology and how your society molds the way that you speak and what is viewed as correct in your community.
Miraculous Accent
Play videoLanguage is miraculous. It is diverse because of various regions, there comes accents. Siobhan Thompson imitates 17 different accents in Britain, exploring which region may speak these accents and who are the people that speak these accents. She presents typical stars or movie actors and demonstrates accents like RP, Received Pronunciation, the standard BBC English; Heightened RP, generally spoken in movies or television; London; East Anglia; West County; Northern Welsh and the like. United Kingdom is not among one of those countries with the large territory but it has more than 17 kinds of accents. How can you believe the millions of accents spoken around the world? Besides the amazing of the large numbers of accents, the diverse culture and language behind the accents are also amazing. It is easy to find that people who speak different accents sometimes have their own slang, which represents for their unique culture.
John Oliver and Jimmy Fallon Talk Accents
Play videoThere are a few instances in this video that relate to or bring up some sort of sociolinguistic/sociocultural linguistic norm or topic, but the main one that sticks out comes up at about 1:00, a minute into the video. John Oliver, who is an English comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, media critic, and television host of the HBO political talk show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. He is asked about his 18-month-old son and whether or not he will have an English accent or not. Oliver goes on for a bit poking fun at American accents after explaining that his son will most likely NOT have an English accent, where he jokingly says, when talking to Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon who has an American Accent, "the way you make words sound hurts my ears", and when explaining how he will speak in a different manner, he again jokingly says he will be speaking "worse". The main example he presents though is at the 1:50 minute mark when talking about the difference between American and English accents and whether it makes it harder to communicate in America. Oliver goes on to explain that for people without an American accent, automated machines are a "real problem". He jokingly makes a comparison in which he says when dealing with automated machine people without American accents are "battered down into submission by the machine until you talk like a sedated John Wayne" after which he does an impression of...a sedated John Wayne, in which he speaks with a stereotypical American accent. This last bit is very interesting because even though he talks about it in joking, light-hearted manner, he brings up strong evidence for people without American accents being "battered down into submission" to not use their accents. In these situations, people without American accents are forced to accommodate their speech and change it to sound more American which also relates to Style-Shifting. To me, there is also a slight bit of globalization too in a similar way to what I just mentioned. It is most likely indirectly but it is pushing towards just a plain American accent to be used.
What’s the big deal about mocking someone’s accent?
A discussion of prejudice against certain accents from the perspective of someone in the UK. This mirrors many of the things we have seen about the US -- people less willing to rent apartments, more willing to think someone's guilty of a crime, etc. if they speak in a different accent. It also talks about the "politics of transcription" in the way 'non-standard' accents are transcribed, for example, in subtitles, and suggests that mocking people's accents is seen as a more socially acceptable form of prejudice since it's "not a big deal."
My Fair Lady - Why Can't The English?
Play videoThis song called "Why can't the English?" from the movie My Fair Lady. In this song Henry Higgins starts the song off by singing: "Look at her, a prisoner of the gutter, Condemned by every syllable she utters By right she should be taken out and hung, For the cold-blooded murder of the English tongue." referring to Hepburn. With this, followed by a lot of remarks that are similar in nature, he is implying very strongly that there is a Standard English language that should be spoken by all English people, and if anyone doesn't, "by right" they could be hung. He says most people are never "taught" and instead learn other stigmatized varieties of English and refers to these as murderers of the English tongue. He is in this way implying that there is a legitimate use of proper English language, and that is the standard variety that he speaks. therefore considering himself as a "better Englishman", and more educated, in this way making a social class distinction between him and the others. He is also implying that there should be unity of the nation as mentioned by Bourdieu in "The Production and Reproduction of Legitimate Language". Higgins refers to the English speaking people of England as Englishmen, but also mentions that non-standard speaking varieties are "painful to your ears" and is afraid they will never be able to get "one common language".
An Illustrated Guide To Weird British Expressions
If you asked someone what’s Great Britain's most peculiar trait, they’d probably tell you it’s their odd choice of expressions. Here's a curation of a series of strange, weird and odd British expressions illustrated. [Published on 11-07-2016]
British People Attempting Their Best American Accent
Play videoIn this video we have people on the streets of Great Britain trying to do their best American accents. The accents revolved around "Southern," "Californian/Surfer," and "Hyper-Metropolitan" accents. The words included by those speaking generally reflected stereotypes involving surfing and smoking weed (for the Californian/Surfer), eating cheeseburgers, shopping, and gossip (Hyper-Metropolitan), and drinking beer and shooting guns (Southern). The participants were not asked to do a specific kind of "American accent," either, they merely did an accent that they deemed to be what is "the American accent." How Americans are perceived by these participants was evident in their style of speech and words chosen to reflect typical American conversation along; one could also possibly argue that this reflects that some British people group all of the American identities into one conglomerate identity which they deem to be wholly "American." Thinking about this more outside of the video, I feel that this could be true in terms of how Americans think of other cultures as well, like how Americans think of the British identities.
Brits And Americans Don't Speak The Same Language In The Kitchen
The Author, a U.K. native moves to the United States. She attempts to make cookies with her child and learns, due cultural disconnect in wordage, she is actually making biscuits. [Published on 10-13-2011]
Rise of the 'vocal fry': Young women are changing how low they talk to sound more like Kim Kardashian and Katy Perry
Women in the UK are changing their voices to match American celebrities. [Published on 04-26-2016]
Rey's English Accent in Star Wars VII
A look at Rey's accent in "The Force Awakens" as a clue to her identity and parentage. Includes a discussion of style-shifting in the Star Wars universe as being representative of intersentential Code-Switching, as well as a discussion of what different codes are (generally) used to index. [Published on 12-23-2015]
American's Don't Understand English
Play videoThis video is mostly silly and not serious, but it still relates to the concept of essentialism in that the guy is suggesting that a lot of the lexical differences between British and American English are due to Americans' inherently inferior intelligence.
Happy Valley creator calls for more northern accents on TV and radio
Sally Wainwright, a British writer, said that there should be more representation of northern England accents in British media, and described some of the qualities of northern English speech that she finds appealing. She also labels southern English as "posh." This might be an example of Ochs' (1993) model of indexicality, where certain linguistic features index social meaning, which then index a social category. It's also part of a larger discussion about media representation. [Published on 04-04-2016]
How to Speak INTERNET
Play videoA group of three British guys basically put together a video "guide" to understanding all of today's internet slang. From "YOLO," to ""FML," they cover a handful of different types of internet slang and explain what they all mean in the non internet world.
How to understand the differences between British and American English
Play videoThe video does a great job at comparing words and the differences in meanings they can portray whether being interpreted from someone from the U.S OR U.K. It shows the power of the interpretation of language and how it can cause an interaction to be positive or negative. It shows the importance of linguistic relativity and the social context individuals are a part of.
Fred Armisen Can Do Any Southern Accent
Play videoComedian Fred Armisen walks through various southern accents and distinguishing characteristics.
Ricky argues Wittgenstein with Karl (The Ricky Gervais Show)
Play videoRicky Gervais and Karl Pilkington discuss Ludwig Wittgenstein's famous quote "if a lion could speak, we could not understand him." They discuss how experience is an important part of shaping meaning.
British Accents: Call Centre English
Play videoSome great discussion about language ideologies, and Diglossia, two variants of the same language.
Skins Outtake
Play videoAn outtake from the British TV show Skins, much like the "I speak jive" video, as it also has very formal subtitles and a white speaker who is revealed to speak the variety as well.
Brit Language: Peter Sellers' Complete Guide to the British Aisles
Comic Peter Sellers does a wide-ranging parody of accents in Britain and elsewhere.
"This is her, right?" "This is me, right?"
Play videoCatherine Tate as teen Londoner Lauren, performing the quotative "this is + SPEAKER" among other features associated with urban young Londoners of low socio-economic class.
Estuary English
Play audioA young man living in Portland, Oregon who uses a variety of southeastern British English that some scholars refer to as Estuary English.
Accent Tour of the UK
We talked in class about how one person producing two versions of one vowel was helpful when asking people to evaluate or respond to speech, because it eliminates other factors such as age and gender, and controls for the vowel itself. I thought this was a really good example of that: this man is really good at putting on a lot of the accents of the UK, and the fact that it is just one person makes it really easy to hear the differences in his speech.
Queen's English changing!
We talked in class about apparent-time vs. real-time studies, and I thought this was a very interesting example of the latter, focused entirely on one person--the Queen of England. Because of her televised christmas broadcasts, recordings of her have been public consistently since the 1950s. If you compare the Queen's accent in her 1957 christmas broadcast (http://youtu.be/mBRP-o6Q85s) to the one from 2013 (http://youtu.be/6E4v4Dw5Ags), you can here an enormous difference. This short article says that her accent is moving closer to the standard speech of the area, and that "It demonstrates that the monarchy, at least as far as the spoken accent is concerned, isn't isolated from the rest of the community." It would be very interesting to look at recordings from between then and now, and see how quickly these changes happened.
Ducks quack in regional accents
A researcher known as "Dr. Quack" reports that recordings of "Cockney" ducks from London differ in their quacking from "Cornish" ducks. [Published on 06-01-2004]
Beckhams talk more posh, say researchers
A 2013 report on research from the University of Manchester that David and Victoria Beckham have decreased h-dropping and l-vocalization in their speech.
Why do British Singers sound American?
A 2013 Slate article about the continuing trend for British pop singers to adopt American pronunciation when singing, including the use of /r/ vocalization. Peter Trudgill's work on the Beatles is cited.
The Queen's Christmas Broadcast 1984
Play videoI use this with the following reading: Harrington, Jonathan et al. 2000. Monophthongal vowel changes in Received Pronunciation: An acoustic analysis of the Queen's Christmas Broadcast.
The Queen's Christmas Broadcast 1957
Play videoI use this with the following reading: Harrington, Jonathan et al. 2000. Monophthongal vowel changes in Received Pronunciation: An acoustic analysis of the Queen's Christmas Broadcast.
Saying no to "gizit" is plain prejudice
A 2013 contribution to The Independent by sociolinguist Julia Snell, arguing against the sentiments in a letter by a teacher in a primary school in Teesside, U.K. that students should remove features of Teesside dialect from their spoken speech in order to succeed in school.
American Talk: The cast of Harry Potter
Play videoThe cast of Harry Potter read phrases related to American culture in their best American accents
The Queen's Christmas Broadcast 1985
Play videoI use this with the following reading: Harrington, Jonathan et al. 2000. Monophthongal vowel changes in Received Pronunciation: An acoustic analysis of the Queen's Christmas Broadcast.
BBC English
Play videoA BBC Two segment on BBC English, which may be another term for Received Pronunciation, and its impact on other varieties of English
Received Pronunciation and Shakespeare's "Original Pronunciation"
Play videoActor Ben Crystal performs Shakespeare in both Received Pronunciation and what he calls Shakespeare's "Original Pronunciation" (Early Modern English?) and discusses the differences between the two.
Americans Are Barmy Over Britishisms
Discussion of increasing popularity of British vernacular in American English.
Yorkshire "dictionary" for foreign doctors
A 2010 Daily mirror article about a Yorkshire "dictionary" of contemporary slang that is currently distributed to foreign (European) doctors.
Eddie Izzard on Being Bilingual
Play videoEddie Izzard stand-up about British English vs. American English and the tendency of monolingualism in native English speakers.