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Regional accents and Received Pronunciation

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Book cover Varieties of English

Part of the book series: Studies in English Language ((SEL))

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Abstract

When people talk about regional English, they often use the words accent and dialect rather loosely and interchangeably. For example, they could say of someone, ‘She has a broad Northern accent’ or ‘She speaks a strong Northern dialect’, and both statements might be understood as meaning more or less the same thing. The linguistic distinction between accent and dialect has already been referred to in previous chapters: the term accent (sometimes dialectal accent) refers only to the system of pronunciation a speaker uses; dialect refers to a speaker’s grammar and vocabulary.

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Booklist

  • G. Brown, Listening to Spoken English (London: Longman, 1977)

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  • A.C. Gimson, An Introduction to the Pronunciation of English, 3rd edn. (London: Edward Arnold, 1980) (standard reference text)

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  • J.C. Wells, *Accents of English: 1, Introduction; 2. The British Isles; 3. Beyond the British Isles (Cambridge University Press, 1982)

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© 1986 Dennis Freeborn

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Freeborn, D., French, P., Langford, D. (1986). Regional accents and Received Pronunciation. In: Varieties of English. Studies in English Language. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-18134-6_4

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