Language, Dialects, And Varieties

Language, Dialects, and Varieties

Mr. Xavier A. VelascoMAT – ELA

What is a LANGUAGE?

the words, their pronunciation, and the methods of combining them used and

understood by a community

Any means of conveying or communicating ideas; specifically, human speech; the

expression of ideas by the voice; sounds, expressive of thought, articulated by the

organs of the throat and mouth.

What is a VARIETY?

“A set of linguistic items with similar distribution.”

--- Richard ‘Dick’ Hudson

“Any body of human speech patterns which is

sufficiently homogeneous to be analyzed.”

--- Charles A. Ferguson

What is a DIALECT?

is a variant, or variety, of a language spoken in a certain

geographical area.

a form of a language spoken in a particular geographical area or by members of a

particular social class or occupational group, distinguished by its vocabulary, grammar,

and pronunciation; a form of a language that is considered inferior

What are the differences between a language and a

dialect? 

1. SIZE

• A language is bigger than a dialect.

2. PRESTIGE

• A language is more prestigious than a dialect.

A dialect is popularly considered to be "a substandard, low status, often rustic form of a language, lacking in prestige. Dialects are often being

thought of as being some kind of erroneous deviation from the norm - an aberration of the 'proper' or standard form of language." (Chambers and

Trudgill 1998).

Standard English - language or dialect? 

What is Standard English?Hudson suggests that the variety of a

language that we refer to as a 'proper language' rather than a dialect is a Standard Language.

“It is important to note that this variety has no linguistic prestige over others - the selection of a given variety depends on social, not linguistic factors.”

--- Lesley Milroy

Four (4) processes a variety goes through to become standardized

Seven (7) criteria in discussing different

kinds of languages

REFERS TO THE EXISTENCE OF A LIVINGCOMMUNITY OF SPEAKERS

AUTONOMYA LANGUAGE MUST BE FELT BY ITS SPEAKERS TO BE

DIFFERENT FROM OTHER LANGUAGES.

REDUCTIONREFERS TO THE FACT THAT A PARTICULAR VARIETY

MAY BE REGARDED AS A SUB-VARIETY RATHER THATN AS AN INDEPENDENT ENTITY.

MIXTUREREFERS TO FEELINGS SPEAKERS HAVE ABOUT THE

‘PURITY’ OF THE VARIETY THEY SPEAK.

FACTO DE NORMSREFERS TO THE FEELING THAT MANY SPEAKERS HAVE

THAT THERE ARE BOTH ‘GOOD’ SPEAKERS AND ‘POOR’ SPEAKERS.

Thank you for LISTENING