LINGUIS 155AC Lecture 4: English Dialects
7 Oct 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Standard american english (sae or se) is an idealized norm, that is codified in dictionaries. Those who grow up in white, upper middle class, are middle-aged, and from the midwest are generally the closest to speaking sae dialect. English dialects vary over geographic regions, cultures, ethnicities, etc. Dialect leveling is the process when features of two or more dialects merge. Different dialects can be characterized by their vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, pragmatics (speech rate, gaps in between topics, use of small talk) Isogloss: lines on map that separate two areas that have language variation ex of language variation: north and south adopted the broad a, aunt [ ] or aunt [a] Up to 1700"s, british and american english had flat a, after 1775 british english and places that adopted overt prestige used the broad a. Sound mergers of three vowels: two or more phonemes pronounced similarly.
