Speaking two languages? It’s as easy as ‘peh’
Dialects use similar part of the brain
TO people from outside Dundee, the bakery order ‘twa pehs, a plehn bridie an’ an ingin in an’ a’* might be mistaken for a foreign language.
Now, research shows the brain treats the distinctive Dundonian brogue – and other regional dialects in Britain and abroad – in exactly the same way.
Researchers in the city and colleagues in Germany say that while people who speak the dialect may not be regarded generally as bilingual, cognitively there is little difference.
Researchers studied how quickly the brain can react when asked to switch between standard English and Dundonian.
Participants were given a list of English and Dundonian words which then appeared on a colour-coded screen at random.
Depending on the colour, they were asked to say that word in either English or Dundonian, such as ‘house’ if the image was green or the dialect alternative ‘hoose’ if it was blue.
Researchers measured the length of time it took between the image appearing on screen to the participant saying each word, thereby calculating how long each person took to switch between them.
The study, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, 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.
However, for those with one language stronger than the other, in this case English participants with little or no experience of Dundonian, the time was greater when reverting back to speaking English.
The same results emerged when the experiment was repeated at RWTH Aachen University in Germany, with people who use standard German and the regional Öcher Platt dialect.
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 with previous language research, the results of the study showed bidialectals displayed the same ‘switch cost’ pattern as bilinguals who have two equally strong languages.
They suggest different dialects are stored in the brain in similar ways as different languages.
Dr Kirk, who conducted the research as part of his PhD, said: ‘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.’
* This means: ‘Two pies, a plain bridie and an onion one as well.’
‘Cognitively not that different’