EFFECT OF REGION AND
SOCIAL CLASS ON
LANGUAGE USE
REGIONAL AND SOCIAL
DIALECTS
Language = standard(ised) variety
Non--standard = vernacular
Non
Vernacular:
– acquired in the home
– used in informal / nonnon-official contexts
– lacks
acks public or overt prestige, though valued
high by its users (covert prestige)
– dialect features of vernacular contrast with
dialect features of standard
standard
REGIONAL DIALECTS
Why develop? Because of geogr
geographical
aphical
barriers and boundaries, geographical
geographical distance.
distance.
Sometimes insurmountable, even today.
Dialectologists, dialect geographers study
geographical distribution of linguistic
linguistic items,
items, plot
results on maps, indicating areas where a
particular item was found.
found.
Isogloss – boundary line between places or
regions that differ in a particular linguistic
feature.. Isoglosses intersect.
feature
International (intercontinental)
variation
geographical
aphical barriers,
barriers, boundaries
Role of geogr
and geographical distance in development
of regional dialects - most obvious in:
in:
International (intercontinental) varieties:
varieties:
differences between British, American
Australian, etc. Englishes.
Examples?? Types??
Examples for intercontinental
variation
sole parents
lone parents
solo parents
New Zealand
Australia
Britain
wellies
gummies
New Zealand
Zealand
Brita
Britain
Accents: http://web.ku.edu/idea
http://web.ku.edu/idea/index
/index.htm
.htm
Intra--national / intra
Intra
intra--continental
variation
Great Britain / UK and USA: provide most
evidence for intraintra-national regional
variation
– GB: a regional D for each county,
county, even for
some towns
Geordie, Cockney
– US: 3 main regions:
regions: North, South, Midland,
Midland,
with further divisions in each
Australia and New Zealand:
Zealand: much less intraintranational variation
wider communication in community?
community?
smaller population?
population?
later introduction of English?
Areas / borders of regional dialects: overlap →→
Dialect chain = continuum, where dialects /
varieties are placed sequentially over space.
space.
The further they
they are, the more dissimilar.
dissimilar.
Language and social class
Social class dialects = sociolects
Why develop? Social barriers and social
distance:: hierarchical ordering = stratification
distance
(internal differentiation) of society
Social class:
class: aggregates of people with similar
social and economical characteristics.
characteristics. Other
factors: education, family background,
background, religion
Not for life:
life: movement
movement up and down is possible
and natural.
natural. Fluidity, mobility
Effect of social class on language
use
In most western countries: consistent
relationship between lang patterns =
linguistic behaviour and so
social class
In Britain,
Britain, social class takes precedence
over region / geography as a determinant
of speech
In US, Germany – not the case
Social class dialects
Speaker A
Speaker B
I done it yesterday.
I did it yesterday.
He ain’t got it.
He hasn’t got it.
It was her what said it.
It was her that said it.
I finish the
the book yesterday. I finished the
the book yesterday
yesterday..
She walk to school dail
daily.
y. She walks to school dail
dailyy.
Social and regional accent variation
SOCIALVARIATION
VARIATION
SOCIAL
Highest class: RP
Lowest class:
REGIONALVARIATION
VARIATION
REGIONAL
Most localized
accent
Social and regional dialect variation
Grammatical differences bw standard
English and vernacular varieties:
He is a man who likes his beer.☺
beer.☺
He is a man that likes his beer. ☺
He is a man at likes his beer.
beer.
He is a man as likes his beer. He is a man what likes his beer. He is a man he likes his beer. He is a man likes his beer. Social and regional dialect variation
SOCIAL VARIATION
Highest class: standard dialect
Lowest class:
Most localized non
standard
REGIONAL VARIATION
Vernacular /in/ pronunciation in 4
social groups
Social group 1
2
3
4
Norwich
31% 42
91
100
West
Yorkshire
New York
5
34
61
83
7
32
45
75
Brisbane
17
31
49
63
1 Highest sc
group
4 Lowest sc
group
Percentage of ‘h’ dropping in Norwich
and West Yorkshire in 5 social groups
Social group 1
2
3
4
5
Norwich
14
40
59
61
21
43
64
96
6%
West Yorkshire 17
Verbs without ‘s’ in Norwich and Detroit
Norwich
Detroit
MMC
0%
UMC
1%
LMC
2
LMC
10
UWC
70
UWC
57
MWC
87
LWC
71
LWC
97
M middle L lower U upper W working C class
Post--vocalic /r/ in Reading (GB) and
Post
New York social groups
Percentage post-vocalic [r]
60
49
50
44
40
32
Reading
28
30
New York
20
20
12
10
0
0
0
1
2
3
Social groups or classes
4
CONCLUSIONS
All societies have language variation
according to the social hierarchy.
hierarchy.
It is possible to see systematic regular
differences in language use between
social classes. Tendencies not absolutes.
absolutes.
Though linguists say all Vs are
linguistically equal,
equal, prejudice exits towards
most of them.