Language perception in the East Midlands in England : Investigating East Midlands adolescents' perception of language variation in the UK

Abstract

Previous research by the author has examined the concept of identity in the East Midlands and how this can be relatively problematic in the region (Braber, 2014). This paper aims to extend this topic by investigating views of young people living in the East Midlands using a folk linguistic approach. Preston (1989, 1999b) claims that perceptual dialectology looks at non-linguists' beliefs and perceptions about the similarities of their own speech to, and differences from, the speech of others. This involves examining where participants believe dialect areas to be and what the characteristics of local speech are. This paper examines dialect identification and investigates the abilities of a sample group of adolescents to place correctly local and regional varieties of English.