English Part 3: Language Dialect Accent

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 4

Should schools teach in the regional dialect of their students or should they teach the students to speak the standard dialect of the language?

Regional

Standard

Should schools teach English in the British, American or other accent?

British

American

Other

The Dialect Debate

Read the article on the next slide. Write down the main argument/idea.

www.theatlantic.com

What was the main argument/idea? Do you agree of disagree?

Definitions

Accent is all about pronunciation. Two people may use the same grammar, the same syntax and the same vocabulary but pronounce the words in a different way. Effectively they have two accents.

Dialects, on the other hand, have differences not only in pronunciation but also in grammar and syntax. Two people may both speak English but one might say: 'He did well!'. Meanwhile, the other could say: 'He done well!'. Here this isn’t just a difference in pronunciation but also grammar; these are two different dialects.

There is a saying that a language is a dialect with an army. Linguists often talk about language in terms of political influence and power. By this they mean that a dialect with political power becomes a language.

The problem with this definition is that it implies that there is some sort of "standard" language from which all of the various dialects of that language differ. In English, however, I do not think this is true. I think that the English language is far too widespread and varies too much for anyone to say that the English spoken in ____ is "standard" and everything else is a "dialect." Even if it were narrowed down to a single country, there is still a great deal of variation within that country, and who is to say which region/city/state/province speaks proper English?

The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors, such as social class.

. English dialects may be different from each other, but all speakers within the English-speaking world can still generally understand them. A speaker from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, for instance, might pepper his speech with localised vocabulary, such as gan for “to go” or clarts for “mud”. He may often use regional grammatical constructions, such as the past tense constructions I’ve went and I’ve drank or the reflexive pronouns mysel, yoursel, hissel etc. In addition he probably uses a range of local pronunciations. For all these reasons he could be described as a Geordie dialect speaker.

Standard languages commonly feature:

• A recognized dictionary (standardized spelling and vocabulary)
  
• A recognized grammar
  
• A standard pronunciation (educated speech)
  
• A linguistic institution defining usage norms,
  
• Effective public use (court, legislature, schools)
  
• A literary canon
  
• Convenience speaking
  
• Popularity and acceptance in the community
  
• Population
  
• 
  

The English Big Three are British English, American English and Australian English. Are these languages, dialects or accents?

Dialect or Accent?

What is the difference? Watch the two videos in the following slides and answer the question on the slide afterwards.

Accent refers to the sounds that are present in a person's language. Pronunciation is basically a synonym of accent. Therefore, if I pronounce differently from someone, I have a different accent. We all have an accent. Dialect is something greater. A dialect is a version of a language that is special to a particular region or group. Dialects of the same language are different from each other, but still understandable to speakers of another dialect of that language. For example, American English and British English are two dialects of English. They have some differences, such as in pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar, but they are still understandable to each other

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Based on the previous videos, what do you think is (or are) the difference(s)?

Which dialects, accents or languages do you speak? Include whether you consider them to be dialects, accents or languages in your answer.

What factors influence when you speak which dialect, accent or language?