Accents, Dialects and Bilingualism - (CMD 306 Language Development in Children)

Dialect

a variety of language spoke by people who have economic, political, social and educational influence

What are the 7 Influences on Language

- Region

- Social/Cultural, education, and occupation

- Race and ethnicity

- Gender

- Situation or context

- Peer group association or identification

- First language community or culture

Social /Cultural Influences

Products of social, cultural, ethnic, educational, and occupational influences, AND regional dialects

- African American English

- Hispanic English

- Asian English

- Native American English

African American English

African American English (AAE)is a distinct dialect. AAE hasidentifiable characteristics and rules; phonological, syntactic, andlexical differences.

- Standard Obligatory Additions (plural & possessive) may be omitted

- Standard Regularization of 3rd person -s may be omitted

- Alternative forms of negation accepted (ain't, double negatives)

- Conveying aspect (he be talking or he talking)

- Vocabulary differences (constantly evolving)

Hispanic English

Fewer phonemes (18 consonants; 5 vowels)

• 5 consonants allowed in final position in words ( /l/, /n/, /r/, /s/, /d/)

• Longer vowels

• More inflections on words to convey meaning

• Grammatical differences

Asian English

Cultural and linguistic diversity among Asian immigrants to the US

- Spans a wide geographic range

- Difficult to generalize

Native American English (indigenous)

Nearly 2 million people in US identify as Native American

- Wide variation

- Differences in the phonological system (different speech sounds, different phonotactic rules)

Socioeconomic status (SES)

based on family income, parental education, occupation of parents

- US poverty stats

SES: influence on health, safety, and education

SES: Strong impact on language & more

Language stimulation - "word gap

Bilingualism

1. the ability to speak two languages

2: the frequent use (as by a community) of two

languages (Merriam Webster)

Balanced Bilingualism

when a person is competent in two languages and his/her proficiency is the same in both

Dominant Language:

the language in which a bilingual person is stronger

Unitary language system hypothesis

(Volterra, 1978): children are exposed to two languages from birth.

Stage 1: Hybrid stage where both language systems are in a shared pool

Stage 2: Differentiation of vocabulary but hybrid syntax

Stage 3: Differentiation of syntax

Dual Language System Hypothesis

(Genesee, 1989)Children exposed to two languages at birth learn two separate and distinct language systems from the

onset. Errors in content and form are not consistent enough in nature to suggest that we can form expectations or rules about these.