Dialects of Modern English

English 112

Tom Leonard – 6’O Clock News

Dialects

• A dialect is a locally-based way of speaking a language

• It deviates from the Standard by changing the words for things (slang) and the way that they are pronounced (an accent)

• There are thousands of English dialects

• Dialects are little languages and also spread through dissemination

In “6’O Clock News”…

• What slang is unique to the Scots dialect?

• What words are pronounced differently?

Examples of Dialects

• BEV (Black English Vernacular)

• Cockney Rhyming Slang– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v

=fhp3SocUYBg

• Newfoundlandese

My Own Example…

• Grand Manan Island, in the Bay of Fundy, south of here

• My father was a fisherman there

Some Phrases My Dad Uses

• “Right mighty wicked awful, wha’?”• “We’re headin’ fer the rhubarb!”• “Jumpin’ General Harry!”• “Lurpin’ ol’ …”• “I bet you dollars to donuts that …”• “I wisht I had my truck.”• “Nut bar,” as opposed to “chocolate bar” or

“candy bar”—whether or not it has nuts• “Buggy,” as opposed to “ATV” or “four-wheeler”

Slang

• Slang words are technically referred to as “colloquialisms”

• These are any words for things other than their Standard English words; expressions and clichés; greetings; etc.

Some 2000s slang…

• “I see what you did there.”

• “Right?!”

• “Money,” “mint,” “steak sauce”

• “Ridonkulous”

• “Epic fail” and “epic failure”

• “Meh”

MSN Abbreviations

• BRB• BBL• LOL, ROTFL• BTW• FTW, QFT• BFF• TTYL

How does slang spread?

• One idea involves memes

• Memes are units of cultural transmission—ideas, basically, but usually very small ideas

• Examples include catchy tunes, beliefs, and slang terms

• You can think of memes as mind viruses, spreading from mind to mind

• Social networking is all about memes!

Memes, cont’d.

• Sometimes memes spread even if they are bad for the person they’re spreading to

• For example, people die for ideas—like “freedom” or “religion”—all the time

• However, usually memes are successful just because they’re catchy

Internet Memes

• The Dancing Baby

• lolcats

• Rickrolling

• Twitter

• Mr. T

We often refer to these phenomena as being “viral.”

Standard English

Is it right to judge people based on their dialects?

What are the benefits of speaking standard English?

When should people speak it?

 From  "Situations Theoretical and Contemporary" (1985)  And their judges spoke with one dialectbut the condemned spoke with many voices.

And the prisons were full of many voices,but never the dialect of the judges.And the judges said:    "No-one is above the Law."