Professional Documents
Culture Documents
SOCIAL DIALECTS
BY: SITI HAJAR BT MOHAMAD NASER (P84380)
NURUL FARAH NADIA BT BAHARUM (P84388)
• A variety of a language that is
distinguished from other varieties of
the same language by features of
phonology, grammar and
vocabulary, and by its use by a
group of speakers who are set off
from others geographically or
socially.
DIALECTS
Accents have to be distinguished If you say eether and I say iyther,
from dialects. An accent is a that is accent. We use the same
person’s distinctive word but pronounce it
pronunciation. differently.
REGIONAL DIALECTS
American Accents
• There is different regional accent in language such as in England,
America, Australia, and New Zealand. There are differences in
varieties spoken in different region: differences in pronunciation,
vocabulary and grammar.
Example:
Australians : sole parents
British : single parents
New Zealanders : solo parents
British English American English
Aubergine Eggplant
Pavement Sidewalk
Boot Trunk
I can’t find my keys. Have you seen I can’t find my keys. Did you see
them anywhere? them anywhere?
INTERNATIONAL VARIETIES
• The high level of intra-national communication together with
the relatively small populations, may have inhibited the
development of marked regional differences in these countries
such as England and America.
Variation in vocabulary Variation in Variation in grammar
pronunciation
disjaskit (Geordies) God (American) is I might could go
worn out (rest of pronounced like (Geordies), I might go (rest
England) guard (British). of England)
> intra-national > intra-national
Sweet (British) Candy She’s eaten too much
(American) (British), she ate too much
> intra-continental (American)
> intra-continental
INTRA-NATIONAL VARIETIES
• Dialect chains are very common across the whole of Europe
where two countries with different language share almost the
same dialect.
• Varieties of Dialect chains: Italian – French
Austria and Germany Paris -> Italian border
More and more ‘Italian
Dutch and Flemish (Switzerland)
like’
Netherlands and Belgium
Rome -> French border
Portuguese and Spanish/ Catalan More and more ‘French
French and Italian like’
CROSS-CONTINENTAL VARIATION:
DIALECT CHAINS
WORDS WITH DIFFERENT MEANING IN
MALAYSIAN ENGLISH
WORD / MALAYSIAN MEANING AMERICAN / BRITISH
PHRASE MEANING
Parking lot Parking space Parking garage
Social Dialect
• Every social class has a different variety of the English
language. This means that someone from the Underclass can or
will use different words than someone from the Upper class,
articulates the words in another way or uses different rules
regarding to grammar.
• Eg: Upper class Underclass
Sitting room Lounge
Lavatory Toilet
Bag Handbag
Sofa Sette
Relations Relatives
Writing Paper Notepaper
Social Class
• Labov conducted a study at a department store in New York consisting 3
venues which represents 3 social classes.
1. Saks 5th Avenue (Upperclass)
2. Macy’s (Middle class)
3. S. Klein (Lower class)
• The interviewer asked the following question:
Interviewer: Excuse me, where are the women’s shoes?
Salesperson: Fourth floor.
Interviewer: Excuse me?
Salesperson: Fourth floor.
• Findings showed that the prestigious stores will have the most pronounced
/r/
• Thus, in New York City, pronouncing /r/ is considered prestigious
• However standard dialect speakers do not pronounce /r/ after a vowel
Eg: Car (ka) and card (kad)
• Grammatical Patterns
• Peter Trudgill's 1970s research into language and social class
showed some interesting differences between men and women
• His study found that men were less likely and women more
likely to use the prestige pronunciation of certain speech sounds
• Vernacular forms are used more frequently by men
• Eg:
Men Women
Singin’ Singing
Fing Thing
Taul Told
Gender
• Robin Lakoff (1973), suggested that women spoke
more “proper” English than men because of the
insecurity caused by sexism in society.
Eg: Whom do you like?
Age
• Words or phrases that are usually used by younger
people are better known as slang
Eg: Buck (dollar)
• Vernacular use in English-speaking countries are fewer
for middle-age speakers, but again, it increases for old-
age speakers due to the decrease of social pressure
• The accent of the best educated and most prestigious members of
English society.
• It conceals a speaker’s regional origin but does reveal the speakers
social or educational background
• However not many people in Britain actually speak Received
Pronunciation. The most famous speakers of RP are: The Royal
British Family and David Cameroon The Prime Minster of the
United Kingdom.
• Eg:
Word Normal RP
Lovely luv-ly laahh-v-ly
February feb-you-ry/feb-you-air-ree feb-rue-air-ree
Received Pronunciation
• 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-speaking schools.
• Eg:
Standard English
• The speech of a particular country/region or informal speech
style or the common, everyday language or ordinary people in
a particular locality.
• African American Vernacular English (AAVE) has different
grammar than many other dialects of English.
• Eg:
Sounds
- Reduce final consonant cluster
o Left hand – ‘lef han’
- Dental consonants are pronounced as alveolar stops
o Think, that’ – ‘tink, dat’
Vernacular
Grammar
- Double negative
o Can't nobody say he don't work.
o He ain't never without a job!
- Absence of verb to be
o You crazy
o She workin’ now
THE END