REGIONAL AND Regional Variation

Social variation

SOCIAL DIALECTS Social dialects

REGIONAL VARIATION
INTERNATIONAL VARIETIES
Example
A British visitor to New Zealand decided while he was in Auckland he would look up
an old friend from his war days. He found the address, walked up the path and
knocked on the door.
-Gidday, said the Young man who opened the door. What can I do for you?
- Ive call to see me old mate Don Stone said the visitor.
- Oh hes dead now mate, said the Young man.
The visitor was about to express condolences when he was thumped on the back by
Don Stone himself. The Young man he said, Heres dad now mate, as his father
came in the gate.

Pronunciation and vocabulary differences are probably the differences people are most
aware of between different dialects of English, but there are grammatical differences too.
REGIONAL VARIATION
INTRA-NATIONAL OR INTRA-
CONTINENTAL VARIATION
Example
Rob: This wheels completely disjakit.
Alan: I might could get it changed.
Rob: You couldnt do nothing of the sort. It needs dumped.

This conversation between two Geordies( people from Tyneside in England) is likely
to perplex many English speakers. The double modal might could is typical Geordie,
though it is also heard in some parts of the Southern USA.

Regional variation takes time to develop. Dialectologist can distinguish regional varieties
for almost every English country, e.g Yorkshire, Lancashire, Northumberland and so on.
REGIONAL VARIATION
CROSS- CONTINENTAL VARIATION:
DIALECT CHAINS
Example

Ming is an old woman who lives with her son in a rural village near the town of Yingde
in Guangdong Province in southern China. The family grows vegetables for the local
market. Ming speaks only her provincial dialect of Chinese, Cantonese. Last summer,
Gong, an official from Beijing in the north, visited her village to check on the level of
rice and ginger production. Gong also spoke Chinese, but his dialect was Mandarin or
Putonghua. Ming could not understand a single word Gong said.

Language can be thought of as a collection of dialects that are usually linguistically

similar, used by different social groups who choose to say that they are speakers of one
language which functions to unite and represent them to other groups.
SOCIAL VARIATION
RP: A SOCIAL ACCENT
RP: Received pronunciation is the accent of the best educated and most prestigious
members of English society.

Social dialects are simply linguistic varieties

which are distinguishable by their

Vocabulary

Grammar

Pronunciation
SOCIAL VARIATION
SOCIAL CLASS DIALECTS
Examples
Vocabulary
Upper speakers uses sitting room rather than lounge, term used by non-upper
speakers.
Pronunciation
Kim: Only uneducated people drop their hs
Stephen: Lets hear you say Have you heard about Hildas new house that her
husband left her? It cost her a heck of a lot to fix up. If you dont drop a single h in
that sentence youll sound like one of Monty Phytons upper- class twits.

Groups are often distinguished by the frequency with which they use particular features,
rather than by their use of completely different forms.
SOCIAL VARIATION
SOCIAL CLASS DIALECTS
Grammatical patterns

Form
Past tense verb forms
Present tense verb forms
Example
1. I finished that book yesterday.
2. I finish that book yesterday.
3. Rose walks to school every day.
4. Rose walk to school every day.

The higher social groups use more of the standard grammatical form and fewer
instances of the vernacular or non-standard form.