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LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011Wardhaugh Ch 2Wardhaugh Ch 2

Small group discussion:

Try to characterize your own speech – how is it similar and how is it different than others around you?

Be 100% honest – what are your pet peeves with language? What are some things that you hear/see that instigates that “gut reaction” in a negative way?

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LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011Wardhaugh Ch 2Wardhaugh Ch 2

Wardhaugh – Chapter 2

What is the difference between language and dialect?Variety is a term used for to replace both terms - Hudson says “a set of linguistic items with similar distribution”Variety is some linguistic shared items which can uniquely be associated with some social items

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LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011Wardhaugh Ch 2Wardhaugh Ch 2

Wardhaugh – Chapter 2

Dialect and accent

Accent - pronunciationDialect - includes pronunciation, but also includes grammatical, lexical and usage - MFL example

Dialects in North America are mutually intelligible - the differences do not impede communication totally

Another real example - “No blended drinks today - the blender is broke” at a coffee hut in Portland - where do you think this was? Why?

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LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011Wardhaugh Ch 2Wardhaugh Ch 2

Wardhaugh – Chapter 2

What is the difference between language and dialect?Do you speak a language or a dialect?Most speakers can give a name to what they speak - but remember Steve Harvey on DYSA - Q:“Do you speak American?” A:”I speak good enough American”There are sometimes very big differences between folk ideas about varieties and linguistic realities - Dennis Preston’s work on Perceptual DialectologyOften follows standard versus nonstandardBigger difference between grammatical over phonological variablesLinguistic insecurity - how a speaker of a sub-standard variety feels about his/her varietyLinguistic security - Are Portlanders insecure or secure about our variety?

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LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011Wardhaugh Ch 2Wardhaugh Ch 2

Wardhaugh – Chapter 2 What are the different regional accents in your opinion?

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LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011Wardhaugh Ch 2Wardhaugh Ch 2

Wardhaugh – Chapter 2 The Oregonian Regarding Jeff Conn's opinions about whether or not Portlanders are developing their own unique dialect - Piffle!

I've lived in Portland - and other western locations - and here's my take: Intelligently spoken "western speech" that is free of recently introduced speech influences from other regions (i.e. southern, Bostonian, ethnic, etc.) is the purest and most accent free English in the whole world. If you doubt me, go to England and converse with normal, everyday folks. Most have terrible pronunciation. Many of them are borderline unintelligible. London east-ender "Cockney" is totally indecipherable! Then go north to Scotland. Delightful people, but what they speak sounds nothing like what the dictionary pronunciation guide says it should sound like. Same thing in Ireland, and Australia. Lovely people. Terrible speech habits.

But back to the U.S. There are too many people moving from other regions into our western stronghold to justify calling any bad speech habits as being anything but temporary.

By far the biggest influence on Pacific Northwest speech is the same as with other western regions - and probably other parts of the country; namely, teenagers develop their own subnormal vocabulary and way of speaking. Although much more extreme than with previous generations, subnormal has always been associated with teenagers. The big difference now is that when young people eventually mature, they don't drop their language in favor of adult speech. Our adult language has become the prisoner of "teenspeak," and that is an utter abomination.

True, languages evolve; but adults copying the speech of rebellious anti-social youth is not the hallmark of a great society. And this decline of the American language will probably continue indefinitely; when was the last time you heard a teenager say "It's time for me to speak good, correct English?"

Like, man, it'll never happen.

"'S'up?"

"He goes," "She goes."

Our language is dying, but it had a pretty good run. Luckily for me, most of my life has been during the good part.

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LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011Wardhaugh Ch 2Wardhaugh Ch 2

Wardhaugh – Chapter 2

What is the difference between language and dialect?There are a lot of situations that show language versus dialect isn’t clearChineseNorwegian/SwedishCroatian and SerbianHebrewArabicSpanish?

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LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011Wardhaugh Ch 2Wardhaugh Ch 2

Wardhaugh – Chapter 2

What is the difference between language and dialect?Need to discuss issues of solidarity and power - How do these play into the definitions of a variety as a dialect or language?“A language is a dialect with an army and a navy”

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LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011Wardhaugh Ch 2Wardhaugh Ch 2

Wardhaugh – Chapter 2

Bell’s criteria for the difference between language and dialect?STANDARDIZATION - has the language been codified? Written tradition, grammar and spelling books, dictionaries, literature.More than just linguistic - includes economic, social, politicalSelection of normsStandard English still tough to define because no agreed upon normsWill text messaging (a written form of the English language that is becoming codified) influence Standard English norms? thru - other alternate spellings?Difference between standard grammar and pronunciationNegative concord - I don’t wanna be lonely no moreSolidarity away from the standard (covert prestige rather than overt prestige)

Why would you NOT want to use Standard English - small group discussions

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LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011Wardhaugh Ch 2Wardhaugh Ch 2

Wardhaugh – Chapter 2

Bell’s criteria for the difference between language and dialect?VITALITY - Living versus dead languages - Hebrew/Irish Gaelic

HISTORICITY - a language of identity - belongs to its speakers - Germany and German language - Chinese

AUTONOMY - a language is felt to be different by its speakers - Catalan? - problems with pidgin and creole langs - Chinese again

REDUCTION - functionally limited, particularly to less prestigious domains - linguistic insecurity - pidgins

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LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011Wardhaugh Ch 2Wardhaugh Ch 2

Wardhaugh – Chapter 2

Bell’s criteria for the difference between language and dialect?MIXTURE - speakers’ feelings about the purity of the language they speak

DE FACTO NORMS - ‘good’ and ‘bad’ speakers and that there is a proper way of speaking - used and actual norms

As professors, we used to use overheads, but anymore we just use powerpoint.This didn’t use to be Gresham, but anymore it is.I don’t eat carbs anymore.So many people are on an all-protein diet anymore.

With these criteria, different varieties meet them differently

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LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011Wardhaugh Ch 2Wardhaugh Ch 2

Wardhaugh – Chapter 2

Regional DialectsDialect - has some tradition of writing in the variety (Mark Twain)Patois - usually a very pejorative term for a variety that is less than a dialect - rural speech -

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LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011Wardhaugh Ch 2Wardhaugh Ch 2

Wardhaugh – Chapter 2 Regional DialectsDialect continuum - one definition of dialect is a mutually intelligible variety of a language. A continuum exists in geography if you travel from NW France to SE Italy or SW Spain - all related languages. Each adjacent village can understand each other regardless of where the political borders are. BUT Paris, Madrid and Rome speak varieties that are not mutually intelligible, therefore separate languages

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LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011Wardhaugh Ch 2Wardhaugh Ch 2

Wardhaugh – Chapter 2

Regional DialectsDialect Geography - mapping regional dialects through the use of isoglossesRP, Estuary English, General American

Regional varieties described in terms of lexical choices done through

Linguistic Atlas creation - http://us.english.uga.edu/ Dialectologists looked at NORMs - old men in the sticks! = non-mobile older rural malesAsked what is the word you use for...Plotted variation on a map and drew lines - isoglossesNow sociolinguists look at urban populations and exam different regions in terms of what is happening in the cities and in terms of language change

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LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011Wardhaugh Ch 2Wardhaugh Ch 2

Wardhaugh – Chapter 2

Regional Dialects - Isogloss

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LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011Wardhaugh Ch 2Wardhaugh Ch 2

Wardhaugh – Chapter 2

One variable isogloss – cot vs. caught = low back merger

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LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011Wardhaugh Ch 2Wardhaugh Ch 2

Wardhaugh – Chapter 2 Regional Dialects of American English

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LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011Wardhaugh Ch 2Wardhaugh Ch 2

Wardhaugh – Chapter 2 Regional Dialects of American English http://aschmann.net/AmEng/

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LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011Wardhaugh Ch 2Wardhaugh Ch 2

Wardhaugh – Chapter 2 Carver’s dialect map broken up into smaller dialects

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LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011Wardhaugh Ch 2Wardhaugh Ch 2

Carver’s hierarchy

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LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011Wardhaugh Ch 2Wardhaugh Ch 2

Wardhaugh – Chapter 2 Regional Dialects of American English

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LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011Wardhaugh Ch 2Wardhaugh Ch 2

Wardhaugh – Chapter 2 Regional Dialects of American English - defined by language changes in vowel systems

Northern Cities Shift (play Chicago sample - 3mins)

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LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011Wardhaugh Ch 2Wardhaugh Ch 2

Wardhaugh – Chapter 2 Regional Dialects of American English - defined by language changes in vowel systems

Northern Cities Shift (play Chicago sample - 3mins)

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LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011Wardhaugh Ch 2Wardhaugh Ch 2

Wardhaugh – Chapter 2 Regional Dialects of American English - defined by language changes in vowel systems

The Southern Shift (Play Arkansas 2mins; play Eng 3mins;

Trace Adkins - country music

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LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011Wardhaugh Ch 2Wardhaugh Ch 2

Wardhaugh – Chapter 2 Regional Dialects of American English - defined by language changes in vowel systems

The Southern Shift (Play Arkansas 2mins; play Eng 3mins;

Trace Adkins - country music

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LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011Wardhaugh Ch 2Wardhaugh Ch 2

Wardhaugh – Chapter 2 Regional Dialects of American English - defined by language changes in vowel systems

The California/Canada Shift (Play Cali - 1:45; Ontario 2:15)

Frank Zappa’s Valley girl

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LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011Wardhaugh Ch 2Wardhaugh Ch 2

SociolinguisticsLinguistic variation and change

The California/Canada Shift (Play Cali - 1:45; Ontario 2:15)

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LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011Wardhaugh Ch 2Wardhaugh Ch 2

Wardhaugh – Chapter 2

Social DialectsVarieties based on social groupings other than regionWhat social categories do you think are important?

ClassEthnicityAgeSex/Gender

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LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011Wardhaugh Ch 2Wardhaugh Ch 2

Wardhaugh – Chapter 2

Styles, Registers and BeliefsStyle = formal versus informal - intraspeaker variationRegister = sets of items associated with discrete occupational or social groupsRural dialects sometimes better than urban onesConnection between older forms (often found in more formal speech)Ideas of correctness - judgments passed on those who use “incorrect” formsLeads to many myths about language - Preston again - accentless English (remember the emailer from Portland?)What happens when style and these ideas of correctness come into contact with linguistic insecurity?

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LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011Wardhaugh Ch 2Wardhaugh Ch 2

Wardhaugh – Chapter 2

Labov’s study of NYC shows that social class, attention to speech influence a linguistic variable (r) in systematic ways - shows hypercorrection

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LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011Wardhaugh Ch 2Wardhaugh Ch 2

Wardhaugh – Chapter 2

Styles, Registers and BeliefsSome researchers (Eckert and her followers) believe that by examining intraspeaker variation, we can see how sociolinguistic variables are USED to create various identities in various settingsThis promotes the idea that you create who you are through the use of sociolinguistic variation

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LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011LING 432-532 – Sociolinguistics – Spring 2011Wardhaugh Ch 2Wardhaugh Ch 2

Language Attitudes - Project 1 (Dialect)

Read the Language Myth by Dennis Preston at:

http://www.pbs.org/speak/speech/prejudice/attitudes/