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Theme XI. Regional varieties

of the English vocabulary.1. Standard English, variants & dialects

2. Five groups of dialects in Britain.

Cockney, the regional dialect of London.

3. Accent. Received pronunciation.

4. American English. Historical Americanisms.Difference in voc-ry & pronunciation, grammar,

spelling.5.Canadian , Australian & Indian variants.Peculiarities in phonetics, grammar, spelling &vocabulary.

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 1. Standard English - the official language of Great

Britain, of schools & universities, used by the press,

radio & TV & spoken by educated people may be

defined as literary language.Dialects- are varieties of the English language peculiar 

to some districts & having no normalized literary form.

Regional varieties possessing a literary form are

called variants.

2. In Great Britain there are two variants - Scottish

English & Irish English & 5 main groups of dialects:

Northern, Midland, Eastern, Western & Southern.

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3. Received pronunciation --- BBC English

1. Chinese is spoken by 7000 bn people English is

spoken by 400 bn people

People who speak English fall into 3 groups:

1) those who have learned it as a native language

2) those who have learned it as a second language( in a

bilingual society)

3) those who are forced to use it for practical purposes.

English is considered to be learned because of:

a) simplicity of forms ( nr. cases, etc)b) flexibility ( water n- water v)

c) openness of vocabulary( lots of borrowings from other 

languages)

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Every group contains up to ten dialects. Cockney is theregional dialect of London. It exists on two levels:

a) as spoken by the educated lower middle classes(some derivations in pronunciation only)

b) as spoken by uneducated class (that differs inpronunciation, grammar, vocabulary & syntax)

Cockney [w]-[v]; very-wery; vell-well;

[f] [v]- [0] [0] thing- fing; father- faver;

w-v labio--- labio-dental; r-indicates the length of thevowel( for other dialects too)

hear- art( aspirated-non aspirated) The most markedfeature in vowel sound is the substitution of the

diphong [ei] for [ai]e.g. day, face, rain, way,[ dai fais rain wai]

voc-ry ; set expressions--- up the pole (drunk); you'll getyourself disliked(remonstrance protest to a person

behaving very badly)

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Cockney is lively & witty & its vocabulary is imaginative

& colourful. Rhyming slangs ( words are substituted by

other rhyming with them)

Boots---daisy roots; hat- tat; head- loaf of bread; wife-

trouble & strife( angry, conflict, violent, disagreement)

Dialects are mainly preserved in rural communities in the

speech of elderly people. For the most part dialect inliterature has been limited to speech characterization

of personages in books. It is remarkable for its

conservatism: many words becoming very old & are

still kept in standard English. In spite of this dialectsare developed further on wholly more than the various

standard languages.

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English is the most widely spoken language on Earth(China - in the number of the people who speak it).English is the language of business, technology, sport,aviation, computer.

75% of world's mail & 60% of the world’s telephonecalls. It has the largest vocabulary-500.000 words &300.000 technical terms.

Cockney expressions;

jumping Jack = back;Gregory peck-= neck;

German bands- =hands;

North & south - =mouth;

boat race- =face;mince pies-= eyes;

plats of meat- =feet;

I suppose- =nose.

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Queens of English - is a prestigious accent of 

those who are at the top of social scale. So

public school graduates speak RP, about 3-4%

of all Englishmen speak RP.

4.American English

These 2 kinds of English are very similar. There

are a few differences of grammar & spelling &

rather more differences of vocabulary.

Pronunciation is sometimes very different, but

most British and American speakers canunderstand each other.

Grammar differences;

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US Gr.Br. US G. B.

 Apartment flat second floor 1st floor 

Cab taxi French fries chipsgarbage /trash rubbish Candy sweets

gas(oline) petrol Check bill(restaurant)high way main road Closed(cabinet) cupboardintersection crossroads Cookie biscuitmad angry Corn maizemail post Crazy madmotor engine Elevator liftmovie film/picture Fall autumnpats/pant strousers First floor ground floor store shop Sidewalk Pavementsubway underground Potatoe chips crispstruck lorry Railroad railwayvacation holiday(s) Round trip returned( ticket)zipper zip

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• Pronunciation

• [a:]---[a] [a:sk] --- [ask] spelling ize---ise/ ize

aluminum- aluminium center- centre defense-

defence labor- labour program- programme

traveler- traveller 

• r---- is very back

• analyze- analyse cataog-catalogue

• check - cheque (bank) color- colour ( more

words differ)

• honor-honour jewelry- jewellery

• pajamas- pyjamas practice- practise(v)

• theater- theatre tire- tyre( of a car)

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5.Canadian, Australian & Indian variants (phonetics, spelling-, grammar & vocabulary)

It is natural that the English language is not used

with uniformity in all parts of the world. TheEnglish language has some peculiarities inWales, Scotland & America. Grammatically -Past Indefinite is replaced by Present Perfect;

Will- is used for all the persons;

Present Continuous with a future meaning is usedtwice frequently in BE as in the American,

Canadian & Australian variants; Infinitiveconstructions are used more rarely in AE &BE& Au E; Passive constructions on the contrary-

more frequent in AE;

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 AuE - kangaroo, kaola, dingo, gum-tree;

 AE- junior & senior high school ---CnE--

composite high school;

 AuE- boomerang, AE- drug-store, CnE- float

house. Canadian English is influenced by both

 AE & BE but it has some specific features of 

its own. Especially Canadian words are called

Canadianisms. They are not very frequent

outside Canada except "shack"(hut), "fathom"-

to explain.

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Many of the words of a specific country (Australia,

India, etc.) denote local animals, plants,

weather conditions, social relation, trades &

conditions of labour. The local words for newnotions penetrate into the English language and

later can become international.

e.g. (India) bungalow n, sahib n, sari n, jute n,khaki a, mango n, nabob n, pyjamas n-all these

words have become international.

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The English think they have the right to criticize

the other variants as the speakers "call"

English as their own. That's why American,

Canadian & Australian English havedeveloped standards of their own.

Pronunciation differs from state to state &

place to place.Americans think that there will be a time when

 American standard will be spoken even in

Britain and will be given the status of LiteraryStandard.