LESSON 3: LANGUAGE VARIATION FROM A SOCIOLINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVE

Euphemism

The existence of taboo words or taboo ideas stimulates the creation of euphemisms. A euphemism is a word or phrase that replaces a taboo word or serves to avoid frightening or unpleasant subjects

Taboo

Acts that are forbidden or to be avoided

Idiolect

The unique characteristics of the language of an individual speaker

Dialect

Mutually intelligible forms of a language that differ in systematic ways from each other

Language

When dialects become mutually unintelligible, when the speakers of one dialect group can no longer understand the speakers or another dialect group, these dialects become different languages

Accent

Regional phonological or phonetic distinctions

Regional dialectal accent

Characteristics of speech that convey information about the speaker’s dialect

Foreign accent

Phonological differences or "interference" from a different language spoken elsewhere; Do not reflect differences in the language of the community where the language was acquired to a certain extent

Dialect maps = Dialect atlases

Dialect differences are geographically plotted there

Dialect areas

Show concentrations defined by different word usage and varying pronunciations among other linguistic differences

Isogloss

A line drawn on the map separating the areas