CHAPTER 5 KEY ISSUE 3 Why Do Individual

CHAPTER 5 KEY ISSUE 3 Why Do Individual Languages Vary among Places?

A dialect is a regional variation of a language - distinguished by distinctive vocabulary, spelling, and

Any language with a large number of speakers and widespread distribution is bound to form DIALECTS.

Major distinctions can be heard between American and British English- and even between regions of the United States! AMY WALKER Language specialist

ISOGLOSS - the geographic boundary of a certain linguistic feature ----- ISOGLOSS MAP

Where do dialects in the United States come from? From the places that the ORIGINAL SETTLERS came from.

The 13 original colonies can be grouped into three dialect regions, each with a different group of settlers.

1. ) New England Almost entirely settled by people from England, mostly by Puritans from the Southeast, near London. Very few immigrants from Northern England.

2. ) Southeast About half came from England, the rest from a mix of European countries. Those from England came from the poorer industrial North. More diverse than New England’s original settlers.

3. ) Midlands Most diverse group of early settlers. Quakers from north of England, Scots and Irish, German, Dutch, and Swedish migrants.

Some English words are specific to a dialect. -Words from rural life -Food -Objects from daily activities

Language differences tend to be greatest in rural areas because of limited interaction with people from other dialect regions.

Mass media has reduced the number of regionally distinctive words.

In order to increase its appeal, mass media relies on the streamlining of language, just like it does with physical landscapes. If people can understand the messages in media, they are more likely to be effective.

‘STANDARD LANGUAGES’ �Languages with multiple dialects may recognize one as the standard language that is widely recognized as the most acceptable for government, business, education, and mass communication.

England’s standard language is known as British Received Pronunciation (BRP). America’s is known as Standard American; it is thought to have originated in the Midwest, and transmitted through mass media.

Many Americans think some ‘Northerners’ and ‘Southerners’ have distinct accents, but that the dialect of most people is about the same. This ‘neutral’ dialect that spans much of the country is GENERAL ENGLISH.

� British v. American English Dialects � American English is noticeably different than British English in three ways.

1. ) Vocabulary • Settlers in America encountered many new objects and experiences not present in England; these required new words. • Native American words, and later foreign words were incorporated into American English

2. ) Spelling Noah Webster sought to make American English distinct from the British form. In his famous dictionary, he purposely spelled words differently, such as dropping the ‘u’ in ‘colour. ’

3. ) Pronunciation Limited interaction between speakers across the Atlantic. As soon as speakers were separated, pronunciation began to change. It is believed by linguists that American English is closer to the English of the 17 th century than is British English, which has ‘dropped the R’ over the past few centuries.

DIALECTS v. LANGUAGES Increasingly difficult to determine whether two languages are distinct or whether they are dialects of the same language

Europe is a good example of this. Several tongues in Italy that have been traditionally classified as dialects of Italian are now viewed as distinct enough to be called languages

In most European countries, different local languages remain MUTUALLY COMPRHENSIBLE, meaning speakers can still understand one another.

Whether or not a tongue is a language or a dialect has political implications. In Barcelona, the dominant Catalan language – recognized as distinct from Spanish – is often used as a reason for ‘Catalonia’ to break away from Spain.

Romanian- separate from the other Romances- is spoken in Romania and Moldova. Linguists consider it to be the same language in both countries. Moldova, however, calls its language ‘Moldovan’ and writes it in Cyrillic instead of Latin letters to show its separate identity.

YUGOSLAVIA was a country in the Soviet Union. Its was MULTIETHNIC, meaning many different groups of people lived in the country, speaking different languages. Under the Soviets, Yugoslavians were forced to speak a language called ‘Serbo. Croatian. ’ When the Soviet Union collapsed, Yuguslavia tore itself apart in civil war; each new country that has emerged has its own language.