Regional vs. Social Dialect: social dialects do not necessarily follow geographic boundaries but adhere to age, social class or social networks.
Many educators and linguists consider the term dialect to be vague: e.g. the term “dialect” is used to refer to the speech of low-income African American (it is used with the article “the”). Another common use of the term “dialect” refers to those varieties of English whose features have become widely recognized throughout American society. Society at large recognizes a “southern drawl” or a “Boston accent”. So many American language scientists prefer to use such terms as language difference, language variety or language variation instead to denote the language associated with a particular regional or social group.
The Standard English operates on both formal and informal levels.
The formal standard is codified, prescriptive and relatively homogeneous. We can simply appeal to the established source such as usage guides and established authorities on the English language. The sphere of usage for the formal standard is relatively restricted, largely confined to writing and specialized public presentations.
The informal standard is more subjective, somewhat flexible, and tends to exist on a continuum.
Standard A B C D E Nonstandard
A continuum of standardness
The informal standard is more widely applicable and relevant to the vast majority of everyday language interactions.
Standard American English (SAE) is a variety of English devoid of both general and local socially stigmatized features, as well as regionally obtrusive phonological and grammatical features.
Contrary to popular opinion, SAE is fairly limited in terms of the occasions and professions that call for its usage; it is also quite restricted in terms of who routinely uses it. On most speaking occasions Regional Standard English is more pertinent than SAE, although the notion of regional Standard English certainly receives much less public attention. Regional Standard English refers to the variety which is recognized as standard for speakers in a given locale. This variety may contain regional features and particularly in pronunciation and vocabulary, but also some features of grammar and language use. Most typically, it is associated with middle-class, educated native speakers of the region. In the local context, these speakers would be rated as Standard English speakers by community members from different social strata within the community.
In a Southern setting such as Memphis, Tennessee, the regional standard may include a number of Southern regionalisms:
· lack of contrast between [I] and [e] before nasals in “pin” and “pen”
· the monophthongization of [aI] in “time”, “hi”
· plural “y’all”
· personal Dative pronouns “I got me a new outfit”
The standard Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, variety includes
· the local “broad a” (bad, pass)
· the vowel [i] in items such as att[i]tude vs. att[ q ]tude or magn[i]tude vs. magn[ q ]tude
· positive “anymore”: Anymore we watch videos rather than go to the movies
· pronoun absence in personal “with” phrases: Are you coming with?
But in both locales, the standard dialects would share the avoidance of a general set of socially stigmatized features such as multiple negation and different irregular verbs (They seen it. They brang it to the picnic.).
Regional standards are not necessarily transferable, so that the standard dialect of Memphis might not be considered standard in the context of Philadelphia.
1.3. ENGLISH IN AMERICA
English is spoken as a native language in two major spheres:
● the US and the English-speaking Canada,
● the Caribbean area centring on Jamaica, and Antilles and Guyana, and the peripheral area - the creol speaking sections of the Atlantic coast of the Central America. Creol is a language that having originated as a pidgin has become established as the first language in a speech community.
A simplified language derived from two or more languages is called a pidgin. It is a contact language developed and used by people who do not share a common language in a given geographical area. It is used in a limited way and the structure is very simplistic. Since such languages serve a single simplistic purpose, they usually die out.
E.g.: ai no kea hu stei hant insai dea.
I no care who stay hunt inside there
I don’t care who’s hunting in there
These two areas are distinguished according to two criteria:
● educated Caribbean is clearly oriented towards British English while the US English and Canadian English make up American English despite numerous British English features to be found in the Canadian English;
● the second criteria is rooted in creol English linguistic continuum which exists in Caribbean English but not in American English.
THE LANGUAGES
OF THE USA AND CANADA
The largest English speaking area in the
world is that formed by the US and Canada.
The United States is the home of approximately 336 languages (spoken or signed) of which 176 are indigeous to the area. 52 languages formerly spoken in the US territory are now extinct.
The United States does not have an official language; nevertheless, English is the language used for legislation, regulations, executive orders, treaties, federal court rulings, and all other official pronouncements. In some states, English, Hawaiian and Spanish are official. In 2000, the census bureau printed the standard census questionnaires in six languages: English, Spanish, Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Tagalog. The English-Only movement seeks to establish English as the only official language of the nation.
Approximately 85% and almost 2/3 of the Canadian population have English as their native language, it is about a quarter of a billion speakers. Many of the inhabitants of the US and Canada, who don't have English as their native language, use it in multitude of different situations. English was inherited from British colonization and it is spoken by the vast majority of the population. It serves as the de facto language: the language in which government business is carried out. According to the 1990 census, 97 per cent of U.S. residents speak English "well" or "very well". Only 0.8 per cent speak no English at all, as compared with 3.6 per cent in 1890. Other languages widely used are Spanish and French.
The Spanish language is the second-most common language in the country, spoken by about 28.1 million people (or 10.7% of the population) in 2000. The United States is the fifth country in the world in Spanish-speaking population, outnumbered only by Mexico, Spain, Argentina, and Colombia. Although many Latin American immigrants have various levels of English-proficiency, Hispanics who are second-generation Americans in the United States almost all speak English. A significant number of Spanish speakers live in Miami and New York.
French is the majority language in Quebec. In New England and Louisiana French is spoken either. There are tremendous numbers of speakers of other languages, however few of them have settled so that their languages have also been able to serve as community languages. But there are rural communities in which immigrant languages have been maintained:
E.g.: Amish in Pennsylvania (German), Dukhobors in Saskatchewan (Russian).
Non-immigrant and non-colonial languages are still in daily use in some American environments. About half a million but all in all one million Indian and Alaskian people speak their native language.
1.3.1. Canadian English
J. Pringle in his work “The Concept of Dialect and the Study of Canadian English” writes that Canadian English is a solid part of the American branch of language. It shares most of the linguistic characteristics of American English yet there are important features of Canadian English which distinguish it as an independent subvariety of American English. Canadians have positive view of the US and there are some phenomena in common:
● syllable reduction:
E.g.: lion=line, warren=warn
● fewer high diphthongs in the words “about”, “like” /Qu/ - /Au/
● Canadians use more American morphological and lexical forms.
Pro-British attitudes correlate well with the preservation of vowel distinction before [r] such as “spear it” /'spIqrIt/ vs /'spirit/.
Pro-Canadian attitudes mean relatively more leveling of the vowel distinctions, more loss of /j/.
E.g.: tune /tju:n/ - /tu:n/
75% of Canadians say /zed/ instead /zi:/, 75% - chesterfield for sofa, 2/3 have sound /l/ in “almond”, 2/3 of Canadians say to bath a baby /ba: T/ (BrE), than /bei D / (AmE). British English spelling is strongly favoured in Ontario and American English in Alberta. Thus differences between Canadian English and American English are largely in the area of pronunciation and vocabulary. Grammar differences don't exist on the level of Standard English.
Vocabulary provides a considerable number of Canadianisms. Designators for topography, flora and fauna make up many of these items: buffalo grass (бізонова трава), fambeau /fxm'bO/ (факел з березової кори), cutthroat (робітник, що розрізає рибу біля її голови), West-India fish (другий сорт тріски), Canada goose (канадська казарка), Canada jay (сіра сойка).
The pronunciation of Canadian English sometimes called General Canadian applies to Canada from Ottawa Valley to British Columbia and it is similar to General American English. It shares the same consonant system including the unstable contrast between /hw/ - /w/ which -wich. General Canadian vowel system is similar to that of the Northern variety of General American, i.e. opposition / O :/ - / O / has been lost. The distinctions between / J / - / i /, /e q / - /e/ - / x / are rapidly dying out. The most typical Canadian feature of pronunciation is Canadian raising. This refers to realization of diphthongs /au/, /ai/ with the higher and non-fronted first element / A u/, / Ai / when followed by voiceless consonant, e.g. bout /b A ut/.
1.3.2. Regional varieties of Canadian English
Canadian population is overwhelmingly middle class and urban and the bulk of it lives in the area westwards (to the west of Ottawa Valley). Working class usage differs from middle class but middle class preferences in Ottawa are strongly in the direction of American English.
E.g.: Loss of /j/ in “new” - /nu:/. Working class favors -in' not -ing and they level /hw/ and /w/.
The second major region of Canadian English is eastwards from the Ottawa Valley - Maritime Province, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. Here the norms of pronunciation are varied. Ten distinct English language areas are distinguished here. These variations are explained by the settlement history (Scots, Northern and Southern Irish, Kashubian Poles, Germans and Americans). The eastern Canadian region is characterized overall as resembling the English of New England as the earliest settlers came from England. In this part there is less / O :/- / O / leveling. English of this area like all of Canada is rhotic, i.e. /r/ is pronounced where spelt while Eastern New England is non-rhotic. The final distinct region of Canadian English is Newfoundland with the population 568000. Some scholars (e.g. Wells) speak of traditional dialects in Newfoundland. The linguistic identity of Newfoundland is the result of:
● early (1583 and onwards) and diverse (especially Irish and Southern English) settlement;
● the stability of the population (93% native born);
● isolation.
This territory joined Canada in 1949 and the influence of the mainland pronunciation patterns has become stronger. Examples of the Irish English influence are:
● monophthongal /e/ instead of /ei/, / O /-/ O u/, / A / is rounded and retracted
● some speakers neutralize /ai/ and /O i/. They are realized as /ai/
● dental fricatives / T/, /D/ are pronounced as /t/ and /d/
● /h/ is generally omitted except in standard speech
● consonant clusters are regularly simplified: post - /pous'/, land - /l x n/.
1.3.3. Regional varieties of English in the USA
Regional varieties of American English are:
● Northern of which Canadian English is a part of
● Midland
● Southern
Each of these areas may be subdivided into subregions. Grammar is of relatively little importance for these three areas as most of dividing and subdividing is based on vocabulary and pronunciation. The lexical distinctions are evident in the more old-fashioned and rural vocabulary but some urban terms continue to reinforce the older regional terms.
Hero (NY), submarine (Pittsburgh), hoagie (Philadelphia), grinder (Boston), po' boy (New Orleans). All these words mean an average sandwich made of split loaf or bun of bread.
Vocabulary on the whole offers distinction which do not often occur and can be easily replaced by more widely used term.
Pronunciation differences in contrast to lexicon are evident in everything a person says and they are less subject to control.
The southern accents realize /ai/ as /ai/ or /a/. Lack of rhoticity is typical of Eastern New England and New York City but Inland North. Rhoticity is also typical of Coastal Southern, Gulf Southern but not of Mid Southern areas. Opposition /O:/- /O/ is maintained in the South but has been lost in the North Midland and is weakening in the North.
The pronunciation of north Midland is referred to as General American. It is used to designated a huge area with numerous local differences but in which there are no noticeable sub-regional divisions. General American English is used on nation broadcasting networks.
The most vivid contrast is between North and South. There are differences in vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar. In Southern varieties including Black English such non-standard features occur:
● perfective "done" E.g. I done seen it.
● future “gon” E.g. I'm gon tell you something.
● multiple negation, E.g. I can't see nothing.
Some American scholars speak about Appalachian English and Ozark English which are found in the Southern Highlands. The English of these regions is characterized by relatively frequent occurrence of older forms which have passed out of other types of American English:
● syntactic phenomena: e.g. a-prefixing on verbs: I'm a-fixin’ to take her to town.
● morphological-phonological: initial /h/ is used where it shouldn't be:
e.g. ain't - hain't, it - hit
● lexical: e.g. before - afore, not any - nary
1.4. SOCIAL VARIATIONS OF AMERICAN ENGLISH
Within anyone region there is more than one form of English. Besides differences according to the gender and race there are differences according to economical and social factors of education and social class.
In North America socio-economic status shows up in pronunciation as middle-class speakers are on the whole more likely than those of the working class to adopt forms which are in agreement with the norms of the society. The now classic research of W. Labov in New York City in 1960s provided the first insight into these relations. W. Labov’s findings are: initial voiceless /T/ is realized more often as /t/ or /tT/ than as a fricative /T/ as the classification of speakers changes from upper-middle to low middle class and to working class /t/.
Social distinctions are especially perceptible in the area of grammar where a remarkable number of stigmatized features (often referred to as shibboleths /'SIbqlqTs/) apply supraregionally. A person who uses the following is regarded as uneducated, unsophisticated and uncouth:
● ain't: e.g. I ain't done yet.
● double modal: e.g. I might could help you.
● multiple negation: e.g. We don't need none.
● “them” as a demonstrative pronoun: e.g. Hand me them cups.
● no subject relative pronoun in a defining relative clause: e.g. The fellow wrote that letter is here.
● “don't” in the third person singular: e.g. She don't like it.