Session 1: Eng. Lan. GCSE
Introduction to Spoken Language Studies:
Accent, Dialect and Standard English
A Poem With an Accent
This anonymous poet has spelled all the words as if they were being spoken
in a strong accent. Read the poem aloud in pairs. Can you guess what the
accent should be?
A muvver was barfin’ ‘er biby one night,
The youngest of ten and a tiny young mite,
The muvvah was poor and the biby was thin,
Only a skelington covered in skin:
The muvvah turned rahnd for the soap off the rack, She was but a moment, but
when she turned back, The biby was gorn; and in anguish she cried
“Oh where is my biby?” – The angels replied:
“Your biby ‘as fell dahn the plug-‘ole, Your biby ‘as gorn dahn the plug;
The poor little fing was so skinny and thin ‘E oughter been barfed in a jug;
Your biby is perfeckly ‘appy,
‘E won’t need a barf any more,
Your biby ‘as fell dahn the plug-‘ole
Not lorst, but gorn before.”
Dialect: ‘Snow-Cone’, John Agard
John Agard is a poet from West-Indian background. He writes poems in a
‘Black English’ dialect. Can you identify where and how dialect is used in this
poem?
Snow-cone
Snow-cone nice
Snow-cone sweet
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Snow-cone is crush ice
and good for the heat.
When sun really hot
and I thirsty a lot,
Me alone,
Yes me alone
could eat ten snow-cone.
If you think is lie I tell
wait till you hear the snow-cone bell,
wait till you hear the snow-cone bell.
Standard English
****Interesting Fact ******
Standard English has its origins in the East Midland dialect. This was spoken
during the Middle Ages over a large area of southern England, including
London, Oxford and Cambridge. When William Caxton set up England’s first
printing press in 1476, he decided to follow the spelling conventions of this
dialect and to use it for the literature he printed. The development of a
standard variety of English, with its own principles of grammar, vocabulary
and spelling, continued during the 18th century, when many dictionaries and
books on grammar were published.
Standard English is a form of dialect which can be spoken with any accent (not just
a posh one): it is not unique to certain areas of the country. Many people speak in a
Standard English dialect - such as newsreaders on T.V. - so that everyone can
understand all over the country.
We do not usually write in local or ethnic dialects. It is important that written English
should be easy for all English speakers to read and understand, no matter where
they come from. For this reason, there is one English dialect which should normally
be used for written English: Standard English.
Can you rewrite ‘Snow-Cone’ in Standard English? Remember things like
vocabulary, grammar, spelling and punctuation.
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Exercises:
• Re-write these sentences in Standard English:
1. The fish what we had caught was big
2. We been to the park
3. Where is the tennis rackets?
4. He could not do that no faster.
5. Ben was the bigger of the three boys.
6. I stood at the gate.
7. My friend and me ate dinner.
8. She ‘ad too ‘ave a secund ‘elping of dinnah.
9. The got dinner before they went to bed.
• Record a phrase spoken by somebody (a friend, family, actor/actress on
T.V). Try and write it down the way that it has been pronounced and make
sure that you include all the vocabulary/ dialect spoken. We will try and
guess the accent or dialect spoken by your chosen person next week.
* Make sure you know the difference between accent and dialect, as well as
what Standard English is. Look at your revision guide for help with this if you
need it, or use the internet.
Online Resources for you to use:
http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/
^^^This is what we looked at in class via the British library. It allows you to
look at language use in speech all over the UK. Explore this, it’s a fabulous
resource for spoken language study.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/english/
spokenlanguagestudy/
This is a great website which will help you revise all units for Eng. Lang.
GCSE. This link will direct you to the Spoken Language Study section.
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