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ACCENT A particular way in which a group of people collectively pronounce a language.For any language with more than a handful of speakers, there are prominent regional, social and individual differences in the way the language is pronounced by different people, and the pronunciation of many words usually changes quite radically over time. Sometimes these differences are dramatic. Each distinguishable type of pronunciation is called an accent.

Accent There are two things to note about the term accent as used technically by linguists in this sense. The first is that it involves only pronunciation,and thesecond is that it is universal:everybody speaks with an accent.

PIDGINS 'Pidgin' is a variation deriving from the need of speakers of differing mother tongues to communicate within a restricted context, such as trade. In contrast to a Lingua Franca, a pidgin Language derives by mixing various features of two or more languages. In most cases, the native languages of the people living in European colonies were mixed with the colonists‘ languages. A pidgin is a language variety invented by the speakers. Therefore,

Accent A particular way of speaking which tells the listener something about the speaker’s background. A person’s pronunciation may show a the region or country they come from e.g a northern accent b what social class they belong to e.g a lower middle class accent c whether or not the speaker is a native speaker of the language e.g she speaks English with and accent/with a German accent

PIDGINS AND CREOLES Pidginisation refers to the processes of simplification and reduction that occur in languages when people who do not share the same language come into contact. Pidginisation is widespread, the crystallising of a pidgin is less common. A pidgin is a simple, spoken language which evolves to permit communication between people who do not share a mother tongue. Pidgins, which are nobody’s mother tongue, usually involve:

Pidginisation I.The exploitation of linguistic common denominators II.A small vocabulary drawn almost exclusively from the socially dominant language III.A relatively fixed word order IV.A reduced number of function words such as pronouns and prepositions V.Use of reduplication for emphasis VI.Reinforcement by signs and body language

CREOLE A creole is a pidginised language adopted as the mother tongue of a speech community. In the process of becoming a mother tongue, the language is modified so as to fulfil all the linguistic needs of a community. We have historical evidence of the creolisation of many European-related pidgins over the last five hundred years: creole Englishes are found in the Caribbean, creole Dutch in South Africa, creole French in Mauritius and creole Portuguese in the Moluccas.

IDIOLECT Idiolect [Grk ídios ‘one’s own, personal,’ Léktos ‘chosen; expression word’] Language use characteristic of an individual speaker. This personal manner of expression is, to varying degrees, apparent in an individual’s pronunciation, active vocabulary, and syntax. The first and most restrictive definition of idiolect was offered by Bloch (1948).

LINGUA FRANCA Lingua franca: An auxiliary language used to enable routine communication to take place between groups of people who speak different native languages; also sometimes called an interlingua. English is the world’s most common lingua franca, followed by French; but other languages are also widely used. In East Africa, for example, Swahili is the lingua franca; in many parts of West Africa,Hausa is used.

Sociolect (also social dialect) A variety of a language (a DIALECT) used by people belonging to a particular social class. The speakers of a sociolect usually share a similar socioeconomic and/or educational background. Sociolects may be classed as high (in STATUS) or low(in STATUS) For example He and I were going there. (high sociolect) Im’n me was goin’ there. (low sociolect) The difference between one sociolect and another can be investigated by analysing the recorded speech of large samples of speakers from various social backgrounds. The differences are referred to as sociolectal variation or social dialectal variation.

VERNACULAR The term vernacular derives from Latin verna (slave). It is used to refer to: I.The native language or nonstandard dialect of an area II. Languages without a writing system or written tradition III.Local varieties of a language, such as ‘the Liverpool vernacular’

DIGLOSSIA Marked specialization of function between two language varieties in a single speech community. It is by no means rare for two or more distinct languages or language varieties to be used side by side within a single community, with or without a high degree of bilingualism.

INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE A language which is widely used, for a variety of purposes, by people in different countries, especially by people for whom it is not a mother tongue. As a consequence of various political and social circumstances, a single language may come to be used extensively by people in a number of countries, most of whom speak various other languages as their mother tongues.