28. Variant vs. Dialect. Main variants of modern English. English in different parts of the world.

28. Variant vs. Dialect. Main variants of modern English. English in different parts of the world.

Dialects and variants of the English language

Language used in different parts of a country and by different social groups usually varies. Dialectology differentiates between geographical and social variations of the same language. Geographical variations of English can be dialects or variants. The difference between the two types of variations depend on one factor: presence or absence of the standard or literary layer of language. Standard language is used in literary works and in the mass media. It is based on literary forms fixed in dictionaries and rules fixed by standard grammar. Dialects are non-literary forms of language. A dialect is used in a certain part of a country. It is opposed to Standard English. On the territory of Great Britain there are two variants of English: Irish and Scottish.

Scottish differs grammatically lexically and substantially from other variants of English of B.E. The uniqueness of S.E. can be explained by its historical development.

3 sources of tension affected greatly its development:

1. Tension between Scotland and England

2. between highlands and lowlands, Scotland and Ireland

3. between protestants and Catholics. semantic fields minor in B.E. is used to denote a person below the age of 18 while Scottish law distinguishes between pupils and minors. Some words used in S. have equivalents in B.E.:S. extortion=blackmail British.

3.the influence of other languages.

4.there are words that have the same forms but different meanings in S. and B.:gait=road in Scottish

5. S. words and expressions are understood in the whole country:lassie=girl.

Irish vocabulary:

1.the same form but different meaning: back-word=shy, to doubt=to believe strongly.

2.mostly used by older rural people: biddable=obedient.

3. the presence of nouns taken from Irish which relate to food or supernatural.

4.gailic influence on meaning: to destroy.

5.the presence of words typical only in IRISH:begorah=by God

They are treated as variants because there are literary works created in Irish Englishand Scottish English.

Variants of English outside the British Isles: American, Australian, and Canadian.

American- The vocabulary used by American speakers has distinctive features of its own. There are whole groups of words which belong to American vocabulary exclusively and constitute its specific features. These words are called Americanisms.

The 1^st group – historical – fall, guess, sick

The 2^nd group- Americanisms proper – they are coined by the early Americans which had to find names for the new environment and new conditions of life – redbud (Oklahoma’s state tree), blue-grass

3^rd – specially American borrowings – historical contacts of the Americans with other nations – ranch, sombrero, caribou (Indian)

4^th – American shortenings – dorm, mo (moment), cert (certainly)

The spelling of Canadian E. is intermediate between B. and A. however the spoken language is much closer to American. It`s also influenced by Canadian-French. Parkade, chesterfield (sofa), to fathom out (explain)

Australian is similar to B.E. but also borrows from America. It uses truck instead of lorry. It`s most similar to New Zealand. The only difference between New Z. and B.E. spelling is in the ending ise (N.Z) or ize.

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