What is meant by dialect leveling?

Dialect levelling or leveling (in American English) is the process of an overall reduction in the variation or diversity of features between two or more dialects. Typically, this comes about through assimilation, mixture, and merging of certain dialects, often by language standardization.

Why has dialect Levelling happened in the UK?

People who come to a new town adapt their language and unconsciously leave out local language elements so that the hearer will understand them better. As a result, dialect forms that have a wide geographical and social range tend to be used more often. Dialect levelling has become a widespread phenomenon in Britain.

What factors affect dialect Levelling?

There are several factors involved in dialect levelling:

• Geographical mobility results in greater dialect contact between commuters.
• Social mobility and consequent breakdown of tight knit working class communities.
• Increased interaction with people of other speech varieties.

What accent is Milton Keynes?

Linguists believe that one day most people in southern and eastern England will speak the Milton Keynes way. A survey has discovered that youngsters in Milton Keynes have developed an accent unlike either their parents’ or that of the original pre-new town population of Buckinghamshire.

What did Kerswill look for in dialect levelling?

The method Kerswill used was to look at ten linguistic variables including the pronunciation of consonants such as /t/ and /th/ and the long vowel /u:/ like in the word ‘shoe’ (you can look at what symbols such as /u:/ mean by following this link and reading the section about the IPA. What is Phonetics? ).

Which is an example of dialect levelling in Milton Keynes?

An example of dialect levelling is the case in Milton Keynes investigated by Paul Kerswill in 1996. So who is Paul Kerswill? Paul Kerswill, is a Professor of Sociolinguistics, who has taught at the University’s of Reading, Lancaster and currently at the University of York.

Which is the best book on dialect levelling?

In D. Britain and J. Cheshire (eds.) Social dialectology. In honour of Peter Trudgill. Amsterdam: Benjamins. 223–243. Kerswill, Paul (2003). Dialect levelling and geographical diffusion in British English. In D. Britain and J. Cheshire (eds.) Social dialectology. In honour of Peter Trudgill. Amsterdam: Benjamins. 223–243.

When did Paul Kerswill become a linguistic innovator?

October 2004–September 2007: ESRC, Principal Investigator. Linguistic innovators: the English of adolescents in London. September 1995–May 1999: ESRC, Principal Investigator. The role of adolescents in dialect levelling. September 1990–February 1994: ESRC, Principal Investigator.