Introduction
An area of fascination for me has been the representation of accent and dialect in soap operas. Soap operas have been a fundamental part of TV viewing in Britain since the creation of the highly popular ITV show, Coronation Street, which launched in 1961; 50 years ago. An area of particular interest is the distinction between Coronation Street and the dialect and accent of those actually from the Greater Manchester region; I aim to investigate this distinction.
According to BBC producer Olive Shapley, who had worked with Tony Warren (producer of Coronation Street) on Children's Hour, the idea for Coronation Street came to him late one night in 1959 while they were returning to Manchester by train. Regional figures are sometimes subjected to ridicule by the London based media but as Coronation Street is a programme made in Manchester I am expecting to find that their representation is a true and accurate one.
Mancunian is a dialect, and the name given to the people of Manchester, England, and some of the surrounding areas within Greater Manchester. The dialect is divergent from other Northern dialects. Similar to modern speech in England, Manchester was known for glottal reinforcement in the consonants.
Sociolect is a language spoken by one particular social group. Speakers are instantaneously associated with a variety of different groups that include location, gender, age, and ethnicity, and some of these other factors may play a role in the language variation.
Dialect is ‘the particular combination of English words, pronunciations and grammatical forms that you share with other people from your area and your social background’. It is common sense that the English in Manchester is going to differentiate from the English in London; therefore geographical location plays a massive role in the changes of dialect.
Methodology
In order to begin proving my hypothesis I completed key research tasks to establish the key features by which I could differentiate Coronation Street and the dialect and accent of those actually from the Greater Manchester region.
As my knowledge on Coronation Street was basic, I researched the background history of Coronation Street and its characters. This helped me gain an awareness of Coronation Street and gave me an insight into the Mancunian dialect.
After gaining sufficient knowledge on Coronation Street and the Mancunian dialect I went out to Manchester to collect data for my investigation. I recorded a typical conversation of people who lived in the Greater Manchester region.
After recording a real Manchester conversation, I chose a random episode of Coronation Street, which would then be transcribed and analysed for comparison with the original dialect. This is to assess whether the Mancunian Dialect portrayed in Coronation Street is correct or not.
During the research process, I contacted Dr Clive Grey, a Professor of Linguists from Edgehill University. He is one of many linguists who have investigated the use of accents and dialect in soap operas. He provided me with investigations completed by students, as well as names of major linguists such as Peter Trudgill, Dr Clive Upton and John C. Wells. An investigation carried out by John C. Wells suggested that ‘influences from Ireland have now come into place with the Mancunian dialect; it includes the pronunciation of the letter 'h' as 'haitch' and the plural of 'you' as 'youse'.
This table shows the features I am looking for when transcribing the recording of the conversation, and a short clip of an episode from Coronation Street; I will then be able to analyse whether the ‘Mancunian’ dialect used in Coronation Street is accurately portrayed.
Spoken Language Grammar Literary & Rhetorical Devices
• Utterance
• False Start
• Fillers
• Pause
• Adjacency Pair
• Overlapping
• Interruptions
• Accent
• Dialect
• Slang
• Politeness Strategy
• Hedge
• Back Channeling
• Syntax
• Non-Standard Form
• Elision
• Deictic Marker
• Degree Modifiers
• Double negation
• Repetition
• Rhetorical Question
• Assimilation
• Use of a /z/ sound for an /s/ as in ‘bus’ /bʊz/
• Consonant Dropping – ‘H’ Dropping
• Innuendo
• Double Entendre
Analysis
When transcribing the recording and the short clip; there were numerous notable elements. I found that the Coronation Street version of the Mancunian dialect is in stark contradiction of the sample frame of the original Mancunian dialect which I collected. I found this to be a recurring feature towards my hypothesis during analysis and comparison.
The pie chart shows that there are over double differences than similarities. This implies that there is a massive distinction as to whether the Coronation Street dialect is correct to its explicit extent. There are numerous possible explanations that may challenge the statement; ‘Coronation Street uses the Mancunian Dialect’
Firstly, the Coronation Street transcript is a fixed script where the characters have to learn the lines to act them out. This leaves the implication that there are less likely to be fillers and false starts. However, this is disproved through the usage of them in the transcript. Similarly, in the unplanned speech of the original Mancunian dialect there are examples of fillers such as ‘erm’.
While transcribing the original Mancunian conversation, I found that there was a vast usage of non standard terms; a major example would be ‘man’. I found this to be a common term in dialects around England and not just the Mancunian dialect, something Coronation Street haven’t picked up on. A reason for this could be because the soap opera consists of ‘older’ characters that may be less likely to use the term ‘man’.
Another non-standard term I found to be of significance in the original Mancunian dialect was ‘anyways’. This is a strongly used almost as a ‘pluralised adverb’. I found that ‘anyways’ is used a significant amount of times in many areas of Manchester, especially City Centre areas and the Salford areas where Coronation Street is based. It is a colloquial feature in the dialect, another element that Coronation Street has not picked up on.
Assimilation is a common feature that appears in both recordings, an example of this could be; ‘wasapnin’ or ‘wanna’. These are influenced highly along the dialect suggesting a link between the Mancunian dialect and Coronation Street.
In addition, innuendo is a factor that is of resemblance between the two transcripts. Innuendo means using phrases that have double meaning; for example, ‘what else you offerin’, or ‘just for a catch up you get me’. These phrases could have double meaning depending on the context, which in this case is ‘dating’. This leaves us with the implication that Coronation Street utilises the Mancunian dialect to some extent.
It seems that the common stereotype, women talk more than men when in mixed sex groups is proved in the Coronation Street recording; as Tina speaks much more than Tommy. Furthermore, in the original Mancunian recording there is evidence to suggest that men interrupt more than women. Alternatively, adjacency pair rules are followed when it is a mixed sex group conversation; this is proved in the Coronation Street transcript. Additionally, women give more back channel support; this is feedback which shows the speaker they are being listened to, giving the speaker a confidence boost to continue speaking.
The dominance rationalisation suggests that differences in the conversations of the sexes occur because women have less power than men and speech reflects these differences. However, this theory is disproved in the Coronation Street transcript as Tina upholds the power against Tommy, as she told him where to meet and at what time, the power is suggested through the intonation of her voice. However, this is also contradicted when Steve McDonald, the Pub manager, upholds his status over Tina. The status could be one of two things, her manager or being a dominant male.
Similar differences are found in the use of grammatical forms. For example, in Mancunian English, men are more likely to use multiple negations than women; an example of this in the original Mancunian transcript is ‘I don’t want none’. There are no signs of this instance used by Tina or Stella in Coronation Street proving the view that women don’t use double negatives.
Studies of Mancunian English through the transcript have found that in all social groups men are more likely to use terms that elide for example ‘sayin’. However, this is largely challenged in the Coronation Street transcript as the female in the conversation, Tina McIntyre, uses terms such as ‘anythin’ as well, suggesting that women have begun to use elided forms in conversation more often.
When conducting my research I also established that Coronation Street has been majorly contradicted in accordance with its characters attempt to execute the Mancunian dialect. Coronation Street character ‘Stella Price’ has been contradicted particularly on her attempts to master the Mancunian dialect. She was originally born in East London; therefore she is more likely to consist of features of the Cockney accent. This may leave the implication that Coronation Street doesn’t use the Mancunian dialect to its explicit extent, instead ‘touching the borderline’. However, characters such as Tina McIntyre herself have a strong Mancunian accent implying that Coronation Street does exploit the Mancunian dialect in its own right.
Conclusion
After weighing up my analysis I came to the conclusion that the approach to the Mancunian dialect used by Coronation Street is not exploited to its fullest extent. This is because the characteristics present in a Mancunian dialect are not fully expressed through the characters of Coronation Street, especially Stella Price, an East London born lady. However, the analysis also showed that some aspects of the Mancunian dialect are proved to be present in Coronation Street’s approach to it, for example, the use assimilation; it is a similarity between the two samples of data that had been collected. It is clear that Coronation Street attempts to use the Mancunian dialect in its episodes, which may be due to the geographical location of where it is set; a fictional town based in Manchester, ‘Weatherfield’. However, there was no definite answer as to how much they use the Mancunian dialect in Coronation Street.
The reliability of this investigation could have increased in the sense that the Coronation street episodes could have been considered with additional characters that had ranged dialects. This would have ensured that they have only imitated what is known as the basics of the Mancunian dialect. This would then create certainty that Coronation Street doesn’t use the features of the Mancunian dialect to its fullest extent.
To expand the validity of this investigation, I could have completed further research tasks; into the history of the Mancunian dialect and Mancunian became a dialect. This would have supported me into deciding whether the dialect being used by ‘Tina McIntyre’ is a true representation of Mancunian or not.
A study could have been carried out on the main characters of Coronation Street; the way they speak, what dialects are being used and how they differ from the Mancunian dialect which is supposed to be being portrayed. This could then be compared to the investigation to see if Coronation Street does actually use the Mancunian dialect and would give a further insight on who has the strongest Mancunian accent and who has the weakest.
