Sam Hellmuth

Sam Hellmuth

I am a Professor of Linguistics at the University of York. I teach phonetics and phonology, and my research explores variation in intonation patterns across English dialects (among other things!).

Location UK

Activity

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Holly Jade Fleming
    End of course round-up

    Hi @HollyJadeFleming - sorry I missed your question about this practical issue. You can use your MOOC participation without paying to take the quizzes; information is here: https://www.york.ac.uk/language/undergraduate/offers/

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Raquel Reis
    End of course round-up

    Thanks @RaquelReis !

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Tamara Rudenko
    End of course round-up
  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Zainab Younes
    End of course round-up

    Thanks for these suggestions @ZainabYounes - we're really glad the course has been useful. Good luck with our ongoing studies!

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Ashleigh Grant
    End of course round-up
  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Lucy Frear
    End of course round-up

    Thanks @LucyFrear !!

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Emily Wainwright
    End of course round-up
  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Margaret stewart
    End of course round-up

    PS @Margaretstewart We would love to use your comment to promote the course in future (e.g. on our website or on social media) and as part of our evidence that the course has been effective (e.g. in reports and talks). We won't use your name, only the text of your comment. May we have your permission to do this? Thanks, Sam

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Ashleigh Grant
    End of course round-up

    PS @AshleighGrant
    We would love to use your comment to promote the course in future (e.g. on our website or on social media) and as part of our evidence that the course has been useful (e.g. in reports and talks about course use). We won't use your name, only the text of your comment. May we have your permission to do this? Thanks, Sam

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Ashleigh Grant
    End of course round-up

    Hi @AshleighGrant - that's good to hear. We're glad the course has been useful for your studies as well as 'in real life'. It will be great if you can follow up with us next year!

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Laura Bunnett
    End of course round-up

    Hi @LauraBunnett - we're glad it has been useful! Good luck with your ongoing and future studies.

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Margaret stewart
    End of course round-up

    Hi @Margaretstewart - thanks for this thoughtful comment. There is a lot of hidden bias that we can be unaware of - we're glad that the course is making a contribution to bringing this into the open, in the area of language at least.

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Richard Y
    End of course round-up

    Thanks @RichardY - we're really glad it has been useful. Good luck with your studies!

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Raquel Reis
    End of course round-up

    Hi @RaquelReis, thanks for your comment on our course!

    We would love to use your comment to promote the course in future (e.g. on our website or on social media) and as part of our evidence that the course has been useful (e.g. in reports and talks about course use). We won't use your name, only the text of your comment.

    May we have your permission to...

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Tamara Rudenko
    End of course round-up

    Hi @TamaraRudenko, thanks again for your comment on our course!

    We would love to use your comment to promote the course in future (e.g. on our website or on social media) and as part of our evidence that the course has been useful (e.g. in reports and talks about course use). We won't use your name, only the text of your comment.

    May we have your...

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Emily Wainwright
    End of course round-up

    Hi @EmilyWainwright, thanks again for your comment on our course!

    We would love to use your comment to promote the course in future (e.g. on our website or on social media) and as part of our evidence that the course has been useful (e.g. in reports and talks about course use). We won't use your name, only the text of your comment.

    May we have your...

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Holly C
    End of course round-up

    Hi @HollyC, thanks again for your comment on our course!

    We would love to use your comment to promote the course in future (e.g. on our website or on social media) and as part of our evidence that the course has been useful (e.g. in reports and talks about course use). We won't use your name, only the text of your comment.

    May we have your permission...

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Harry Holman
    End of course round-up

    Hi @HarryHolman, thanks again for your comment on our course!

    We would love to use your comment to promote the course in future (e.g. on our website or on social media) and as part of our evidence that the course has been useful (e.g. in reports and talks about course use). We won't use your name, only the text of your comment.

    May we have your...

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Lucy Frear
    End of course round-up

    Hi @LucyFrear, thanks again for your comment on our course!

    We would love to use your comment to promote the course in future (e.g. on our website or on social media) and as part of our evidence that the course has been useful (e.g. in reports and talks about course use). We won't use your name, only the text of your comment.

    May we have your...

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Emma Fowler
    End of course round-up

    Hi @EmmaFowler, thanks for your comment on our course!

    We would love to use your comment to promote the course in future (e.g. on our website or on social media) and as part of our evidence that the course has been useful (e.g. in reports and talks about course use). We won't use your name, only the text of your comment.

    May we have your permission to...

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Rhonda C
    End of course round-up

    Hi @VerityIrvine thanks for that suggestion. We'll pull together a bibliography and add to the course for next time. If you'd like a copy in the meantime drop us an email on englishlanguagetoolkit@york.ac.uk.

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Angela Brown
    End of course round-up

    Hi @AngelaBrown that's really good to hear. If we can follow up on anything please do get in touch! You can reach us on englishlanguagetoolkit@york.ac.uk. We'd love to hear how you use the case studies etc in future.

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Sandra Atkinson
    End of course round-up

    Thanks for your thoughtful comments @SandraAtkinson - we've really appreciated the quality (and liveliness!) of debate and discussion among course participants. Thanks for your contribution to that!

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Holly C
    End of course round-up

    Hi @HollyC - fantastic! We hoped that the course would indeed inspired more folks to think of studying linguistics. Get in touch with us at englishlanguagetoolkit@york.ac.uk if you have any specific questions we can help with.

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Josiane Boutonnet
    End of course round-up

    Thanks for this suggestion @JosianeBoutonnet - we've had such a positive response that we're definitely planning to run the course again in future, and we'll review what worked best and what can be improved!

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Harry Holman
    End of course round-up

    Hi @HarryHolman - we're glad you want to study language more in future! Mission accomplished :)

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Lucy Frear
    End of course round-up

    Hi @LucyFrear - it's great to hear how much you've enjoyed the course. Yes please do get in touch with us and we'll be glad to answer any specific questions you have. A good email address to use would be englishlanguagetoolkit@york.ac.uk and we can then forward it to the tutor who can best answer your particular question! We're also all very easy to find on...

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Aljawharah Ibrahim Alzamil
    Summary of possible findings

    Good spot @AljawharahIbrahimAlzamil and @TamaraRudenko - this was a typo, and I've corrected it now in the table!

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to William Doyle
    Performing identity

    Yes thanks @WilliamDoyle and @ShuliB for this discussion. That 'Speak American' poster is a great example of language attitudes. It relates also to language policy. I think we as linguists would argue that one reason it is important to be able to objectively measure and articulate language attitudes is to ensure that language policy isn't based solely on...

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Jim Hill
    How do you think accent variation and attitudes to language will change in the future?

    Thanks for this link @JimHill!

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Leila W
    How do you think accent variation and attitudes to language will change in the future?

    These are great points @LeilaW - there will always be lexical innovation (new words) as language is constantly changing!

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Gillian Watson
    What is a language attitude?

    Spot on @GillianWatson - it's all about perception, and categorisation. You'll hear in week 2 about methods sociolinguists use to measure these perceptions and categorisations, to see how much they are shared within a speech community.

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Holly C
    What is a language attitude?

    Great point @HollyC - yes it's about connotations (or 'associations' as we'll see next week) - and they vary from person to person.

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Annie Schwartz
    What is a language attitude?

    Great example @AnnieSchwartz - we'll be looking at exactly this example of different variants of 't' in week 2, so stay tuned!

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Clare Carr
    What is a language attitude?

    Hi @ClareCarr - yes, that's on the right track, as you'll see in the next steps. Sociolinguists are interested in the associations between accents and attitudes, and between accents and identity.

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to William Doyle
    What kind of accent do these speakers have?

    We'll learn about accommodation - which is the technical term for "purposefully (if unwittingly) aligning their accents" - in week 3; and in week 2 we'll see some of the methods we use in sociolinguistics to try to measure both 'witting' and 'unwitting' variation. Do stay tuned for the whole course!!

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to shazia Gulzar
    What kind of accent do these speakers have?

    Great point @shaziaGulzar - our relationship with the person we're talking to can influence how we speak. @clairechilds has a great paper on this https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0378216618304624

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Benjamin Conway
    Well, hello!

    Hi Benjamin - welcome to the course! We hope it gives you lots of food for thought to reflect on in your UCAS personal statement!

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Hoi Yat Pun
    What kind of accent do these speakers have?

    @HoiYatPun good point! Yes, education and other factors such size of social network, or degree of mobility, can be important predictors of variation (as well as things like age, gender and social class). Next week we'll see that we have to take the language structure into account as well when we measure variation!

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Richard Y
    Well, hello!

    Welcome Richard, we hope you enjoy the course.

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Laura De Hondt
    Well, hello!

    Hi Laura, welcome - and let us know if your students have any questions!

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Dawn Sarro
    Well, hello!

    How you enjoy the course Dawn!

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Naomi Black
    Well, hello!

    Hi Naomi and welcome. You'll see some examples in the course from research on accent and identity across the Scottish-English border!

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Izzy Williams
    Well, hello!

    Hi Izzy, welcome to the course!

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Matthew Myles
    Well, hello!

    Welcome to you both! Let us know if your groups have any questions!

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Miriam Catherina
    Well, hello!

    Hi Miriam, thanks for sharing your experience. It is interesting that someone would assume it is a 'good thing' to lose your accent. This is a great (if sad) example of the power of the 'standard'.

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Joan Linley
    Well, hello!

    Hi Joan, that sounds like a really interesting research project. It would be fascinating to analyse those interactions from a sociolinguistic perspective. In week 2 we'll learn the basic techniques used in such an analysis.

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Anna G
    Well, hello!

    Hi Anna, thanks for sharing your personal experience. We'll touch on the idea of 'accent reduction' in week 4.

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Harriet Rogers
    Well, hello!

    Hi Harriet, we hope you find the course enjoyable as well as useful!

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Holly Scott
    What is a language attitude?

    Good point Holly. In week 2 we will look at methods used to measure to what extent all the members of a community (who represent 'society' in your answer?) all share the same perceptions of particular linguistic features, such as how certain sounds are pronounced.

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Joan Linley
    Attitudes, prestige and ideology

    That's a revealing quote, Joan, and true that we are always performing some identity or other in all our linguistic interactions.

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Raquel Carballeira
    Attitudes, prestige and ideology

    Thanks Raquel, this is fascinating.

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Jacky Glancey
    Introductions

    Welcome to the course Jacky, we'll be interested to know how it relates to the content of English Language A level.

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Holly Taylor
    Well, hello!

    Hi Aysha and welcome on board - yes, we should have an interesting few weeks together!

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Daniel Anton Pacheco
    What kind of accent do these speakers have?

    Yes, 'mom' [mɒm] ('rhymes with 'pot') in Brum and 'mam' [mæm] (rhymes with 'ham') in Newcastle - though both of these are probably a case of lexical variation (i.e. it's a property of the word, which is just different in Brum or Newcastle; it's not because people in Brum don't have the same vowel). If we compare for the word 'bus', you get [bʌs] in the South...

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Raquel Reis
    Week 1 round-up

    Thanks for the feedback @RaquelReis - see you next week!

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Richárd István Zádori
    What attitudes do you think other people might have to your accent?

    Thanks @SallyChapman and @RichárdIstvánZádori - these are really important points. I hope that you can use some of the information in this course @RichárdIstvánZádori to help your students understand why they feel 'Standard English' is what they want to learn.

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Nandini Bhattacharya
    What attitudes do you think other people might have to your accent?

    This is a great thread; if you look back at the discussion in Step 1.8 (about which accents Abbie and Catherine in the Step 1.7 recording have) you'll see that people from the UK found it easier to distinguish the two accents than people from outside the UK did. Our perception of accents is tied to our own language experience.

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to stephen marshall
    What attitudes do you think other people might have to your accent?

    These are good points @stephenmarshall - we'll see next week that when we investigate attitudes to language we have to find a way to 'control for' a range of different factors, such as the individual voice quality of a speaker, and the context in which they are speaking.

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Tabitha Hay
    What kind of accent do these speakers have?

    Great point @TabithaHay - we are all constantly adjusting for context in the way we speak.

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Peter Caughey
    What kind of accent do these speakers have?

    Hi @PeterCaughey - definitely not Pip I'm afraid! But Pip Archer (who is a character in BBC Radio 4 series 'The Archers') also has a 'not very strong regional accent', I agree.

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Hoi Yat Pun
    What kind of accent do these speakers have?

    Yes, that's a similar point to the one Milashni made - this is a great example of how our perception of accents depends on which accents we've been exposed to. I probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference between accents spoken in e.g. different parts of Hong Kong.

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Milashni R
    What kind of accent do these speakers have?

    Yes, it's much harder to distinguish small differences in local accents if we're not from the same place. I'm from the UK and I know I can't tell all of the local regional US accents apart. As a trained linguist I would probably spot a difference (e.g. in their vowel or consonant sounds) but I wouldn't know where they were from!

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Daniel Anton Pacheco
    What kind of accent do these speakers have?

    Good to spot the choice of vowel in the word <mum> @DanielAntonPacheco , which would be [mʌm] in the South (of the UK) but [mʊm] in the North (rhymes with 'foot'). This is one of the most salient North-South accent differences in the UK.

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Cassandra P
    Well, hello!

    Welcome @LesAllen and @CassandraP - we hope the course gives you lots of insights into how accents and identity are intertwined.

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Milashni R
    Well, hello!

    Hi Milashni, this is a great point - the accent and dialect variation in the UK is amazingly rich for such a small island! Later in the course we'll look at differences across the Scottish-English border, in particular.

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to ALISON WOOLCOCK
    Well, hello!

    Welcome Alison - the course content should be very useful for Language Change, Diversity and Discourses - let us know how you get on as the course proceeds!

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Jenni Howard
    Well, hello!

    Thanks Jenni - that's a very important issue. We'll be covering this in week 4, after we've set out the key concepts and methods that need to be used if we are to investigate things objectively. We hope you enjoy the course.

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to elaine dale
    Well, hello!

    Hi @elainedale and @SallyChapman - what a wonderful example of how small geographical distances can be reflected in apparently small accent differences, which are nevertheless quickly picked up on by members of different communities. The course should give you a handle on how and why some differences are more noticeable than others!

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Sally Chapman
    Well, hello!

    It definitely won't be demoralising - and great to have a fellow Yorkshire accent holder on board! Let us know what you think as the course proceeds.

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Peter Caughey
    Well, hello!

    Hi Peter, thanks for highlighting this from your perspective - even small changes in attitudes to accents can have big consequences. I hope that you'll find it revealing to see the type of methods used in sociolinguistics in an effort to accurately understand what's really going on.

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Tabitha Hay
    Well, hello!

    Hi Tabitha and welcome to the course! We hope you find it useful revision/review, and that it also gives you lots of things to include in your UCAS application.

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to S Mc
    Well, hello!

    Those are both great quotes S!

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Holly C
    Well, hello!

    Welcome Holly - the course should give you a good idea of what linguistics is about. We'll be showing you some of the methods and concepts that sociolinguists use to understand and investigate accents, attitudes and identity. The process of breaking a complex pattern of language use into it's component concepts is part of every area of linguistics, so this...

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Karen Lamb
    Well, hello!

    Hi Karen, fantastic! We've heard of at least one college who are running a 'MOOC club' for students to compare notes in person while they work through the course - let us know if that's something you decide to try also. We hope you find the course useful.

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Casey Holt
    Well, hello!

    Great! We've designed this course with English Language A level students in mind, so we hope you find it an interesting and enjoyable process. Keep chipping in to the discussions as that is how we'll all learn most effectively.

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Holly Taylor
    Well, hello!

    Hi Holly, and welcome! The course should be very relevant for your English Language A level studies, especially for the parts on "Language Change, Diversity and Discourses", which are all closely intertwined with identity. You should have plenty to say in your UCAS statement!

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Shuli B
    Well, hello!

    That's a great example of how changes in the way we communicate can match up with identity. We're focussing on English in this course, and the examples will mostly be about UK accents and dialects, but the concepts and methods used by sociolinguists hold for all languages/dialects/accents.

  • Sam Hellmuth replied to Maryalice Hogg-O'Rourke
    Well, hello!

    Thanks @MaryaliceHogg-O'Rourke, this is a good example of how accent can impact on daily life. We'll be looking at a few different examples of this as the course proceeds. We hope you enjoy the ride!