Dialect Levelling

What is it?
1. a form of standardisation
2. regional speech forms becoming less prominent
3. speech forms becoming more similar
Factors that may cause it
1. geographical mobility
2. social mobility
3. more interaction with varieties of patterns
4. peer pressure in adolescents
5. economic change
The Investigation
1. studied changes in different areas
  1. Reading
  2. Milton Keynes
  3. Hull
2. Studied Children and One Caregiver
  1. Children aged 4, 8 and 12
  2. prominent caregiver, usually the mother
3. Method
  1. used interviews to look at pronunciation differences
Findings
1. Dialect Levelling was more prominent in Milton Keynes
2. It was least prevalent in Hull
  1. adolescents were still influenced by popular culture, but retained the dialect
3. In Reading the change was more gradual
Conclusion
1. economics play a large part in dialect levelling
  1. Hull has higher levels of unemployment, less focus on education
2. Adolescents play a huge part, including popular culture

Resource summary

	Created by 08aliell about 10 years ago