Brain Treats Dialect As Language

Summary: A new study reports the brain treats language and different dialects in the same way.

Source: Abertay University.

A distinctive Scots brogue is at the centre of new international research that shows the brain treats a dialect and a language in the same way.

Abertay University in Dundee, Scotland partnered with RWTH Aachen University, Germany, to study how quickly the brain can react when asked to switch between standard speech and regional dialects.

During research in Dundee, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, study participants were given a list of both English and Dundonian words which then appeared on a colour-coded screen in randomised order.

Depending on the colour, they were asked to say that word in either English or Dundonian – for example they would respond ‘house’ if the image was coloured green or ‘hoose’ if the image was blue.

Other words included in the survey were girl/lassie, armpit/oxter, heart/hert, sausages/sassages, ears/lugs, and children/bairns.

Abertay researchers measured the length of time that elapsed from an image appearing on screen to the participant saying each word, thereby calculating how long each person took to switch between dialects.

At RWTH, Matthieu Declerck and Andrea Philipp carried out the same experiment with people who use standard German and the regional Öcher Platt dialect.

Both studies found a ‘switch cost’ where it took participants longer to name pictures when they were asked to move from speaking one variety to another.

It was also discovered that this ‘switch cost’ remained the same for people comfortable with both English and Dundonian, regardless of which direction the switch went.

Image shows people talking.
Both studies found a ‘switch cost’ where it took participants longer to name pictures when they were asked to move from speaking one variety to another. NeuroscienceNews.com image is in the public domain.

However, for those with one language stronger than the other – in this case English participants with little or no previous experience of Dundonian – the ‘switch cost’ was greater when reverting back to speaking English.

Project leader Dr Neil Kirk of Abertay’s Division of Psychology said: “One explanation for this is that both varieties are always active, but in order to speak one of them, you need to suppress or inhibit the other variety.

“More cognitive effort is required to suppress a stronger variety and this creates a delay in being able to activate it again.”

When compared to previous language research, the results of the study showed bidialectals displayed the same ‘switch cost’ pattern as bilinguals who have two equally strong languages, suggesting that different dialects (or closely related language varieties) are stored in the brain in similar ways as different languages,

Dr Kirk, who conducted this research as part of his PhD, supervised by Vera Kempe and Ken-Scott Brown, added: “In most other studies our bidialectal participants would simply be considered “monolingual”, as language background questionnaires typically do not enquire about dialect usage. Yet the results of our study show that some monolinguals and bilinguals are cognitively not that different”.

About this neuroscience research article

Source: Abertay University
Publisher: Organized by NeuroscienceNews.com.
Image Source: NeuroscienceNews.com image is in the public domain.
Original Research: Full open access research for “Can monolinguals be like bilinguals? Evidence from dialect switching” by Neil W. Kirk, Vera Kempe, Kenneth C. Scott-Brown, Andrea Philipp, and Mathieu Declerck in Cognition. Published online October 9 2017 doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2017.10.001

Cite This NeuroscienceNews.com Article

[cbtabs][cbtab title=”MLA”]Abertay University “Brain Treats Dialect As Language.” NeuroscienceNews. NeuroscienceNews, 6 November 2017.
<https://neurosciencenews.com/dialect-language-7882/>.[/cbtab][cbtab title=”APA”]Abertay University (2017, November 6). Brain Treats Dialect As Language. NeuroscienceNews. Retrieved November 6, 2017 from https://neurosciencenews.com/dialect-language-7882/[/cbtab][cbtab title=”Chicago”]Abertay University “Brain Treats Dialect As Language.” https://neurosciencenews.com/dialect-language-7882/ (accessed November 6, 2017).[/cbtab][/cbtabs]


Abstract

Can monolinguals be like bilinguals? Evidence from dialect switching

Bilinguals rely on cognitive control mechanisms like selective activation and inhibition of lexical entries to prevent intrusions from the non-target language. We present cross-linguistic evidence that these mechanisms also operate in bidialectals. Thirty-two native German speakers who sometimes use the Öcher Platt dialect, and thirty-two native English speakers who sometimes use the Dundonian Scots dialect completed a dialect-switching task. Naming latencies were higher for switch than for non-switch trials, and lower for cognate compared to non-cognate nouns. Switch costs were symmetrical, regardless of whether participants actively used the dialect or not. In contrast, sixteen monodialectal English speakers, who performed the dialect-switching task after being trained on the Dundonian words, showed asymmetrical switch costs with longer latencies when switching back into Standard English. These results are reminiscent of findings for balanced vs. unbalanced bilinguals, and suggest that monolingual dialect speakers can recruit control mechanisms in similar ways as bilinguals.

“Can monolinguals be like bilinguals? Evidence from dialect switching” by Neil W. Kirk, Vera Kempe, Kenneth C. Scott-Brown, Andrea Philipp, and Mathieu Declerck in Cognition. Published online October 9 2017 doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2017.10.001

Feel free to share this Neuroscience News.
Join our Newsletter
I agree to have my personal information transferred to AWeber for Neuroscience Newsletter ( more information )
Sign up to receive our recent neuroscience headlines and summaries sent to your email once a day, totally free.
We hate spam and only use your email to contact you about newsletters. You can cancel your subscription any time.