REGIONAL VARIATION

Group 3

1.Nguyễn Thị Mỹ Hường2.Huỳnh Thị Kim Dung3.Nguyễn Thúy Hà

A British visitor to New Zealand, he looked up a friend in Auckland. He found the address, knocked on the door.

“ What can I do for you?”, a young man who opened the door

“ I’ve called to see my old mate” said the visitor

“ Oh, he’s dead now mate”, the young man said

The visitor was about to express condolence the he saw his friend. The young man had said “ He’s dad now mate”, as his father came in the gate

To British ears a New Zealander’s dad sounds like an English’s person dead, bad sounds like bed.Americans and Australians as well as New Zealanders tell of British visitors who were given pans instead of pens.On the other hand, American’s ladder is pronounced identically with latter

Mistakes based on regional accents differences

rubber or eraser? petrol or gas?

diaper or napkin? pavement or sidewalk?

AMERICAN vs BRITISH

Three Major U.S. Regional Dialects

Northern

Midland

Southern

Isogloss: a line to show the geographical boundaries of the distribution of a particular linguistics feature

Best known sets of isoglosses in Europe

Regional variationRegional variation In different regions of a country, there can be

some variations in the language used. These variations can be in the pronunciation, the vocabulary, or even grammar. But, it is very apparent that the language is the same language.Ex: the Scotts speak English distinctively different from speakers in England.

Definition: Regional variation is varieties of a language which is spoken in different geographical areas.

International varietiesInternational varieties There are differences in varieties spoken in

different regions, for instant: differences in vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar.

Example: Australians : sole parents England : single parents New Zealanders : solo parents

Intra-national or intra-continental Intra-national or intra-continental variationvariation

There are differences in language spoken in every continent, the pronunciation and the intonation pattern, grammatical usage and vocabulary items.

The high level of intra-national communication together with the relatively small populations, may have inhibited the development of marked regional differences in these countries.Example:

West of New Zealand : gravel East of New Zealand : sand

Cross-continental variation

Dialects on the outer edges of a geographical area may not be mutually intelligible, but they will be linked by a chain of mutual intelligibility.

Dialect Chains are very common across the whole of Europe.Varieties of Dialect chains:-German, Dutch and Flemish (Switzeland)through Austria and Germany, to the Netherlands and Belgium.- Portuguese and Spanish, Catalan, French and Italian.

Fill inthe blank with a suitable word :He spoke the language in a regional .........,

which made it impossible for me to understand him.

A. dialect B. jargon

C. voice D. accent

L

A. dialect

F

50:50

Speakers who have a distinctive regional dialect will have a distinctive regional accent; but the reverse does not necessarily follow.

Do you think that regional dialect is as the same as or different from regional accent?

Statement of argument:Statement of argument:

Regional Accent refers to features of pronunciation which convey information about a person’s geographical origin.

Regional Dialect refers to features of grammar, vocabulary,

pronunciation which convey information about a person’s

geographical origin

different

u

fair

fur

ai

They real good vs. They are

really good.

TEACHING IMPLICATIONS

Focus mainly on the areas of dissimilarity between the regional languages and English for contrastive studies

This focus should be on the areas of phonology, lexis, syntax and semantics

More assistance should be given to learners in the areas of dissimilarity between English and the local languages in order to facilitate learning and mastering the used of the language.

Holmes, Janet. (2001). An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. London: Longman.

Wardhaugh, R. (2010). An introduction to sociolinguistics (6th ed.). United Kingdom: Blackwell.

REFERENCES

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