Accent and dialect

Key learning points

• The difference between accent and dialect.
• The brilliant variety of accents and dialects in the English language.
• The ways writers can use dialects in fiction.

Accent describes the sounds of a person’s speech. We all speak with an accent if we use our voice to talk (don’t use the word ‘accent’ to describe speaking with sign language, as this doesn’t include sound). Your accent affects the way you pronounce words. For example, different people might pronounce the word ‘scone’ in different ways. Scone could rhyme with ‘cone’ or with ‘gone.’

Which pronunciation do you use?

Often, differences in accent are linked to where people live and where they grew up.

As well as accent (pronunciation), different people might use different words and grammar. This is called dialect. For example, there are lots of different words that people use for a bread roll:

• Bap
• Barm / barm cake
• Buttery
• Cob
• Morning roll
• Stottie
• Teacake

Different dialects also include differences in grammar. For example, the standard past tense of ‘I am’ is ‘I was’. However, in some dialects in northern England, speakers might say ‘I were’. There isn’t a right and a wrong here, they are just different dialects.

Standard English is the name for a dialect of English that is widely understood and tends to be used in writing and in formal situations. It isn’t linked to a particular part of the UK.

This is the type of English that you will usually be expected to use in your writing at school. There are rules that should be followed when writing in standard English, for example:

• ‘Is not’ or ‘isn’t’ instead of ‘ain’t’
• ‘She does not’ or ‘she doesn’t’ instead of ‘she don’t’
• ‘I was’ instead of ‘I were’

Standard English isn't the only ‘correct’ variety of English, but it is the type of English that is expected in written school work. All varieties of English are just as good as each other.

You might expect Standard English to be spoken with a particular accent, but there is no specific accent linked to the dialect. If you are thinking of an accent similar to the Queen’s accent, this is received pronunciation. This is an accent, but it is not the same as Standard English, which is a dialect. Standard English can be spoken with a variety of different accents.

Everyone speaks with an accent and a dialect, but some regions of the UK are associated with particularly recognisable accents and dialects. Some that you might be familiar with include:

• Liverpool (also called Scouse)
• Newcastle (also called Geordie)
• Somerset

These regional varieties often include features of accent and dialect which make them different from Standard English.

The way we speak is a big part of our identity. Accent and dialects can reflect where people come from and how they want to be seen. Lots of things can have an effect on the way we speak:

• region
• age
• education
• social groups
• gender
• ethnicity

Your own particular way of speaking is a result of all these different influences, and is called your idiolect. It is really important not to judge a person based on the way they speak, just as it is important not to judge them by their appearance.

Writers can use different dialect varieties to help them create characters in fiction. Using a non-standard dialect can help give a reader a sense of the character’s voice and perhaps an idea of where they are from.

Harper Lee uses a regional dialect to suggest the Alabama setting and the young age of her narrators in To Kill A Mockingbird:

“You look right puny for goin’ on seven.”

Mark Twain uses regional dialect to create a recognisable voice for his main character in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:

“All I wanted was to go somewheres; all I wanted was a change, I warn’t particular.”

In Northern Lights, Philip Pullman uses non-standard dialect to show the difference between the younger characters and the older characters, who speak in a more standard dialect. Here is an example of Lyra and Roger, two younger characters:

“You’re afraid of ’em”, she said. “I can tell”.

“I en’t. I don’t believe in ’em anyway”.