Attitudes Towards 'D4' English

16
1 LING 40090: Sociolinguistics Title: Attitudes towards ‘D4’ English By Megan Byrne Lecturer: Dr. Bettina Migge

description

This essay is a follow on from a group project of the same title. The aim was to establish what the attitudes of people (mainly Irish) are towards 'D4' English and its users and why their attitudes were such.

Transcript of Attitudes Towards 'D4' English

Page 1: Attitudes Towards 'D4' English

1

LING 40090: Sociolinguistics

Title: Attitudes towards

‘D4’ English

By

Megan Byrne

Lecturer: Dr. Bettina Migge

Page 2: Attitudes Towards 'D4' English

2

Attitudes towards ‘D4’ English

The ‘Dublin 4’ or ‘D4’ variety of Dublin English has been the topic of much

discussion in recent years in the popular press. Its name is linked to the D4 postcode area of

South Dublin which includes the areas of Ballsbridge, Donnybrook and Sandymount to name

a few. The majority of opinions towards ‘D4’ English are negative and at times biased. It

began in the 1990s as a way for its speakers to disassociate themselves from other varieties of

Dublin English. However, in recent years it has become the least desirable variety of Dublin

English to use in the opinion of the majority. This is due to the variety and its speakers being

linked with an affluent lifestyle and a perceived superior social status. It is considered to be a

variety of Dublin English associated with the southside of the city which contrasts with the

stereotypically poorer northside. However, as those who are aware of the linguistic situation

in Dublin know, the ‘D4’ variety is also spoken in the wealthier areas of the northside. 1

These areas include Howth, Sutton, Malahide and Clontarf. This essay will examine the

attitudes towards ‘D4’ English in Ireland. The data used will include previous studies

conducted on the topic as well as literature from the Irish Independent newspaper and

scholarly articles. Hickey’s work on Dublin English and his 2005 study entitled Attitudes to

Dublin English will be discussed as the only pertinent previous study carried out on the topic.

The final section of the essay will look in detail at a study conducted by Byrne, Garvey and

Kesevan in 2012 which probed the attitudes towards ‘D4’ English in modern day Dublin,

furthering the work of Hickey’s 2005 study.2 The essay will then be concluded with a brief

summary of the main points discussed throughout the essay.

The majority of previous studies carried out on ‘D4’ English concerned themselves

with defining the variety and stating the possible reasons for its origin. Other studies focused

1 The ‘D4’ variety as spoken in parts of the northside is similar to the ‘D4’ variety of the southside. However, there are subtle differences between the two but not enough to class them as entirely separate varieties of Dublin English. 2 MA pilot study entitled “Attitudes towards ‘D4 English” as part of LING 40090: Sociolinguistics, UCD, 2012.

Page 3: Attitudes Towards 'D4' English

3

on its phonology. The most notable person to focus on this was Hickey (2005). He

suggested that ‘D4’ English underwent what he termed the ‘Dublin vowel shift’ (Hickey,

2005). The table below outlines the vowel shift (Hickey quoted in Moore, 2011):

The term ‘older mainstream speech’ refers to the speech variety used by those before

the introduction of ‘D4’ English. The ‘vowel shift’ outlines the change in vowel positioning

from the older variety to the “new” or “fashionable” ‘D4’ variety (Moore, 2011: 45). Using

the ‘caught’ and ‘cork’ examples given by Hickey, the transcription are as follows:

Variable Older Mainstream New ‘D4’

‘caught’ [kɒt] or [kɑt] [kɔt]

‘cork’ [kɒɹk] or [kɑɹk] [kɔɹk]

These examples were chosen as [ɔ] is the most acoustically obvious vowel difference

between the two that is noticeable even to non-linguists or phoneticians. As one can see, the

‘shift’ in vowel height has moved upwards – the low back rounded (or unrounded) vowel [ɒ]

(or [ɑ]) has ‘shifted’ or raised to the mid back rounded vowel [ɔ]. The ‘D4’ variety also has

Page 4: Attitudes Towards 'D4' English

4

the mid-central vowel [ə] which is used in unstressed syllables. Hickey suggests that [goʊ] or

[goː] is pronounced as [gəʊ] by users of ‘D4’ English. It has a stronger “diphthongal value”

compared to the monophthong [goː] or slightly diphthongised [gəʊ] of the older mainstream

variety. The onset of [gəʊ] is higher than the local or inner city Dublin pronunciation, [gʌo],

which is lower and has a retracted onset (Hickey, 2005: 66). This is consistent with the ‘D4’

variety’s need to move away from pronunciations associated with other notable Dublin

linguistic groups (discussed below). Hickey also stated that phonetic realisations for

orthographic ‘th’ changed from the dental stop [t ] or [d ] to the alveolar interdental fricative

[θ] or [ð]. However, given the knowledge that Irish English speakers tend to prefer dental

stops to interdental fricatives there would need to be spectrographic evidence to support

Hickey’s claim.

The ‘D4’ variety of Dublin English began in the late 1980s but is more often

associated with the 1990s when its usage became more widespread. There is a link between

the beginning of the ‘D4’ variety and the growth of the Irish economy at that time, known as

the ‘Celtic Tiger’. Moore states that this variety was used:

as a way for younger, newly affluent speakers to “hive off” from the masses by

avoiding pronunciations seen as emblematic either of working-class Dublin identity or

of rural Irish provincialism (Moore, 2011:41)

Hickey has described this in another way:

[…] the adoption of a sophisticated accent in Dublin serves the dual purposes of

hiving oneself off from the poorer elements and associating oneself with the more

affluent sections of the capital’s population. (Hickey quoted in Fisiak and Krygier,

1996: 88)

That is, the ‘D4’ variety was a way for its speakers to ensure their disassociation from other

prominent linguistic and social groups in Dublin and Ireland. Those groups, as outlined by

Moore, are defined as the working-class Dubliners and those living in rural areas of Dublin

Page 5: Attitudes Towards 'D4' English

5

and Ireland in general. As Hickey mentioned, it was deemed to be “a sophisticated accent”.

This correlates with an article published in the Irish Independent in 2006 which described it

as “a modern twist on Queen's English”.3 The same author also referred to it as ‘Dortspeak’

in contrast to “skanger speak” stereotypical of the northside. Another Irish Independent

author, Kim Bielenberg stated that the ‘D4’ variety was spreading to areas outside of Dublin

4 “like an out-of-control winter vomiting bug”.4

It is clear from the examples above that the popular press did not have a high opinion

of the new variety of English that was becoming, and still is becoming, more prevalent in

their society. There has never been a study conducted that solely examined the attitudes of

people towards ‘D4’ English. However, in Hickey’s Dublin English: evolution and change

(2005: 92-107) he quotes his study which examined Attitudes to Dublin English. Although

he was investigating attitudes, the aim of the study was actually to “ascertain if patterns were

discernible in speakers’ judgements”. That is, whether his participants were able to notice

different phonological patterns between the different English varieties. The method he used

for this was the matched-guise technique. However, Hickey did not agree with the same

speaker being used to emulate all varieties as “idiosyncratic features” of their voice may be

discernible. For this reason he used a different speaker for each variety. Each participant

was asked to listen to six recordings of the same passage, each of which illustrated the six

different English varieties of the speakers. These consisted of four Irish dialects (one of

which was the ‘D4’ variety), one British English variety and one American variety – as

outlined in the table below:

3 Author unknown, “Did you snog? No, I scored, you muppet”, Irish Independent 8 Feb. 2006, http://www.independent.ie/unsorted/features/did-you-snog-no-i-scored-you-muppet-111911.html 4Bielenberg, Kim, “JANEY MAC! IRISH-ENGLISH IS BANJAXED, SO IT IS...”, Irish Independent 9 Feb. 2008, http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/janey-mac-irishenglish-is-banjaxed-so-it-is-1285816.html

Page 6: Attitudes Towards 'D4' English

6

His participants were asked to fill out individual sections of a survey after hearing each

recording. Their task consisted of simply ticking the boxes to the answers they felt best

suited that particular piece of audio recording. They were asked to rate the following

adjectives as very, fairly or slightly as they saw fit: important, intelligent; pleasant, friendly.

They also had to state whether they thought the variety sounded well educated, little

education or no education.5 The survey was distributed to people from all over Ireland with

eighteen of the twenty-six counties being represented.6 The results from of the survey

confirmed the “intuitive assumptions” of the Southern Irish varieties he expected to find. For

example, the local or inner city Dublin variety was perceived as having no education. It is

clear that these “intuitive assumptions” have close links to the stereotypes that exist among

these varieties of Irish English. Hickey notes that the results pertaining to the ‘D4’ variety

are the “most significant” among all the results for the different varieties used in the study.

Similar to the opinions of the authors from the Irish Independent, it was not viewed as a

desirable variety of English to use and confirmed the opinions of the majority of non-users

who consider it to be “pretentious and snobbish”. If we recall, the Irish Independent

described ‘D4’ English as being “a modern twist on Queen's English”. It would then be

5 Survey can be seen in full in R., Hickey (2005: 94). 6 It is unclear whether Hickey (or a researcher) distributed the survey in person or by postal correspondence with the participants. However, it would seem unlikely that a copy of the recordings was sent to each of his participants therefore making it more likely for Hickey or a researcher to have visited the participants in person to conduct the survey.

Page 7: Attitudes Towards 'D4' English

7

appropriate to examine the results of attitudes towards the usage of RP from Hickey’s study.

He noted that RP, to his surprise, scored quite high in the overall results. This was

unexpected as RP is not generally regarded “as worthy of imitation” in Ireland. Hickey

suggested that this could be due to the fact that it was a ‘true’ representation of the variety

and not an imitation. With this last point in mind, it is not surprising that ‘D4’ English scored

as it did in Hickey’s survey – it is clearly deemed to be some kind of an imitation of upper-

class British English varieties, which as Hickey notes, are the kinds of varieties that come

under harsh scrutiny by non-users. A study that examined the attitudes towards RP and ‘D4’

English in an Irish, or more specifically, Dublin setting would be required in order to confirm

or contradict this analysis.

While Hickey’s study provides useful information about the linguistic status of ‘D4’

English it does not provide us with in-depth attitudes towards the variety. The questions

asked were superficial and did not ask why participants perceived each variety in this way. It

would have been beneficial for a study containing the term attitudes in the title to examine

why these perceptions were held by participants. The questions asked in the survey were also

quite limited with only three questions per variety. Participants were not asked to state which

variety they thought they were hearing. This is vital to know as the connection between RP

and ‘D4’ English has been made – could it be possible that some participants did not

correctly identify each variety and therefore gave their perceptions for the wrong variety?

When collecting the results Hickey rejected 19 of the 111 returned surveys due to them being

incomplete. He also states that one of the returned surveys was rejected because it was “quite

eccentric” claiming that the local or inner city Dublin variety was important, intelligent and

well-educated – could it be that Hickey’s attitude towards the local Dublin variety is biased

and because this particular perception did not meet his expectations for his findings it was

rejected? Instead of scoring each answer from 0 to 2, Hickey should have used percentages.

Page 8: Attitudes Towards 'D4' English

8

This would have allowed him to include the results from the incomplete returned surveys as

well as providing a more accurate interpretation of the results.

It is for reasons stated above that Byrne, Garvey and Kesevan decided to undertake

their study entitled Attitudes towards ‘D4’ English in 2012. The research methods used were

both qualitative and quantitative. This included reviewing available literature on ‘D4’

English, conducting interviews and distributing an online survey. Since there had been no

prior study conducted that solely examined the attitudes of people towards ‘D4’ English it

was decided that this study should be undertaken with the aim of examining the attitudes of

people living in Ireland towards ‘D4’ English.7 Firstly, the literature available to us on the

topic was reviewed.8 This gave us a basis on which to formulate the questions for the

interviews. The majority of our research regarding attitudes towards ‘D4’ English was taken

from online articles from the Irish Independent on www.independent.ie and the online forum

www.boards.ie.9 We concluded from these that the general consensus of attitudes towards

‘D4’ English available to us were negative, extremely harsh and based solely on the ‘D4’

stereotype rather than on real-life experience of ‘D4s’ or those who use ‘D4’ English.10

The

aim of the interviews was to obtain a more in-depth understanding of the linguistic status of

‘D4’ English in today’s society. Three interviews were conducted with three participants

from different social groups in Ireland: one ‘D4’, one non-‘D4’ Dubliners and one person

who lived in the country (often referred to as a ‘culchie’). However, problems arose with

interviewing our ‘D4’ participant and unfortunately we were not able to obtain a ‘D4s’

perspective for our research. Another non-‘D4’ Dubliner was interviewed instead but in

contrast to the other non-‘D4’ Dubliner had quite a strong negative opinion towards ‘D4’

7 It was necessary that participants lived or were at least aware of the concept of ‘D4’ as it related to Irish society. If they did not, participants were kindly requested to not complete the survey. 8 Much of the information found in scholarly books and articles has been discussed in previous parts of this essay. 9 Thread on ‘D4’ English can be found at: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055661561 10 It should not be assumed that those who dress like a ‘D4’ speak ‘D4’ English and vice versa.

Page 9: Attitudes Towards 'D4' English

9

English. Each interview lasted approximately thirty minutes. Participants were asked about

their exposure to ‘D4’ English, theirs and other opinions towards it and its speakers, how it

came into being and possible reasons for its usage.11

Below is a table of the most salient

responses from the participants to the questions:

Interviewee:

Interviewer:

Non-‘D4’ Dub (1)

(Kesevan)

Non-‘D4’ Dub (2)

(Byrne)

‘Culchie’

(Garvey)

What areas is ‘D4’

English used – is it

only the southside?

“It’s not only the

area of D4 but it

spreads to many

places in Dublin,

through the people

you deal with”.

Dublin 4 is the

“mecca” of D4

speech.

Southside AND

Northside as well as

parts of Wicklow.

“Yeah you can notice

areas…..Blackrock

would be the most

evident. Dalkey

would be seen as

extremely snobby….”

Other areas:

“Sandyford,

Dundrum, Dun

Laoghaire…”

Attitudes towards

‘D4’ English?

“They give the

impression of being

sophisticated, so their

language also sounds

sophisticated and

false”.

“Materialistic as have

to fit in the group, can

identify from far only

by looking at their

appearance”

Found D4s more

irritating than hated

them – didn’t like

“acting stupid” (more

annoying than the

accent)

“accent is irritating,

made-up”

Is it the college or the

course that influences

the group you

associate with in

college?

“Certain courses in

university like …. are

popular for these

people because it

guarantees “big

salary””.

The course you

choose effects the

group you associate

with. ‘D4s’ tend to

do business courses –

maybe for money,

parents are in

business or they have

a genuine interest.

n/a

11 Full list of interview questions will be emailed in due course. Please not that these questions were used purely as a guide for the interviewer while conducting the interview.

Page 10: Attitudes Towards 'D4' English

10

Reasons for

arrival/usage?

Media - “TV series

influence to look like

a pop star also

speech”.

‘Celtic Tiger’ not

media - “no reason to

say media impacts on

Irish accents because

we’ve had American

television since the

1950s/60s”

‘Celtic Tiger’ (no

mention of media) -

“….due to the

greater wealth hittin’

the country, it got

stronger and

stronger from there

on in.”

There was an agreement among all interviewees regarding areas where ‘D4’ English is used -

that is not just a southside phenomenon but has spread to parts of the northside and even

Wicklow. There is agreement to some extent about attitudes towards ‘D4’ English – the non-

‘D4’ Dubliner (1) and the ‘culchie’ have quite strong negative opinions about it whereas the

non-‘D4’ Dubliner (2) does not dislike the accent but rather dislikes when ‘D4s’ act stupid as

this irritates her.12

It seems that in our Dublin interviewees’ opinions ‘D4s’ prefer college

courses that guarantees them wealth, for example, Business courses. However, the non-‘D4’

Dubliner (2) points out that they may choose these courses because their parents are in

business or they have a genuine interest in that area. It seemed that the reason for the

introduction of ‘D4’ English was either due to media influence or the ‘Celtic Tiger’ and

increase in the country’s wealth. In addition to the above results, the non-‘D4’ Dubliner (2)

was asked to explain what the ‘D4’ variety sounds like and she responded with “There’s no

‘t’s, everything’s ‘sh’ like roysh. There’s no ‘a’, everything’s an ‘o’ […] they use their lips

more […] it sounds plumy”. Even though the interviewee did not have the linguistic

vocabulary to explain how ‘D4’ English differs to other Dublin English varieties it is still

clear to understand what was meant – the alveolar voiceless stop [t] is produced as a slit

fricative [t ]. However, this is not necessarily a sound particular to the ‘D4’ variety as it is

common in many varieties of Irish English. Hickey’s claim for a vowel shift is supported as

the [ɒ] or [ɑ] raises to [ɔ] which can sound, as the interviewee stated, like an ‘o’. The

12 This comes from school experiences where girls from the ‘D4’ groups would be disruptive in class by asking “stupid questions”.

Page 11: Attitudes Towards 'D4' English

11

information obtained from the interviews was then used to inform and help with the

formation of a survey. The attitudes provided by our interviewees gave us an idea of

people’s attitudes towards ‘D4’ English in today’s society. The information they supplied to

us was used in order to form the questions of the survey to ensure they were relevant to our

participants. The survey was uploaded onto www.surevymonkey.com and had 185

participants.13

Participants were asked questions similar to those used for the interviews

except the format for their responses was multiple choice. Questions asked included

exposure to ‘D4’ English, personal attitudes and experiences, describing the variety, the

spread of ‘D4’ English and personal information (age group and location). The answers to

the multiple choice questions usually took the form of a grade scale from Strongly agree to

Strongly disagree. Participants also had the option to give further comments in a comment

box to some questions if they wished.14

Below are the responses to the questions with the

most salient results. Please note that the percentages for Strongly agree and Agree (agree)

will be combined as will Strongly disagree and Disagree (disagree) and Neither agree nor

disagree and Don’t know (unsure):

92% of participants were aware of ‘D4’ English and had heard it spoken. The areas

they associated with ‘D4’ English were mainly South Dublin (81%), the D4 area (69%),

outside Dublin (13%) and North Dublin (10%). This result clearly states that ‘D4’ English is

mainly associated with South Dublin. The participants have also noted that the variety does

exist in North Dublin and areas outside Dublin. The areas stated are consistent with those

provided by the interviewees.

11% agreed that they spoke ‘D4’ English and 82% disagreed to wanting to speak ‘D4’

English. 12% were unsure if they used ‘D4’ English but this may be due to people

13

This is the total number of participants however, not all participants completed the survey. The number of completed surveys is approximately 140. 14 Please see addition material for the results of the survey (to be emailed in due course).

Page 12: Attitudes Towards 'D4' English

12

completing this question who stated that they were unaware of what it was in question 1.

52% would be offended if someone told them that they spoke ‘D4’ English. The high

percentage of those who disagreed to wanting to speak ‘D4’ English combined with those

who would be offended if someone told them that they spoke ‘D4’ English correlates with the

attitudes found in the literature. This variety does not appear to be desirable by our

participants and authors of the Irish Independent.

73% said that they would not want their children to use ‘D4’ English but surprising

38% said that they would date someone that spoke ‘D4’ English. This is somewhat

hypocritical because if the 38% eventually married a person who spoke ‘D4’ English it would

be inevitable that their children would use features of ‘D4’ English. However, it would

appear that this would not sit well with 73% of participants.

Similarly to our interviewees, 73% agreed that certain colleges/universities are more

associated with ‘D4’ English and 84% agreed that certain courses are more associated with

‘D4’ English than others. The colleges stated were Trinity and UCD and courses were

mainly Business. Both colleges are on the southside of Dublin. Business courses were

deemed to provide the greatest opportunities for career and wealth. This is consistent with

the literature whereby ‘D4s’ are criticised for having wealthy lifestyles.

When given a list of adjective participants described ‘D4’ English as being: very –

posh, distinct and exaggerated; quite – fake, irritating, funny and easy to understand; not at

all – cool, desirable, pleasant, attractive or friendly. Much of the literature reviewed is

consistent with the views of our participants which described ‘D4’ English as “pretentious

and snobbish”.

Page 13: Attitudes Towards 'D4' English

13

The participants were asked to rank four varieties of Irish English in their preferred

order: 1st - own ‘accent’

15; 2

nd - ‘culchie’; joint 3

rd/4

th – Dublin Inner City and ‘D4’. This is

somewhat surprising as usually country varieties are seen as being of lower linguistic status

than those of the city. However, given the attitudes towards ‘D4’ English of the participants

in this survey it should not be a surprise that it has been ranked the lowest. The geographical

origin of participants would also be important to consider for the analysis.

67% agree that ‘D4’ English was used by its speakers to climb the social ladder and

an overwhelming 90% said that it was used its users to make them feel more important. 90%

associated it with the middle to upper-middle class and 76% said that it was used by its

speaker to distinguish them from other social groups. This is consistent with both Hickey and

Moore who state the ‘D4’ variety is a way for its users to “hive off” from other prominent

social groups in the capital.

62% disagreed that all things associated with ‘D4’ English were modern, chic and in

fashion – Hickey described ‘D4’ English as “fashionable” but clearly this is not the view of

our participants.

66% agreed with our interviewees that the ‘Celtic Tiger’ increased the number of

‘D4’ English speakers. 4% disagreed and 31% were not sure.

In contrast to the non-‘D4’ Dubliner (2) interviewee, 69% agreed that American

television has influenced the spread of ‘D4’ English. It is widely thought that American

television programmes, such as Friends, have had a strong influence on Irish English.

However, this is not the only American influence. The speech of the ‘valley girls’ of

California is considered to be the strongest influence on Irish English varieties, more

specifically the introduced of discourse like and be like. These discourse features are salient

characteristics of ‘D4’ English.

15 ‘Accent’ was used as a purely non-linguistic term for the participants as it was felt the terms ‘D4’ English and ‘D4’ variety would be too alienating.

Page 14: Attitudes Towards 'D4' English

14

89% disagreed that Irish radio and television presenters should speak ‘D4’ English.

This is perhaps due to the idea of perceived wealth associated with those who speak ‘D4’

English. The non-‘D4’ Dubliner (2) commented during her interview that due the economic

recession people no longer want to see wealthy people on the television. She concluded that

this is the reason why programmes such as Geordie Shore have become more popular in

recent year than The Hills.16

64% of participants were between the ages of 18-25 years – the majority of these were

female. The next largest age group were 26-35 year olds (23%), followed by the over 35

years group (13%).

The attitudes and opinions of the participants in the survey confirm those seen in the

articles from the Irish Independent and www.boards.ie (also stated in Moore, 2011: 51-55).

‘D4’ English appears to come under extremely harsh criticism from those who do not use it.

It would appear that these attitudes are based on biased and exaggerated stereotypes created

in the media, for example, RTE’s Republic of Telly sketch “Damo and Ivor”, which was cited

by non-‘D4’ Dubliner (2) during her interview. Similarly, exposure to ‘D4’ English appears

to be supported by the Paul Howard books about the fictional ‘D4’ character Ross O’ Carroll-

Kelly. However, these books are perhaps the only pieces of writing to portray ‘D4s’ in a

somewhat neutral light – he makes fun of their lifestyle whilst creating a character with

“enough glimpses of likeability to ensure he wouldn’t be entirely frowned upon” (Duffy,

200917

). In 2006, O’Hanlon suggested the idea of ‘reverse snobbery’ towards ‘D4s’. That is,

non-‘D4s’ who criticise ‘D4s’ for being ‘snobbish’ are infact themselves the ones who are

‘snobbish’. In describing an incident that occurred between a ‘D4’ and ‘Inner City Dubliner’

on the television programme The Apprentice, O’Hanlon suggested that the evident hostility of

16

Both are programmes on MTV. 17 Duffy, Grace, RO’C-King all over the world, The University Observer, October 2009, UCD. http://www.universityobserver.ie/2009/10/27/ro%E2%80%99c-king-all-over-the-world/

Page 15: Attitudes Towards 'D4' English

15

the ‘Inner City Dubliner’ towards the ‘D4’ was an example of ‘reverse snobbery’. She

constantly criticised her fellow contestant about her wealthy economic background. It would

seem that ‘reverse snobbery’ is rooted in a jealousy of sorts. However, many would not

admit to being jealous of ‘D4s’. If they did it would imply a desire to be aligned with them

and as we have seen from the results of the survey they would prefer to disassociate

themselves from all things ‘D4’.

To conclude, this essay has examined attitudes towards ‘D4’ English. The first

section of the essay dealt with previous studies conducted on ‘D4’ English. As discussed,

previous studies mainly focused on stating what the variety was, the areas associated with its

usage and how it came into being. We looked at Hickey’s vowel shift and his 2005 study on

Attitudes to Dublin English which used ‘D4’ English as one of the varieties for examination.

The next section of the essay dealt solely with attitudes towards ‘D4’ English. There was a

discussion of the portrayal of ‘D4’ English in the media, mainly by journalists from the Irish

Independent. The study undertaken by Byrne, Garvey and Kesevan in 2012 was then

discussed. This study probed the attitudes towards ‘D4’ English of the public in a way that

had never been done before. Their research consisted of reviewing the available literature on

the topic, conducting interviews and an online survey. The results from each stage of the

process were discussed in detail. The attitudes towards ‘D4’ English that were found from all

the research methods were fairly consistent – ‘D4’ English is viewed as a fake, unintelligent

and an intolerable variety of Dublin English. Many of the participants in the study had

extremely strong opinions towards it and would avoid its usage at all costs. With these

attitudes and opinions in mind and the comparison that has been made with upper-class

British English varieties, namely RP, it is important to remember Hickey’s point about

language varieties – that imitations often come under harsher scrutiny than the actual ‘true’

representation of those varieties.

Page 16: Attitudes Towards 'D4' English

16

Bibliography

Author unknown, “Did you snog? No, I scored, you muppet”, Irish Independent 8 Feb. 2006,

http://www.independent.ie/unsorted/features/did-you-snog-no-i-scored-you-muppet-

111911.html

Bielenberg, Kim, “JANEY MAC! IRISH-ENGLISH IS BANJAXED, SO IT IS...”, Irish

Independent 9 Feb. 2008, http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/janey-mac-

irishenglish-is-banjaxed-so-it-is-1285816.html

Byrne, M., Garvey, H., Kesevan, H., Attitudes towards ‘D4’ English, LING 40090:

Sociolinguistics, UCD, 18.04.2012 (PowerPoint Presentation)

Duffy, Grace, RO’C-King all over the world, The University Observer, UCD, October 2009.

http://www.universityobserver.ie/2009/10/27/ro%E2%80%99c-king-all-over-the-world/

Hickey, R., “The Dublin Vowel Shift and the historical perspective”, Advances in English

historical linguistics, Ed. Jacek Fisiak and Marcin Krygier, Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter,

1996.

Hickey, R., Dublin English: evolution and change, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing

Company, 2005

Moore, R., “The Unmentionable: Verbal taboo and the moral life of language - “If I Actually

Talked Like That, I’d Pull a Gun on Myself”: Accent, Avoidance, and Moral Panic in Irish

English”, Anthropological Quarterly, Vol. 84, No. 1, p. 41-64

O’Hanlon, Ellis, “Reality TV brings out the inverted snob in us”, Irish Independent 18 Oct.

2006, http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/reality-tv-brings-out--the-inverted-snob-in-

us-1917105.html

www.boards.ie discussion of ‘D4’ English:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055661561&page=4