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Language variation

Language variation. dialect accent. register genre. Language variation. dialect accent. "a language". Discussing language variation in Iceland. Are there any dialects in Icelandic? What "type" of Icelandic is taught to foreign students?

dominique-anderson
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Language variation

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  1. Language variation dialect accent • register • genre

  2. Language variation dialect accent "a language"

  3. Discussing language variation in Iceland • Are there any dialects in Icelandic? • What "type" of Icelandic is taught to foreign students? • Will they hear any difference in the Icelandic spoken in Reykjavík, Ísafjörður, Akureyri, Neskaupstaður, Höfn ..... • Can all Icelanders understand each other?

  4. Discussing language variation in Iceland • Compare this to an Icelandic student who has learnt English for 15 years at school and at university in Iceland – • will s/he be able to communicate with people on the street in London, Taunton, Cardiff, Manchester, Newcastle, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Londonderry, Dublin ....?

  5. Discussing language variation in Iceland • Can all speakers of Icelandic understand each other? • Can all speakers of English understand each other? • German? Italian? Japanese?

  6. Discussing language variation in Iceland • How long do you have to listen to an Icelander to hear what part of Iceland s/he comes from? • Britain? • Germany? • Norway? • Italy?

  7. English? I saw her yesterday I seed her yesterday So I said to him ... So I says to him ... I don’t want any more trouble I don’t want no more trouble

  8. Description Prescription descriptive rules or prescriptive rules?

  9. English? • Our father which art in heaven • Our father who art in heaven • Our father who is in heaven • Our father oo is in heaven • Our father what is in heaven • Our father as be in heaven

  10. English? • Good and bad English • Correct and incorrect English • Standard and substandard English • Standard and non-standard English • Dialects of English

  11. LINGUISTIC VARIABLES • Lexical - vocabulary • Grammatical • Phonological • - pronunciation

  12. Lexical - vocabulary

  13. This and the following maps are from Widdowson and Upton Isogloss showing lexical variables

  14. Isoglosses showing lexical variables

  15. Isoglosses showing lexical variables

  16. Isoglosses showing lexical variables

  17. Isoglosses showing lexical variables

  18. Isoglosses showing lexical variables

  19. Lexical - vocabulary • Grammatical

  20. Isoglosses showing grammatical variables

  21. Isoglosses showing grammatical variables

  22. Isoglosses showing grammatical variables

  23. Isoglosses showing grammatical variables

  24. Isoglosses showing grammatical variables

  25. Lexical - vocabulary • Grammatical • Phonological • - pronunciation

  26. } • vocabulary • grammar • pronunciation → dialect → accent Each dialect has its own accent: dialect 1 → accent 1 dialect 2 → accent 2 dialect 3 → accent 3 dialect 4 → accent 4 Standard dialect → standard acccent +all other accents

  27. } • vocabulary • grammar • pronunciation → dialect → accent English dialects: London dialect → London acent Yorkshire dialect → Yorkshire accent Somerset dialect → Somerset accent Standard English → RP + London, Yorshire, Somerset .....

  28. Phonological variables

  29. STRUT/FOOT BATH/TRAP

  30. ISOGLOSS A line drawn on a map between two different realisations of a single linguistic variable.

  31. + _ ISOGLOSS These realizations are often the result of a historical process, such that on one side of the line the process has occurred (+), and on the other it has not occurred (-).

  32. b a b a ISOGLOSS Here are two isoglosses, showing two imaginary processes which we shall call a and b

  33. b a b a ISOGLOSS +a +b +a -b -a +b -a -b They split the area into 4 different language varieties.

  34. ISOGLOSS

  35. ISOGLOSS

  36. dialect x dialect y BUNDLES OF ISOGLOSSES Isoglosses often occur in bundles, resulting in different dialectal areas with a transition zone between them.

  37. What do we mean by:language? dialect? ? Language • Some possible definitions: Languages are divided into dialects Dialects are regional varieties of language Dialects are regional and social varieties of languageBut first we have to ask: what do we mean by a language? dialects

  38. ei stein e sten 20 km Eidskog Eda

  39. Eda Eid stein sten

  40. Stock- holm Oslo ← dialect continuum →

  41. Stock- holm Oslo Eid Eda

  42. Stock- holm Oslo Eid Eda Norwegian Swedish socio-political entities

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