It also has grammatical and syntactical rules. These rules are enforced in a very pragmatic fashion:. I rule the house! If you want to live with me, you must learn my language. Husbands and wives argue over the meaning of words, and the proper way to say things. Hopefully these arguments are respectful and mutually beneficial, but regardless, whoever wins the argument establishes the method of communication.
Children tend to hybridize any divergence in the linguistic patterns of their parents. I am a native speaker of English. My wife's mother tongue is a tribal language of Kenya, but she is fluent in Kenyan English. We both speak Swahili, but decided English would be the dominant language in our household. Our children have integrated subtle patterns of her Kenyan English with my native English to form a household micro-dialect. We rule the market place! Families band together in viable commercial units.
If you want to do business with us, you must use our trade language. Trade languages develop to maximize the benefit of trade between producers and consumers, and the traders tend to dominate the method of communication. We rule our world! Commercial units band together in government jurisdictions. If you want the protection and favor of our government, you must use our official language. These government units form complex alliances and rivalries, and the most wealthy traders tend to dominate the method of communication.
This coercive sociological communication strategy produces the truism :. Dominance in trade and government expresses itself in linguistic dominance. Italy, Spain and Portugal all vied for dominance, and so their dialects became languages even though they are all visibly the product of Latin. Eventually, the British Empire prevailed, saying to every region of the planet: "We want to trade with you!
We have the soldiers, guns and bombs, so you will trade with us. To ensure the steady flow of goods and services, we will deploy our soldiers, guns and bombs through our system of government. Because of unique local and regional cultures, English is a language with innumerable dialects :.
A particular form of a language which is peculiar to a specific region or social group:. American English, Kenyan English, Indian English, Australian English all abide substantially by the rules of English, so they are not separate languages.
For the sake of trade and peaceful international coexistence, each of those new nations agreed to maintain English as a language, even after they gained political independence. In all languages, unique cultural influences in far-flung regions cause the languages to diverge into regional dialects over time.
Consider the divergence tabulated below:. How 'bout some water! I smile when I visit back home and hear them say wooder. International influences play a role in regional dialects. Kenyan English has a deeper Arabic influence through Swahili, which is fundamentally a hybrid of Arabic and Bantu language stocks.
Starting in the port city of Mombassa, the Arabic influence is greatest, but as you travel inland, the Bantu influence overtakes the Arabic influence in both Swahili and Kenyan English. Indian English has a deeper Hindi influence that increases as you move inland from Mumbai. Australian English has a deeper Aboriginal influence. The United States has become a prodigious melting pot of languages.
Mexican Spanish has a much larger impact in Texas than it does in Maine, where people might recognize taco or burrito , but would be baffled by chillaquilles. Conversely, a Texas ranch hand would tilt his head in amusement if a Mainer talked to him about the davenport in his livingroom, because that is a French Canadian influence on their language.
Phonetic transformations among isolated people groups change the sounds, accent, and spelling of languages over time:. That regional phonetic divergence set up a linguistic competition between gaol and jail , which both have the same definition. Jail eventually prevailed, and we use that word with that spelling today. That phonetic transformation is what we recognize as a regional accent , which is an element in the formation of dialects.
Bilingual immigrants often transform language by imposing the vocabulary, grammar or syntax of their mother tongue onto the learned language of their new home. When the Amish Mennonites moved to South Central Pennsylvania they spoke German, but they had to learn enough English to get along with their neighbors, but they did not learn English well. Because their religion demanded separation, they purposely butchered their English to reinforce a cultural distinction.
If an Amish man speaks proper English, he is despised in his community and they say: "He's gone English! A native speaker of English would recognize those sentences as poor form, but they are word-for-word translations of correct Pennsylvania Dutch sentences. In Pennsylvania we refer to this as Dutch English. Poverty, lack of education and proud non-conformity often contribute to forming a class dialect as in Ebonics.
The modern broadcasting industry uses an occupational dialect that is designed to maximize communication across dialects. It becomes a practical unifying measure of all other dialects because of its cultural connection to the ruling class. Just take the Midlands, for example. The East Midlands were ruled by the Danes in the ninth century. The Danes, however, did not rule the West Midlands, where the Saxons continued to hold sway, and words of Danish origin are largely absent from that region.
Dialects and accents are not restricted to UK English, of course. In the US, Australia and New Zealand, where English has been spoken for a much shorter period of time than in the UK, you would expect less variation as English has been spoken there for a shorter period of time.
But even there, dialects and accents occur and the linguistic influence of settlers who came from certain parts of the UK such as Scotland or Lancashire helped to determine local varieties. A similar phenomenon appears in the UK. During the s, Corby in Northamptonshire received a big influx of Scottish steelworkers.
Other factors influence language use, too. One of them is social class. Very many local accents are now associated with working-class speakers, while middle and upper-class speakers tend to use a more standardised English. But this is a relatively recent development. Indeed, until the standardisation of English from the 16th century — when one variety of English came to be used in official situations and by printing presses for the wider publication of books — it was acceptable for speakers of different social classes to speak and write in their own dialects.
Although many people believe that the variety of language they and the people around them speak is not a dialect, in reality, everyone speaks a dialect, since dialects are simply varieties of the same language. Many people also believe that there is only one correct form of a language, but in truth, no dialect is superior to another on linguistic grounds. All dialects are systematic language varieties that follow regular patterns of vocabulary choice, grammar, and pronunciation.
However, misconceptions persist regarding the use of different language varieties in the United States, especially in schools. While these issues have been recognized for years, and linguists have been conducting research to develop a better understanding of dialect patterns and attitudes toward U.
To help inform the discussion, the Center for Applied Linguistics has created and collected a variety of resources related to dialects and language diversity. This book describes dialect differences in American English, explores the impact in education and daily life for dialect speakers, and outlines issues facing educational practitioners working with these students.
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