Londoners' language!

Difference between teenage and adult dialect and accent in London

People around the south east tend to believe teenagers are the reason for the image created of Londoners and of how they speak. But is this the case?

It is not surprising that teenagers' and adults' dialect and accent truly depends on the social group and location they are surrounded by. For example teenagers will tend to use the convergence style of speech when around their own age group and most likely use divergence when around different age groups. This because they what to fit in with their friends and show their difference from older people.

 

An author named Arthur Hughes believed that the accent and dialect choices between a working class adult and teenager differs due to social, urban and work surroundings. "The traditional working- class London accent informally termed 'cockney' is, of course, a southern accent."

 Teenagers that are based around London tend to have an accent but usually change their dialect more for example around their preferred social group.. A UK magazine called "pappZD!" recorded a conversation between two teenagers that lived in London. They tended to use the word "alright" pronounced as "/ɑɪt/." But when speaking to and older respectable figures, author Peter Trudgill realised a teenagers' commonly used /f/ than /θ/ change due their social surrounding this could also be due to making an good impression or fitting in with their peers.

 

Something I found whilst doing my research is that teenagers change not much their accent but their lexis on a social basis whilst adults that have lived in the area for years had a strong accent. After reading a book by Paul Foulkes and Gerard Docherty, teenagers' accents are not as strong as a working- class adult Londoner. "Younger accent is not as strong as that of the older male speaker."

 

Me being born in London myself I think this point is true. This is because not being sixteen years of age means I have not been in London for many years. Now living in Eastbourne, my Londoner accent is not as strong as it used to be and my accent now is affected by the local Sussex accent. At first, this was a case of convergence because I didn't want to stand out. But now it is not a conscious decision.

 

This shows teenagers' and adults' English have been heavily impacted by where and whom they live and can easily change over time.

 

Samson Odubade