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How'd you get that accent?: Acquiring a second dialect of the same language

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 October 2007

SALI A. TAGLIAMONTE  and
SONJA MOLFENTER
SALI A. TAGLIAMONTE
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics, 130 St George Street, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5S 3H1, [email protected]
SONJA MOLFENTER
Affiliation:
Department of Speech-Language Pathology, University of Toronto, [email protected]
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Abstract

This article presents a case study of second dialect acquisition by three children over six years as they shift from Canadian to British English. Informed by Chambers's principles of second dialect acquisition, the analysis focuses on a frequent and socially embedded linguistic feature, T-voicing (e.g., pudding versus putting). An extensive corpus and quantitative methods permit tracking the shift to British English as it is happening. Although all of the children eventually sound local, the acquisition process is complex. Frequency of British variants rises incrementally, lagging behind the acquisition of variable constraints, which are in turn ordered by type. Internal patterns are acquired early, while social correlates lag behind. Acceleration of second dialect variants occurs at well-defined sociocultural milestones, particularly entering the school system. Successful second dialect acquisition is a direct consequence of sustained access to and integration with the local speech community.We would like to thank Tara, Shaman, and Freya for their patience and humor in letting us analyze these materials, and especially for the hilarity of their antics, which added greatly to the amount of fun we had in figuring out their second dialect acquisition. This study was inspired by and has also profited from many discussions with our mentor and friend Jack Chambers. We have also benefited from the insightful guidance of Peter Trudgill, both in print and in personal commentary. An anonymous reviewer added an additional perspective. Of course, none of them is responsible for any remaining shortcomings of our analysis or interpretation.

Keywords

second dialect acquisitionchild language variationT-voicingmobility
Type
Research Article
Information
Language in Society , Volume 36 , Issue 5 , November 2007 , pp. 649 - 675
Copyright
© 2007 Cambridge University Press

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