Questionnaire: what are the attitudes towards afro-Caribbean influence on Standard English? 1. Do you feel there is an importance for a multi-cultural society? 2. What do you understand of the word ‘ethnicity’? 3. What is your gender? (please tick) Male Female 4. Please tick your age 11-13 14-16 17+ 5. What would you class your ethnicity as? 6. In your opinion, what effects are influenced by Afro-Caribbean influence on Standard English? 7. Is English language getting worse? 8. Which of the following page is better? (please highlight of circle) Example 1: “ Dis my yard. It's, laahhhk, nang, innit? What endz you from? You're looking buff in them low batties." "Check the creps,My bluds say the skets round here are nuff deep." "Wasteman, you just begging now." Example 2- “this is where I live, it’s, like, cool isn’t it? Where do you live? You look good in those low trousers. “Look at my shoes, my friends say the girls in this area are incredibly emotional. “ “You are a waste of space, you are becoming desperate now”. 9. Do you think Afro-Caribbean have had influences on Standard English? Are these good or bad influences? 10. In your opinion, is Standard English getting worse? what do you think are some potential reasons for this if so?

Accent and Dialect

Cockney accent:
This accent is mainly situated around London and Essex region and is estimated to be the second most popular accent in Britain. Popular features of the cockney accent and dialect is:

-          Raised vowel in words like trap and cat so these sounds like “trep” and “cet.”

-          London vowel shift: The vowel sounds are shifted around so that Cockney “day” sounds is pronounced IPA dæɪ (close to American “die”) and Cockney ‘ buy’  verges near IPA bɒɪ (close to American “boy”).

-          Glottal Stopping: the letter t is pronounced with the back of the throat (glottis) in between vowels; for example ‘ better’ (sounds to outsiders like “be’uh”).

-          L-vocalization: The l at the end of words often becomes a vowel sound Hence pal can seem to sound like “pow.”

-          The th in words like think or this is pronounced with a more forward consonant depending on the word: thing becomes “fing,” this becomes “dis,” and mother becomes “muhvah.”

An example of a cockney individual is actor ray Winston

Northern England English

These are the accents and dialect spoken north of the midlands, in cities like Manchester, Leeds, and Liverpool. Related accents also found in rural Yorkshire, although there are some unique dialect features there that I won’t get into now.
Features:

-          The dipthong in words like kite and ride is lengthened so that kite can become “kaaait”)

-          Unique vocab includes use of the word mam to mean mother, similar to Irish English

-          The foot-strut merger, meaning that the syllable in foot and could is pronounced with the same syllable as strut and fudge

Geordie

Geordie usually refers to both the people and dialect of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, in Northeast England. The word may also refer to accents and dialects in Northeast England in general. I would classify this as a separate region from the rest of Northern England because it’s so radically different from the language spoken in nearby cities.
Features

-          Non-rhoticity (in the cities at least)- this means the R at the end of words aren’t pronounced.

-          The  dipthong in kite is raised, so it sounds a bit more like American or Standard British “kate.”

-          The dipthong in “about” is pronounced  “oo” in strong dialects. Hence bout can sound like “boot.”