Lexical differences between dialects quite nice website with

Lexical differences between dialects quite nice website with lots of examples: www. bl. uk/learning/langlit/sounds/activities/lexical-variation/

Lexical differences • Independent of accents, varieties of English differ in the lexicon • By “dialects” we mainly refer to varieties associated with geographic regions … • … but this course will (later) be concerned with other sorts of varieties, which can also be characterised by lexical differences – “registers” related to levels of formality – “sublanguages” related to different subject matters 2

Lexical differences • Lexical differences generally not as extensive or obvious as phonological differences • Not surprising: if they were too many differences, mutual understanding would be jeopardised, and we’d describe them as different languages • Indeed, “same language” status in doubt between dialects with extensive differences (eg British ~ American) 3

Lexical differences • Tend to be dotted around the lexicon, but can be concentrated in areas of vocabulary – especially high local resonance (names of flora, fauna, cultural significance) – old technologies independently developed before globalization (eg car terms in Am. E) – vocabulary reflecting distinctly different system (eg legal system, education) • Not the same as slang, though slang is (also) notoriously dialectal 4

Lexical differences: categorization • Lexical borrowings from local (foreign) languages • Local feature or speciality has name not found elsewhere – Group of things more specifically distinguished locally • Different names for the same thing • Word or set of words exchange meanings 5

Lexical borrowings • Widespread in Scots and Irish English – kirk (church), dreich (overcast), brae (hillside) – taoseach (prime minister), dail (parliament), garda (police), craic (fun) • Norse borrowings in NE and Cumbrian – bairn (child), gammerstang (awkward person), lawp (jump), gan (go), yem (home) 6

Local distinctions • Classic Whorfian idea that language is conditioned by environment – Seafarers recognize/name different types of boats – More specific names for fish in fishing communities • fish names also subject to variance: same name – different fish in different locations – Local animal or plant names – Terms used by farmers – Below the level of dialect you might find special words used within a family or other close-knit group • eg kinship words (mother, father, grandmother/father …) • private references 7

Just different names • Biggest category, thousands of examples – eg Terms connected with food and drink • barm, barm cake, bread cake, bap, batch cake, bun, roll, muffin, cob – Words associated with children’s games, incl. truce words: barley, fainites, pax, scribs, skinchies • Distinguish where local word is alternative, or replacement – daps, pumps, plimsolls (no standard term? ) – roundabout aka island~circle~circus~rotary 8

Lots of examples • Can you think of any local dialect words in your dialect? – Actually you may not know that a word is dialectal until you travel elsewhere – Or, there may be some lexical differences which your dialect is “famous” for – Some dialect words may just be the result of accent differences • eg where they say kuh for ‘cow’ they also say hus ‘house’ etc 9

Vocabulary merry-go-round • Br. E~Am. E: jam~jelly~jello • Br. E~Am. E: biscuit~cake~cookie~cracker • Scots: live~stay • There seem to be specific things which are subject to massive variance, while other things are universally named – cf bread (everyone calls it bread) 10

Vocabulary globalization • fries (and fish and chips in NAm) • Aus. E chips (crisps), hot chips (chips) • movie(s), candy, cookies 11

Dialect morphology (? ) • How are diminutives formed? • Some dialects seem to have a greater propensity to form diminutives • Often in a distinctive manner – Liverpool: bickie, ciggie, footie, plazzie, brekkie – Aussie: garbo, ambo, this arvo, journo, muso, brekko – old RP: footer, rugger, preggers, shampers, brekker (see http: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Oxford_'-er') 12

Dialect geography • Just as you can map isoglosses that distinguish features of accents, you can map incidence of dialect words • Later in this course we will look more closely at some of the methods involved in dialectology – methods of collecting data – issues in quantifying dialect difference 13

Words for ‘splinter’ spell spelk speel spill splie spool splint shiver silver source: Upton, C. & J. Widdowson (1996). An Atlas of English Dialects. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 14