A sociolinguistic study of accent use in Irish films

Abstract

This study examines the use of accent in thirteen Irish films from the last 25 years. It aims to investigate possible correlations between accent use (standard and non-standard Irish English) and the independent variables genre, gender and social status. It was expected that there would be systematic correlations between accent use and these variables, which can be interpreted in terms of language attitudes. More specifically, it was hypothesised that drama films, female characters and high-status characters would display more standard usage, and that dramedy films, male characters and low-status characters would display more non-standard usage. These expectations are based on findings from previous sociolinguistic studies. Although the results of the study do not confirm the expectations with regard to genre, the hypotheses concerning gender and social status are strongly supported.