Accent and dialect
Accent is how we speak; dialect is the words we use – technically! But many people seem to include accent as a part of a person’s ‘overall dialect’ and that can make it confusing. But accent really is only about the sound of words: to the way they are spoken and pronounced. For example, in the south of England, it is standard to pronounce the word bath as b-ar-th; in the Midlands and the North, ‘a’ is pronounced as a short vowel as in ‘bat’.
One particular accent – known as ‘Received Pronunciation’ – is considered as a prestige English accent and is one frequently heard on television and radio news bulletins, and many teachers, for example. Of course, there can be no such thing as a ‘pure’ RP – but if you heard it, you’d probably recognise it.
Dialect refers to those particular choices of vocabulary and grammar we use either because of our regional location or for certain social situations – but this is properly called sociolect.
- The dialect known as ‘Standard English’ is frequently considered to be a prestige language variety. It’s often used and preferred in many professional and commercial situations as well as internationally. There are many variants: Standard British / American / Australian / Canadian English, for example.
- Where a regional dialect stops being used can be plotted on a map and the lines where one dialect disappears and another starts are called isoglosses. There is a distinct isogloss between the counties of Yorkshire and Lancashire, for example.
