James Durkin

Essay writing

The north east of England uses language that is perceived by many as friendly, down to earth and approachable. This is because of their use of dialect and accent. An example of why people would speak with an accent and dialect could be that they are proud of where they come from so by speaking in that way they can demonstrate that. A lot of people may think different of this because they see their accent and dialect as rough and uneducated. Numerous people want to break out of this community and try to seem different and are maybe not proud of where they come from but on the other hand it could be the opposite.

In the transcript, there are two main male participants that used stereotypical North East accent and dialect to one another. I observed that one of them, when engaged with a phone call, then proceeded to code switch to Standard English which I see as an attempt of gaining overt prestige. Once the phone call had ended he then code switched back to the north east accent and dialect combined with slang to fit back in in an attempt to gain covert prestige and speak in a very informal manor.

I noticed that in the transcript one speaker uses the quote, “Aa couldn’t remember what they were called that proper ridiculous that.” And then code switched to, “right ok I’ll go get her, thanks.” This text her portrays itself as a prime example of overt prestige and solidarity because he changes the way he speaks to fit in with other people, in this case standard English. You can see that speaker A tries to hover between groups in attempt to gain social status with both people. In addition to this he code switches which he subconsciously did when speaking to his friend because he does not need to adapt his language as there social group is clearly close together because of there use of language.

In the transcript participant B uses a small variety of dialect and is limited to the use of the North East. He uses this to fit in with his friend at first...