Manchester Voices: A community-oriented project on language use, language attitudes, and regional and social identities

大曼彻斯特（GM）远非一个历史上统一的整体，而是由十个行政区组成，每个行政区都有自己独特的特点。曼彻斯特之声项目调查了城市地区的人们在当地、地区和国家定位自己的方式，以及语言在制定社会和地区身份中的作用。该项目在结构上围绕三个核心部分组织：语言使用、语言态度以及地区和社会身份。它解决了一些有关的学术和非学术处理的区域和社会语言品种在英国的问题，以及这些语言品种在身份建设的作用：1。缺乏对全球机制区域差异的详细语言描述。以前的研究往往认为“曼彻斯特英语”是一个单一的实体，或集中在特定领域的通用语言，从而没有承认广泛的语言差异存在。该项目提供了该地区十个行政区语言使用的丰富和全面的描述，从而确保了对语言发展和变化的区域多样性的准确当代记录。社会和制度对地方口音和方言的漠视。“区域”语言变体通常被认为是负面的，说话者被污名化。该项目通过促进和庆祝通用汽车的语言和文化遗产来探索和挑战这些观念，从而促进我们对继续塑造该地区语言，地方和人民的社会，文化和历史因素的理解。缺乏对作为语言和身份之间关系中介因素的态度的关注。通过探索人们对自己的语言和他人的语言的感受，该项目试图揭示关于地区口音和方言的地位和价值的根深蒂固和广泛持有的信念。这种态度数据将有助于挑战对区域口音和方言的看法，并促进语言平等和多样性，作为培养社会和区域自豪感的一种手段。缺乏对现有的文化，历史和文学资源的社会语言学的洞察力与区域身份。通用汽车，像英国各地的许多地区，有丰富的资源与过去和现在的社会，其中大部分是由曼彻斯特图书馆收集。然而，尽管语言是现有资源的核心，但从社会语言学角度探讨这一材料的程度却很低。通过与图书馆员、诗人、文学专家和文化历史学家合作，该项目将更全面地了解语言背景，有助于更全面地了解GM的历史和文学景观。缺乏社区参与社会语言学研究的机会。社会语言学数据往往是在中立地点和正式场合预先安排的会议上收集的。为了解决这个问题，我们将以移动的采访亭的形式将我们的研究带入社区，使我们能够接触到那些可能不知道或不愿意参与该项目的群体。除了大多数人之外，我们还将寻求特定群体的声音，例如年轻人和通用汽车的多语言/多文化社区。主要的口语数据将由Accent货车收集，该货车将在通用汽车的十个行政区旅行，收集该地区人们的演讲和见解。此外，创意诗歌和历史研讨会将收集更多的数据，并围绕区域身份探索主题。方言地图将在网上收集，态度测试将在网上和大学进行。最后，作为Save Our Sounds项目的一部分，现有的音频记录将与我们的数据一起存放在曼彻斯特中央图书馆的Voices资源区。

Greater Manchester (GM), far from being a historically unified whole, is made up of ten boroughs, each with its own unique character. The Manchester Voices project investigates the ways in which people in the city-region position themselves locally, regionally and nationally, and the role of language in enacting social and regional identities.The project is structurally organised around three core strands: language use, language attitudes, and regional and social identities. It addresses a number of issues relating to the academic and non-academic treatment of regional and social varieties of language in the UK, and the role of such language varieties in the construction of identity:1. Lack of detailed linguistic descriptions of regional variation across GM. Previous research has tended to view 'Manchester English' as a monolithic entity or has focused on specific areas within GM, thus not acknowledging the wide linguistic variation that exists. This project provides a rich and full description of language use across the region's ten boroughs, thus ensuring an accurate contemporary record of developing and changing regional varieties of language.2. Societal and institutional disregard for regional accents and dialects. 'Regional' language varieties are often perceived in a negative way, with speakers being stigmatised. This project explores and challenges those perceptions by promoting and celebrating the linguistic and cultural heritage of GM, thereby advancing our understanding of the social, cultural, and historical factors that continue to shape the language, places, and people of the region.3. Lack of attention to attitudes as factors mediating the relationship between language and identity. By exploring people's feelings towards their own speech and towards that of others, the project seeks to uncover deeply embedded and widely held beliefs regarding the status and value of regional accents and dialects. This attitudinal data will serve to challenge perceptions of regional accents and dialects and to promote linguistic equality and diversity as a means of nurturing a sense of social and regional pride.4. Lack of sociolinguistic insight into existing cultural, historical, and literary resources relating to regional identity.GM, like many regions across the UK, has a wealth of resources relating to past and present society, much of which is collected by Manchester Libraries. However, the extent to which this material has been explored from a sociolinguistic perspective is minimal, despite language being at the heart of the available resources. By partnering with librarians, poets, literary specialists and cultural historians, the project will reach a fuller understanding of the linguistic context, contributing to a fuller understanding of the historical and literary landscape of GM.5. Lack of community access and engagement in sociolinguistic research.Sociolinguistic data tends to be collected during pre-arranged meetings in neutral locations and formal contexts. To counter this, we will take our research into the community in the form of a mobile interview booth, allowing us to access groups who might otherwise be unaware of, or unwilling to be involved in, the project. In addition to majority populations, we will seek the voices of specific groups, such as young people and GM's multilingual/multicultural communities.The primary spoken data will be collected in the Accent Van, which will travel the ten boroughs of GM gathering speech and insights from people across the region. In addition, creative poetry and history workshops will gather further data and explore themes around regional identities. Dialect maps will be collected online, and attitude tests will take place online and at the University. Finally, existing audio recordings being digitised as part of the Save Our Sounds project will be housed with our data in a Voices resource area at Manchester Central Library.