Peter
Trudgill’s 1974 Norwich Study
Peter Trudgill’s research of the dialects and
sociolects of different genders and social classes was based in Norwich 1974,
and was an attempt to identify the nuances of the accents and dialects held my
males and females of different social backgrounds. The research showed that people of ‘lower’
social classes were more likely to use non-standard forms than those in higher
classes. In total there were 3 people
considered to be ‘lower working class’ who used standard forms, all of whom
were female. This is in contrast to the
‘upper middle class’, where 196 used standard form.
One of the most common differences in speech
that Trudgill discovered was the use of the clipped suffix ‘n’, which in
Received Pronunciation would be pronounced with the velar nasal ‘ng’ sound.
The differences could simply be a result of the
contrasting social backgrounds in which these people were raised. Alternatively, we could consider the
possibility of prestige, which would mean the most likely conclusion would be
that those of an ‘upper-middle class background’ are more susceptible to using
overt prestige. Overt prestige is the
prestige gained from using the standard forms of English, a perceived indicator
of higher levels of education. On the
other hand, those of a working class background may value covert prestige more
highly, which is the prestige of maintaining loyalty and solidarity with those
of your social background.
Trudgill also discovered that males were more
likely to use non-standard forms than females of the same social
background. Some have attributed this to
women being more “socially insecure” than men, so they therefore use language
more carefully and prefer the prestige from being perceived as well-educated
and intelligent, whereas men preferred to being seen as loyal to their
background.
Another interesting difference between the
genders is that men thought that they were using non-standard forms more
frequently than they actually were, whereas women thought they were using
standard forms more than they actually were.
This could relate to the theory that women are socially insecure, as
they may be perceiving themselves as they want to be perceived, rather than how
they actually are. This may also suggest
that men take a more laissez-faire attitude towards language, as they may
believe that they would not care about pronouncing the word correctly, even if
they were pronouncing it the supposed ‘correct’ way.
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