Lili Chester - Dominant dialects in a multinational family

Dominant dialects in a multinational family

I come from a multinational family. My mother is Hungarian and my father is English. We have not lived together for any considerable time, though until the age of three, I was exposed to the English language by my father. As I see it, I have mastered English in school. I meet my English side of the family from all around England twice or three times a year for usually about a week. This has also improved my language skills, but I would still not say that I am a native English speaker.

I am interested in why I unconsciously imitate my sister’s English dialect above all the other family members’ dialect. I tend to imitate her tone, her pronunciation, and her gestures after thirty minutes of talking together. One of my assumptions is that she speaks a strong, easily recognisable dialect, because she is from Sheffield, so it is the easiest to hear her speech nuances. My other assumption is that our relationship is the strongest in the family or that we have spent the most time together when we all met on holidays. Another relevant factor might be that she is the only female family member that is a native English speaker, and as a woman myself, I connect more easily with her than with the men and boys of my family.

So the factors I would start to investigate are:

1.      Am I bilingual?

2.      How does the relationship of family members influence language learning?

3.      Can one dialect have dominance over other dialects?

Chambers, J. K., & Trudgill, P. (1980). Dialectology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Chambers and Trudgill explore, among other things, the sociolinguistic aspects of dialect. The stylistic and sex differentiation in pronunciation are interesting viewpoints in analysing individual accents within a multilingual family. The concept of different statuses in social networks, including the notion of prestige, can serve as a parallel to family hierarchy.

Though Chambers and Trudgill might not have provided clear-cut answers for my question, it strengthened my theory that the hierarchy of social relationships cannot be overlooked. According to this book, speech style might show differences between individuals. This, adding up with the fact that women tend to use different status variants in speech than men, can also explain why I am more open to learn my sister’s style and pronunciation. We also occupy fairly close positions in our social network compared to our other family members that might affect my learner strategies and willingness and motivation to learn from her and communicate with her.

De Groot, A. M. B., & Kroll, J. F. (Ed.). (1997). Tutorials in bilingualism. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

This is an important work on bilingualism that introduces to the reader the process of bilingual language learning from as early as childhood. The book describes the stages and factors of bilingual language learning by comparing it to second language acquisition, which provides the monolingual reader with a better understanding. The text observes the crucial aspects of language learning such as willingness and motivation to communicate, the critical period hypothesis, and learner strategies which all play a significant part in bilingual language learning.

Tutorials in bilingualism was indeed a tutorial in understanding the notion of bilingualism. My attempt to decide whether I am a bilingual language learner led me to the realisation that bilingualism is not an easily definable notion. It has several factors, such as the age a person is exposed to multiple languages, the way in which these languages are taught, the role of the environment, and the learner’s attitude towards languages and language learning. It is always important to take into consideration the number factors and how important a role they play in the process of language learning because there are no identical bilingual individuals that would learn the same way and would be exposed exactly to the same factors.

Why I am more influenced by my sister’s accent can be explained first of all with the fact that I was provided with a naturalistic environment for language learning, that is, my family. My willingness to communicate was triggered mostly by my sister, because she was the only girl I could talk with. However, the most fascinating aspect to look at was learner strategies. Since I learn about English language at university I am more prone to observe other people’s speech. My sister’s pronunciation is very good material to observe in this sense. Her speech nuances are the most perceivable in our family.

Herdina, P. (2002). A dynamic model of multilingualism. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Herdina determines bilingualism as a variant of multilingualism. He provides the reader with the idea that bilingualism is not necessarily a stable, inalienable skill. It can be characterised by gradual language loss and language maintenance.

Herdina’s book is important in my research because it explains the relationship a learner can have with languages. Even bilinguals might be unstable with one of their languages; in fact, it is more likely that one language has dominance over the other. Language loss and language maintenance are also relevant characteristics of bilingualism. This proves that language skills can be influenced at any point of the language acquisition.