LING115 Unit 1

Point 1 of dialects

1) Any dialect you hear, no matter who is speaking it or what they happen to say, is the product of the same kind of change that turned Latin to French -product of same gradual change -not a degraded form -varieties -develop alongside the standard form of a language

Linguistic Hypothesis One

A language consists in: (a)a set of words--> vocab (b)a set rules of grammar and pronunciation a+b are used in the same way by a population of speakers

Max Weinreich

A language is a dialect with an army and a navy

What are dialects commonly associated?

A single geographical area

Positive factors associated with language

Historicity ex:Tibetan--> strengthens people's beliefs of their language being a distinct and separate language Autonomy can be v different--> ex: Japanese and Korean can be v similar--> ex: Russian and Ukrainian; Hindi and Urdu strengthens people's beliefs of their language being distinct and separate

How to distinguish a language from a dialect?

Languages tend to get resources Dialects are often looked down upon or ignored

Linguistic orphans

Languages which are not related to other languages; not sure where it came from ex: Japanese; grammar similar to Mongolian, Turkish, Korean ex: Basque; spoken in Northern France and Southern Spain

Linguistic Hypothesis 2

Mutual Intelligibility Hypothesis a) If two people can talk and understand each other's ideolects then they are speaking the same language/varieties of the same language b) if they do not understand each other, they are speaking different languages support: British English and American English

Other examples of language distinction as a result of sociopolitical circumstances

Norwegian and Danish Norway gained independence in 19th century designates Norwegian a new language for symbolic distinction although there are v high degrees of mutual intelligibility Chinese many varieties of Chinese are mutually unintelligible sociopolitical pressure for one language to unify form of writing is one indicator of unity

Standardization

Standard English-->London, Cambridge,Oxford Standard French-->Paris Standard Japanese-->Tokyo 1) grammatical descriptions 2)written forms 3)dictionaries 4)literature

T/F: Language is what we learn form dictionaries and grammar books

True we also learn from outside of books

Questions to see what influences/alters style

Who? -degree of solidarity that exists between 2 people ex: pronoun "you" in Spanish; tu--> friend usted-->stranger -differences in social power/status -formality ex: medium of communication--> speech vs. writing; writing is more formal Where? What? (topic) Why? -referential--> newspapers, weather reports; strictly informational -affective--> social reasons, to establish, maintain and strengthen; ex: small talk, greetings

Accent

a distinctive way of pronouncing a language

Deliberate selection

a leadership says that this is a language and classifies everything else as a dialect; often happens when countries become independent ex: Japanese; modernize to hold back western influence; strong western nations have a official unified language; chose variety from western Tokyo as the model for official Japanese ex: North Korea; wanted a more "pure" form of Korean from the variety of Pyongyang

Dialect

a relational term a variety which relates to a language and other dialects ex: Italian -Sicily -Naples -Milan -Rome -Standard Italian not treated as a language

Language

a standard variety used by people in a country

register

a style used only in a particular activity usually a profession ex: sports commentators (speed of speech increasing towards end of horse races) ex: livestock auctioneers; tobacco auctioneers ex: Japanese female elevator operators inn department stores ex: TV and radio commercials for pharmecutical products

Dialect

a variety used by people in a particular region or in a particular social group

Dialect differences

a) Distinctive accent pronunciation b) Distinctive grammar c) Distinctive vocabulary these differences allow for the classification as a dialect ex: Devon dialect of English in Southern Scotland he him his--> ee-the

social dialects

a) Religious group ex: Arabic was spoken 3 different ways in Baghdad based on religion b)Social group ex: India-->Hindu-->castes different versions of Gujarati based on caste level c)Ethnic group ex: AAVE; Early polish immigrants in NY had distinctive dialect

How are Pidgins/Creoles treated by linguists?

as languages

solidarity

closeness/how well you know the person you are speaking to

point 4 of dialects

colloquial dialects are just as complex and nuanced as standard ones

Point 2 of dialects

colloquial dialects develop alongside standard varieties not from them

dialect continuum

dialects often merge into one another without hard boundaries

American Linguistic Atlas Project`

dragonfly: North--> darning needle Mid--> snake feeder South--> snake doctor

isogloss

drawn by dialect geographers the line on a map that represents the boundary between different linguistic features -neat when there are physical barriers such as mountains separating areas

Conclusion of Mutual Intelligibility Hypothesis

fails in the real world theoretically plausible Counter ex for a: Germany-Holland border area; high degree of mutability but different languages Hindi and Urdu: high degrees of mutual intelligibility but different languages Scandinavia--> Danish; Norwegian; Swedish: high degrees of mutual intelligibility but 3 different languages Counter ex for b: Chinese--> Mandarin; Cantonese; Shanghainese; Taiwanese all speaking Chinese but varieties are so different they are mutually unintelligible Arabic--> In North Africa and Middle East very colloquially different but same language

T/F: Everyone who speaks the same language should have the same vocabulary and grammar

false

T/F: Slang consists of words or phrases that are non-standard. Contrary to standard language. slang does not have rules

false

What kind of changes do dialects experience?

gradual changes the change is not so drastic as to declare them separate language dialects of English in Europe are mutually intelligible because these people had contact with one another

Historicity

historical attachment to a variety

Natural selection

if a group becomes increasingly more dominant, the variety they speak will over time be recognized as a language

point 6 of dialects

if a person speaks a colloquial dialect, it is not a symptom of being unable to speak a standard one

Are dialects expected to be mutually intelligible?

in linguistic terms--> yes there are languages with dialects that are not mutually intelligible ex: Italian/real-world application ex: Southern Japan--> Okinawa/Ryukuyan Islands grammar is similar but mutually un-intelligible politically classified as a dialect so Japan can maintain control of these islands

Slang

informal vocabulary, often not found in dictionaries but used in daily life

Style

informal/formal

point 5 of dialects

our natural sense that one dialect is "better" than another is based solely on sociological associations, nothing about the dialect itself

Autonomy

separation from another population

What leads to a language being considered a language?

sociopolitical reasons Southeast Europe: Serbia--> Serbian Croatia--> Croatian believed they were speaking two different languages bc they were separate states; v high degree of mutability 1954--> Yugoslavia; unification; Serbia and Croatia were designated as one similar language Serbo-Croatian 1995--> deunification; went back to speaking two different languages South Asia: Hindi and Urdu *no major difference in use of the words until the 19th century *political change 20th century: India becomes independent; emergence of new political parties; split in parties along RELIGIOUS lines; Hindu and Islam 1947--> Hindus leave Pakistan and viceversa Pakistan declares Urdu their official language for symbolic distinction

Register

speech used for a particular social setting or particular activity

Point 3 of dialects

standard dialects are chosen according to geopolitical accident, not according to anything inherent to the dialect itself ex: Standard English--> comes from London bc London became a hub of commerce and culture; spoken by educated people--> became viewed as "best" dialect and was promoted to the standard

Negative factors associated with language

the absence of vocabulary items -missing words that are available in standard languages; creates thoughts of not being a real language mixtures of other languages: Pidgins/Creoles - Singlish: mix of English, Malay, Tamil and varieties of Chinese thoughts of not being a real language: " a way of speaking due to the mixture"

ideolect

the unique way that each person speaks his or her language

Dialect geographers

travel and figure out where people use certain forms and where they stop using them

Conclusions on Linguistic Hypothesis One

ttheoretically fine real-life application: does not work no two individuals speak the same way

Consequences of establishing language

unification of populations creation of prestige forms-->social status negative attitudes toward non-standard varieties

neutral term for different forms of speech

variety

Style

ways of speaking based on formality: formal vs. informal