ENGLISH DIALECTSHISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

A language variety where users regional /

social background appears in their use of

vocabulary & grammar.

DIALECT

The features of pronunciation (the speech

sounds) that show regional/social identity

(and arguably that of an individual, since one

could have a personal and idiosyncratic

accent).

ACCENT

The timeline of the variouslanguage contacts in the English-speaking world.

The Germanic Conquest of Britain

Traces of Saxon pirates in the fourth century A.D.: A city wall was built along the river Thames in London after A.D. 360

A.D. 477 and A.D. 495 – The Saxons & Frisians (Germany) >> Wessex, Essex, and Sussex.

A.D. 547 - the Jutes >> Kent; the Angles >> north: + East Anglia (south-east England) + Mercia (central England) + Northumbria (northern England).

Conversion to Christianity in A.D. 597

The Old English Period

Anglo-Saxon Britain

Northumbria - the Angles Mercia - the Angles East Anglia - the Angles

Essex - the Saxons Sussex - the Saxons Wessex - the Saxons

Kent - the Jutes

Anglo-Saxon Britain - Heptrachy

Anglo-Saxon place-names: -bury, -ford, -ton, -ham, -worth, -field, -ing, -ley Bourne: Stream Burn: Stream Burg: Large village Bury: Fortified place Croft: Small enclosure Ford: Shallow river crossing Ham: Village Ing: People Lake: Lake Ley; Lea: Clearing Mere/Mer/Mar: Pool Moor: Moor Moss: Swamp Ney: Island Riding; Rod: Cleared land Stead: place Stoc: Summer pasture Stoke: 'Daughter' settlement Stow: Holy Place Ton; Tun: House; Farm Weald; Wold; High Woodland Wic; Wike: Farm; Group of huts Wood: Wood Worth: Fenced land

Anglo-Saxon Place-Name Elements

Old English Dialects

Dialect differences - 4 dialects:

West Saxon

Mercian

Kentish

Northumbrian

Old English Dialects

West Saxon developed a literary standard it is NOT the ancestor of Modern EnglishWest Saxon : Anglian ea o ceald cald > ModE ‘cold’

ie e hieran heran > ModE ‘hear’

Old English Dialects

cynn > kinn ‘kin’ = Northern / East Midlands kunn = West Saxon kenn = Kent / Southern OE myrige > merry (Southern) OE lyft > left (Southern) OE byrgan > bury (West Saxon) /beri/

(Southern) OE bysig > busy (West Saxon) /bɪzi/

(Northern) Kentish ken < kin, zen < sin

Dialects today: Old English short y

Front / i-mutation / i-umlaut: back vowel + /ɪ/, /i:/, or /j/ in the following

syllable: u: > y: > i: o: > e: Gothic OE Mod E *mǔsiz > mȳs (Umlaut) mice /maɪs/(GVS) *fǔlljan > fyllan (Umlaut) fill /fɪll/ (no GVS) *fŏdjan > fēdan (Umlaut) feed /fi:d/ (GVS)

Sound changes: I-mutation(Umlaut)

mouse-mice, full-fill, gold-gild, fox-vixen, food-feed, doom-deem, goose-geese tooth-teeth, book-beech, man-men, Canterbury-Kent, long-length, tale-tell

More on i-mutation: examples

A number of local dialects

The OE disunity - considerably increased #1 the isolation of districts in the feudal state

#2 the two foreign influences

Middle English Dialects

Northumbrian > NORTHERN(Northern, Lowland, Scottish)

Mercian >

MIDLAND(West Midland, East Midland,

South-West Midland)LONDON

SOUTHERN

West Saxon >

MIDLAND(West Midland, East Midland,

South-West Midland)LONDON

SOUTHERN

Kentish > KENTISH

The mixed dialect of London:

the South Western type

>> SHIFT >>

the East Midland type

Middle English Dialect Shift in the course of MidE Period

The earliest records - written in the local dialects

No literary standard yet in existence Some time after the Norman conquest (1066)

English literature practically nonexistent Some dialects – an almost 200-year gap The earliest MidE samples of prose:

the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles>> the Petersborough Chronicle (1122-1154). 

Middle English Records

BRITISH ENGLISH DIALECTS

England - UPPER CLASS (RECEIVED PRONUNCIATION) Phonology

[r] if not followed by a vowel [o] ¡ [Ïw] know, so, though, blow, [a] ¡ [Ø] not, what, got accent: library,

Morphology have is a modal auxiliary:

It is raised: have you a quid? It is cliticized: I've five quid

Collectives: the parliament are in session the team are fit the group are out playing

Syntax Discontinuous verbal particles: catch you up, ring you up Default pro-verb: Did you get the paper? I would have done, but I didn't have tuppence. phrases

come a cropper bangers and mash

Lexicon knock up ring up catch you up bonnet wind screen boot chips crisps bangers rubber lorry dust bin napkin knickers petrol

Regional English Dialects

Phonology drop [h]

high, hope, he, her I got high hopes he won't hit her

[l] : [ʊ] pill, call, tall [t] : [ʔ] little , bottle, what ya got vere mate [eɪ] : [aɪ] mate, gain, [aɪ] : [ɒɪ] high, flighty, might, [aʊ] : [æʊ] mouse, house, come round [u] : [u:ʊ] who, new, blue [æ] : [a] cab, cat, rat Interdentals become labiodentals

right nice little thing Wot's wif yu? me muvvuh

Morphology Me for my

me mum at's me book you got 'ere

Past tense BE: were Lexicon

Bloody, lolly, bugger off!, bloomin‘, bangers , knickers, Fancy that!, guv'na, knackered

COCKNEY

◦ Phonology [r] - trill [u] : [y] Look at the school! [a] : [æ] intonation: talking 'up' 'Canadian' raising [aɪ] : [ɪj] : light, right, kite

◦ Morphology Articles: t for the Contraction: dunna, dinna

◦ Syntax ◦ Lexicon

bairn wee loch kirk Lad : lassie

SCOTLAND

◦ Phonology [l] : [ʊ] except before vowels (fill, belt, told) [eɪ] : [aɪ] (gate, mate, gray, say, fail) [e] : [ə] (bed, Fred, let, tell, spell) [a] : [æ] (bad, cat, bat) [h] : [ø] (high, hug, hate, hover) [r] : [ø] (part, car, fear, pear))

◦ Lexicon: diminutives

Barby, dunny (toilet), down under, outback, bang up

Australia

East Midlands

once varied from county to county Now predominantly RP R's are dropped, but h's are pronounced.

The only signs that differentiate it from RP: ou > u: (so go becomes /gu:/). RP yu; becomes u: after n, t, d... as in American English.

The West Country r's are not dropped. initial s often becomes z (singer > zinger). initial f often becomes v (finger > vinger). vowels are lengthened.

West Midlands - the dialect of Ozzie Osbourne! Pronunciation is not that different from RP, some of the vocabulary is: are > am am, are (with a continuous sense) > bin is not > ay are not > bay Brummie is the Birmingham-spoken version of West Midlands

Other English Dialects (1)

Lancashire

This dialect, spoken north and east of Liverpool, has the southern habit of dropping r's. Other features:

/ʌ/ > /u/, as in luck (/luk/). /əʊ/ > /oi/, as in hole (/hoil/)

Scouse is the very distinctive Liverpool accent, a version of the Lancashire dialect, that the Beatles made famous.

the tongue is drawn back. /th/ and /dh/ > /t/ and /d/ respectively. final k sounds like the Arabic q. for rhymes with fur. Yorkshire

The Yorkshire dialect - sing-song quality, a little like Swedish, and retains its r's. /ʌ/ > /ʊ/, as in luck (/luk/). the - reduced to t'. initial h-dropping. was > were. still use thou (pronounced /thɑ:/) and thee. aught and naught (pronounced /aut/ or /out/ and /naut/ or /nout/) = anything and nothing.

Other English Dialects (2)

NorthernThe Northern dialect ~ the southern-most Scottish dialects. Many OScan words, e.g. bairn = child/r/ (often a roll) keptThe best-known is Geordie (Newcastle) -er > /æ/ - father > /fædhær/ /ou/ > /oa/- boat > each letter is pronounced. talk > /ta:k/ work > /work/ book > /bu:k/ my > me me > us our > wor you (plur.) > youse

Other English Dialects (3)

http://eleaston.com/world-eng.html#nghttp://eleaston.com/world-eng.html#sahttp://eleaston.com/india-eng.htmlhttp://eleaston.com/world-eng.html#sphttp://eleaston.com/world-eng.html#philhttp://eleaston.com/australian-eng.htmlhttp://eleaston.com/nz-eng.htmlhttp://eleaston.com/world-eng.html#car

ENGLISH VARIETIES WORLDWIDE – EAST OF LONDON

http://eleaston.com/world-eng.html#Welshhttp://eleaston.com/irish-eng.htmlhttp://eleaston.com/world-eng.html#carhttp://eleaston.com/am-eng.html

ENGLISH VARIETIES WORLDWIDE – WEST OF LONDON

PIDGIN is a simple form of a language which speakers of a different language use to communicate. Pidgin is not anyone's first language.

CREOLE is a language that has developed from a mixture of different languages and has become the main language in a particular place. (=patois)

PIDGIN : CREOLE

American Indian Pidgin EnglishChinese Pidgin EnglishChukotka Pidgin EnglishFulani Pidgin EnglishJapanese Bamboo EnglishJapanese Pidgin EnglishKorean Bamboo EnglishKru Pidgin EnglishLiberian Interior Pidgin EnglishLoyalty Islands Pidgin EnglishMadras Tamil Pidgin English*Maori Pidgin English*Micronesian Pidgin EnglishNauru Chinese Pidgin EnglishNew Caledonian Pidgin EnglishNewfoundland Pidgin EnglishPort Augusta Pidgin EnglishPort Jackson Pidgin EnglishQueensland Kanaka EnglishScottish Pidgin EnglishSierra Leone Pidgin EnglishSamoan Plantation PidginTaiwan Pidgin EnglishThai Pidgin EnglishTogolese Pidgin EnglishVietnamese Pidgin EnglishWest African Pidgin English

ENGLISH-BASED PIDGINS

Atlantic Eastern

Northern Afro-Seminole Creole Bahamas Creole English Sea Island Creole English

Southern Antigua and Barbuda Creole English Bajan Grenadian Creole English Guyanese Creole English Tobagonian Creole English Trinidadian Creole English Vincentian Creole English Virgin Islands Creole English

Turks and Caicos Creole English◦ Krio

Fernando Po Creole English Krio Pidgin, Nigerian Pidgin, Cameroon

◦ Suriname Ndyuka

Aukan Kwinti

Sranan◦ Western

Belize Kriol English Nicaragua Creole English Islander Creole English Jamaican Creole English

Pacific◦ Bislama◦ Hawai'i Creole English◦ Ngatik Men's Creole◦ Pijin◦ Kriol◦ Torres Strait Creole◦ Tok Pisin

Saramaccan

THE END

ENGLISH-BASED CREOLS