LANGUAGE VARIATION

Social Variation and Regional Variation

Sociolinguistics

Dialectology

Not determiners of sociolects

Ethnicity/race Age Social class

Family (too little) Region/Space (not based on social norms) Occupation/Hobbies (only lexical differences, and it is the least stable)

Education
Religion

Gender

Sociolect: A dialect or variety based purely

on societal norms (race, social class, etc)

Important Terms
Dialect (any variety) vs. Accent (pronunciation) Sociolinguistics vs. Dialectology Sociolects (basilect, mesolect, acrolect) vs. regional dialects Hypercorrection ( a standard rule applies in contexts where
its not supposed: idear or warsh?, you & I, he am)

Grammatical vs Lexical variation Jargon (specific vocabulary) vs. borrowing (from other languages) Standard vs non-standard Migration vs. immigration Linguistic Atlases (maps of regional variations) Language contact vs. linguistic isolation

Lexical differences across regions

Northern:

Pail, swill, whiffletree (= a thick quilt) Johnny cake, salt pork, darning needle (=dragonfly) Blinds (roller blades) Skillet (eaves) Piece (food taken between meals) Snake feeder (dragonfly) Lightwood, lighter (kindling) Hasslet (edible pig inner organs) Chittlins (small intestines)

Midland:

Southern:

Phonological differences (regions)

Northern:

[o] =/= [] (hoarse =/= horse) [s] in grease (V) and greasy Vowel in root and wood are equal Hoarse = horse (??) Verb rounding (frog, hog, wasp, wash) Monophthongization (single Verb) of new, due
Diphthongization of Tuesday, new, due Final [z] in Mrs. Monophthongization of five Diphthongization of ten

Midland:

South:

Morphosyntactic Differences (Regions)

Northern

Double modals hadnt ought Past tense been see climb for climbed (past tense marker lost) Uninflected be (How be you?)

Midland:

clum for climbed (irregularization of past tense) seen for saw (forms reduction/simplification) you all =/= you (second person distinction) Seed for saw (regularization) holp for helped (irregularization)

Southern:

Basic Definitions
Standard in the US:

Middle-class Midwesterners vs.

Non-Standard:

African-American Vernacular; Latino English, or Spanglish, Appalachian, Old poor Southerners, etc.

Some Fundamentals
Knowing non-standard dialects is helpful for both teacher & students. In urban ghettos, we find very little adjustment to school forms. Many bidialectals, when in contact with a super-ordinate (dominant) dialect, may reflect their awareness of that dialect as much of their own. Nonstandard dialects should be studied within their own system (in their own right), but also in comparison to other dialects of English (such as Standard English).

Some Common Non-Standard Dialect Features

No [-ed] inflections (past participle, especially) Double negation (He dont want no trouble) [i] becomes [e] before m/n Zero copula (no is, are, am) Habitual be Non-redundant pluralization (the boys, but six boy) Regularization of possessive pronouns (mine, yourn) Regularization and Non-redundant plural in reflexive pronouns (hisself, theirself vs. himself, themselves) Object pronouns in subject position (specially in compound subjects) (Us girls) them as demonstrative adjective (them books) Adjective = adverbs (good for both well/good) Loss of 3rd person sing. marker(he want or I has) [] becomes [n] in word-final position in [-ing] words.

Black English features

(Black English recognized legally in 1979)

zero copula [no is, am, are] Pre-Verb been Auxiliary done De-fricativization of voiced interdental Multiple negative No s inflection for 3rd person singular Extend 3rd person to 1st or 2nd.
I has some good friends. He dont be rub me the wrong way. Dem books be boring.

William Labov (1970)

Non-standard varieties of English are rule-governed systems and neither corrupt or inferior Advocates understanding of AAVE as ignorance leads to teacher-student conflict Can not draw on intuitions of children or nonstandard speakers as the superordinate variety will be reflected In general, one can say that whenever a speaker of a nonstandard dialect is in a subordinate position to a speaker of a standard dialect, the rules of his [sic.] grammar will shift in an unpredictable manner towards the standard

Labov, continued
Labov uses systematic analysis to connect the meanings in non-standard and standard varieties He states it is important for teachers to be able to understand the intended meaning to be able to supply the standard equivalent Differences between the varieties are not as sharp as they first appear Non-standard varieties are not inferior as a means of communication contrary to early beliefs

Pinker
Linguists fight the myth that working class people and the less educated speak a simpler or coarser language It is usually only the refined aspects of language (grammar, pronunciation) that are noticed A language is a dialect with an army and a navy (Max Weinreich) Early conclusions that non-standard dialects were grammatically deficient were based on subjects shy or sullen reactions to test batteries There are areas where AAVE (BEV) is more precise than the standard variety:

He be working (he generally works, perhaps regularly) He working (he is working at the time of the utterance)

Labovs research showed that AAVE speakers had a vastly higher percentage of grammatical utterances (within the system of the dialect) than the norm academics had the lowest

Rachel Jones
Not White, Just Right Claims skills with Standard English opened doors that would have otherwise been unattainable as a poor black girl Frustrations ensue from the idea that black kids believe speaking accurately is a white trait Such kids are submitting to the idea that success is a white thing States that recognising languages such as Ebonics is a damning commentary on our history of inequality and lack of access to equal educational opportunities in this country Claims Standard English has empowered her Claims mastery of Standard English is important for any group hoping to succeed in America

African American Vernacular English (AAVE)

Also known as Black English, Ebonics, AAE

CNN Report on Oakland Ebonics Decision LSA Resolution on the Ebonics Issue More on AAVE

AAVE