Varieties of English

1
Varieties of English

• Recurrent Concepts of English Language and
  Linguistics

2
Varieties of English

• VARIATION Natural phenomenon
• Language is a form of social behavior and
  communities tend to split up into groups, each
  displaying differences of behavior
• Language manifests differences of behavior
• Language is the variety of speakers
• Speakers vary in their vocabulary and skills to
  use it
• Linguistic variables have both social and style
  variation, some only social, but none style
  variation only

3
Dialect

• No universally accepted criteria for
  distinguishing languages from dialects, although
  a number of paradigms exist, which render
  sometimes contradictory results
• The exact distinction is a subjective one,
  dependent on the user's frame of reference
• Language varieties are often called dialects
  rather than languages

4
Because

• solely they are not, or not recognized as
  literary languages
• the speakers of the given language do not have a
  state of their own
• they are not used in press or literature, or very
  little.
• because their language lacks prestige

5
Difference between Accent and Dialect

• a variety of a language characteristic of a
  particular group of the language's speakers
• applied most often to regional speech patterns,
  but a dialect may also be defined by other
  factors, such as social class
• Defined as a sub-division of a language, used by
  a group of speakers who have some non-linguistic
  characteristics in common or the specific form of
  a language used by a speech community

6
Most common characteristics

• The regional one
• Link can also be occupational and social
• Sometime variety depends upon the occasion to use
  as well
• the word "dialect" is sometimes used to refer to
  a lesser-known language most commonly a regional
  language, especially one that is unwritten or not
  standardized

7
Difference between Language Dialect

• often accompanied by the erroneous belief that
  the minority language is lacking in vocabulary,
  grammar, or importance
• the difference between language and dialect is
  the difference between the abstract or general
  and the concrete and particular
• Identifying a particular dialect as the
  "standard" or "proper" version of a language are
  in fact using these terms to express a social
  distinction

8
The status of language

• the status of language is not solely determined
  by linguistic criteria, but it is also the result
  of a historical and political development
• Mandarin and Cantonese are often considered
  dialects and not languages, despite their mutual
  unintelligibility, because they share a common
  literary standard and common body of literature

9

• The number of speakers, and the geographical area
  covered by them, can be of arbitrary size
• a dialect might contain several sub-dialects
• A dialect is a complete system of verbal
  communication oral or signed, but not necessarily
  written with its own vocabulary and grammar
• A dialect is distinguished by its vocabulary,
  grammar, and pronunciation including phonology
  and prosody

10

• the "dialects" of a "language" which itself may
  be a "dialect" of a yet older tongue may or may
  not be mutually intelligible
• a parent language may spawn several "dialects"
  which themselves subdivide any number of times,
  with some "branches" of the tree changing more
  rapidly than others

11

• among the modern Romance tongues, with Italian
  and Spanish having a high degree of mutual
  comprehensibility, which neither language shares
  with French, despite both languages being
  genetically closer to French than to each other
• French has undergone more rapid change than have
  Spanish and Italian

12
Standard and non-standard dialects

• A standard dialect a dialect that is supported
  by institutions
• Such institutional support may include
  government recognition or designation
• presentation as being the "correct" form of a
  language in schools
• published grammars, dictionaries, and textbooks
  that set forth a "correct" spoken and written
  form

13

• an extensive formal literature that employs that
  dialect in prose, poetry, non-fiction, etc.
• Standard American English, Standard British
  English, Standard Indian English, Standard
  Australian English, and Standard Philippine
  English may all be said to be standard dialects
  of the English language

14
Non-standard Dialect

• A nonstandard dialect has a complete vocabulary,
  grammar, and syntax, but is not the beneficiary
  of institutional support
• An example of a nonstandard English dialect is
  Southern English
• The Dialect Test was designed by Joseph Wright
  to compare different English dialects with each
  other

15
Regional dialect

• not a distinct language
• a variety of a language spoken in a particular
  area of a country
• Some regional dialects have been given
  traditional names which mark them out as being
  significantly different from standard varieties
  spoken in the same place
• Ex 'Hillbilly English' from the Appalachians in
  the USA and 'Geordie' from Newcastle upon Tyne in
  the UK

16
Minority dialect

• Sometimes members of a particular minority ethnic
  group have their own variety which they use as a
  marker of identity, usually alongside a standard
  variety
• Ex African American Vernacular English in the
  USA, London Jamaican in Britain, and Aboriginal
  English in Australia

17
Indigenized variety

• Indigenized varieties are spoken mainly as second
  languages in ex-colonies with multilingual
  populations
• The differences from the standard variety may be
  linked to English proficiency, or may be part of
  a range of varieties used to express identity.
• 'Singlish' spoken in Singapore is a variety very
  different from standard English, and there are
  many other varieties of English used in India

18
Sociolect

• the variety of language characteristic of a
  social background or status
• A dialect which evolves from regional speech may
  also have sociolectical implications
• Ex standard Italian is a dialect in that it is
  particular to Tuscany yet, being the national
  language of Italy, it is also a sociolect in that
  it carries a certain prestige from being the
  lingua franca throughout the country both in
  broadcasting, in the press, and by people of high
  social status

19
Idiolect

• a variety of a language unique to an individual
• manifested by patterns of word selection and
  grammar, or words, phrases, idioms, or
  pronunciations that are unique to that individual
• Every individual has an idiolect
• the grouping of words and phrases is unique,
  rather than an individual using specific words
  that nobody else uses
• idiolect can easily evolve into an ecolecta
  dialect variant specific to a household
• languages are congruences of idiolects and thus
  exist only in the intersection between individual
  speakers
• Idiolects change through contact with other
  idiolects, and change throughout their lifetime
  as well as from generation to generation

20
Register

• term was originated by Thomas Bertram Reid in
  1956
• Become common in the 1960s introduced by a group
  of linguists who wanted to distinguish between
  variations in language according to the user and
  variations according to use,
• each speaker has a range of varieties and
  choices between them at different times
• 
  (Halliday et al, 1964)
• focus is on the way language is used in
  particular situations
• Halliday (1964) identifies three variables that
  determine register field (the subject matter of
  the discourse), tenor (the participants and their
  relationships) and mode (the channel of
  communication, e.g. spoken or written)

21
Summary

• Varieties of Language
• Dialects
• Sociolects
• Idiolects
• Register
• Isogloss