De Attitudes Van Het Britten Tegenover Sprekers Van Nederlands-Engels

This paper reports on a between subject experiment inwhich the attitudes of 144 highly educated British professionals towards Dutch-accented English and RP were measured. Half of the respondents were familiar with Dutch English, and half unfamiliar. The test items consisted of samples of RP, moderately Dutch-English and lightly Dutch-English accents. Respondents were asked to rate one of the samples on a number of personality traits. An analysis of these traits rates showed a resolution into two factors: STATUS and AFFECT. RP speakers were assigned more Status than both Dutch accents. RP speakers and slightly accented Dutch-English speakers commanded more Affect than moderately accented Dutch English speakers. In addition, respondents unfamiliar with Dutch English had a more positive attitude towards speakers with a moderate Dutch English accent than respondents familiar with Dutch English and the latter assigned a lower affect to RP speakers than the former.