final exam dialect stuff

What’s a dialect?

A dialect is just a version of a language that a group of people use.

It has its own patterns for pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar. The important thing is that it’s rule-governed, not random

So when people talk about something like African American English (AAE), they’re not talking about “incorrect English.

” It’s a different system with its own rules

The idea of “Standard English” makes it sound like other dialects are wrong, but that’s not true. It’s just the version that’s socially preferred in things like school, jobs, and media

A difference means…

The pattern follows rules

It matches a known dialect or language background

It’s consistent

A disorder means…

The pattern doesn’t follow expected rules

It’s too broad or inconsistent

It shows a breakdown in how the child’s sound system works

African American English AAE

AAE is a structured dialect with predictable patterns.

Some common ones:

Final consonant cluster reduction: “past→“pas”

“desk”→“des”

This doesn’t happen randomly and tends to happen when the sounds in the cluster are similar

R-sound changes:

“three” might sound like “thee”

But something like “street” might keep the /r/

So it depends on the context, which shows it’s rule-based.

Metathesis: “ask”→“aks”

This is a known dialect feature, not an error

Spanish influenced English

Some differences come from how Spanish and English are structured differently.

For example: “very”→“bery”

This happens because Spanish doesn’t use /v/ the same way English does.

“vote”→“bote”

—/v/ becomes /b/ which is a dialectal difference

“sun”→”tun”

“zoo”→“doo”

Here multiple fricatives are being replaced with stops which indicates a disorder

Vowel differences

• Spanish has fewer vowel sounds than English

• Ex: “ship” sounds like “sheep”

Phonological processes vs. dialect

Phonological processes are developmental patterns kids use when they’re learning speech.

• final consonant deletion

• stopping

• gliding

• cluster reduction (in all contexts)

These usually go away over time.

Dialect features don’t go away but instead they’re rule governed

Assimilation example

• “green” → “gwin”

• “Cream” → “kwim”

• This shows sounds influencing each other…that’s assimilation

Cluster reduction

If it only happens in certain contexts, it is likely a dialect:

“past”→“pas”

“desk”→“des”

But if it happens everywhere and is not rule-based it is likely a phonological processing

disorder:

“play”→”pay”

“stop”→”top”

“blue”→”boo”

Common features of Appalachian features

1. A-prefixing

“He was a-runnin’”

“She went a-fishin’”

Usually happens with -ing verbs

Often used in storytelling or emphasis

2. Multiple negation (double negatives)-

“I didn’t see nothing”

“He ain’t got no money”

This follows a grammatical rule in the dialect, even though it’s considered “incorrect” in Standard English.

3. Different verb forms

“She done finished her homework”

“He knowed the answer”

These are predictable patterns, not mistakes.

4. Copula deletion or variation

Sometimes forms of “is/are” are dropped or changed:

“She real nice”

“They working today”

5. Phonological features

Final consonant cluster reduction:

“cold”→“col”

“left”→“lef”

-ing → -in:

“running”→“runnin’”

vowel differences:

“pen” and “pin” may sound the same