LIN203H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Infinitive, Chicano English, William Labov
Document Summary
Lin203h1 - lecture 9 - usage and variation. A simplification -> in reality there is no single english language. Many varieties of english spoken by many groups of people all over the world. Many different cultural and ethnic varieties of english. Linguists have studied varieties of chicano english and african-american vernacular. English -> each have particular characteristics that distinguish them from other dialects. There is no reason to believe that english ever lacked variation. Philip durkin in the variation -> evidenced by a variety of spellings in middle english texts. At least some of the spelling differences reflect dialectal differences in. The surviving old english documents are traditionally attributed to four different major dialects : kentish (in the south-east), west saxon (in the south-west), mercian (in the midland territories of mercia), and northumbrian (in the north). Much of west saxon was adopted as a written language in the later old english period.
