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LANGUAGES DIALECT AND ACCENTS

One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors, such as social class. A dialect that is associated with a particular social class can be termed a socialist; a regional dialect may be termed a regiolect.

The other usage refers to a language socially subordinate to a regional or national standard language, often historically cognate to the standard, but not a variety of it or in any other sense derived from it.

WHAT IS A DIALECT?

YES and NO! Technically a dialect is not a language in itself. However as a rule

of thumb if the disparity between the predominant language and the subordinate language is quite vast than yes a dialect can be said to be a language.

A lot of factors however contribute to this: Social status Political concerns Geographic placement Historical concerns For examples both Mandarin and Cantonese speakers are

considered to be one language, Chinese. They are both spoken in the same country and are both written the same however are not mutually intell igible.

South Africa: The main language spoken by the natives is Zulu, however depending on where they are geographically located and the villages isolation other languages or dialects form that are not comprehensible to others who speak Zulu. At this point the subordinate dialect can be said to be a language.

ARE DIALECTS A LANGUAGE?

In linguistics, an accent is a manner of pronunciation peculiar to a particular individual, location, or nation. An accent may identify the locality in which its speakers reside (a geographical or regional accent), the socio-economic status of its speakers, their ethnicity, their caste or social class, their fi rst language (when the language in which the accent is heard is not their native language), and so on.

Linguistic factors to consider:quality of voice, pronunciation of vowels and

consonants, stress, and prosody. Although grammar, semantics, vocabulary, and other

language characteristics often vary concurrently with accent, it usually associated with dialect.

WHAT IS AN ACCENT?

As we just discussed regional variation is associated with linguistic variation.

Speakers if distinctive dialects will have distinctive regional accents as well.

Lets use Standard English as an example:Widely known around the world: England, US, Canada,

Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Wales, Scotland. All have their own accents. Even within their own country

this may diff er. Britain: They all have their own dialects: diff erent use of sounds,

phonemes and grammar.’They all have their own lexicon: use of vocabulary known

to their region. i.e. blower: phone blagged: robbedhttp://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/index.html

REGIONAL VARIATION

We must recognise the presence of a sociolect. This can be determined by ethnicity, age, profession,

gender, etc. For example the dialect, accent and lexicon of a 15 year old Australian born Vietnamese student may diff er to that of a 15 year old Anglo Australian student due to their social surroundings.

Trying to avoid stereotyping at all costs, but they may: hang around with friends of their ethnicity, culture, religion. Use a lexicon relevant their social setting. Speak Vietnamese at home all the time.

Lets break down these factors

SOCIAL VARIATION

Ethnicity is an important part of identity. Because of this people use language as a way of asserting their identity.

English is less important here however it is not to say that ethnicities within an English speaking country only speak their own language.

If you are French, Greek, Italian, Indigenous and all live within in Australia for instance, the features in those groups English become a marker of ethnicity.

SOCIAL VARIATION: ETHNICITY

Women:Tend to use prestige forms, which in most language

communities are varieties closest to the standard language.

Sometimes tend more towards the non standard local variety (dialect).

Sometimes play a roll in norm setting and the redefining of status forms.

Men: Usually conform to the norms established within a community or social group.

Orientation: Gay, lesbian, bi and transexual men and women also have linguistic features to identify group membership. However as this is still plagued with stereotype a true analysis is diffi cult.

DIMENSION OF GENDER AND SEXUAL ORIENTATION

Some dialects are described as linguistically superior to others.

Non standard varieties and dialects are often disparaged and devalued simply because they don’t have the same prestige or status the standard language holds.

OVERT PRESTIGE: features recognised by whichever in the culturally dominant group.

COVERT PRESTIGE: features signalling a particular group or sub group, ie street cred!

ATTITUDES TO VARIATION

Judgements are made about variation based on a number of factors:

AccentSocial status and backgroundCultureGeographic location Physical appearance

Here it is judged whether a prescriptive or descriptive approach to language should be used.

ATTITUDES TO VARIATION

PRESCRIBED =How you ought to speak. Based on or establishing norms or rules indicating how a language should or should not be used rather than describing the ways in which a language is used

Descriptive =How people actually speak. Colloquialisms, slang, shortenings, reductions

PRESCRIPTIVE LANGUAGE