Chapter 7 : Language in Society

any differences are refrected in words choices, the pronunciation of words and
gramatical rules. The language of an individual speaker with its unique characteristics is
referred to as the speaker's idiolect.
Dialect are mutually intelligible forms of a language that differ in systematic ways. Every
speaker speaks at least one dialect, just as each individual speaks idiolect. It is not always
easy to decide whether the differences between two speech communities reflect; two dialects
or two languages, sometimes this rule of thumb definition is used: when dialects become
mutually unintelligible when the speakers of one dialects group can o longer understand the
speakers of another dialect group, these dialects become different languages.
For example; despite regular differences in their grammars Danish speakers, Norwegian
speakers, and Swedish speakers can converse with each other. Nevertheless, Danish,
Norwegian, and Swedish are considered separate languages because they are spoken in
separate countries.
Dialect Leveling is movement toward greater uniformity and use variation among dialect.
Regional dialect
Regional dialect are linguistics differences accumulate in a geographic region, the
spoken has own character. How dialect develop is illustrated by pronunciation of words with
an r- in different part of united states. as early as eighteenth century, the british in southern
england were dropping there r's before consonant and at the ends of words. Word such as
farm, farther and father were pronounced [fa:m] and as the cartoon suggest, card and cod are
homophones in the bostonion version of that dialect, namely [kad].
Regional dialect may differ not only in their pronunciation but also in their lexical choices
and grammatical rules.
Phonological differences
Most dialect differences in American English involve differences in pronunciation
(phonology). illustrated the different sounds of English by using key words in which the
sounds occur. The United Kingdom also has many regional dialect, in this dialect h is
pronounced at the beginning of both, head and herb. in most American English dialect
pronounced in herb. in some British English dialects, the h is regularly droppef for most
words in which it is pronounced in American, such as house, pronounced [aus] and hero
pronounced [iro].
Lexical differences
A lexicon is not made up of different words but different “units of meaning” lexical
units or lexical items, including idioms and figures of speechThis makes it easier to compare
the dialects.
Syntactic differences
The differences in grammar and syntax between American English and British English
are small but notable. The two minor differences are concerned with word from ‘dive’ and
the phrase ‘do have’. The American use the from dived and the phrase do have. The
American use the from dove for the from dived in British English. Another difference of
grammar is concerned with the pronoun ‘one’. Thus an Englishman will use the pronoun
‘one’ for all the times.
Another difference of syntax between these two varieties of English lines in the use of
collective nouns. In British English both singular and plural verbs can be used for the
collective nouns. The syntactic differences between British English and American English are
particularly noticed in the expression of time. For example :
dialect 1
- Won't he let you and I swim?
dialect 2
- Won't he let you and me swim?
Dialect atlases
Linguist hans kurath dialect maps or dialect athletes of a region on which differences
dialect are geographic plotted. The concentration defined by different words usage and
varying pronunciations, among other linguistic differences, form dialect areas. a line draw on
the map to separate the area is called isoglos.
Social dialects
Social dialects is differences dialects that seem to come about because of social factors,
social boundaries and class differences can be as confining as the physical barriers that often
define regional dialect.
The"standard"
every language is a composite of dialects. but it is widespread misconception that a language
is a well-defined fixed system with various dialects diverging from this norm.There may be
multiple standard dialects associated with a single language. For example, Standard
American English, Standard British English, Standard Canadian English, Standard Indian
English, Standard Australian English, and Standard Philippine English may all be said to be
standard dialects of the English language. one "language pundit" accused the editor of
webster's third new international dictionary, published in 1961, of confusing "to the point of
obliteration the older distinction between standard, substandard, colloquial, vulgar and
slang." attributing to them the view that "good and bad, right and wrong, correct and incorrect
longer exist.