ENA306 seminar 1

Vocabulary flashcards covering foundational terms in sociolinguistics, Kachru's circles model, phonological features of RP and GA, and types of linguistic variation.

Language

An official, codified variety characterized by dictionaries, independence, autonomy, and an association with nations.

Dialect

A spoken, heteronomous variety that encompasses all aspects of language—including grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation—where codification represents an attempt to preserve it.

Accent

A linguistic variety defined solely by pronunciation, which varies according to social class, social situations, and regional or geographical factors.

Variety

A neutral term adopted because the boundary between a language and a dialect is difficult to define objectively.

Enregistrement

The process by which a way of speaking becomes socially recognized as a distinct variety, which can occur mentally without necessarily being written down.

ENL / L1

English as a First Language, spoken by approximately $375\text{ million}$ people.

ESL / L2

English as an official Second Language, spoken by approximately $375\text{ million}$ people.

EFL

English as a Foreign Language, spoken by approximately $750\text{ million}$ people.

Kachru's Three Circles of English ($1985$)

A model categorizing English into the Inner Circle (L1, migration), Outer Circle (L2, colonization), and Expanding Circle (EFL, globalization), characterized as overlapping rather than eccentric.

Inner Circle

The circle in Kachru's model with an L1 English majority resulting from migration, exemplified by the USA and the UK.

Outer Circle

The circle in Kachru's model with an L2 English majority resulting from colonization, exemplified by India and Nigeria.

Expanding Circle

The circle in Kachru's model involving EFL, ELF (English as a Lingua Franca), and similects driven by globalization, exemplified by China, Russia, and Brazil.

Problems with Kachru's Model

Key weaknesses include its static representation (failing to reflect how language develops and becomes established), prescriptive connotations, unclear distinctions between circles, and reliance mainly on historical categorization.

General American (GA)

An English variety characterized phonologically by the flap /t/ (e.g., 'little' pronounced as 'liddle') and full rhoticity where all /r/'s are pronounced (e.g., ärea vs. area).

Received Pronunciation (RP)

An English accent characterized by a crisp /t/, absence of non-prevocalic /r/ (e.g., in 'merger' and 'work'), pronouncing /r/ only before vowels, and features such as intrusive /r/, 'talk' vs. 'tålk', and 'past' vs. 'päst'.

Non-prevocalic /r/

An /r/ sound that does not appear before a vowel; it is omitted in RP (e.g., 'merger', 'work') but fully pronounced in General American.

Intrusive /r/

A pronunciation feature in RP where an /r/ is pronounced between words despite not being present in the spelling, such as in 'Hannar and I'.

Flap /t/

A phonological feature found in General American where the /t/ sound is flapped, making 'little' sound like 'liddle'.

Standard English

A dialect encompassing many different accents, which exists in different local standards such as standard British, American, and Australian English.

Standard Lexical Sets

Sets of words that typically contain the same vowel sound across all varieties of English.

Scottish English Vowel System

A variety of English in which the lexical sets for 'face' and 'goat' are realized as monophthongs.

Australian English (AusE) Vowel System

A variety of English where vowels in the 'palm' and 'start' lexical sets are produced as central or front vowels.

Phonology in Varieties

The linguistic level that provides the most distinctive features of a variety (especially through vowels), showing more differences between varieties than grammar does.

Types of Variation in Form

The distinct ways language forms vary, including spelling (color vs. colour), phonology (/ba:θ/ vs. /bæθ/), vocabulary (elevator vs. lift), grammar (eat yet vs. eaten yet, dove/dived), and pragmatics (terms of address).

Cot vs. Caught Distinction

A phonological variation in American English and between varieties, being pronounced differently or the same, with RP realizing 'cot' as /kɒt/ and GA realizing it as /kɑːt/.

American English Vocabulary Variation

Lexical variation within American English shown through regional word choices such as 'soda', 'pop', and 'coke'.