-Estuary English is an English accent associated with South East England, especially the area along the River Thames and Thames Estuary.

-Estuary English is a study conducted by Catherine Watson in the 2000's. It is a study on the accent associated with people from the south east of London; it is in-between RP and cockney.


RP TO SOUTHERN ENGLISH LANGAUE...

-This this is an accent known by many people who learn English as a second language. Jonathan Harrington, Sallyanne Palethorpe and Catherine Watson, from Macquarie University in Sydney,  (Australia) reported in the journal Nature that even the Queen is not immune to the rise of the estuarine English spoken by southerners.

-The researchers said: "The pronunciation of all languages changes subtly over time, mainly owing to the younger members of the community. What is unknown is whether older members unwittingly adapt their accent towards community changes. 

- The study was of the queen’s accent during her Christmas message and has been analysed by the Australian university students since 1952. With the permission of Buckingham Palace, and the help of the BBC's sound archive, the researchers investigated the Queen's pronunciation and found an evolution towards the southern British accent which came about in the 2000’s.

-This means that in order to become more involved in the public and to sound more like the public she talks like the people from the south east of England rather than the RP she is typically known to speak. This is interesting as it shows that maybe she knows that isn’t that important compared to MP’s ect and therefore, in order to try and be involved with the public in a way talks to them and adapts her speech to correspond with the current time period and local dialect more than she might of used to as she may see it to be important to interact with the people of her county more than she has done before.

-Researchers say that the queen is trying to fit in with the classes of Zeitgeist. The Zeitgeist is the spirit of the age or spirit of the time and is the intellectual fashion or dominant school of thought that typifies and influences the culture of a particular period in time.

-This is important as it also shows that she is adapting her speech and language in order to communicate with her country she adapts her language to appear to be more relatable?

Recent research :- “(Harrington, Palethorpe and Watson 2000) into the changing forms of the pronunciation of certain vowels by H.M. the Queen in her Christmas messages between the 1950s and 1980s shows even this member of the Royal Family to be no sociolinguistic isolate. The forms and norms of RP inevitably drift, and as RPis influenced by the Southern British speech community” – from http://rudar.ruc.dk/bitstream/1800/23728/1/Fabricius_2002_EWW.pdf which expresses the ideas of modern RP adapting to become more like southern British English, spoken widely across the UK.  

key points:
-RP - southern english
-queen apapted language over years in chriastmas message.
-research conducted by students from univeristy in sydney.
-from 1950-1980's

bibliography:
http://rudar.ruc.dk/bitstream/1800/23728/1/Fabricius_2002_EWW.pdf
http://filologia.uni.lodz.pl/hinton/harrington2000.pdf
https://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/estuary/queen2.htm
http://www.researchgate.net/publication/12187912_Does_the_Queen_speak_the_Queen's_English

 

changing dialect:

An individuals dialect is the language used by them and the people they spend time with the most. Dialect is a very important part of language as it separates us from each other and makes us individual. Dialects separates counties from countries, cities from towns, villages from streets and house from friendship groups. where ever you are in the world you will experience a different variety of dialect. if you were just to go a mile or two away from your house the dialect within schools and friendship groups will change every so slightly, an because of this we can distinguish different places from one another.

Dialect is a vastly changing thing that people don't appreciate. If everyone starts talking like each other then our individuality will be taken away from us. We will all sound the same. Is that what you really want to happen? Everyone to sound like each other? No individuality? What happened to accents and individual phrases and words that were used by only certain places in the country which make them unique? phrases such as 'lush' used to be seen as a Bristolian thing as well as 'slider' Bristolians were the only region of the country to call a slide a slider which is actually lengthening the word but adding an 'er' to it to make it sound like the Bristolian 'farmers'. But now, children up and down the country call a slide a slider, stealing our uniqueness and identity, stolen from us from foreign towns around the country.

The main reason for this is internet sites such as youtube, facebook and twitter. I believe that these sites are the reason for our stolen identity. Even accents through music is now taken away. its very hard now days to tell where a person is from when they sing as they all try to sound the same. voices, accents, dialects and idiolects are plastered over facebook and twitter as well as youtube where younger generations have the ability to acknowledge these differences and slowly begin to merge them into one.

 All we have left is the identity of 'farmers' previous dialects stolen from us after being copied from networking sites and used in other ways. 'lol' which used to mean 'lots of love' now means 'laugh out loud' as well as stealing our identity they are also changing the meaning of it. before you know it we wont be able to separate towns from cities, counties from countries, villages from streets nor homes from friendships and with a blink of a eye, the world will go from a unique and individual country to a place where everyone sounds the same.

Questions on the barrister transcript:

1.       In the transcript, everyone is being called by their proper name. This is using proper nouns as each individual is referred to as their proper name, for example ‘Mr Neil’ this is typical for people who are in a court-room as it indicates formality which is important in this situation. By calling someone by their proper name makes he conversation sound more serious and may or may not make the person being judged feel comfortable because when someone is called by their first and full name the situation automatically becomes more serious as they address you fully rather than a nickname or your first name which is how you are approached by people you know rather than those you don’t. There isn’t many pronouns used throughout the transcript however the pronoun ‘you’ is frequently used to address Mr Neil whilst he is being questioned. This is done to manipulate him and address him in a manner that shows that he barrister has the authority in the transcript as he can address  Mr Neil as ‘you’ despite the formality of the situation.

 

2.       The end of the transcript seems more prepared than the start as at the start of the transcript there are many pauses which makes it seem as though they are thinking about what they need to say and how to say things to get their point across right as you need to be wary of what you say when you are in a court room. This is because in a courtroom you need to be very careful with what you say and the level of formality that you use. This to me makes it seem like the start of the transcript is more planned as the many micro-pauses illustrate thinking and hesitation, whereas the second half of the transcript has virtually no micro-pauses, only overlapping talk which means that the speakers are trying to answer the questions quickly and so that no more questions are asked of him and the text flows better in the second half, further illustrating that it was more of a natural and unplanned response. Also the barrister would of planned his questions for Mr Neil however Mr Neil’s’ response will be more spontaneous.

 

3.       In the transcript the person who has the most power is the barrister (Bar). I think this is because they ask many questions to Mr Neil about the incident such as ‘something to, to do with a gate he wanted you to repair a gate?’ This conveys power as they know a lot of information about the incident and therefore interrogates Mr Neil to get answers from him about the incident as he is suspicious as he already has some idea on what happened during the incident involving Mr Neil.  The barrister also shows authority by stressing certain words and phrases to make themselves heard and stress the importance of what he is saying as well as the importance he has in the court room. He says ‘…so many times Mr Neil’ referring to the many visits Mr Neil has received from the police. By stressing his name makes it clear who he is talking to but also stresses to the court room that he is saying true and that that should be known by the rest of the court.

 

4.       There is nothing in this transcript that is unusual to me; personally I think that it’s exactly how a courtroom would be. This is how I would imagine the language and atmosphere to be like in a court room and therefore was not surprised by anything in the text.  One thing that would most likely appear to be unusual to me would be the number of micro pauses at the start of the transcript this is because although the suspect would need to think about what they are going to reply in return they wouldn’t need to pause all the time as they should know what to say. The pauses to me illustrate nervousness and suspiciousness as there isn’t any need for several pauses unless you weren’t guilty as you would know what to say.

Same sex marriage:

Blogger one:
Isnt your wedding day suppose to be the happiest day of your life? I believe that your wedding day is meant to be filled with happiness and should be shared with those who matter to you and who have contributed to your life, so why do so many people descriminate you if you want to spend the rest of your life with somone of the same sex as you? If somone really loves somone and you are happy together then leave them be. Why interfear with their relationship? Why get invloved? Some peoples lives are filled with such missery that they find that they feel better about themselves when they lower other peoples self esteem. I think that they are brave to commit their lives to someone when they know many will dissagree. They are making history in our world and people are brining them down for doing what everyone wants to do which is just find love with somone and feel as though they mean something to someone, however they just choose that somone to be the same sex as them rather than being opposing sex'. I feel as though these people should be looked up to and be treated the same as any other married couple as they are the same as each and every one of us so there is no need for discrimination.

Blogger two:
I know that they are not effecting anyone by what they are doing, however I just feel as though what they are doing just isnt right and that the way i was brought us isnt reflected in same sex marriages as I was always brought up with the idea that men and women married and not men with men, nor women with women. Not only does it effect me because of the way i was brought up but in todays society children who get brough up with two mums or two dads will be discrimanted at school and will find themselves potentially getting bullied just because what their parents are doing is against the norm. For many years it has always been that a man and a woman fall in love with eachother and marry and are then able to have sex to create a new life. As much as same sex couples are still able to have children I just believe that it is important for every child to grow up with a mother and a father as when they get older and need to talk to people about their troubles they may not feel comfortable with only having the option of talking to a male or only being able to talk to a female, especially as they go through puberty and start to become an adult where they need to make big decisions.

Commentary:

Blogger 1: Blogger one who is arguing that there is nothing wrong with same sex marriage uses many rhetorical questions to express their point and make the audience ask themselves questions about the subject which may change whether they agree or not. They open with a rhetorical question which makes them wonder. The use of the superlative ‘happiest’ in the opening question makes the audience believe that it is supposed to be happy however the use of the rhetorical question may intrigue them and  make then want to find out why your wedding day might not be the happiest day of your life.

They also use personal opinions to express meaning as they use ‘it’s meant to be’  which sounds like it is instructive and therefore makes it hard to disagree. ‘should be shared’ is also a use of an opinion however makes it seem as though that’s how it should be and that is you go against it you’re doing something wrong.

As well as this they also use conflicted assumptions about other people’s life to make their opinion sound more believable. ‘Some people’s lives are filled with such misery’ Here, blogger one is suggesting that other people’s lives are so miserable that they need to lower other peoples happiness just to make them feel better which is an example of a conflicted assumptions as it is a assumption that is made which may not necessarily be true and can be seen as violent.  

Blogger one makes the people in the subject sound almost heroic and that we should be proud of them for ‘making history’ as they are some of the first people to marry people who are the same sex as them and yet they are disgusted that many still disagree. This is because he is from someone who has been in a same sex relationship and therefore know what it feels like to be discriminated from others.

‘There is no need for discrimination’ this is a persuasive opinion as it is almost a command however it is only someone’s opinion.  This is a very persuasive technique as well as commanding which helps to express the importance of the subject.

Blogger 2: Blogger two who is against same sex marriage doesn’t use many rhetorical questions nor strong use of punctuation to express their opinion.

‘I was always brought up with the idea that men and women married and not men with men, nor women with women’ this quotation suggests to me that the way they were brought up is important to this person and that they believe what their mum and dads views are and that they respect their mum and dads opinions and beliefs and follow their beliefs into adult hood and that It isn’t normal for them to have people around them that are couples of the same sex. This doesn’t necessarily mean that they are against them they just might nor necessarily think that that’s the right thing to do and therefore not want anything to do with this sort of thing.

‘in today’s society children who get brought up with two mums or two dads will be discriminated at school and will find themselves potentially getting bullied just because what their parents are doing is against the norm.’ this is a belief that blogger number two has against same sex couples.  This doesn’t mean that this is what will defiantly happen it’s just what they think will happen based on  maybe their background or personal experiences or they might be a younger person who has personally witnessed the changes that are occurring in today’s society. 

‘As much as same sex couples are still able to have children I just believe that it is important for every child to grow up with a mother and a father…’ Again this is just a personal opinion that they believe is important for people who are brought up in a same sex marriage. This is not necessarily being against them it’s just their way of looking out or thinking of how different or how much harder it would be for children who would be brought up in a same sex marriage.

http://www.pressdisplay.com/pressdisplay/viewer.aspx

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/sep/29/refugee-law-experts-urge-malcolm-turnbull-to-let-detention-centre-staff-speak-to-un

Both of these articles display the importance of the refugee crisis in differnt ways. The first article is about a woman in thornbury who is is preparing to go to a refugee camp to give them suport. she talks about what she plans to do and why she wnats to do it. when interviewd she says
“I am always interested in learning first-hand what other people are going through, I feel that it is important for us as Canadians and people who are comfortably removed from situations like this to go there and bring home knowledge, experience and information about new ways we can become involved to help with this crisis.”  This woman has a positive attitude about he migrant crisis and is prepared to help these peopke when they need it the most.

In the second article by the gaurdian, it talks about the how people who have beeen involved in the migrant crisis have been who have immigrated to Australia have been denyed work. the article talks about the extrembness of the migrant crisis and how the UN should allow the imigrnats to work in their countires. This article mostly contains opinions and facts rather than interviews. it isnt an interactive article in the sence that it doesnt contain many interviews or opinipons of other poeple.

The frist article is a menaingful and heartfel article about how a woman who is happy to go and help the refugess who havent has the easiest of times over the last few months and she is happy to go to one of their camps to help and suppiort them when they need it the most. she tells the reporter why it is important to her to go to these sorts of places...“I just connected with her and she encouraged me to come, I thought I would get a response just asking me to send money, but I like to go to the places and see where the money is going.” This as a reader makes me feel empathetic for the people in the article as there are people out there that want to help other people who are less fortunate than them, but also they want to go to see where helps needs to be given and where the money of the pubic is going to help the migrants in their camps.

The second artcle is loooking at the migrant crisi from a differnt perspective. It shows how people who havent been that fortunate will still be willing to help other people even when they need help themselves and that they want to come to other countires not only for a better life but also to rebuild their lives and act as part of the country they have moved to by working and being like everyone else in the countrty and the people of the UN sare denying people of work even though they arwe willing to work to stay in the country so that they have a better life. “Although the Australian government could allow a detention centre worker to speak to the special rapporteur without the risk of prosecution, it has chosen not to do so in this case,” This comment suggests to me that altough they could allow this to happen very easily they are choosing not to. This may begin to be seen as racial segregation and the migrants might begin to take an offence to their decisions and begin to cause trouble in their country.

“I just think this is a really important issue that is all over the news and becoming this noise in the background and that is unacceptable to me,” this quote from the first article shows that to some people this disaster is not something that us as a country of the EU can just sweep under the capret and fogert about and that people like this need to be helped and must be delt with appropiatly rather than neglecting to keep the country updated with whats happeneing on the news.

'Guardian Australia has put questions to the immigration department asking whether it would be prepared to allow detention centre workers to speak to Crépeau, free of the restrictions of the Border Force Act. It has not yet received a response.' this extract from the article shows us that there is some conflict with the Austrailian govenment about the migrant crisis and that tey are still unsure weather to help these migrants by letting them work.

overall, these two articles are very different as they both talk abount different things. one talks about the importance of not neglecting the migrant story and the other talks about the Austrailan government refusuing to allow the migrants to work in their country. These two artices are completely different and have separate views of the crisis.

                   ARE TEENEGAERS OBLITTERATING THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE?

Parents are left confused by the neologisms used by their children and other people on social media sites.

Now more the ever before the English language is adapting at such a fast rate that the older generations are finding it hard to keep up with the new “lingo”.

Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and other social media websites are jeopardising the future generation’s language potential. The English language has changed so drastically over the last 10 years that people in older generations may be concerned that the future generation’s language may deteriorate and change so much that the English language as we know it today may be forgotten.

Texting is manipulating today’s language.  English exam grades will begin to drop as the students are developing their texting vocabulary as shortened lexis rather than Standard English. Language such as ‘lol’ is rapidly becoming more and more common as the younger population are drilling it into the brains of the elder generations as  ‘lol’ is no longer just a texted expression but people are also beginning  to speak it.

As the use of modern technology begins to grow so does the children’s use of non-standard English. Research suggests that it is indeed the developing in modern technology which is degrading the younger generations’ use of language as they are growing up adapting their language to the sort of language that appears on social networking sites and electronic devices. Scientists as well as teachers are wary of the fact that as the technology develops and expands the younger generation’s choice of vocabulary will decrease and become less varied than it already is.

As well as shortening words by using acronyms and abbreviations some ‘textacholocis’ even prefer to use letters rather than words to illustrate what they are saying such as ‘a’ for ‘hey?’ and ‘y’ for ‘why?’ This is not only shortening the words but just using a one letter symbol to indicate what they mean just because it sounds like the word they mean. Is this really how we should be teaching the younger generation about language?

Using symbolic figures as well as letters is also being used to adapt and shorted our language ‘GR8 M8’ rather than ‘great mate’.  Also to block out the use of taboo words symbols such as ‘*!@’ are used to block out the main part of the word to hide what it actually saying, however still making it clear to the audience what it says.

 As well as shorting text people now also, (thanks to apple and android phones) emoji’s are now build in to their smart phone keyboards to illustrate visual images to also shorten the amount of text that is used. The use of emoji’s arguably won’t be as habitual as shorted texting as when you are writing on paper the use of emoji’s are not available to students however, the incorrect use of non-standard language is still going to become habitual to us.   

Nike "just do it"
Skittles "taste the rainbows"
Burger King "have it your way"
These three adverts are demanding and have a formal assertive tone to them.

Loreal "because you're worth it"
Mc Donald's "I'm loving it"
Asda "you're better off with Asda"
KFC "it's finger licking good"
Virgin holidays "it's time to escape with Virgin"
There five adverts have abbreviated words which make them persuasive and makes them sound as though they are communicating with you.

Marmite "you love it or you hate it"
Rhinina "you can't get anymore rhibenary"
Loreal "because you're worth it"
Burger King " it will blow your mind"
Asda "you're better off with Asda"
These five adverts are addressed to the audience this attracts customers as they feel as though the advert is advertised to them and that they are involved in the product.

Coke "friendliest drink on earth"
Penguin "P-P-P-Pick up a penguin"
Volvic "waters never tasted so good"
Heinz "you know they're good because they're Heinz"
Talk talk "UK's safest broadband"
Starbucks "the best coffee for the best you"
These 6 adverts are boastful and state that their company is the best and that you should use their products.

This article is about how language in England us becoming very controversial and that there are many accents developing in and around the country. I last accessed this link on the 14th September 2015. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/02/britain-accent-sound-foreign-snobs

This article is about how the language ad accents used in Brittan is adapting and he it has changed. it is also about how it is sometimes difficult to understand some people sometimes because of their accents.

The article states the importance in speaking all the letters in words. for example, some people tent to miss out a 'T'  in 'letter'. this can be difficult to understand if you are not from an are of the country where this is common. The article rightly states that the way we say words that are borrowed from foreign countries should be spoken correctly because they could be offended or could misunderstand what we are trying to communicate.

English itself is spoken so differently in many different English specking country's all over the world that there is sometimes language barriers and that there is common misunderstanding because of the way that language has adapted and changed over time in different places in the world. in this article the types of language in different country's is mentioned. language is an extremely important part of our lives. being able to communicate and understand one another is key in this day in age and I think this article addresses a few very important points about language and how it is differed and how important it is that it is spoken properly.

I think that the article itself have some very important points that most people wouldn't even think of but I think that because we are lucky enough to have people from all over the world not only visiting but sometimes living in our country we get to experience lots of different accents, because f this I think it is important that we as a country speak in a way that it is easy to communicate with each other so that there isn't any misunderstanding whilst communication.

Groups of words:

Negative: hate, slut, inconvenience, moist, Clunge, Bellend, shag.

Positive: love, flower, home, bubbles.

Sexual: Clunge, c**t, shag, Bellend, pussy.

Misused words: literally, like, trust, sweat.

Adjectives: Amazing, lush, Naive, penguins, inconvenience, sanguine, moist, fraught.

I thought it was interesting that all the words that people didn't like are words that either don't sound very nice or have a not very nice meaning, this is what I expected.

The words that people did like are words that either sounded nice or that had a nice meaningful meaning to them.