LANGUAGE ATTITUDES IN ENGLAND AND AUSTRIA: COMPARING REACTIONS TOWARDS HIGH AND LOW-PRESTIGE VARIETIES IN MANCHESTER AND VIENNA A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures 2010 JOHN BELLAMY SCHOOL OF LANGUAGES, LINGUISTICS AND CULTURES Contents Section Topic Page 1 Introduction 16 2 Towards a typology of linguistic variation 17 2.1 Language variety 17 2.2.1 Language varieties and speech in Austria 19 2.2.1.1 Austrian Standard German 20 2.2.1.2 Dialect in Austria 22 2.3.1 Language varieties and speech in England 26 2.3.1.1 Standard English 28 2.3.1.2 Accent and Received Pronunciation 30 2.4 High and Low-prestige varieties and the standard-dialect continuum 31 2.5 Language attitudes 37 3 Background 44 3.1 Previous studies into language attitudes in Austria 44 3.2 Previous studies into language attitudes in Britain 56 4 Methodology 69 4.1 matched-guise technique (MGT) 69 4.2 Evaluation of the matched-guise technique 88 4.3 Questionnaire 92 4.4 Recordings 98 4.5 Pilot studies 101 4.6 Fieldwork 102 4.6.1 Fieldwork in England: profile of informants 102 4.6.1.1 Gender of informants in England 102 4.6.1.2 Origin of informants in England 103 4.6.1.3 Age of informants in England 105 4.7.1 Fieldwork in Austria: profile of informants 105 4.7.1.1 Gender of informants in Austria 106 4.7.1.2 Origin of informants in Austria 106 4.7.1.3 Age of informants in Austria 107 4.8 Processing the findings 108 2 Section Topic Page 5 Manchester: results 109 5.1 MGT in Manchester: overall results 110 5.2 MGT in Manchester : breakdown of the guises 118 5.2.1 London female guises 119 5.2.2 Liverpool female guises 122 5.2.3 Manchester and Norfolk male guises 128 5.2.4 London male guises 137 5.3 MGT in Manchester : results by gender of informants 142 5.4 MGT in Manchester : results by age of informants 149 5.5 MGT in Manchester : results by origin of informants 154 5.5.1 MGT in Manchester : informants from Manchester 155 5.5.2 MGT in Manchester : informants from Yorkshire 160 5.5.3 MGT in Manchester : informants from Liverpool 164 5.5.4 MGT in Manchester : informants from London 167 5.5.5 MGT in Manchester : informants from Wales 170 5.6 Summary 173 6 Vienna: results 176 6.1 MGT in Vienna: overall results 176 6.2 MGT in Vienna: breakdown of the guises 182 6.2.1 Tyrol female guises 183 6.2.2 Lower Austria male guises 188 6.2.3 Vienna male guises 193 6.2.4 Tyrol male guises 197 6.2.5 Salzburg female guises 203 6.2.6 Responses to female and male guises 208 6.3 MGT in Vienna: results by gender of informants 211 6.4 MGT in Vienna: results by age of informants 216 6.5 MGT in Vienna: results by origin of informants 222 6.5.1 MGT in Vienna: informants from Vienna 222 6.5.2 MGT in Vienna: informants from Lower Austria 232 6.5.3 MGT in Vienna: informants from Upper Austria 236 6.6 Summary 240 3 Section Topic Page 7 Comparison of results: Manchester and Vienna 243 7.1 Overall results: Manchester and Vienna 243 7.2 Overall results: Manchester and Vienna – gender 248 7.3 Overall results: Manchester and Vienna – age 249 7.4 Discussion and review of the methodology 249 8 Conclusion 253 Bibliography 261 Appendices 277 Appendix A The questionnaire used for the fieldwork in Manchester 277 Appendix B The questionnaire used for the fieldwork in Vienna 279 Appendix C The text used for the recordings 281 Final word count: 77,618 4 List of tables Table Page Chapter 4 Table 4.3.1 Classification of traits 95 Table 4.4.1 Recordings for the MGT undertaken in Vienna 99 Table 4.4.2 Recordings for the MGT undertaken in Manchester 99 Table 4.6.1 Sources for the informants in England 102 Table 4.6.1.1 Gender of informants in England 103 Table 4.6.1.2 Origin of informants in England 104 Table 4.6.1.3 Age of informants in England 105 Table 4.7.1 Sources for the informants in Austria 106 Table 4.7.1.1 Gender of informants in Austria 106 Table 4.7.1.2 Origins of informants in Austria 107 Table 4.7.1.3 Age of informants in Austria 108 Chapter 5 Table 5.1 Recordings of the MGT undertaken in Manchester 109 Table 5.2 MGT: Manchester – overall mean results for all traits 112 Table 5.3 Responses of informants to speaker 1 – London female 121 Table 5.4 Responses of informants to speaker 2 – Liverpool female 125 Table 5.5 Responses of informants to the trait of honesty for all the guises 127 Table 5.6 Responses of informants to speaker 3 – Norfolk male 131 Table 5.7 Responses of informants to speaker 3 – Manchester male 134 Table 5.8 Responses of female and male informants who come from Manchester to guise 9 136 Table 5.9 Responses of informants to speaker 4 – London male 139 Table 5.10 Attitudes towards all the London guises 142 Table 5.11 Responses of the female informants 147 Table 5.12 Responses of the male informants 148 Table 5.13 Informants from the age group 14-18 152 Table 5.14 Informants from the age group 19-24 153 Table 5.15 Informants from Manchester 157 Table 5.16 Favourite varieties chosen by the informants from Manchester 158 5 Table Page Table 5.17 Least favourite varieties chosen by the informants from Manchester 159 Table 5.18 Informants from Yorkshire 162 Table 5.19 Favourite varieties chosen by the informants from Yorkshire 163 Table 5.20 Least favourite varieties chosen by the informants from Yorkshire 164 Table 5.21 Informants from Liverpool 166 Table 5.22 Favourite varieties chosen by the informants from Liverpool 167 Table 5.23 Least favourite varieties chosen by the informants from Liverpool 167 Table 5.24 Informants from London 169 Table 5.25 Favourite varieties chosen by the informants from London 170 Table 5.26 Least favourite varieties chosen by the informants from London 170 Table 5.27 Informants from Wales 172 Table 5.28 Favourite varieties chosen by the informants from Wales 173 Table 5.29 Least favourite varieties chosen by the informants from Wales 173 Chapter 6 Table 6.1 Recordings for the MGT undertaken in Vienna 176 Table 6.2 MGT: Vienna – overall mean results for all traits 179 Table 6.3 Responses of informants to speaker 1 – Tyrol female 185 Table 6.4 Responses of informants to the question Wo, glauben Sie, kommt der Sprecher her? (for guise 1) 187 Table 6.5 Responses of informants to the question Wo, glauben Sie, kommt der Sprecher her? (for guise 6) 188 Table 6.6 Responses of informants to speaker 2 – Lower Austria male 190 Table 6.7 Responses of informants to the question Wo, glauben Sie, kommt der Sprecher her? (for guise 2) 192 Table 6.8 Responses of informants to the question Wo, glauben Sie, kommt der Sprecher her? (for guise 7) 192 Table 6.9 Responses of informants to speaker 3 – Vienna male 195 Table 6.10 Responses of informants to the question Wo, glauben Sie, kommt der Sprecher her? (for guise 3) 197 6 Table Page Table 6.11 Responses of informants to the question Wo, glauben Sie, kommt der Sprecher her? (for guise 8) 197 Table 6.12 Responses of informants to speaker 4 – Tyrol male 199 Table 6.13 Attitudes towards all the Tyrol guises 201 Table 6.14 Responses of informants to the question Wo, glauben Sie, kommt der Sprecher her? (for guise 4) 202 Table 6.15 Responses of informants to the question Wo, glauben Sie, kommt der Sprecher her? (for guise 9) 202 Table 6.16 Responses of informants to speaker 5 – Salzburg female 205 Table 6.17 Responses of informants to the question Wo, glauben Sie, kommt der Sprecher her? (for guise 5) 207 Table 6.18 Responses of informants to the question Wo, glauben Sie, kommt der Sprecher her? (for guise 10) 207 Table 6.19 Responses of the informants to the female guises 209 Table 6.20 Responses of the informants to the male guises 210 Table 6.21 Responses of the Austrian female informants 213 Table 6.22 Responses of the Austrian male informants 215 Table 6.23 Austrian informants from the age group 14-18 218 Table 6.24 Austrian informants from the age group 19-24 221 Table 6.25 Informants from Vienna 224 Table 6.26 Favourite varieties chosen by the informants from Vienna 226 Table 6.27 Least favourite varieties chosen by the informants from Vienna 229 Table 6.28 Favourite varieties chosen by the informants from Vienna - broken down by gender 231 Table 6.29 Least favourite varieties chosen by the informants from Vienna - broken down by gender 231 Table 6.30 Informants from Lower Austria 234 Table 6.31 Favourite varieties chosen by the informants from Lower Austria 235 Table 6.32 Least favourite varieties chosen by the informants from Lower Austria 236 Table 6.33 Informants from Upper Austria 238 Table 6.34 Favourite varieties chosen by the informants from Upper Austria 239 7 Table Page Table 6.35 Least favourite varieties chosen by the informants from Upper Austria 239 Chapter 7 Table 7.1.1 Overall mean responses of the informants to the MGT Results for Manchester and for Vienna 243 Table 7.1.2 Differences between the mean values for the responses to the high and Low-prestige varieties in Manchester 245 Table 7.1.3 Differences between the mean values for the responses to the high and Low-prestige varieties in Vienna 246 8 List of figures Figure Page Chapter 2 Figure 1 Social and regional dialect variation (Trudgill 2000: 30) 27 Figure 2 Social and regional accent variation (Trudgill 2000: 32) 27 List of graphs Graph Page Chapter 5 Graph 5.1 Matched-guise technique: Manchester overall mean results for appearance and status traits 111 Graph 5.2 Matched-guise technique: Manchester overall mean results for solidarity and other traits 111 Graph 5.3 MGT: Manchester- responses of informants to speaker 1 London female - appearance