London soap opera EastEnders is making Scots sound like Cockneys

Blackleaf

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 9, 2004
48,340
1,650
113
A new study has found that watching too much telly can change people's regional accents.

Experts have for the first time shown that ‘active and engaged television viewing’ does help to speed up a change in language.

The study looked at how watching the television soap EastEnders is altering certain features of the Scottish accent, so that many Scots are now starting to pronounce the the voiceless dental fricative - the "th" sound in words such as think and thank - as a "f" sound as Londoners do - fink and fank.


Experts have for the first time shown that 'active and engaged television viewing' does help to speed up a change in language.

Language experts at the University of Glasgow found two particular features of pronunciation typically associated with London English that were becoming increasingly apparent in the Glaswegian dialect among people who regularly watched the television soap opera.


'Our study shows that the programmes that we watch on television can help to accelerate changes in aspects of language which are also well below the level of conscious awareness,' said study leader Jane Stuart-Smith, professor of phonetics at the University of Glasgow,

In particular, this study was investigating why certain linguistic factors that are normally found within the Cockney dialect in London were gradually entering into Glaswegian.


The study looked at how watching the television soap EastEnders is altering certain features of the Scottish accent. In particular, it looked at why certain linguistic factors that are normally found within the Cockney dialect in London were gradually entering into Glaswegian


Although this trend was apparent in people who had contact with friends or family living in London, there was a stronger effect for people who had strong psychological engagement with characters in EastEnders

Although this trend was apparent in people who had contact with friends or family living in London, there was a stronger effect for people who had strong psychological engagement with characters in EastEnders.

For instance, people would replace the letters TH with an F in words such as think and tooth.

The results show significant correlations between using these features with strong emotional and psychological engagement by the viewers of this programme.

However, the study also concluded that simply being exposed to television is not sufficient to cause accent change; for someone’s speech to alter, they need to regularly watch the show and become emotionally engaged with the characters.

HOW WATCHING SOAPS CAN CHANGE THE WAY WE TALK

The study warned that Scottish viewers accents and dialect can be altered by watching Eastenders, but what words are particularly affected.

Scots would imitate London English spoken by the likes of EastEnders hard man Phil Mitchell by saying ‘f’ instead of ‘th’, while ‘l-vocalisation’ has also been adopted, in which the ‘l’ sound in certain words is dropped, as in London English.

For instance:

THING becomes 'FING'
THINK becomes 'FINK'
THANK becomes 'FANK'
PEOPLE becomes 'PEOPOW'
WALFORD becomes 'WOOWFORD'



Popular BBC soap opera EastEnders has been charting the lives of the people of the fictional London Borough of Walford in London's East End since 1985


 
Last edited: