LANGUAGE and SOCIETY

LANGUAGE

Language is a system of communication

used by a particular community or country.
It typically has its own set of rules,
vocabulary, and syntax.
 IDIOLECT

Idiolect refers to the unique linguistic

system or speech variety used by an
individual
Can be considered as a personal linguistic
fingerprint
 DIALECT

Dialect refers to variations within a

language spoken by a specific group of
people. Dialects often differ in
pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar,
but they are still considered part of the
larger language system.
Dialects are mutually intelligible forms of a
language that differ in systematic ways.
 A dialect is not an inferior or degraded
form of a language
 Language vs dialect

When dialects become mutually

unintelligible – when the speakers of
one dialect group can no longer
understand the speakers of another
dialect group – these dialects become
different languages.
 Regional Dialect

Accent – phonological or phonetic distinctions

Characteristics of speech that convey
information about what country or in what part
of the country the speaker grew up or to what
sociolinguistic group the speaker belongs to.
 Dialectical Differences

Phonological
Lexical Differences
Syntactic Differences
Dialect maps and dialect atlases

Published by Hans Kurath

Dialect differences are geographically
plotted
Dialectologists who created the map noted
the places where speakers use one word or
another word for the same item
Dialect areas – where concentrations
defined by different word usages and
varying pronunciations and other linguistic
differences
Isogloss – the line drawn on the map to
separate dialect areas
 SOCIAL DIALECTS

Dialect differences that come about

because of social factors
Social boundaries give rise to dialect
variation
 Social Dialects

The Standard (purists pov)

The dominant, or prestige, dialect is often
called the standard dialect
Standard American English (SAE) is a dialect of
English that many Americans nearly speak;
divergences from this “norm” are labeled
“Philadelphia dialect”, “Chicago dialect”,
“African American English,” and so on.
Banned Languages
Language purists wish to prevent language
or dialect differentiation because of their
false belief that some languages are better
than others, or that change leads to
corruption.
African American English
Spoken by Americans of African descent
This dialect persist for social, educational
and economic reasons
The Speech Community
A group of people who share a common
language or dialect, and who use language
in similar ways
Can be based on various factors :
geographical location, social class, ethnicity,
age, occupation, or even shared interests
Characteristics of a Speech
Community

Shared language variety

Social norms and practices
Shared norms about language use,
including rules for appropriate language in
different contexts and rules regarding
politeness, address forms, etc.
Identity and Belonging
Transmission of Language
Within a speech community, language is
passed on from one generation to the next
through socialization processes.
 Types of Speech Communities

Geographical Speech Communities

Defined by their geographical location,
such as town, city, or region
People in these communities share certain
linguistic features due to their proximity and
interactions
Ethnic or Cultural Speech Communities
Defined by a common ethnicity or cultural
background
Have specific linguistic features or dialects
associated with them
Occupational or Professional Speech
Communities
Groups of people working in the same
profession or industry often develop
specialized vocabularies and communication
styles that distinguish them from others
LINGUISTIC BORROWING AND
LANGUAGE CONTACT
 LANGUAGE CONTACT

Two or more distinct languages or dialects

come into contact with each other either
directly through social interaction of the
speakers or indirectly through education or
literature (or social media)
 Outcomes of Language Contact

Borrowing
Involves the transfer of lexical items or
even structural properties from one
language to another
Language convergence
Languages in contact become more alike
Language death
Language has no more speakers left
Creation of contact languages
Bilingual mixed languages
Pidgins
creoles
 BORROWING

LEXICAL
Borrowing of words and phrases
STRUCTURAL
Borrowing of phonological, morphological,
or syntactic patterns
 Lexical Borrowing

Commonly known as loans or loanwords

Examples:
Ballet, chaise (French)
Macho, taco (Spanish)
Pizza, spaghetti (Italian)
Zeitgeist, sauerkraut (German)
 Words that cannot be borrowed

Core Vocabulary
Words for basic items that most societies
have words for like body parts, familial
relations, or basic environmental entities
Borrowings in the English
Language
A lexical item may be directly borrowed
from another language but, it may have
different origin.
Sugar – borrowed from French, but it had
earlier passed through Latin and Arabic, and
likely Greek, Persian, and Sanskrit as well
SOURCES OF ENGLISH
WORDS
Borrowings from Scandinavian
Languages

Anger, blight, clumsy, doze, eggs, garden,

gate, geyser, law, ski, window
Borrowings from French

Art, beauty, butcher, carpenter, cartoon, catch, cattle,

cell, charity, chase, color, company, corpse, county,
court, design, dinner, dress, enemy, fork, format,
govern, grace, grocer, jail, judge, jury, lease, mercy.
Minister, miracle, napkin, painter, paradise, passion,
plate, porch, power, reign, saint, soldier, suit, supper,
table, tailor , troops
Brassiere, fiancé, resume, hors d’oeuvres
Borrowings from Latin

Abbot, agenda, alibi, animal, bonus,

circulate, colloquium, data, deficit, diet,
exit, extra, indicate, item, maximum,
memento, nominate, penicillin, pope,
priest, propaganda, radium, spectrum,
sponsor, veto, via
Borrowings from Greek

Analysis, angel, bacteriology, botany,

catastrophe, climax, comedy, democracy,
dialect, dialogue, episode, pediatrics,
physiology, physics, philosophy,
pneumonia, psychiatry, scene, system,
theater, tyrant, zoology
Borrowings from Native American
languages

Caucus, chipmunk, hickory, igloo, kayak,

moccasin, moose, muskrat, opossum,
pecan, raccoon, sequoia, skunk, teepee,
tomahawk, totem, wigwam
Borrowings from Spanish

Adobe, alligator, armada, cafeteria,

canyon, cargo, cockroach, coyote, guerilla,
matador, mosquito, mustang, plaza,
poncho, potato, renegade, rodeo, tornado
Borrowed due to Imported item or
concept

Borrowings from Celtic languages (Irish,

Welsh, etc.)
Blog, clan, glen, leprechaun, penguin,
slogan, shamrock
Borrowings from German
Angst, delicatessen, kindergarten, larger,
poke, pumpernickel, noodle, schnitzel
Borrowings from Dutch
Bow, commodore, cruise, dock, freight,
leak, lighter, pump, scour, scum, stripe,
yacht
Borrowings from Yiddish
Klutz, oy vey, schlep, schmuck
Borrowings from Italian
Alto, attitude, balcony, fiasco, fresco,
opera, pasta, piano, replica, soprano,
spaghetti, studio, torso, umbrella
Borrowings from South Asian Languages
(Sanskrit, Hindi, Tamil, etc.)
Bandanna, bungalow, calico, curry, guru,
indigo, jungle, loot, pajama, pundit, thug
Borrowings from Arabic
Emir, gazelle, ghoul, giraffe, harem, lute,
minaret, mosque, sultan
 Borrowings from Japanese
 Anime, bonsai, futon, karaoke, kimono,
tempura, typhoon
 LANGUAGE VARIATIONS

Language variation refers to the

phenomenon where language differs in
form and meaning according to the context
in which it is used, the geographical region
of its speakers, their social class, ethnicity,
age, and various other factors.