Dialect and Accent
Dialect and accent are often confused in everyday usage. In linguistics, they are distinct concepts.
Definitions
Dialect is a language variety that differs from other varieties in grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. Everyone speaks a dialect -- "Standard English" is itself a dialect, albeit the one with the highest social prestige.
Accent refers to pronunciation only -- the phonological features of a speaker's speech. An accent does not involve grammatical or lexical differences.
The key distinction: you can speak Standard English with a regional accent. A speaker from Newcastle may use standard grammar and vocabulary but pronounce words with a Geordie accent. Conversely, a speaker using non-standard grammatical features (I were going, we was) is using a non-standard dialect.
Examples
| Feature | Standard English (RP accent) | Yorkshire dialect | Cockney dialect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grammar | I was going | I were going | I was going |
| Vocabulary | child | bairn | nipper |
| Pronunciation | /bɑːθ/ | /baθ/ | /bɑːf/ |
Key Concepts
Received Pronunciation (RP)
RP is the prestige accent of British English, historically associated with public schools, the BBC, and the upper middle class. Only about 3% of British English speakers use RP. It is an accent, not a dialect -- it has no regional base but is socially defined.
Standard English
Standard English is the dialect used in education, publishing, and official contexts. It is defined by grammar and vocabulary, not pronunciation. A speaker can use Standard English with any accent. See Standard Language.
Prestige and Prejudice
Research consistently shows that people make social judgements based on accent and dialect -- attributing intelligence, trustworthiness, and competence based on how someone speaks. These judgements are socially constructed, not linguistically justified.
Relevance to ELT
- Which accent to teach? -- RP and General American remain dominant in ELT materials, but ELF research suggests Intelligibility matters more than conformity to a prestige accent. The Lingua Franca Core identifies which pronunciation features are essential for mutual understanding.
- Receptive exposure -- learners need exposure to diverse accents for real-world listening comprehension, not just the two or three accents found in coursebooks
- Learner accents -- an L1-influenced accent is not an error if intelligibility is maintained. The goal is comfortable intelligibility, not accent elimination
- World Englishes -- the spread of English globally has produced new dialects (Indian English, Singaporean English, Nigerian English) that are legitimate varieties, not defective approximations of British or American English