Plothiker Of Identity

Language features, including a variety of figurative and humour devices, have been incorporated to clearly demonstrate how the authors have had similar experiences with contrasting perspectives on growing up Australian.

In her essay, “Newfoundlandese, If You Please” Diane Mooney takes us on a virtual road trip around the island of Newfoundland, her home, discussing regional language variations, and giving us insights into the histories of the communities we encounter. In her very first sentence, Mooney refers to Newfoundland having one dialect but then goes on to describe in detail the various dialects across the island. Throughout her essay, Mooney describes her experiences with language, and gives us first-hand accounts of interactions with locals, providing us an insight into the pronunciation and vernacular of a given region. Her view is that the regional variations in the English language spawned from the origins of the original settlers, the influence

I never considered my real status in Australia until recently. When I was a child, I came to Australia with my family. I lost my Manchurian accent as quickly as possible in order to assimilate.

It seems unusual to start from scratch with such a thing. With there being several types of accents, why must one feel like they should change theirs? As Text B illustrates, it seems as though it is celebrities in particular that are changing their accents to fit in with ‘showbiz’ and the latest trends or for a movie they will play a part in. Within seconds of meeting someone, we make judgements about who they are just by the way they sound. Attitudes towards accents are based more on social connotations and prejudices surrounding the location or social group associated with that accent than on the sound itself.

As long as I can remember my accent has always played a role in my life. There have been moments of uncertainty, discouragement, annoyance, and lastly pride. Throughout each emotional stage I’ve learn acceptance and responsibility of what defines me as a women who happens to be Latina. In Tanya Barrientos “Se Habla Español” she defines what resonates within me “Without having to offer apologies or show remorse. If it will help, I will go first. Aqui estoy. Spanish-challenged and pura Latina (45). She beautifully states the acceptance that too many find difficulty fitting in. Especially in a world that will defined you not only by your looks but as well as the way you speak.

The film “American Tongues” documents a variety of English accents that are present across the United States and highlights a lot of the opinions people have about accents and people who speak these accents. A large majority of the people who express opinions about other peoples’ accents tend to express negative views, as they see their own accent as the superior one. The film focuses on showing the array of accents found in the U.S., but also how a lot of people who speak these “inferior” accents work to learn “Standard American English” to increase their chances of getting jobs and communicating in more official domains. Although the film was made in 1988, it expresses views still present in today’s society towards different accents, as people tend to continue judging others based not only on what they say, but also how they say it.

In Gloria Anzaldúa article “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” she shows us how different worlds so close can be so different. Anzaldúa shows that people have restricted freedom in society by the social norms set in them. Anzaldúa pressed her awareness and distraught on how people treat her depending on the type of language she uses. She also explains some of her emotions towards the way people are like with speaking and listening to accents. The article is how Anzaldúa explains how culture and accent shapes a person’s identity by being controlled and oppressed to fit into the social norms, which is how she creates cracks using language and code switching.

One of English’s most developing dialects is known as Multicultural London English, a sociolect of English. MLE is considered a ‘young’ dialect mainly spoken by young, working-class people in the multicultural neighbourhoods’ that incorporates both elements of Caribbean creole and other ‘non-native’ influences. Paul Kerswill, an investigator from Lancaster University carried out research on the theme of the emergence, acquisition, and diffusion of a new variety (2007-10.) Kerswill analysed language use in Hackney, an area in the East End of London originally associated with working-class white Cockneys. However, due to post-war reconstruction, many of the East End residents were transferred to new housing estates further east or to new towns in Essex. Immigrants started to emerge and the population started to increase. The earliest of immigrants to arrive were from the West Indies bringing over their Caribbean creole. Kerswill describes responses to MLE in the media, where it has been referred to as ‘Jafaican’, a term that ‘sounds black’. The sociolinguists’ term ‘multiethnolect’, then, reflects the fact that MLE is spoken by young people from all ethnic groups living in the multilingual inner city area. Other researchers of Multicultural London English are Jenny Cheshire and Sue Fox, who refers to this dialect as “Multi-ethnic youth dialect,” suggesting that this sociolect isn’t only spoken in London.

Although English is the official language of Australia, Australia's multicultural society has created many subcategories of Australian English. It can be broke down to different groups based on the ethno-cultural groups such as Lebanese English or Greek English as well as Indigenous English. However, Australian accents comprehensively were separated into broad, general, and cultivated varieties (ABC, 2016). General accent represent the most common accents and it is natural and less strong. Conversely, Broad accents are correlated with working-class speech and are quite strong, but cultivated accents are partly close to British English.

There are many indicators of identity by which we are made known individually, socially and culturally; the best of these would be language and how it has shown great flexibility in accommodating the needs of people. Through language people have been able to establish their identities and cultivate friendships with others who share the same common ground. By looking at accents such as Broad Australian English, slang and phonological features as they apply to Australian varieties, we can see how it has forged solidarity and assisted in creating an identity on an individual and national scale.

Do you ever think about the way you speak and why? Well, Paul Robert does an excellent job explaining why people use the dialect they use in Speech Communities. He discusses that people change their use of language throughout their lives to conform to either society or to what kind of person they want to be, or to just conform to who they need to be at a particular moment, in which I agree. People’s choice of language, including myself, are affected by many of their surroundings, such as where they live and grow up at, their peers, and a person’s work place.

A professor from a well-known college is not expected to speak like a person who works in a garment factory. A businessman can never use a beggar's accent while talking with his partner. We can easily identify who belongs to which level. From their professions, we can infer their economic conditions and thus their belonging social classes can be identified. Therefore, a clear distinction of using semantics, syntax, phonology, phonetics, vocabulary or style helps us to distinguish any particular person and his\her position in the society.

When people speak of affective qualities of a language variety, it is not the language that is being evaluated, but an underlying stereotype of the speakers themselves. For this reason, attitudes toward divergent language varieties “are better understood as attitudes towards the members of language communities” rather than the variety itself (Edwards, 1994, p. 89). In this way, then, by judging the speakers of in-group language varieties, respondents are also indirectly evaluating members of these in-groups as well , essentially making qualitative judgments regarding language and their own group identity (Edwards, 1985). Fundamentally, as Edwards (1985) writes, language attitudes “allow some insights into the perception and presentation of identity” (p. 151). Therefore, by looking at attitudes of learners of Mandarin toward regional accented-Mandarin, we can probably understand whether this language variety is more likely to be used, emulated, and accepted throughout learners of Mandarin.

Other forms of the English language are developed from speech communities with an intention, for efficiency and to show inclusion, and to exclude others. It also helps to convey a specific identity of the speaker, with the use of syntactic and phonological differences from Standard English. These modifications form non-standard dialects, transferring the speaker’s cultural background and language to provide a better perception and reflection of identity. The falling intonation accompanied with interrogatives in the Asian ethnolect, such as ‘Gravy?’, is the opposite of the rising intonation used for the same purpose by Australians, and can quickly cause conflict between the two communities due to the missing benchmark in language. Pronoun deletion in ‘No like’ (‘I don’t like it’) is a feature of many ethnolects (Greek, Aboriginal English), and is differing from the Standard, yet still helps to get the message across. Ethnolects develop from Standard English, and helps to express a user’s identity through their language use and in-group solidarity within the speech community.

Subsequent studies addressed speakers’ abilities to accommodate sociophonetic speech to produce variants that are more similarly associated with the social characteristics of the audience (Bell, 1984), or a referee (Hay, Jannedy & Mendoza-Denton, 1999). Hay et al., (1999) attempted to demonstrate the prevalence of an interplay between speech style and the ethnic background of a referee by examining Oprah Winfrey’s speech tendencies to monophthongise the diphthong /æ/.