DIALECTS OF ENGLISH

Álvaro HabertMiguel CortésRobert Acuña

Bryan Henríquez

Temuco, 06.Abril.2009

Dialects of English • When the first settlers came from England,

Americans began to develop different regional dialects of English in the United States. They were different to the English spoken in United Kingdom, we mean, British English.

• The three main areas of regional dialects were known as:

Northern: New England y Hudson River Midland: Pennsylvania Southern: Texas y Colorado

• There are differences between a dialect and other one. And the general rule for this is known as: “R-Dropping”.

Father ['fɑ:ðəʳ] Farther

['fɑ:ðəʳ]

Farm [fɑ:m]

The language of immigrants

contributed to enrich the vocabulary and

culture of English. This also created new

variations between the dialects of English.

• It means that the same word is pronunciated in a different way in each dialect.

Phonological Differences

Examples

• Here: [hɪə] (Received Pronunciation)

[hɪəʳ] (American English)

• Water: ['wɔ:təʳ] (American English) ['wɔ:tə] (Received Pronunciation)

Process of Transformation

• Received Pronunciation (RP)• R-Dropping• American English (Standars)

Lexical Differences

• When we talk about ‘Lexical Differences’, we are saying that between an Dialect and an other one, there are different words for the same meaning, in some cases.

• Example:

Acensor: Lift (England)Elevator (United States)

Transporte: Transportation (England)Transport (United States)

Lexical Differences

• There are even some ‘Lexical Differences’ in the dialects inside of one country.

• Example:

Autopista: Freeway (Los Angeles)Thruway (New York)Parkway (New Jersey)

Motorway (England)

Syntactic Differences

• Some sentences with the same meaning are said with different structures.

• Example: “John will eat and Mary will eat”

John and Mary will eat (USA) John will eat and Mary (Ozark Dialect)

The Ozark Dialect is spoken in Missouri State,

in Ozark, near to Springfield.

Syntactic Differences• Between a dialect and other one, there

are ‘Ambiguities’.

Example:

“George wants the presidency more than Martha”

• It can be understood as:

George wants the presidency more than he wants Martha. George wants the presidency more than Martha wants the

presidency.

Syntactic Differences

• Appalachian English

Double Modals : He might could do it.

Double Objects : I caught me a fish.

A-prefixing/progressives : He come a-runnin’.

Syntactic Differences

• In the Using of a Pronoun

‘I’ > Between ‘You’ and ‘I’ > Won’t he let you and I swim? (Standar English)

‘Me’ > Between ‘You’ and ‘Me’ > Won’t he let you and me swim?

Syntactic Differences

• A sentence as: ‘I could have done it’, is expressed differently between American and British English. Let’s see it:

• I could have done (British)• I could have (American)

Dialect Atlases

• Dialect Maps: There are a lot of maps those show the differences in the English Dialects, dividing some areas (Dialect Areas), with lines (called ‘Isoglos’) and coulors, and each feature of the map has a meaning.

Example

What’s “DARE”?

• DARE: Dictionary of American Regional English.

• It was created by Frederik G. Cassidy.

Conclusion

• All the examples those we showed are a good representation of the several dialects and differences inside the English Language. The differences are Phonological, Lexical and Syntactic Differences.

• English Language is so important around the world. A lot of people speak it as a native language. Others as their second or third language.

• English is/was the main language in the countries those were colony of Great Britain. Because that the English shows too many regional varieties.