Beryl bashes Scouse brogue

Author Beryl Bainbridge has once again courted controversy by criticising the accent and dialect of Liverpool, as reported in today's Guardian. Bainbridge got herself into a spot of bother over this one about ten years ago when she claimed that her success as a novelist is partly down to the fact that she took elocution lessons to help her get rid of her Scouse accent. Yes, that's right, she's criticising a variety that she herself once used!!

But it's not just Beryl Bainbridge who's been attacking the Liverpudlian variety this week. This article in The Sun considers once again (for this is something that seems to occupy newspaper writers on a regular basis) those linguistic varieties considered to be the 'best' and 'worst' in Britain, and Liverpudlian doesn't fare well. As also reported here, it is frequently the case that people feel the need to change their accent and/or dialect when in a high-stakes situation such as a job interview.

Geordie accent and dialect

This post relates to the assignment that I have given to my A2 English Language class today. You will find some useful texts for the assignment here, here, here, here, here and here.

Verdict on slang collector: 'helio proctosis'

Yesterday's edition of the London Student newspaper ran an article on the use of slang among students and other young people. The article features an interview with Tony Thorne, a linguist working at the English Language Centre at King's College, home to the 'Archive of Slang and New Language'.

The article lists some interesting slang terms, and if you're keen to follow this up then why not pay a visit to the Archive of Slang and New Language website, where there are literally hundreds of slang terms listed, together with their origins and uses. The article also makes some interesting references to attitudes towards slang usage, which are relevant to the kinds of debates that we're going to be having in ENA5 (A2) very soon and then later on this year in ENA6.

The language of conflict... part 2

There's more on the language being used by the two sides in the Gaza conflict in this article. This should be of interest to anyone currently studying representation for AS coursework, and will also crop up when we look at Language and Ideology for Unit 6 of the A2 course.

Derbyshire dialect deliberations

Ay, surrey, owart?

Thanks to Conor for sending me the link to this article, which contains some very interesting information and links relating to the dialects of Derbyshire. This is useful stuff for your ENA5 Language Variation paper, for which you'll need to be armed with a stock of features from non-standard linguistic varieties.

The Prince and the P-word

If you've been listening to the news this weekend you'll know that there's been a right royal stink-up about Prince Harry's use of a certain ethnicity label. No stranger to controversy - Harry was in trouble a few years ago for dressing as a Nazi at a fancy dress party - the prince has once again demonstrated a degree of linguistic sensitivity at which even his grandfather Prince 'Foot Firmly in Mouth' Phillip would probably wince. In three-year-old video footage that has been leaked to the press, Harry can be heard referring to one of his fellow army cadets as a 'p*ki', and is also cuaght on camera using the racist term 'raghead'.

In Prince Harry's defense a spokesperson said:

'Prince Harry fully understands how offensive this term can be, and is extremely
sorry for any offence his words might cause. However, on this occasion three
years ago, Prince Harry used the term without any malice and as a nickname
about a highly popular member of his platoon. There is no question that
Prince Harry was in any way seeking to insult his friend.'

On the other hand, Khalid Mahmood, MP for Perry Barr in Birmingham, points out that 'this might have been said in a light-hearted manner but ultimately it's offensive to a lot of people'.

You can read the full story here and here, and if you want to have a look at some older articles on the use of this and other racist terms, then take a look at this, this and this. There's also another interesting article here about the use of racist language in the army.

It's a debate we've had many times in class: can racist language ever be acceptable if used as a term of solidarity? Let us know what you think.

The language of conflict

There's a very interesting article that appeared on the BBC News website yesterday focusing on the language that is being used by those involved in the current Gaza conflict. The writer of the article looks at some of the ways in which language is being used in Isreali and Hamas propaganda and considers the impact of words such as occupier, truce and legitimised. An excellent and somewhat sobering demonstration of the powerful role of language in constructing representations.

Out with the old...

Welcome back to the blog - and a somewhat belated Happy New Year to you all! And what better way to celebrate the arrival of 2009 than by having a look at some of the most annoying words of the year just gone? (OK, you can probably think of lots of better ways of celebrating the arrival of 2009, but just work with me on this one, will you??). Lexicographer and all-round word boffin Susie Dent has compiled a list of the worst words of 2008 as voted for by the general public. You'll find some old 'favourites' in here, as well as a few that you might not have heard before. Always useful for ENA5 Language Change and other language debates.