Tugas: Languages, Dialect and Varieties

Unless a human being has a physical or mental disability, he or she will be born with the capacity for language: the innate ability to speak a language, or in the case of someone who is deaf, to sign a language (i.e. use gestures to communicate). This capacity does not involve any kind of learning – a young child, for instance, does not need to be taught to speak or sign – and occurs in predictable stages, beginning with the babbling cries of an infant and culminating in the full speaking abilities of an adult.
Language is many things; it can be a system of communication, a medium for thought, vehicle for literary expression, a matter for political controversy, a catalyst for nation building.

A. Language and dialects     

Most speakers can give a name to whatever it is they speak. On occasion, some of these names may appear to be strange to those who take a scientific interest in languages, but we should remember that human naming practices often have a large ‘unscientific’ component to them. Census-takers in India find themselves confronted with a wide array of language names when they ask people what language or languages they speak. Names are not only ascribed by region, which is what we might expect, but sometimes also by caste, religion, village, and so on. Moreover, they can change from census to census as the political and social climate of the country changes. While people do usually know what language they speak, they may not always lay claim to be fully qualified speakers of that language. They may experience difficulty in deciding whether what they speak should be called a language proper or merely a dialect of some language. 

Edward (2009) define dialect as a variety of a language that differs from others along three dimensions: vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation (accent) Because they are forms of the same language. 

Greek situation has provided the model for all later usages of the two terms with the resulting ambiguity. Language can be used to refer either to a single linguistic norm or to a group of related norms, and dialect to refer to one of the norms. The situation is further confused by the distinction the French make between un dialecte and un patois.

The former is a regional variety of a language that has an associated literary tradition, whereas the latter is a regional variety that lacks such a literary tradition. Therefore patois tends to be used pejoratively; it is regarded as something less than a dialect because of its lack of an associated literature. Even a language like Breton, a Celtic language still spoken in parts of Brittany, is called a patois because of its lack of a strong literary tradition and the fact that it is not some country’s language. However, dialect in French, like dialect in German, cannot be used in connection with the standard language, i.e., no speaker of French considers Standard French to be a dialect of French. In contrast, it is not uncommon to find references to Standard English being a dialect – admittedly a very important one – of English.

They also make it possible to speak of some languages as being more ‘developed’ in certain ways than others, thus addressing a key issue in the language–dialect distinction, since speakers usually feel that languages are generally ‘better’ than dialects in some sense.

1. Standardization refers to the process by which a language has been codified in some way.

2. Vitality refers to the existence of a living community of speakers.

3. Historicity refers to the fact that a particular group of people finds a sense of identity through using a particular language: it belongs to them.

4. Autonomy is an interesting concept because it is really one of feeling. A language must be felt by its speakers to be different from other languages.

5. Reduction refers to the fact that a particular variety may be regarded as a sub-variety rather than as an independent entity.

6. Mixture refers to feelings speakers have about the ‘purity’ of the variety they speak.

7. De facto norms refers to the feeling that many speakers have that there are both ‘good’ speakers and ‘poor’ speakers and that the good speakers represent the norms of proper usage.

b. Regional Dialect

            Dialect geography is term used to describe attempts made  map the distribution of various linguistic features so as to show their geografical provenance. For example, in seeking to determine features of the dialects of English and to show their distribution, dialect geographers try to find to question such as the following. Is this an –r pronouncing area of English, as in word like car and cart or is it not? What past tense form of drink do speakers prefer? What names do people give paricular objects in the evironment, e.g., elevator or lift, petrol or gas carousel or roundabout? Do people say ‘ i haven’t any ‘, ‘i don’t have any’ i ain’t got none ‘? And so on. Sometimes maps are drawnto show actual boundaries around such features, boundaries call isoglosses, sonas to distinguish an area in which certain feature is found from area in which it is absent. When several sch isoglosses coincide, the result is sometimes called a dialect boundary.

All people in the same place can talk to each other and for the most part understand each other. Yet not two speak exactly alike. Some differences are due to the age, sex, state of health, size, personality, emotional state, and personal idiosyncrasies (Fromkin, Rodman, Collins, and Blair; 1990: 245). That each person speaks somewhat differently form all others is shown by our ability to recognize acquaintances by hearing them talk. The unique characteristic of the language of an individual speaker are referred to as the speaker’s idiolect.

Beyond these individual differences, the language of a group of people may show regular variations from that used by other groups of speaker of that language. When the English of speaker in different geographical regions and from different social groups shows systemic differences, the groups are said to speak different dialects of the same language. The dialect of a single language may thus be defined as mutually intelligible forms of a language that differ in systemic ways from each other.

There are two kinds of dialect; they can be regional dialect and social dialect. Regional dialect is geographically based. It means that a dialect that differs because of geographical area. The differences can be in terms of pronunciation, choice of words, and syntax.

Finally, the term dialect, pariculary when it is used in reference to regional variation, should not confused with the term accents, standart English, for example is spoken in a variety of accent. often with clear rigional social association: thare are accent associated with North America, singapore, india, liverpool (scouse), tyneside(geordie), baston, new york and so on.

c. Social Dialect

A sociolect or social dialect is a variety of language (a register) associated with a social group such as a socioeconomic class, an ethnic group (precisely termed ethnolect), an age group, etc.

Sociolects involve both passive acquisition of particular communicative practices through association with a local community, as well as active learning and choice among speech or writing forms to demonstrate identification with particular groups.

Sociolect, defined by Peter Trudgill, a leading sociolinguist and philosopher, is “a variety which is thought of as being related to its speakers’ social background rather than geographical background”. This idea of sociolect began with the commencement of Dialectology, the study of different dialects in relation to social society, which has been established in countries such as England for many years, but only recently has the field garnered more attention. However, as opposed to dialect, the basic concept of a sociolect is that a person speaks in accordance with their social group whether it is with regard to one’s ethnicity, age, gender, etc. As William Labov once said, “the sociolinguistic view…is that we are programmed to learn to speak in ways that fit the general pattern of our communities”. Therefore, what we are surrounded with in unison with our environment determines how we speak; hence, our actions and associations.

d. Styles and registers

The study of dialects is further complicated by the fact that speakers can adopt different styles of speaking. You can speak very formally or very informally, your choice being governed by circumstances. Ceremonial occasions almost invariably require very formal speech, public lectures somewhat less formal, casual conversation quite informal, and conversations between intimates on matters of little importance may be extremely informal and casual. (See Joos, 1962, for an entertaining discussion.) We may try to relate the level of formality chosen to a variety of factors: the kind of occasion; the various social, age, and other differences that exist between the participants; the particular task that is involved, e.g., writing or speaking; the emotional involvement of one or more of the participants; and so on.

Style relates to the typical ways in which one or more people do a particular thing. Style in language behavior thus becomes alternative ways of expressing the same content. Style is the way speakers speak, the speaker also can make a choice weather informal and formal, it depends on circumstance and the age and social group of participant (Wardhaugh, 2006). And also style is the varians in the speech which is used in certain situation or form of the language used for the same purpose under certain circumstances.

in conclusion

 Variety is a language that has same sounds, words, grammatical features. A general term for any distinctive form of a language or linguistic expression is Language varieties. Linguists commonly use language variety, as a cover term for any of the overlapping subcategories of a language, including dialect, idiolect, register, and social dialect.

Dialect refers to a variety of a language that can signal the speaker’s regional or social background, dialects are subdivisions of language, the term of dialect refers to grammar and vocabulary (or lexis).

Dailect is divided into two, social dialect and regional dialect. Regional dialect refers to a place, and social dialect refers to social groups and classes.

Style relates to the typical ways in which one or more people do a particular thing, and Registers can simply be described as variations of the language according to its use, while the dialect as a language variation based on users registers on this concept is not limited to the choice of words (such as the notion registers in the traditional theory) but also includes the choice of the use of text structure, and texture.

References

Wardhaugh Ronald. ( 2006 ). An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. London: lackwell Publishing Ltd.

Holmet, janet. ( 1992 ). An Introduction to Sociolinguistic.London : Longman

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociolect(Accessed 2014-03-15).

Dole imam.( 2010 ) Language Varieties. http://imandole.blogspot.com/2010/05/language-varieties.html(Accessed 2014-03-15).