Language and regional variation

 What is standard language?

 What is standard English?

 What is accent?
 What is dialect?
 The difference?
 Language and regional variation
 Standard language: idealised, official language
for education and broadcasting.
 Dialect: varieties of a language that have
noticeable differences of grammar,
vocabulary, and pronunciation which signal
geographical, educational, ethnic, socio-
economic background of speakers. These do
not hinder communication between speakers
of dialects.
 Accent: Pronunciation differences between
two speakers.
Language and regional variation
 Regional Dialects and accents: North
and South American
 Socio-economic Dialects: Royal, upper,
upper middle class, lower class
 Ethnic dialects: Black, Chicano, German,
Hawaiian, and Puerto Rican English
 Continental Variation: Pronunciation,
vocabulary, inflections (British,
American, Canadian, Australian, and New
Zealand)
Language and regional variation
 Dialectology: Study of dialects
 Speakers of two different dialects of
the same language can usually
understand each other.
 Standard dialects of the languages are
more socially prestigious, associated
with economic and political power
 London English, queen’s English?
Language and regional variation
Dialect Profile: The Brummie (Birmingham) Accent

1.) words like “realize” and “tried” with something like

IPA ɒi (so that these words sound a bit like American
“realoyze” and “troyed”).
2.) As in Northern English accents, the vowel in
“puppies” and “blood” is pronounced higher in the
mouth than in Southern English accents, ranging from
IPA ʊ to ɔ (i.e. “puppies” sounds a bit like “pooppies”
or “pawppies”).
3.) The diphthong in “about” and “house” is raised, with a
prononunciation ranging from IPA æʊ to ɛʉ (“heh-
oose”).
4.) Words like “most” and “homes” are pronounced with a
very low-starting diphthong, typically IPA ʌʊ although
it can start even lower, making “goat” sound like “gout”
to outside ears.
Language and regional variation
 Dialect NORMS: major dialect norms
(non-mobile, older, rural, male speakers?
WHY?)
 Isogloss: a line or map separating two
areas in which a particular linguistic
feature is significantly different.
 Linguistic atleses? (see p. 243, the
examples)
 Dialect boundary: a line representing a
set of isoglosses, used to separate one
dialect area from another.
Language and regional variation
 Dialect continuum: the gradual merging
of one regional variety of a language
into another.
 Dialect vs. Language (when does a

dialect become a language? When is a

language born?)
1. Intelligibility (Mandarin and Cantonese)

2. Historical Relationships (Belarusian and

Ukrainian)
3. Political Concerns (Urdu and Hindi)
 Language and regional variation
 Bidialectal: being capable of speaking two
dialects
 Bilingualism: the state of having two languages
(native or native-like).
 Bilingual: native speaker of two languages or a
country with two official languages (Canada,
Belgium, United States, England)
 Diglossia: a situation where there is a ‘high’ or
special variety of a language used in formal
situations (classical Arabic), and a ‘low’ variety
used locally and informally (Lebanese Arabic)
 Language and regional variation
 Monolingual, bilingual, multilingual countries?
 Language planning: choosing and developing an
official language or languages for use in
government and education (India-Hindi,
Tanzania-Swahili, Philippines-Filipino)
 Codification: grammar, dictionaries and
written models are used to establish the
standard variety.
 Implemantation and acceptance as a part of
social and national identity
Language and regional variation
 Language Contact: migration, marriage,
colonialism, and wars
 Lingua Franca: English as an international
language
 Purpose: trade, business, education, survival
needs
 Mixture of the two languages at lexical,
grammatical, and phonological levels (Pidgin
and Creole)
 a third language emerges (ex: Tok Pisin:
English based pidgin in Papua New Guinea)
 Language and regional variation
 Pidgin and Creole (use words from both
languages, mix morphology and syntax,
and use the simplest sounds from both
languages)
1. Limited vocabulary
2. Simple grammatical rules
3. Small inventory of sounds
4. Spoken by a small fraction of the
community
5. Used for specific purposes such as
trade education and religion
 Language and regional variation
 Creole: Pidgin becomes the mother tongue of
a group of people (French creole in Sierra
Leone)
 Creolisation: the process of development
from a pidgin to a creole
 Decreolisation: use of standard variety
instead of creole forms and structures
(British English in Jamaica) or more local
creole features
 The post-creole continuum: varieties that
evolves in communities where a creole is
spoken.
 Creole accent: pronunciation features
 Language and regional variation
 Grass~gras (hair in Tok Pisin)
 Mausgras (moustache)
 Gras bilong fes (beard)
 Tu buk (two books)
 Di gyal place (the girl’s place)
 Buk bilong yu (your book)
 Baimbai hed bilongyu i-arrait gain
 By and by head belong you he alright again
 (your head will soon get well again) (see P. 250
task E and F)