Standard variety of English language

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Standard variety is the variety of a language which has the highest status in a community or nation and which is usually based on the speech and writing of educated native speakers of the language. A standard variety is generally used in the news, media and in literature; described in dictionaries and grammars; taught in school and taught to non-native speakers when they learn the language as a foreign language. A standard variety may contain some variation in pronunciation according to the part of the country where it is spoken.

Dialect describes a language variety where a user's regional or social background appears in his or her use of vocabulary and grammar. This description is a very open one, and there is continuing debate about its application to particular varieties. Before considering these, it may help to explain the related feature of accent. (Some linguists include accent, along with lexis and grammar, as a feature of dialect.) Dialect is one of those words that almost everybody thinks they understand, but which is in fact a bit more problematic than at first seems to be the case. A simple, straightforward definition is that a dialect is any variety of English that is marked off from others by distinctive linguistic features. Such a variety could be associated with a particular place or region or, rather more surprisingly, it might also be associated with a certain social group--male or female, young or old, and so on.

Accent denotes the features of pronunciation (the speech sounds) that show regional or social identity (and arguably that of an individual, since one could have a personal and idiosyncratic accent).

English is actually an unusual language. Already a blend of early Frisian and Saxon, it absorbed Danish and Norman French, and later added many Latin and Greek technical terms. In the US, Canada, Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and elsewhere, it absorbed terms for indigenous plants, animals, foodstuffs, clothing, housing, and other items from native and immigrant languages. Plus, the various dialects, from Cockney to Jamaican, and innumerable sources of slang, from Polari to hip hop, continue to add novel terms and expressions to the mix. These national standard varieties have differences in spelling, vocabulary, grammar, and particularly pronunciation, but there is a common core of the language. This makes it possible for educated native speakers of the various national standard varieties of English to communicate with one another. British English accept and enjoy the class distinctions. And these class distinctions influence people's speech greatly. The way English is spoken helps to identify not only the region that one lives in, but the class status too.

Since the days of Shakespeare the English of South-East England has been considered "the standard", and by the way the South-East is the region of economic and political power. Many people in England possess so called Received Pronunciation (RP), derived from the public school system attended by the boys from rich families. RP remains the accent of the elite. There are two kinds of RP. One is "unmarked" RP, which suggests no more that the speaker is well educated. This is the dialect of the BBC. Through radio and television "unmarked" RP is becoming more and more widely spoken accent. Then there is "marked" RP, which indicates high social class and is spoken by many army officers who come from upper class families. Although spoken by less than 5% of the population, RP has great influence and social authority. Regional accents are also often spoken in Britain. Scottish, Welsh and Irish are generally the most popular regional accents. Then come Northern and West country accents and then - the least popular urban accents of London, Liverpool, Glasgow. It is interesting to notice that the television news is usually read by RP speakers, while the weather forecast following the news is often read by someone with a regional accent.

All English speakers speak and understand at least one dialect, or variant form, of English. Standard English is sometimes used as a cover term for all the national standard varieties of English..

In the group of varieties of English that of the city of London occupies a special position. The early development of English in this city is marked by migration from various parts of England as of the early Middle English period. The language of the migrants into the city has had a pronounced influence on that which emerged later

First of all one should remember that in the Old English period the capital of England was Winchester in the south-central part of the country. It is only after the Norman invasion that the city on the estuary of the Thames was raised to the status of capital. As the seat of government and king London gained in significance. The nearby town of Westminister (now just an inner city suburb) strengthened this position given that it was an ecclesiastical centre. Due to its need for staff in civil service London exercised an attraction for the surrounding areas, the so-called home counties. The earliest attestations of London English are in Latin documents and are as a rule proper and personal names, above all street names. From these sources one can conclude that early London English showed a close affinity with that of Essex which is immediately north-east of the city. This assumption is confirmed by documents such as the proclamation of Henry III in 1258 which is written in English and which shows the typical distinction of late Old English /?:/ which is characteristic of Essex. There are also features which point to the counties of Middlesex and Surrey (in the south).

In the late 13th and in the course of the 14th century a re-orientation would seem to have occurred away from southern forms towards those typical of the midlands. The transition, inasmuch as it is attested, is characterised by mixed varieties which show various features of surrounding dialects. For instance the ending -and(e) is found for the present participle in London texts, something which is probably due to the influence of Norfolk and Suffolk. Nonetheless by the time of Chaucer -- late 14th century -- there is a preponderance of midland forms. These in fact increase in the 15th century, especially after English replaced Latin and French as an official language (after 1430). Among the forms of midland origin which entered London English were many of ultimately northern origin but which had spread into the south. For instance Chaucer still has a /j-/ at the beginning of the verb `give', e.g. yaf `gave'. This is replaced in the 15th century by an initial /g-/ which has its source in a Scandinavian pronounciation in the north of the country. The same is true of an initial /?-/ in forms of the third person plural (Chaucer has hir(e) which corresponds to the later their(e)).

The relative significance of dialects in the formation of London English is determined by the immigration for different directions into the city. For example there were connections with Essex to begin with, later in the 14th century movements from the relatively thickly populated areas of Norfolk and Suffolk are to be seen. By the late 14th century the relationship was shifted in favour of migrants from the central midlands.

The supremacy of midland forms in the formation of the late Middle English London dialect had a reason which should not be underestimated: the midland variety of Middle English, because of its central position in the country, represented a comprehensible form for a large number of speakers. views the east midland variety as a kind of lingua franca in a triangle between London, Oxford und Cambridge, which was also used as a means of communication between the students who travelled to these cities to study.

The language of London continued on a path where it became less and less bound to a specific region. For instance the initial softening, which is typical of the area immediately south and south-west of the capital, is not to be found in London texts from the late Middle English period. The development of a form of English with the upper classes of the population of London took a separate course from that of the city dialect, Cockney. The split between this variety and the standard became greater in the course of the following centuries and led to the codification of a pronunciation norm in the 19th century, above all in the schools of the middle and upper classes and for areas of public life, which was given the label Received Pronunciation by the phonetician Daniel Jones at the beginning of the century.

The American English English in the USA differs considerably from British English. Pronunciation is the most striking difference but there are also a number of differences in vocabulary and spelling as well as slight differences in grammar. On the whole British people are exposed to a lot of American English on TV, in films, in literature and so they will usually understand most American vocabulary. Examples: British: colour, centre, practice. American: color, center, practise. But American English and British English are not too separate languages. It is one language in different variations. American English is not the only special variety of English. Each area of the English-speaking world has developed its own special characteristics, its own vocabulary and pronunciation characteristics.

In the United States, for historical reasons, there are three major dialects spoken in areas that stretch from East to West. These are called Northern, Midland, and Southern. But there are some more contained dialects as well, mostly in the Eastern areas settled first Downeast Maine, Boston, New York City, Jersey city, Tidewater Virginia, Sea Islands Gullah (Carolina and Georgia), Appalachian, Cajun, and New Orleans (to name a few). And, of course, England, Canada, Australia, and other English-speaking countries also have regional dialects.

The dialect patterns in the U.S. are complicated because as industry developed in northern cities, people brought regional dialects with them as they came seeking jobs. And in many parts of the country, class and ethnic differences as well as immigrant language influences are also reflected in dialect differences.

There was a time when spelling was not conventional across dialects; people invented their own spellings to represent the way they thought their own speech sounded. But as printing became widespread, spelling became standard across dialects. English is somewhat unusual in that a group of American intellectuals, including Noah Webster, deliberately rejected some British spellings in order to make American literature easily recognized. Some examples are labour , jewellery , and centre . Now, there is standard American spelling and standard British.

The problem different dialects presents for phonics is this: there is a single spelling across dialects that pronounce words very differently. In Northern dialects there are double consonants at the end of test, breakfast, and desk. In Southern speech these are pronounced tes ', breakfas ', des '. There is an I sound in help in the North, none in the South (he'p ). But in midland dialects, help has two syllables, hey-ulp . There are at least four ways of saying almond , two with and two without the l . In certain dialects an r sound is added to words ending in vowels (idea , Cuba , media ) but not produced in words that already have an ending r (car , dear , meteor ).

Vowels vary considerably from dialect to dialect. Which of these words have the same vowel for you? frog , fog , bog , cog , dog , hog , smog, grog, log, clog, to g. In some English dialects the vowels are all the same. In others there are two vowels; one in frog, fog, dog, hog, log and the other in bog, cog, smog, clog, tog . Where does your list break? None of these are right or wrong. It's just a dialect difference. standard variety language

Each of us develops phonics rules that fit the speech sounds of our own dialects. That doesn't have to be a problem unless the school insists there is a single set of phonics rules for all American speakers. Unfortunately, people who speak lower class dialects and regionally transplanted people of all classes are the ones who will suffer most from this insistence. They will be confused by being taught that letter patterns represent sound patterns that are foreign to their ears. The worst problems will come if teachers try to change the speech of their pupils to fit the phonics rules. One common English spelling is the gh in words like fight , eight, light, might, night, right, sight, tight . That seems to be a holdover from Scottish and other United Kingdom dialects which do, in fact, have a throaty h found in other Germanic languages but not usually in English. But it would confuse most Americans if our teachers insisted they must say likht because the word is spelled light . In just the same way, it confuses many American children when they are told they must produce an I in help , almond , or palm .

Australian English is particularly interesting for its reach store of highly colloquial words and expressions. Australian colloquialism often involves shortening a word. Sometimes the ending "ie" is changed into "o". Instead of "smokie" they say "smoko". Instead of "beautiful" they often say simply "beaut". Because of current popularity of Australian TV-programs and films some of these words are now being used by British people, too. Scottish English Scottish English uses a number of special dialect words. For example lake - loch; mountain - ben; church - kirk; to remember - to mind; beautiful - bonny; to live - to stay; a girl - lassie; no - ken.

One of the most important influences on Australian English has been Aboriginal languages. There are a number of Aboriginal words that have been adopted colloquially within Australian English, for example 'boomerang', 'humpy' or 'corroboree'. One of the first words collected was kangaroo.

In 1770 Captain James Cook was forced to beach the Endeavour for repairs near present-day Cooktown, after the ship had been damaged on reefs. He and Joseph Banks collected a number of Aboriginal words from the local Guugu Yimidhirr people ... On 12 July 1770 Banks recorded in his journal 'Kill Kanguru', and on 4 August Cook wrote: 'the Animal which I have before mentioned called by the natives Kangooroo or Kanguru'.

Bruce Moore

When the First Fleet arrived in 1788 there were some 250 distinct languages, and at least 600 dialects amongst Australian Aborigines. In the first 100 years of European colonisation about 400 words were borrowed into Australian English from some 80 languages.

The Dharuk language was spoken in the area around Sydney, and this language provided a large number of words recorded between 1788 and 1803. They include: boomerang (1790), corroboree (1790), dingo (1789), gunyah (1803), koala (1798), nulla-nulla (1790), waddy (1790), wallaby (1798), waratah (1788), warrigal (1790), wombat (1798) and woomera (1793).

As exploration and settlement spread out, language borrowings from further afield included the Kamilaroi language of eastern New South Wales (NSW): brolga (1896), budgerigar (1840) and bora (1850). Borrowings from the Yuwaalaraay language of northern NSW include: bilby (1885) and galah (1862). Borrowings from the Wiradhuri languages of south-western NSW include: corella (1859), gang-gang (1833), kookaburra (1834) and quandong (1836).

Other hybrid words have emerged through a 'pidgin' or early adaptation of English words to describe aspects of Aboriginal that was spoken in the 1800s. Most of these have now disappeared, but two important words have survived. These are bung (1841) and yakka (1847), both borrowed from the Yagara language of the Brisbane region.

The phrase 'gone walkabout' was originally used in the early 1800s to describe the seasonal patterns of movement of Aborigines across their land or country. Now it is used in a more general, and sometimes inaccurate, way to describe a journey away from home

There are cases of convict words enduring through history to the conversations of Australians today. They include 'servant of the Crown' and 'public servant' (as opposed to the civil servants in Britain).

In 1826, P Cunningham noted that convicts were 'spoken of under the loyal designation of government-men, the term convict being erased by a sort of general tacit compact from our Botany Bay dictionary as a word too ticklish to be pronounced in these sensitive latitudes'.

In 1843 Charles Rowcroft, in Tales of the Colonies , wrote: 'I must warn you that we never speak of the convicts in this country by that term; we always call them 'government men'; or on some occasions, prisoners; but we never use the term 'convict', which is considered by them as an insulting term'.

And so a convict was often called a public servant ... and this was later applied to anyone who worked for the government.

The word 'muster' in the Australian convict colony was applied to an assembly of convicts, and by the mid-1800s it was being used to refer to the gathering together of livestock for counting and branding

One of the most salient characteristics of Canadian English is the pattern that linguists call "Canadian Canadian Raising was first brought to the attention of linguists by Joos (1942). Parts of it are evident in other dialects: in the northern US Great Lakes cities raises is raised, but not . Conversely, Virginia English raises only . The English of Martha's Vineyard raises both diphthongs, but not in flapped words like writer and pouter. In each of the American raising dialects, the pattern is variable, but subject to the same phonological conditioning of the following consonant. In Canadian English, the pattern is essentially categorical: it can only occur before voiceless consonants, where it is obligatory.

The origins of Canadian Raising are debatable. Chambers and others use it as evidence of the Loyalist roots of Canadian English, assuming it was a feature of the English spoken by Loyalists fleeing the American Revolution, as suggested by its perseverance in some American dialects. Yet the feature is also found in certain "linguistic enclaves" in Canada, notably in Nova Scotia and the Ottawa Valley, where the influence of Loyalist English is thought to have been much weaker. Furthermore, a similar pattern is also seen in Scottish and Irish English, both of which may have had a substantial influence on the Nova Scotia and Ottawa varieties of Canadian English.

So while the question of who brought the pattern to southern Ontario (and ultimately to western Canada) is hard to answer, historical linguists do agree on one thing: that the pattern is a fossil of the Great Vowel Shift that occurred in England in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Great Vowel Shift refers to the rearrangement of the entire English vowel system from Middle to Modern English. Prior to the shift, words like five and house were pronounced [fi:v] and [hu:s], with high vowels. The Great Vowel Shift lowered their vowels to their current low-vowel pronunciation, [fayv] and [haws]. It is believed that the diphthong-raising pattern is inherited from certain middle-English dialects in which the lowering of [i:] and [u:] stopped at the mid-vowel height in some words.

Another characteristic of Canadian vowels is in the distribution of pre-rhotic (before-r) vowels. A notable aspect of Canadian pre-rhotic vowels is their resistance to the emergent pattern in American English of substituting [a] for [o] before inter-vocalic [r]. In a number of highly frequent words, such as sorry, tomorrow, borrow, sorrow, and Laura, this pattern has become obligatory in American English. The pattern is also variably evident in a few more words, such as Florida, orange, oracle, Norwich, adorable, and thesaurus.

Though the pattern is somewhat variable, Boberg (2000) finds that for 15 such borrowings, the Canadian pronunciation is always more likely than the American pronunciation to have . For example, 82% of his American informants pronounce panorama with in the third syllable, compared to 94% of Canadians. In a parallel manner, 5% of the Americans in his study pronounce pasta with in the first syllable, compared to 81% of Canadians.

The following table provides a list of items Boberg used. You should note that for nearly each word, at least 70% of his Canadian informants had a pronunciation with , with the exception of macho, taco, and Vietnam. In these cases, however, the Canadian pronunciation was still more likely to use than the American pronunciation was.

The reason for this property of Canadian English is a matter of conjecture; Boberg does not speculate as to its source. One account might simply be that Canadian English uses the spelling of these words as a basis for their pronunciation. However, another possible answer lies in the distinct configurations of the Canadian and American vowel systems. In the discussion of the low-back merger, we saw that the Northern Cities Shift and the Canadian Shift have pulled the pronunciation of in opposite directions. The result is that the American pronunciation of stock is almost identical to the Canadian pronunciation of stack. That is, the American [a] is almost the same vowel as the Canadian .

Oddly, then, the American and Canadian pronunciations of borrowed words like lava and pasta are phonetically very similar, even though they are identifiably different phonemes; only a Canadian could rhyme pasta with Mt. Shasta. Because of the phonetic similarity, we can say that both dialects try to assign a low-central vowel to these borrowings; in the American case, the central vowel happens to be the more back of its two low vowels, while in the Canadian case, the central vowel is the more front of the two. Another way of making this distinction is as follows: the Northern Cities shift has pushed too far forward and too high for it to be an appropriate vowel for these borrowings. Similarly, the Canadian Shift has pulled [a] too far back for it to be an appropriate vowel in the same items.

A final, curious property of Canadian English is in its foreign /a/ nativization. This is the way the dialect pronounces borrowed words with low vowels, such as pasta, Mazda, drama, and taco. There is a strong tendency for Canadians to pronounce these words with a front , while Americans tend to use [a].

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