The Student Room Group
Reply 1
Are you doing AQA A - unit 5 tomorrow?

Dialect
A way of speaking in which grammatical structure, and vocabulary identify the regional or social origin of the speaker.

Accent

A way of speaking in which pronunciation identifies the regional or social origin of the person.

Received Pronunciation
A particular accent of English, considered the prestige norm in England but used by only a small minority of speakers. RP is the type of pronunciation most often described in reference books in England and the most often taught to foreign learners of English in England. RP has been given various nicknames, such as ‘BBC English.

Attitudes towards Received Pronunciation:

• RP is seen as the most socially prestigious accent – associated with wealth and social status
• RP tends to be associated with competemnce and authority.
• They emerge less favourably than speakers with regional or Estuary English accents in terms of personal attractiveness.
• RP speakers score well for qualities such as intelligence, slef confidence and determination.
• They score less well for qualities such as sincerity, good naturedness and sense of humour.
Reply 2
na im doind edexcel, unit 4 - I have to do it in the morning and be in isolation as well!
Reply 3
so what is the difference between dialect and accent then - this always confuses me? accent is like the words people use ie "wee = little" in scotland?

and dialect is to do with the grammatical structures, ie people in the North say "im going to 'et football match?"
Reply 4
The essential difference is the features they are concerned with:

Dialect: Lexis (vocabulary) and Grammar (use of pronouns etc)

Accent: Phonology way of speaking. eg glottal stops bu'er instead of butter for example.
Reply 5
cheers for this
Reply 6
would accent link to, for example someone saying "dem" for them..... or would this be dialect or both because its the choice of vocab and how it is said
Reply 7
I'd group it under sociolect: it's a speech feature you would expect within certain social/racial groups rather than within certain geographical areas (as with accent and dialect), and you can argue that it's a pronounciation of "them" rather than a lexis choice (so an accent feature)
Reply 8
it is a dialectal issue in the sense that it involves different lexis and pronunciation, yet because of this different pronunciation it also counts as an issue of accent (something under the umbrella of dialect).