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Chapter 6

This document discusses regional and social dialects of the English language. [1] It provides examples of grammatical and pronunciation differences between American and British English dialects. [2] It then explains how in earlier centuries, a person's social class in England could be identified by their regional dialect, but by the 20th century, upper classes spoke with Received Pronunciation (RP). [3] RP was taught in private schools and was considered the most prestigious form of English.

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Elvara Isfandyari
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34 views

Chapter 6

This document discusses regional and social dialects of the English language. [1] It provides examples of grammatical and pronunciation differences between American and British English dialects. [2] It then explains how in earlier centuries, a person's social class in England could be identified by their regional dialect, but by the 20th century, upper classes spoke with Received Pronunciation (RP). [3] RP was taught in private schools and was considered the most prestigious form of English.

Uploaded by

Elvara Isfandyari
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Sociolinguistic

REGIONAL
AND
SOCIAL DIALECTS

Elvara Isfandyari
2113042074
01
REGIONAL VARIATIONS

Pronunciation and vocabulary differences are probably the differences people are
most aware of between different dialects of English, but there are grammatical
differences too. Speakers of US English tend to prefer do you have, though this
can now also be heard in Britain alongside the traditional British English have you
got. Americans say gotten where people in England use got.
Many Americans use dove while most British English speakers prefer dived .
Americans ask did you eat? While the English ask have you eaten? Are the US or
the British usages predominant where you live? In New Zealand, where US forms
are usually regarded as more innovative, younger New Zealanders say dove,
while older New Zealanders use dived .
02
REGIONAL VARIATIONS

The way English is pronounced in Tyneside is distinctive, especially in


terms of intonation patterns. People can imitate the tune of Geordie
speech, which involves grammatical usages and lexical items as well as
pronunciation.

Regional variation takes time to develop, with British and US English


providing more evidence than New Zealand or Australian English.
Dialectologists can distinguish regional varieties for almost every English
county, such as Yorkshire, Lancashire, Northumberland, Somerset,
Cornwall and so on.
03
SOCIAL VARIATIONS

In earlier centuries, you could tell where an English lord or lady came
from by their regional form of English. But by the early twentieth
century, a person who spoke with a regional accent in England was
most unlikely to belong to the upper class. Upper-class people had an
upper-class education, and that generally meant a public (i.e. private!)
school where they learned to speak RP. RP stands not for ‘Real Posh’ (as
suggested to me by a young friend), but rather for Received
Pronunciation – the accent of the best educated and most prestigious
members of English society.
04
SOCIAL VARIATIONS

It is claimed that the label derives from the accent which


was ‘received’ at the royal court, and it is sometimes
identifi ed with ‘the Queen’s English’, although the accent
used by Queen Elizabeth II, as portrayed so brilliantly by
Helen Mirren in the movie The Queen , is a rather old-
fashioned variety of RP.
05
SOCIAL DIALECTS

The stereotypical ‘dialect’ speaker is an elderly rural person who is


all but unintelligible to modern city dwellers. But the term dialect
has a wider meaning than this stereotype suggests. Dialects are
linguistic varieties which are distinguishable by their vocabulary,
grammar and pronunciation; the speech of people from different
social, as well as regional, groups may differ in these ways.
06
SOCIAL DIALECTS

Just as RP is a social accent, so standard English is a social


dialect. It is the dialect used by well-educated English
speakers throughout the world. It is the variety used for
national news broadcasts and in print, and it is the variety
generally taught in English-medium school.

07
STANDARD ENGLISH

It is estimated that up to 15 per cent of British people regularly use


standard British English. So in standard English, a limited amount
of grammatical variation is acceptable. A speaker of standard
English might produce either of the sentences. The dialect we grace
with the name standard English is spoken with many different
accents. But, as illustrated in the discussion of regional dialects,
there are also many standard Englishes.
08
STANDARD ENGLISH

US standard English is distinguishable from South African


standard English and Australian standard English, for
instance, and all three differ from the British standard
dialect. In social terms, linguistic forms which are not part
of standard English are by definition non-standard.
Because the standard dialect is always the first to be
codified, it is difficult to avoid defining other dialects
without contrasting them with the standard.

THANK YOU!

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