Bristolian accent and dialect case study

• It is believed that the proud, identifying 'farmer-esc' Bristolian dialect is in fact being levelled despite the attempts of people such as Terry the odd job man to save and spread the dialect. He see's it as his duty to spread the dialect so people can understand and embrace it more. Despite his attempts majority public opinion is that the dialect is being levelled, this is shown through what's said in the Bristolian Linguistic diversity section of the full English website, Jessica Luce makes relevant comments with regards to the idea that the dialect is being diluted by students coming into Bristol and proudly expressing their own identity, despite this the accent itself is not being diluted.

stereotypes associated with the Bristolian accent are: 

• Farmer
• pirate
• uneducated
• predominantly male

There is much debate about how Bristolian words such as 'gert' (gurt) should be spelt, this is expressed through the beast clothing t-shirts which express the Bristolian dialect through their popular t-shirt brand.

A common stereo-type associated with the Bristolian dialect is that of Vicky Pollard, the 'Little Britain' character, the common Bristolian opinion of her character is one of annoyance due to the mild discrimination many Bristolian's get from outsiders. Because of the 'yeah...but...no...but' was decided against as a t- shirt idea for beast clothing

Analysis of Letters

The two letters, despite having the same intention, are written in ways which contrast greatly.

The converging letter is writen in a more conservative tone, as shown by introducing the letter with 'regret to inform'. This is a way of non-directly saying that something bad has occured and preventing the use of a face-threatening act. The diverging letter, however, starts with 'I am extremely pissed off...'. This is a very direct, taboo introductory sentence and will most certainly come across as a face threatening act. 

The converging letter is an example of the influential power that teachers have over the parents of there students. This is shown through the tone created by the language used by the teacher, the way the text is written in preverbial 'peaks and troughs' displaying a negative being covered up by a positive. This is shown through 'a shame consindering his incredible achievments prior to the academic year'. this is a way implementing power in a more influential respectable way.

Again, this is contrasted by by the the continual negativity shown in the diverging letter, in this text the teacher is trying to implement instrumental power which is a more forceful way of gaining respect and is used a lot less freguently and virtually never in this context.