SPCH 10 Quiz 1

a

"ah" as in cop or crop

ɔ

"aw" as in law or the New York pronunciation of coffee

e

"ay" as in hey or lake

i

"ee" as in neat or feet

ɛ

"eh" as in net or let

"bad" and "good" dialects

"good" and "bad" are in quotes because there is no such thing as good or bad dialects, rather it is a societal ranking

ɪ

"ih" as in lit or sit

o

"oh" as in whoa or snow

u

"oo" as in loot or shoot

ʊ

"uh"ish as in look or hook

Standard American English

(SAE) aka Mainstream American English, General American English, Television English the variation of English that is most recognized by people, and is seen as "normal" and thus "correct" and "better" defined by what it lacks rather than what it posseses --lacks any distinct regional, ethnic, or social class characteristics --does not contain double negatives or different verb agreement patterns correlates with prescriptive, formal, and academic language accent reduction therapy often has SAE as the end result goal

The "bad" dialects of English

(there are no good or bad dialects) aka non-standard dialects or vernaculars differ from SAE and thus are often socially stigmatized ex: Southern English, African American English, New York City English

the "good" dialects of English

(there are no good or bad dialects) Standard American English (SAE)

english comes to the US permanently

1607 Jamestown, Virginia Colony most settlers were from southern and western England english was already over a thousand years old

mutual intelligibility

2 groups of people are able to understand each other if two groups of speakers can understand each other then they are speaking different dialects

mutually unintelligible

2 groups of people are not able to understand each other if two groups of speakers cannot understand each other then they are speaking different languages

grammar (morphosyntax)

2 pieces to grammar: morphology and syntax morphology = how groups of sounds (morphemes) are combined to form words syntax = how groups of words are combined to form sentences

African American English

AAE aka African American Vernacular English (AAVE), Black English, Ebonics rule based and more efficient (and more complex) than other dialects

third major settlement

Charleston, SC Heterogeneous r-less dialect was formed and spread throughout the south

languages that are mutually intelligible

Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian are all different languages but are mutually intelligible

dialects that are mutually unintelligible

Mandarin and Cantonese are considered dialects of 1 language although they are mutually unintelligible

4 major dialectal areas

The North The Midland The South The West

isogloss bundles

a bunch of isoglosses a lot of isglosses = large isogloss bundle = major dialectal boundary a few isoglosses = small isogloss bundle = minor dialectal boundary

the habitual "be"

a feature of AAE "he be workin'" means that he works habitually "he workin'" means that he is working currently

languages change over time

a language may change in 2 or more different ways over time -these 2 varieties become dialects of the same language --if they keep diverging, eventually they will become mutually unintelligible and thus 2 separate languages

linguistic explanations for why we have different dialects

a subset of the population may make some or all of these changes: regularization transparency simplification

deficit-difference debate

about African American English (called Ebonics at the time) sme people thought that AAE was a deficit and that the children needed to be taught how to speak "correctly" The Linguistic Society of America in 1997 said that all variations are correct, and to call some dialects lesser is wrong -->basically, dialects such as AAE are language differences not deficits

Idiolects

an individual's way of speaking

function words

articles, auxiliaries, demonstratives, quantifiers, prepositions, pronouns, conjunctions closed class words (new words [for the most part] cannot be added) not as many lexical differences between dialects

two types of morphemes

bound morpheme free morpheme

three major types of lexical shifts

broadening narrowing meaning shift

free morphemes

can stand alone

bound morpheme

can't stand alone added to words 2 types: inflectional & derivational

two major types of phonological change

chain shift merger

by the time america becomes a nation the language is very different from british english because

contact with foreign languages from immigrants contact with other english dialects in the USA contact with native american languages exposure to new things that need names ---there were regional dialects forming for the same reasons

further linguistic explanations for dialects: lexicon

different speakers have different things they need or want to talk about

founder effect

durable impact on language from the earliest (and most dominant) groups

westward expansion of the 1800s

formation of the current regional dialects

lexically ambiguous

has 2 or more meanings

descriptive language

how people actually talk

prescriptive language

how people should talk

Northern Cities Vowel Shift

includes cities around the great lakes block becomes more like black Chicago goes from /ʃɪkɔgo/ -> /ʃɪkɑgo/ -> /ʃɪkægo/ buses becomes more like bosses

two types of bound morphemes

inflectional morphemes derivational morphemes

dialectal boundaries are determined by

large-scale questionnaires determine if there are group-exclusive patterns

2 more notable historical events

late 1800s - immigration of Jews, Swedish, and Norwegians early-mid 1900s - great migration - African Americans in rural south moved north to major cities

dialectal differences: lexicon and semantics

lexical differences between dialects are when people use different words to refer to the same thing --ex: soda/pop/coke; elevator/lift; sub/hero/hoagie/grinder; water fountain/bubbler people use the same words to refer to different things --ex: biscuit (bread)/ biscuit (cookie) differences can be content words or function words

lexicon and semantics

lexicon = vocabulary (word repetioire) semantics = word meanings

isogloss

lines drawn around group exclusive patterns

æ

makes both vowel sounds found in the phrase "sad sam"

southern cities vowel shift

makes northern and southern speech more different

further linguistic explanations for dialects: phonology

making sounds easier to produce -assimilation -consonant cluster reduction -omission of sounds

dialectal differences: grammar (morphosyntax)

morphology: typically involving inflectional morphemes ex: 3rd person singular -s removal syntax: difference in rules, but they all do still have rules -differences in auxiliaries -->ex: habitual "be"; avertive "likta"; double modal "might could" (softens sentence, makes it more polite) -multiple negation (double negative) -->ex: "I ain't learned nothin' from nobody"

Dialects

mutually intelligible variations of a language that is shared by a group of people usually regionally-based, ethnically-based, or socially-based refer to all varieties of a language, even the less recognizable varieties

content words

nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs open class (new words can be added) a lot of lexical differences between dialects

why are there differences in lexicon?

often because meaning changes in one way in a particular region (or a particular group) but in some other way or not at all in a different region (or group)

multiplexity

one factor of the social network explanation the extent to which people interact with the same people in different spheres of life multiplex: same people in different activities uniplex: different people in different activities

density

one factor of the social network explanation the extent to which the members of a social network all interact with each other high density: everybody knows everybody low density:most people only know some people

simplifications

one linguistic explanation change features to eliminate redundancies ex: deletion of 3rd person singular -s

transparency

one linguistic explanation change features to make the meaning more obvious creates distinctions (habitual be) creates redundancies (multiple negation)

regularization

one linguistic explanation making irregular forms regular When features don't adhere to the regularity, change these features to adhere to the regularity ex: foot -> foots; find ->finded

meaning shift

one major type of lexical shift sometimes called a figurative extension the meaning of a certain word shifts entirely to mean something different ex: "sub" used to solely refer to a submarine (the underwater boat) and now it refers more often to a type of sandwich that resembles a submarine boat (sort of)

broadening

one major type of lexical shift the meaning of a certain word broadens to include a wider range of things ex. barn used to refer solely to a building that stores grain, now it refers to buildings that store all kinds of farm-related materials

narrowing

one major type of lexical shift the meaning of a certain word narrows to allude to a more specific referent ex. corn used to refer to any sort of grain, now it only refers to the yellow vegetable that needs to be shucked before it can be eaten

chain shift

one major type of phonological change a rotation of the vowel system vowels move but vowel distinctions are maintained ex: northern cities shift

merger

one major type of phonological change two vowels move closer together vowel distinctions are lost ex: low back merger

migration and language contact

one sociohistorical explanation ex. French and German settlers each brought parts of their languages that were adopted into American English dialects ex. fest (german) -ee as in trainee (french)

geography

one sociohistorical explanation nature imposes boundaries that limit or increase contact ex. mountains or rivers (esp. the Ohio River)

identity

one sociohistorical explanation people often use language as a key identity marker

settlement

one sociohistorical explanation people settle in an area (ex the Brits in America brought English) founder effect

social network

one sociohistorical explanation webs of communication two factors: density and multiplexity speakers in high-density, multiplex networks maintain localized vernacular dialects more so than speakers in low-density, uniplex networks

8 types of inflectional morphemes

plural -s possessive -'s comparative -er superlative -est 3rd person singular -s past tense -ed progressive -ing past participle -en

Scotts-Irish

populated appalachian mts area r-full; "needs washed"; positive "anymore"

early dialectal differences

presence or absence of "r"

Second big colony

quakers in Philly settled by people from northern england and whales also germans and Scotts-Irish

ə (not on the quiz)

schwa unstressed version of ʌ "uh" as in about Schroeder says we won't use this in this class (Spring 2017)

sociohistorical explanations for why we have different dialects

settlement geography migration and language contact social networks identity

dialectal differences: pragmatics

small talk backchanneling (saying mmhmm, or yeah over someone's speech)

morphemes

smallest meaningful linguistic unit 2 types: bound and free

two categories of reasons why we have dialects

sociohistorcal reasons linguistic reasons

ʌ

stressed version of schwa "uh" as in up

pragmatics

the rules underlying the use of language (the social aspects of language)

principle of linguistic subordination

the speech of a socially subordinate group will be interpreted as linguistically deficient by comparison to the speech of a socially dominant group

phonology

the study of sounds

how do dialects differ from each other?

they differ on all levels of language phonology lexicon (and semantics) grammar (morphosyntax) pragmatics

inflectional morphemes

type of bound morpheme added to free morphemes to add grammatical information does not change the core meaning of the free morpheme dialectal differences in morphology occur most often with these 8 types of inflectional morphemes

derivational morphemes

type of bound morpheme changes the free morpheme in some way ex: un changes the root word's meaning; -ness changes the root word's part of speech

efficient in regard to language

using fewer words to convey the meaning

dialectal differences: phonology

vowels more so than consonants --some dialects turn diphthongs into monophthongs two major types of phonological shifts: chain shift & merger

privileges of speaking Standard American English

you will not be mocked for how you speak you hear your dialect on television or radio standardized tests are written in SAE you are more likely to get a job or a promotion people see you as smarter than those who speak a different dialect

R-colored vowels (not on the quiz)

ɚ (stressed) and ɝ (unstressed) "er" as in upper Schroeder says we won't use this in this class (Spring 2017)