Commack Schools



Chapter 5 -Key Issue #3: Why Do Individual Languages Vary Among Places? Key words to knowMultilingual state: Language divergence: Language convergence: Lingua Franca: Dialects of EnglishDialect - A regional variation of a language distinguished by distinctive vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation English had many dialects because of the large scale migration of the languageStandard language – the dialect of a language that is well established and widely recognized as acceptable for government, business, education, and mass communication Ex: RP (Received Pronunciation) – upper - class London dialect , Cambridge and Oxford UniversitiesWho decides what the standard language will be?The answer has to do with influence and powerIn China, the government chose the Northern Mandarin Chinese heard in and around the capital, Beijing, as the official standard languageThe Italian of Sicily is much different than what is spoken north of VeniceStandard Italian is spoken in Florence and Tuscany, where leaders of the Italian Renaissance wrote and publishedMartin Luther spoke what is now considered the standard German language because of his influence through the bibleIsoglossBoundary that separates regions in which different language usages predominateEspecially shown to natives of rural areasDialect ChainsDialects nearest to each other geographically will be most similar (greater spatial interaction)They become less intelligible to each other when less interaction occursIsolated rural settlements lead to the formation of five dialectsPressing Press in1476 used the London dialect (universities)Spelling and grammar therefore were based on the London dialect SouthernWords like grass and path use an /ah/ sound. In the midland and North they use a short /a/ like the U.S.Midlands and NorthPronounce butter and Sunday with the /oo/ that sounds like bootNortherners pronounce ground and pound with /uh/ like puntWhy is RP and American English so different?What cohorts left Britain for the USA?Webster “national” American English dialectBecause of time and isolation vocabulary & pronunciation considerably differentDifferent words for new inventions, new animals, etc Pronunciation DifferencesWords like fast, path, and half in England sound like the /ah/ in father rather than the /a/ in manAmericans also pronounce all syllables in the words necessary and secretaryPronunciation has probably changed more in England than in the U.S.In the South, half and mine and poor have two syllablesNew England droops the /r/ sound “Park the car in the Harvard yard ” (Speakers from the South of England also do this)Standard pronunciation comes from the Middle Atlantic rather than the North or South because western settlers came from this regionThis is why there is a relatively uniform language throughout the WestUnited States DialectsNew England – settled by EnglishSoutheast – Southeastern England (plus indentured servants and deported prisoners)Middle Atlantic – Quakers from the North, Scots / Irish, Dutch and German immigrantsIsogloss – Every word that is not used nationally but contained to geographic parametersThey are determined by collecting data directly from the people (natives of the area)In the U.S., Northern , Midland, and Southern isoglosses are presentCreolized LanguageExamples include French Creole in Haiti, Papiamento (Spanish) in the Netherlands AntillesThe word Creole means a slave who is born in a masters house in many Romance languages ................
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