Mace Don Ian and English Language and Dialects

8/3/2019 Mace Don Ian and English Language and Dialects

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1. As Introduction: What is sociolinguistics?

Sociolinguistics is the study of language in relation to society. Sociolinguistics is

partly empirical and partly theoretical partly a matter of going out and amassing bodies

of fact and partly of sitting back and thinking. Personal experience is a rich source of

information on language in relation to society. Much of the interest in sociolinguistics

come from people (such as educationalists) who have a practical concern for language,

rather than a desire simply to understand better how this small area of the universe

works. There is a difference between sociolinguistics and linguistics linguistics differs

from sociolinguistics in taking account only of the structure of language, to the exclusion

of the social contexts in which it is learned and used. The task of linguistics, according to

this is to work out ,,the rules of language, after which the sociolinguistics may enter thescene and study any points at which these rules make contact with society such as

where alternative ways of expressing the same are chosen by different social groups.

The value of sociolinguistics as ,,the study of language in relation to society

implies (internationally) that sociolinguistics is part of the study of language. The value

of sociolinguistics is the light which it throws on the nature of language in general, or on

the characteristics of some particular language.1

2. What is language?

Language is system of sounds or code that we use for communicating with each

other in our every day life. Language is the system that distinguishes us from animals,

and according to some myths and religions, it is the language that is the source of human

life and power. According to Chomsky, in order to make meaningful discoveries about

language, linguists must try to distinguish between what is important and what is

unimportant about language and linguistic behavior. The important matters have to do

with learn-ability of all languages, the characteristics they all share, and the rules and

principles that speakers follow in constructing and interpreting sentences; the much less

1 Richard A. Hudson, 1996, Sociolinguistics. Second Edition, Cambridge UniversityPress, Cambridge, p. 1-4


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important matters have to do with how individual speakers use specific utterances in a

variety of ways as they find themselves in various situations. 2 Looking closely at any

language, we can discover that all the people dont speak the same all the time, they

exploit nuances for a wide variety of purposes. The consequence is that no matter how

much linguists would like language to be homogenous entity, speakers have variety of

styles.

3. Varieties of language, Standard English, Standard Macedonian

Hudson defines a variety of language as a ,,set of linguistic items with similar

distribution which means that Standard English, Cocney, Canadian English, London

English,and so on are varieties of the English language. ,,According to Hudson, thisdefinition also allows us to treat the language of some multilingual speaker, or

community, as a single variety, since all the linguistic items concerned have a similar

social distribution. A variety can therefore be something greater than a single language as

well as something less, less even than something traditionally referred to as a dialect.3

Many people equate the term language as in the ,,the English language or ,,the

French language with the standard language that is, that version of the language held

to be correct in pedagogical grammar books and usage guides and used in education, theworkplace, and government. Because the standard is associated with education and

sophistication, other varieties of the language are often considered to be lesser versions of

the language perhaps not so fully formed, or maybe ,,sloppy in comparison with the

standard. However, to the linguist, a language isnt just the standard version of the

language but rather the sum of all the varieties that comprise it. Further, sociolinguistics

has demonstrated that all the varieties of language including those quite far removed

from standard or socially prestigious varieties are equally complex, regularly patterned,

and capable of serving as vehicles for the expression of any message their speakers might

wish to communicate.4

2Ronald Wardhaugh, 2010, An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. Sixth Edition, Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester, p.23Wardhaugh, p.254 Ralph W. Fasold, Jeff Connor-Linton, 2006, An Introduction to language and


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Historically, the standard variety of English is based on the dialect of English that

developed after the Norman Conquest resulted in the permanent removal of the Court

from Winchester to London. This dialect became the one preferred by the educated, and it

was developed and promoted as a model, or norm, for wider and wider segments of

society. Today, written Standard English is codified to the extent that the grammar and

vocabulary of written varieties of English are much the same everywhere in the world.

Standard English is so powerful that it exerts a tremendous pressure on all such local

varieties.5

The Macedonian grammar defines the language as a system of signs used as a

means for communication between people. Only through the language, the capability of

humans for communication can be seen. Every language system has a hierarchy and

structure. In the structure of one language, every language sign has its place in the systemand all the signs are mutually dependant.

The Macedonian language is compatible with the other Slavic languages and is in

the family of the Slavic languages. Their compatibility is due to the mutual origin. All

Slavic languages have the same origin- the ancient Slavic which originates from the Indo-

European language.

Today, the Slavic languages are widely spread on the territory of the European

Continent and are divided in three groups:

- southern Slavic group containing: the Macedonian, Bulgarian, Serbian,

Croatian and Slovenian languages;

- eastern Slavic group: Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian language

- western Slavic group of: Polish, Czech and Slovak languages.

Most of the Slavic nations made standardization of their languages based on their

national languages. The Macedonian language was standardized after the creation of the

Macedonian state in the federation with the other Yugoslav republics.

Codification is accepting and systematization of language rules and directing

obligatory language norms. For the Macedonian language codification was made in 1945

which was based on several principles: the standard language should be formed from

linguistics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p.3125Ronald Wardhaugh, 2010, An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. Sixth Edition, Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester, p.35


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those dialects that can be best understood by all people from all parts of the country; the

standard language should be on the basis of the national language and the Macedonian

alphabet should contain as much letters as there are sounds in the literary language.

4. Dialect

Within the English language the most obvious variations across speakers in

society are the differences in how people pronounce words, how their intonation and

pitch varies, and how different words, phrases and constructions might be used in their

every day speech. It is usual in linguistics to distinguish between accent and dialect.

Accent refers to the sounds that speakers produce: the vowels and consonants in the

words they use will be placed in particular pattern; the speed of their talk, their intonationto express statements, questions, surprise, annoyance and so on, and where they

characteristically pitch their voices will all contribute to a recognizable pattern.6

A dialect is a subordinate variety of a language, so that we can say that Texas

English and Swiss German, are dialects of English and German. The language name is

the super ordinate term. We can also say of some languages that they contain more than

one dialect: e.g. English, French, Italian are spoken in various dialects. If a language is

spoken by so few people, or so informally, that it has only one variety, we might be

tempted to say that language and dialect become synonymous in such a case.7

All speakers of English can talk to each other and pretty much understand each

other; yet no two speak exactly the same. Some differences are due to sex, age,

personality, emotional state. That each person speaks somewhat differently from all

others is shown by our ability to recognize acquaintances by hearing them talk. The

unique characteristics of the language of an individual speaker are referred to as the

speakers idiolect. The language of a group of people may show regular variations from

that used by other groups of speakers of that language. When the English of speakers in

different geographical regions are from different social groups shows systematic

6Howard Jackson, Peter Stockwell, 2011,An Introduction to the nature and functions of

language. Second Edition, Continuum International Publishing Group, London, p.1567Ronald Wardhaugh, 2010, An introduction to Sociolinguistics. Sixth Edition, Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester, p.40


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differences, the groups are said to speak different dialects of the same language. The

dialects of a single language may thus be defined as mutually intelligible forms of a

language. When dialects become mutually intelligible when the speakers of one dialect

group can no longer understand the speakers of another dialect group these dialects

become different languages.8

Dialect differentiation of a language is made upon the differences in phonetics,

accent, morphology, syntax and lexicology. The Macedonian language is divided in many

dialect groups. Almost every region and its surrounding have different dialects that differ

from the one another. The dialect differentiation characteristics are divided in two

groups: the first group of characteristics occurred as a result of the inner development;

and the second group occurred under the influence of the Balkan non Slavic languages.

These influences can be noticed in the grammatical structure of the Macedonian languageand its lexicology.

5. Regional Dialects, Macedonian Dialects, Political Factors

Regional variation in the way a language is spoken is likely to provide one of the

easiest ways of observing variety in a language. As you travel throughout a wide

geographical area in which a language is spoken, and particularly if that language has been spoken in that area for hundreds of years, you are almost certain to notice

differences in pronunciation, in the choices and forms of words, and in syntax. There may

be even very distinctive local colorings in the language which you notice as you move

from one location to another. Such distinctive varieties are usually called regional

dialects of the language.

When a language is recognized as being spoken in different varieties, the issue

becomes one of deciding how many varieties and how to classify each variety. Dialect

geography is the term used to describe attempts made to map the distributions of various

linguistic features so as to show their geographical provenance. Sometimes maps are

drown to show actual boundaries around such features, boundaries called isoglosses, so

8Viktoria Fromkin, Robert Rodman,1993, An introduction to language. Fifth edition,Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers, Orlando, P.276


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as to distinguish an area in which a certain feature is found from areas in which it is

absent. When several such isoglosses coincide, the result is sometimes called a dialect

boundary. Then we may be tempted to say that speakers on one side of that boundary

speak one dialect and speakers on the other side speak a different dialect.9

According the territorial differences in the pronunciation of some voices, the

accent and some grammar features, the Macedonian language territory is divided on three

basic dialect groups: western, southeastern, and northern.

The western Macedonian dialect further can be divided on central and peripheral.

The central group of dialects is contained by: ,,skopsko-veleshki, ,,prilepsko-bitolski

and ,,kichevsko-porechki dialect. The western peripheral dialects are presented by:

,,gornoploshki, ,,debarski, ,,strushki, ,,ohridski, ,,drimkolsko-golobrdski,

,,vevchansko-radoshki, ,,malorekanski debarski and ,,rekanski dialect.The southeastern Macedonian dialects are the second largest group of dialects and

it covers the dialects of Eastern Macedonia. It is divided in a few smaller dialect

groups: ,,shtipsko-strumichki, ,,tikveshko-mariovski and ,,maleshevsko-pirinski. A

larger group of dialects within the southeastern dialects which differ from one another by

accenting are: ,,solunsko-vodenski, ,,sersko-lagadinski, ,,kostursko-korchanski and

,,korchanski dialect.

The northern Macedonian dialects cover the dialects of the villages of Polog,

dialects in Skopska Crna Gora, Kumanovo, Ovchepole, Kratovo and Kriva Palanka.

There are a lot of differences in the northern dialects which tells us that there is no

absolute unity.

It interesting to mention the political factors that determine terms language and

dialect. Modern nationalism, as developed especially since the French Revolution, has

made the distinction between language and dialect an issue of great political

importance. A group speaking a separate language is often seen as having a greater claim

to being a separate people, and thus to be more deserving of its own independent state,

while a group speaking a dialect tends to be not as a people in its own right, but a sub-

group, part of a bigger people, which must content itself with regional autonomy. The

9Ronald Wardhaugh, 2010, An introduction to sociolinguistics. Sixth Edition, Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester, p.43-45


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distinction between language and dialect is thus inevitably made at least as much on a

political basis as on a linguistic one, and can lead to great political controversy, or even

armed conflict. The classification of speech varieties as dialects or languages and their

relationship to other varieties of speech can thus be controversial and the verdict

inconsistent. English and Serbo-Croatian illustrate the point. They have two major

variants: British and American English, and Serbian and Croatian, along with numerous

other varieties. For political reasons, analyzing these varieties as languages or dialects

yields inconsistent results: British and American English, spoken by close political and

military allies, are almost universally regarded as dialects of a single language, whereas

the standard languages of Serbia and Croatia, which differ from each other to a similar

extent as the dialects of English, are being treated by many linguists from the region as

distinct languages, largely because the two countries oscillate from being brotherly tobeing bitter enemies.

Macedonian, although mutually intelligible with Bulgarian, certain dialects of

Serbian and to lesser extent the rest of the south Slavic dialect continuum is considered

by Bulgarian linguists to be a Bulgarian dialect, in contrast with the contemporary

international view, and the view in the Republic of Macedonia which regards it as a

language in its own right. Nevertheless, before the establishment of a literary standard of

Macedonian in 1944, in most sources in and out of Bulgaria before the Second World

War, the southern Slavonic dialect continuum covering the area of todays Republic of

Macedonia were referred to as Bulgarian dialect.10

6. Accent, Macedonian accent

Accent refers to the characteristics of speech that convey information about the

speakers dialect, which may reveal in what country or what part of the country the

speaker grew up or to which social group belongs. The term accent is also used to refer to

the speech of someone who speaks language non natively; for example, a French person

speaking English is described as having a French accent. In this sense, accent refers to

phonological differences or interference from a different language spoken elsewhere.

10http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialect.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialecthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialect


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Unlike the regional dialectal accents, such foreign accents do not reflect differences in the

language of the community where the language was acquired.11

The accent in the Macedonian standard language, by its phonetic features is

dynamic, and fixated on the third syllable from the back of a word, when speaking about

words with more than three syllables.

One of the most important characteristics of the Macedonian standard language is

its accent, and it separates the Macedonian language from all the other south Slavic

languages. There is deviation from the rule for accenting in the domestic as well as from

the foreign words. Lots of words which penetrated the Macedonian standard language,

like the international vocabulary, didnt adjust to the rule for accenting. These words

retained their own accent. More quickly and easier adjustment find those foreign words

that are used for a longer period of time and are used in every day conversations.

7. Social Dialects

The term dialect also describes differences in speech associated to various social

groups or classes. Social dialects originate among social groups and are related with a

variety of factors like social class, religion or ethnicity. For example, in the city like

Baghdad the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim inhabitants speak different varieties of

Arabic. In this case the first two groups use their variety solely within the group but the

Muslim variety serves a lingua franca, or common language, among the group.

Consequently, Christians and Jews who deal with Muslims must use two varieties: their

own at home and the Muslim variety for trade and in all inter-group relationships.12

Registers are sets of language items associated with discrete occupational or

social groups. Surgeons, pilots, bankers, jazz fans etc. employ different registers. As

Ferguson (1994, p.20) says People participation in recurrent communication situations

tend to develop similar vocabularies, similar features of intonation, and characteristic bits

11Victoria Fromkin, Robert Rodman, 1993, An introduction to language. Fifth Edition,

Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers, Orlando, p. 27712Ronald Wardhaugh, 2010, An introduction to sociolinguistics. Sixth Edition, Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester, p.51


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of syntax and phonology that they use in these situations. This kind of variety is

register.13

8. Slang and jargon

It is very important to note that dialects are not the same as slang or jargon. The

term dialect is used to refer to an entire language variety with features on all levels of

language patterning (e.g. phonology, grammar and lexicon). The term slang on the other

hand, is used chiefly to talk about lexical items. In addition, slang words typically carry

some sort of non-neutral social meaning and usually have non-slang synonyms that are

more neutral in tone (e.g. wack vs. strange or kick the bucket vs. die). Further, slang

words are usually consisted to be short-lived, though, in reality some slang terms havebeen around for generations. (e.g. the term dough for money and flunk for fail have been

around since at least the early 20th century). Jargon also pertains to the lexical level of

language and refers to terms associated with a particular sphere of activity for example

computer jargon or legal jargon. 14

9. Lingua Franca

Many areas of the world are populated by people speaking divergent languages.

In such areas, where groups desire social or commercial communication, one language is

often used by common agreement. Such language is called lingua franca. In medieval

times, a trade language came into use in the Mediterranean ports, based largely on the

medieval languages that became modern Italian and Provencal. This came to be called

Lingua Franca, Frankish language. The term lingua franca was generalized to other

languages similarly used. Thus, any language can be a lingua franca. English has been

called the lingua franca of the whole world, French, at one time, was the lingua franca

of diplomacy, and Latin and Greek were the lingua francas of Christianity in the West

and East, for a millennium. More frequently, lingua francas serve as trade languages.

13Wardhaugh, p.52

14 Ralhp W. Fasold, Jeff Connor-Linton, 2006, An introduction to language andlinguistics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p.312


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East Africa is populated by hundreds of tribes, each speaking its own language, but most

Africans of this area learn at least some Swahili as a second language, and this lingua

franca is used and understood in nearly every marketplace.15

10. Pidgins and Creoles

A lingua franca is a language with a broad base of native speakers, and is learned

by persons whose native language is in the same language family. However, in the past,

trades and missionaries visited and attempted to communicate with people in distant

areas. In such cases, as cultures too widely separated a lingua franca couldnt be used.

Instead, the groups used their native language as a basis for a rudimentary language of

few lexical items and simple grammar rules. That kind of language was called pidgin.There are a number of such languages in the world, including a large number of

English based pidgins. One such pidgin, called Tok Pisin, originally was called

Melanesian Pidgin English. It was widely used in Papua New Guinea. Like most pidgins,

many of its lexical items and structure are based on only one language of the two or more

contact languages, in this case English. Although pidgins are in some sense rudimentary,

they are not devoid of grammar. The phonological system is rule governed, as in any

human language. With their small vocabularies, pidgins are not good at expressing fine

distinctions of meaning.16 Pidgins are not a kind of baby-talk, used by adults, on the

contrary, pidgins raise important theoretical issues concerning the origin; pidgins are

highly functional in the lives of those who use them.

A creole is often defined as a pidgin that has become the first language of a new

generation of speakers. As Aitchinson (1994, p.3177) says, a creoles arise when pidgin

become mother tongue. A creole therefore is a normal language almost in every sense.

In practice it is not easy to say weather we have pidgin rather than a creole. Tok Pisin and

some of the West African pidgins such as Nigerian Pidgin English probably exist as both

pidgins and creoles. They have speakers who use them only as a second languages in an

15Viktoria Fromkin, Robert Rodman, 1993, An introduction to language. Fifth edition,

Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers, Orlando, p.29416Viktoria Fromkin, Robert Rodman, 1993, An introduction to language. Fifth edition,Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers, Orlando, p.297


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expanded form and also speakers for whom they are first languages. Such expanded

varieties are often characteristic of urban environments in which there is likely to be

considerable contact among speakers of different languages and are sometimes referred

to as extended pidgins.

If we look at the actual processes involved in pidginization and creolization we

can see that they are almost diametrically opposed to each other in certain important

ways. Pidginization generally involves some kind of simplification of a language, e.g.

reduction in morphology (word structure) and syntax (grammatical structure), tolerance

of considerable phonological variation (pronunciation) and extensive borrowing of words

from local mother tongues. On the other hand, creolization involves expansion of the

morphology and syntax, regularization of morphology, increase in the number of

functions in which the language is used, and development of a rational and stable systemfor increasing vocabulary.17

11. Conclusion

A language and any variety of language is a complex thing, due to the complexity

of societies with whom languages are closely related. So, a distinctive definition of

language or dialect couldnt be expressed, although linguists have tried to set boundaries.

A dialect becomes a language when it has one variety, or is spoken by few people. People

from different geographical regions speak different dialects of the same language, but

still they understand each other, so the dialect is intelligible. By a speakers accent we can

determine where does he come from or by the phonological differences of different

languages.

Dialects are not the same as slang or jargon because slang is used in informal

situations, and jargon terms are associated with certain professions.

In order people from different parts of the world to understand each other use

lingua franca, like the English language, which is a lingua franca of the whole world.

However, people trying to communicate often use their native language mixed with other

17Ronald Wardhaugh, 2010, An introduction in sociolinguistics. Sixth Edition, Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester, p.63-64


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language and pidgin is developed. When pidgin becomes first or mother tongue of a new

generation a creole arises.

Since the distinction between language and dialect is based on cultural and

political considerations rather on linguistic ones, it has been aptly quipped that a

language is a dialect with an army and navy. (Max Weinreich)

REFERENCES:

, ., -, ., , ., , ., (1998).


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. :

Fasold, R. and Connor-Linton, J. (2006).An Introduction to Language and Linguistics.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Fromkin, V. and Rodman, R. (1993).An Introduction to Language. Fifth Edition.

Orlando: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers.

Hudson, R.A. (1996). Sociolinguistics. Second Edition. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press.

Jackson, H. and Stockwell, P. (2011).An Introduction to the nature and Functions of

Language. Second Edition. London: Continuum International

Publishing Group.

Wardhaugh, R. (2010).An Introduction in Sociolinguistics. Sixth Edition. Chichester:

Wiley-Blackwell.

INTERNET REFERENCES:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialect. Retrieved May 28, 2011.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialecthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialect

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Mace Don Ian and English Language and Dialects