Languages, Dialects, and Varieties An Introduction to Sociolinguistics: Ronald Wardhaugh

Overview Important Terms: Bell’s Seven Criteria For Languages VARIETY DIALECT Dialect geography, isoglosses, boundaries, and continuum VERNACULAR PATOIS KOINE Style/Register Accent Bell’s Seven Criteria For Languages standardization, vitality, historicity, autonomy, reduction, mixture, and de facto norms

variety “A set of linguistic terms with similar distribution” (Hudson 1996, 22 via Wardhaugh 23) Bonjour Salve

Variety Cont. “any body of human speech patterns which is sufficiently homogeneous to be analyzed by available techniques of synchronic description and which has a sufficiently large repertory of elements and their arrangements or processes with broad enough semantic scope to function in all formal contexts of communication” (Ferguson 1972, 30 via Wardhaugh 23) “Such varieties as Standard English, Cockney, lower-class New York City speech, Oxford English, legalese, cocktail party talk, and so on. One important task, then, in sociolinguistics is to determine if such unique sets of items or patterns actually do exist” (Wardhaugh 23)

Language Vs. dialect Ambiguous – “As Haugen says, the terms ‘represent a simple dichotomy in a situation that is almost infinitely complex’” (Wardhaugh 25) “Language is used to refer either to a single linguistic norm or to a group of related norms, and dialect is used to refer to one of the norms” (Wardhaugh 25) Influence of “ideological dimensions – social, cultural, and sometimes political – beyond…purely linguistic ones” (Wardhaugh 32) Standard VS. non-standard

Dialects Dialect geography Isoglosses Dialect boundaries Dialect continuum

vernacular “the language a person grows up with and uses in everyday life in ordinary, commonplace, social interactions” (Wardhaugh 24) Negative connotations

patois French distinction between “un dialecte and un patois. The former is a regional variety of language that has an associated literary tradition, whereas the latter is a regional variety that lacks such a literary tradition” (Wardhaugh 25) Pejorative Literary tradition after advent of standardization excludes

koine “a form of speech shared by people of different vernaculars – though for some of them the koine itself may be their vernacular” (Petyt 1980, 25 via Wardhaugh 40)

Other factors Styles/Registers Accent

Bell’s seven criteria for languages Standardization Vitality Historicity Autonomy Reduction Mixture De facto norms

My Varieties Dialects: Accent: General American Registers: Vernacular: Standard English Koine: Standard English Neo-Latin (German, Spanish, French) *Attic Greek, Koine Accent: General American Registers: Casual Formal Tourist Latin class/Conventiculum http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_American