Semester 5 Module: Sociolinguistics Semester 5 Youssef TAMER Associate Professor Department of English Studies Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences, Ibn Zohr University, Agadir 20142015 /Dr.Youssef.Tamer /YoussefTamer /+Youssef.Tamer /TEFLANDICT WWW.ENGLISHSTUDIESINFO.BLOGSPOT.COM
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Language, dialects, vernacular, accent, linguage franca
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Semester 5 Module: Sociolinguistics
Semester 5 Youssef TAMER
Associate Professor Department of English Studies
Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences, Ibn Zohr University, Agadir
• Language, dialect and accent; • Standard languages & standardisation; • Official languages; • Vernacular languages; • Lingua francas; • Implications for education.
Languages and dialects • Classical Arabic / Standard Arabic • Max Weinreich: “a language is a dialect with an army
and a navy” • Language/dialect distinction is political/sociological as
much as linguistic • E.g. 1 Former Yugoslavia: Serbo-Croatian Croatia: Croatian Yugoslavia: Serbian • E.g. 2 Arab World: SA, codified, language of Quran, literature…
Criteria for Distinction• E.g. 1 Former Yugoslavia: Serbo-Croatian Croatia: Croatian Yugoslavia: Serbian • E.g. 2 Greece: Colloquial Greek (Dimotiki) Official Language • E.g. 3 India: Hindi dialect was given the status of a national language after independence • E.g. 4 Maghreb: French has been gradually replaced by SA after independence and Arabization is still going on.
• Standard Arabic, the language of the holy Qur’an, was chosen as the official language of the Maghreb countries because it is, unlike dialects, codified and it is the vehicle of a great spiritual and literary heritage
• A dialect is a particular variety of a language that differs noticeably from the variety or varieties of the same language spoken by another group or groups of people.
Dialects and accents• Dialects are variations in pronunciation,
vocabulary, grammar • Accents are variations in pronunciation only !
• A final note on accent. WE ALL HAVE ONE! There is no such thing as a person who speaks without an accent. This is not an exercise in political correctness, by the way. It is a fact.
!• What is considered standard is associated with prestige, a non-
linguistic factor.
!• From a linguistic standpoint, what is considered standard has
nothing to do with correctness or superiority.
!• From a linguistic standpoint, all dialects are equally correct,
equally expressive, equally logical and so forth. That is, the term non-standard dialect means just that, not the standard dialect. It does not mean inferior or sub-standard.
• What is standard is not a matter of “better’ from a linguistic point of view. What is standard is dictated by attitudes in the society towards particular groups of people who speak in particular ways.
Establishing an official national language in Mainland China
17th century • Orthoepy Academies (Zhengyin Shuyuan): to make
pronunciation conform to the Beijing standard !1913 • Commission on the Unification of pronunciation: Beijing
dialect became the major source of standard national pronunciation. It was voted for the general foundation of the new national language `guoyu” (national speech). It is also the official language of Mainland China
• The Basic Law has very little to say about language policy (Yau, 1992), but what it does say retains ambiguity: “In addition to Chinese language, the English language may also be used…”
• What language varieties should we teach? • Valuing minority varieties • Teaching standardised/official varieties • Language is a highly political issue. Great care is
needed, based on understanding, when discussing language in society
Implications for education• Cantonese should not treated or regarded as an
obstruction in the pathway of PTH; !
• School children should be taught that in the process of learning PTH they need not give up or forget their home dialects and languages; !
• Teachers should emphasize to their students that knowing two or more varieties of Chinese (and other languages) is an invaluable asset that will pay dividends throughout the speaker’s life.