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Analysis and Comparison of Rp and Cockney Accent

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MASARYK UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE ANALYSIS AND COMPARISON OF RP AND COCKNEY ACCENT BACHELOR THESIS AUTHOR: Jana Kopřivová SUPERVISOR: Mgr. Irena Hůlková, Ph.D. BRNO 2018 Prohlášení „Prohlašuji, že jsem závěrečnou bakalářskou práci vypracovala samostatně, s využitím pouze citovaných literárních pramenů, dalších informací a zdrojů v souladu s Disciplinárním řádem pro studenty Pedagogické fakulty Masarykovy univerzity a se zákonem č. 121/2000 Sb., o právu autorském, o právech souvisejících s právem autorským a o změně některých zákonů (autorský zákon), ve znění pozdějších předpisů.“ .................................................. Abstrakt Tato bakalářská práce se zaměřuje na přízvuk Cockney v porovnání s tzv. "Received Pronunciation" jakožto anglickým výslovnostním standardem. Teoretická část se zaměřuje na vysvětlení základní terminologie související s tématem a vymezením znaků těchto dvou zmiňovaných přízvuků, stejně jako jejich původem, změnami i vlivem na ostatní přízvuky. Praktická část se zabývá analýzou a synchronním i diachronním porovnáním nahrávek reprezentujících tyto dva přízvuky. Abstract This bachelor thesis deals with the Cockney accent in contrast with Received Pronunciation as the English standard variety. In the theoretical part the basic terminology related to the topic is explained and the basic features of the two accents are listed, as well as their origin, changes and influence on other accents. The practical part focuses on the analysis and both synchronic and diachronic comparison of several recordings representing these two accents. Klíčová slova dialekt, přízvuk, "Received Pronunciation" (standardní forma britské angličtiny), Cockney (londýnský dialect dělnické třídy), fonetika, fonologie, výslovnost, analýza, případová studie Keywords dialect, accent, Received Pronunciation (RP), Cockney, variety, phonetics, phonology, pronunciation, analysis, case study Acknowledgment I would like to thank my supervisor Irena Hůlková for her willingness, support and inspiration. Table of Contents 1 Introduction .................................................................................................... 8 2 Theoretical part ............................................................................................... 9 2.1 Phonetics and phonology ........................................................................ 9 2.2 Variety, accent and dialect ...................................................................... 9 2.2.1 Dialect and variety ............................................................................. 10 2.2.2 Accent ................................................................................................ 13 2.3 Received Pronunciation ........................................................................ 17 2.3.1 The Development of Received Pronunciation ................................... 17 2.3.2 Varieties of Received Pronunciation ................................................. 18 2.3.3 Innovations in Received Pronunciation ............................................. 19 2.4 Cockney ................................................................................................. 21 2.4.1 Pronunciation variables ..................................................................... 23 2.5 Cockney Rhyming Slang....................................................................... 24 3 Practical Part ................................................................................................. 26 3.1 Methodology ......................................................................................... 26 3.2 Synchronic Approach ............................................................................ 28 3.2.1 Speaker 1 ........................................................................................... 28 3.2.2 Speaker 2 ........................................................................................... 30 3.2.3 Speaker 3 ........................................................................................... 32 3.2.4 Speaker 4 ........................................................................................... 34 3.3 Diachronic Approach ............................................................................ 37 3.3.1 Speaker 5 ........................................................................................... 38 3.3.2 Speaker 6 ........................................................................................... 40 4 Conclusion .................................................................................................... 43 5 Bibliography ................................................................................................. 44 5.1 References ............................................................................................. 44 5.2 Sources .................................................................................................. 46 List of tables .......................................................................................................... 47 List of figures ........................................................................................................ 48 Appendix A ........................................................................................................... 49 Appendix B ............................................................................................................ 50 Appendix C ............................................................................................................ 51 Appendix D ........................................................................................................... 52 Appendix E ............................................................................................................ 53 1 Introduction This bachelor thesis deals mainly with the description, phonemic analysis and comparison of Received Pronunciation and Cockney accent. The United Kingdom is a very diverse country not only by its appearance, but especially its accents, that even today often reflect not only a regional attachments of the speaker, but sometimes even a class one. I chose the topic because I find this diversity in the United Kingdom and especially in London genuinely interesting. The aim of the bachelor thesis is to examine the differences between these two accents, and reveal some changes or new tendencies to these accents. The theoretical part presents the essential theoretical background such as explication and definition of terms such as accent, dialect, variety, phonetics or phonology, as well as examining the background and features specific to the accents. The practical part consists of several case studies in which six recordings representing Received Pronunciation and Cockney accent are analysed. The practical part consists of two sections, the first one focuses on synchronic approach, the latter one analyses the recordings diachronically. 8 2 Theoretical part 2.1 Phonetics and phonology Phonetics and phonology are subdisciplines of linguistics which deal with sounds. Phonetics concerns the concrete characteristics of speech sounds. Its main focus is to provide an objective approach to analyse speech sounds. It can be divided into three main areas; articulatory phonetics (focuses on how the sounds are made), acoustic phonetics (focuses on the physical properties of speech) and auditory or perceptual phonetics (focuses on the perception of speech sounds) (Yule, 2006, p. 26). Phonology can be defined as the linguistic aspect of phonetics. It deals with patterns of speech sounds in a systematic way. It does not focus on the anatomical nature of the production of speech sounds like phonetics, but rather deals with their use in speech, their relationships and functions (Wells, 1982, p. 39). As a symbolic representation of sounds, phonology uses an abstract unit – phoneme. Each phoneme has many different versions that are produced in speech. Those specific versions of a phoneme are called phones. Group of phones, which are all versions of one phoneme, are called allophones. The main difference between phonemes and allophones is that if we substitute one phoneme for another, we create a new word with a different meaning (minimal pair), On the other hand, substituting allophones results in a different pronunciation of the same word (Yule, 2006, p. 43). 2.2 Variety, accent and dialect Accent and dialect, alternatively variety, are terms that are often misused among the lay public, it is therefore important to define them. 9 2.2.1 Dialect and variety According to Wells, the term variety, or dialect refers to grammatical, lexical and phonetic aspects of a variety of a language (1982, p. 3). In this broader sense, it can be associated with social, ethnical, gender and age variation as well as with regional aspects (Dontcheva-Navratilova, 2012, p. 8). In a narrower sense, the term dialect relates to the regional differences only. These regional differences are the subject of interest of dialectology, the study of dialects. According to Yule, there is a “general impression of mutual intelligibility among many speakers of different dialects of English” (2006, p. 241). In order to avoid misunderstanding, Wells uses the term traditional-dialect to refer to this point of view, and the general term variety to talk about variety in the broader sense (1982, p. 5). In order to avoid confusion, in this thesis the term variety is preferred. When dealing with varieties, we can distinguish
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