Chapter 5 Key Issue 3

Why do individual languages vary among places?

dialect: a regional variety of a language distinguished by vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation

• speakers of one dialect can understand speakers of other dialects
• dialects reflect distinctive features of environments that people live in

isogloss: a boundary that separates regions in which different language usages predominate

Dialects of English

• migration to other locations, various dialects may develop

Dialects in the US

• major differences in US dialects originated because of differences in dialects among the original settlers

Settlement in the East

• New England
  • inhabited almost entirely by settlers from England
  • 2/3s were Puritans from East Anglia (southeastern England)
  • only a few came from the north of England
• Southeastern
  • 1/2 came from southeastern England
  • represented a diversity of social-class backgrounds
• Midlands
  • more diverse
  • early settlers were predominantly Quakers from the north of England
  • Scots and Irish arrived
  • also attracted German, Dutch, and Swedish immigrants
• more differences between Midlands and the other settlements because most settlers came from the north of England or from other countries

Current Dialect Differences in the East

• a fourth dialect region was developed in the West
• mass media influences the adoption of the same words throughout the country, but dialect differences still persist
  • Northeast + Southwest → soda
  • Midwest + Great Plains + Northwest → pop
  • Southerners → coke

Pronunciation Differences

• regional pronunciation differences are more familiar to us than word differences
• it is harder to draw precise isoglosses for the pronunciations
• northeastern dialect drops the /r/ sound, due to its background from England
• West and Midlands pronounce similarly because original west settlers were from the Midland

Dialects in the UK

• the Angles, Jutes, and Saxons spoke dialects of Old English
  • Kentish in the southeast
  • West Saxon in the southwest
  • Mercian in the center of the island
  • Northumbrian in the north

standard language: the form of a language used for official government business, education, and mass communications

• in languages with multiple dialects, one made be used as the standard language

Received Pronunciation (RP): the dialect of English associated with upper-class Britons living in London and now considered standard in the UK

• dialect used by upper-class residents in London, Cambridge, and Oxford
• diffusion of RP was encouraged by the printing press
• grammar books and dictionaries established spelling and grammar based on the London dialect
  • taught in schools throughout the country
• regional differences still exist
  • Northern
  • Midland
  • Southern
  • Southwestern
  • Southeastern
• isoglosses between English dialects are moving due to patterns of migration

British and American English Dialects

• English immigrants to US spoke the dialect they used in England at the time
• England and US were separated by the Atlantic Ocean, causing differences as time passed on as few people could cross to influence each other

Vocabulary

• American settlers encountered new objects and experiences
  • contained new physical features, within needed names
  • large forests and mountains
  • new animals
• Indigenous Americans influenced American English
  • canoe
  • moccasin
  • squash
• new inventions appeared, and different names were given on different sides of the Atlantic
  • elevator (America) = lift (England)
  • hood of a car (America) = bonnet (England)
  • trunk of a car (America) = boot (England)

Spelling

• Noah Webster, creator of American dictionary and grammar books, wanted to develop a uniquely American dialect of English
  • wanted to establish a national language, reduce cultural dependence on England, and inspire national pride

Pronunciation

• colonists began to pronounce words differently from the British
• British
  • some words are pronounced with an /ah/ rather than /a/
  • eliminate r sound except before vowels
• Americans
  • pronounce unaccented syllables with more clarity
  • secretary and necessary have 4 syllables compared to 3 in British
• pronunciation has changed more in England than in US
  • letters a and r are pronounced in the US more similarly to how they were pronounced in Britain in the 1600s, when settlers arrived
• English immigrants didn’t speak “proper” English because they weren’t drawn from the English upper classes

Distinguishing between Languages and Dialects

• other languages also have different dialects

Romance Branch Dialects

• distinct Romance languages evolved over time
• numerous dialects existed within each province
• creation of standard nation languages occured relatively recently

Spanish and Portuguese

• Spain contained many dialects during the Middle Ages
  • Castilian
  • arose in the 800s in Old Castile (north-central part of the country)
  • diffused south over centuries, as independent kingdoms were unified
• Spain grew to its approximate present boundaries when the Kingdom of Castile and Leon merged with the Kingdom of Aragon
  • Castilian became the official language
  • dialects survived in secluded rural areas
    • Aragon
    • Navarre
    • Leon
    • Asturias
    • Santander
• Portuguese developed as a separate language because of Portugal’s isolation
• Spanish and Portuguese became worldwide due to colonial activity
  • most speakers live outside of Europe
• Western Hemisphere Portuguese and Spanish are different from Europe
• Spanish Royal Academy meet in Madrid to clarify language rules, and added hundreds of new words originating in regional dialects of Spain or the Indian languages of Latin America
• Portuguese speaking countries agreed to standardize how their common language is written
  • people in Portugal are upset that the new standard language more closely resembled the Brazilian version
  • eliminates some accent marks
    • tildes
    • cedillas
    • circumflexes
    • hyphens
  • thousands of new Brazilian words

Dialect or Language?

Languages of Italy

• several languages in Italy were traditionally classified as dialects of Italian, but now are different enough to be different languages
  • Emiliano-Romagnolo
  • Liguria
  • Lombard
  • Napoletano-Calebrese
  • Piemontese
  • Sicilian
  • Venetian

Catalan-Valencian-Balear

• Catalan was once a dialect, but now is a separate Romance language
• traced to Vulgar Latin
• Balear is a dialect of Catalan spoken in the Balearic Islands
• Valencian is controversial
  • considered a dialect of Catalan by linguists
  • people in Valencia consider it a separate language because it has words derived from people who lived there before the Roman conquest

Galician

• debated on whether its a dialect of Portuguese or a separate language
• Academy of Galician Language considers it a separate language and symbol of cultural independence
• Galician Association of the Language consider it a dialect because as a language it would be relegated to a minor and obscure status, while as a dialect it can help to influence Portuguese

Moldovan

• generally classified as a dialect of Romanian
• official language of Moldova
• written in Cyrillic letters
  • was a part of Soviet Union
• Romanian is written in Roman letters

Creole Languages

creole (creolized language): a language that results from the mixing of a colonizer’s language with the indigenous language of the people being dominated

• examples
  • French Creole
  • Papiamento (creolized Spanish)
  • Portuguese Creole

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