Language and regional variation.

Language and social variation

outline

Sociolinguistics: the study of the relationship between language and society.

a sense of belonging
Speech community: a group of people who share a set of norms and expectations regarding the use of
language. “Speech communities are groups that share values and attitudes about language use, varieties and
practices. These communities develop through prolonged interaction among those who operate within these
shared and recognized beliefs and value systems regarding forms and styles of communication. While we are
born with the ability to learn language, we do so within cultures and societies that frame the process of
learning how to talk to others.” (Morgan 2014)

Speech (=language) variety: any distinguishable form of speech used by a speaker or a group of speakers.
The distinctive features of a variety may be lexical, phonological, morphological, syntactic; usually a
combination of these.
-social speech varieties → social dialects (=sociolects) middle class/ working class..
-regional speech varieties → regional dialects American/ British/ Australian
-functional speech varieties → registers occupations
perform a certain function
Sociolect: a variety of language with features that differ according to the social status (e.g. middle class,
working class) of the speaker.

Register: a conventional way of using language that is appropriate in a specific situation, occupation or
topic, characterised by the use of special jargon.
It may be identified as situational (e.g. in church), occupational (e.g. among lawyers) or topical (e.g. talking
about language).

One of the defining features of a register is the use of jargon, which is special technical vocabulary is
associated with a specific area of work/interest. In social terms, jargon helps to create and maintain
connections among those who see themselves as “insiders” in some way and to exclude “outsiders”.

Standard variety: the variety of a language which has the highest status in a community. The official
language of a community/country.

Standard English is the variety which forms the basis of printed English in newspapers and books, which is
used in the mass media and which is taught in schools. It is more easily described in terms of the written
language than the spoken language.

British Isles (→ England and Wales) – Received Pronunciation accent and UKSE (United Kingdom Standard
English) grammar and vocabulary.
Scotland – Scottish Standard English
the United States – General American
Australia – General Australian

Accent is the description of aspects of pronounciation which identify where an individual speaker is from
regionally (regional accent) or socially (social dialect=sociolect: class, sex, occupation, age, etc. of the
speaker).
Dialect describes features of grammar and vocabulary, as well as aspects of pronounciation.
„You don’t know what you’re talking about” vs „Ye dinnae ken whit yer haverin’ aboot”
Dialectology: the study of dialects

Dialect boundaries
Isogloss – „a geographical boundary line marking the area in which a distinctive linguistic feature
commonly occurs”. You can draw a line on a map that marks the boundary between areas where
language features are different.

There is also an individual dialect =idiolect: the personal dialect of each individual speaker of a language

Genderlect – a type or style of speech used by a particular gender; difference in communication

Bilingualism: the use of two languages by inhabitants of a particular region or a nation. The use of two
languages (in contrast to monolingualism).

Code switching: a change by a speaker (or writer) from one language (or variety) to another one.

Pidgin: a variety of a language that developed for a practical purpose such as trade, but which has no native
speakers, in contrast to a creole.

Creole: variety of a language that developed from a pidgin and is used as a first language by a population of
native speakers.

Source:

Yule, G. (1985/2006). The Study of Language. Cambridge: CUP.Chapters: Language and regional variation,
overt prestige
- covert

Discussion topics
(Based on Yule, G. „The Study of Language” 4th ed. p. 270, 283)
I Peter Trudgill has noted that “increased geographical mobility during the course of the twentieth century
led to the disappearance of many dialects and dialect forms through a process we can call dialect levelling –
the levelling out of differences between one dialect and another” (2000 : 155). Do you think that “dialect
levelling” is continuing in the geographical area you are most familiar with? Does this mean that there will
eventually be only one dialect? What other forces might be at work that would cause new dialects to emerge?

II English is not the official language of the United States, but some insist that it should be. What are the
arguments for and against the “English-Only Movement”?

III From a linguistic point of view, there are no good or bad varieties of a language. However, there is a
social process called “language subordination” whereby some varieties are treated as having less value than
others. Can you describe how this process works in any social situation you are familiar with?