Components of Evaluative Reactions to Varieties of Irish Accents

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Abstract
The effects of rater's accent and amount of linguistic experience on semantic differential ratings of samples of three varieties of Irish accent, Standard, Rural and Dublin, were explored. Principal components analysis revealed two major components. The first, labelled Prestige, accounted for 43.5% of the variance, while the second, labelled Solidarity, accounted for a further 21.4% of the variance. The analysis of variance showed no significant experience effect or accent loyalty effect. For both Prestige and Solidarity scales the differences between the mean scores given to the speech varieties were statistically significant. The differences between the mean scores given to individual tapes within speech varieties and between those given by individual subjects within accent/experience groups were also highly significant statistically. For Solidarity the results suggest an interaction between the effects of the individual subjects and the accent varieties. The dimensionality of the results is discussed in relation to the findings of Edwards (1979), Williams (1970), Gallois and Callan (1981), Carranza and Ryan (1975) and Brennan and Brennan (1981).

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