SOCIOLINGUISTICS - RESUME

PART 2 LANGUAGE AND COMMUNITIES 

Dialects

• A language variety, spoken by a speech community, that is characterized by systematic features (e.g., phonological, lexical, grammatical) that distinguish it from other varieties of that same language 
• A variety of a language used recognizably in a specific region or by a specific social class is called a dialect.
• Wardaugh (1988: 20): a specific set of linguistic items or human speech patterns (presumably, sounds, words, grammatical features) which we can uniquely associate with some external factors (presumably, a geographical area and a social group) 
• Factors that contribute to variation: social situation, occupation, age, geography, education, gender, social status/class, ethnicity. 

Regional Dialect 

• A regional dialect is a distinct form of a language spoken in a particular geographical area. Also known as a regiolect or topolect. 
• Regional dialect is a variety of language that is spoken in a geographical area for many hundred of years as seen in differences in pronunciations, in the choices and form of the word, and syntax. 
• As opposed to a national dialect, a regional dialect is spoken in one particular area of a country. In the USA, regional dialects include Appalachian, New Jersey and Southern English, and in Britain, Cockney, Liverpool English and 'Geordie' (Newcastle English). . . . 
• In Indonesia like : (Ngapak Javanese, Yogya Javanese). 

Examples of different regional dialects:

• Example one: in British English: pavement, boot, bonnet, petrol, baggage. But in American English: sidewalk, trunk, hood, gas, luggage. 
• Example two: the word tog in English refers to clothes one wears in formal dinner, but in New Zealand, it refers to clothes one wears to swim in. 

 Social Dialects 

• Varieties of a language used by people belonging to particular social classes. 
• A variety of language that reflects social variation in language use, according to certain factors related to the social group of the speaker such as education, occupation, income level (upper-class English, middle-class English and lower-class English. 
• For example: Standard English can be classified as a type of social English spoken by the well-educated English speakers throughout the world. Received Pronunciation (the Queens English) or BBC English (the accent of the beast educated and most prestigious members of English society) is classified as a social accent. 
• In sociolinguistics, social dialect is a variety of speech associated with a particular social class or occupational group within a society. Also known as sociolect. 
• Social dialect: Differences in speech associated with various social group or place. http://grammar.about.com/od/rs/g/socialdialectterm.htm 
• Various Factors to Determine Social Position: occupation, place of residence, education, income, racial origin, cultural background, caste, etc. 
• For example, among older European-American speakers in Charleston, South Carolina (the absence of r in words such as bear and court is associated with aristocratic, high-status groups (McDavid 1948). Whereas in New York City the same pattern of r-lessness is associated with working-class, low-status groups (Labov 1966). 

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