Jurnal Magistra, nomor 78/XXIII/Des 2011: 79–93 ISSN 0215-9511
AN EMPIRICAL EXPERIENCE OF ENGLISH DIALECTOLOGY
Didik Rinan Sumekto1 Rifqi Aulia Erlangga2
Abstrak
Perkembangan penggunaan bahasa Inggris selama ini tidak dapat dilepaskan dari aspek dialektogi dan dialek yang berlaku di beberapa kelompok masyarakat yang tinggal di wilayah tertentu. Beberapa kajian terkait dengan dialektogi dan linguistik baik secara sinkronik dan diakronik inipun dipengaruhi oleh perkembangan penggunaan bahasa Inggris di suatu wilayah. Meskipun sampai saat ini beberapa dialek masih dianggap sebagai sebuah kesalahan berkaitan dengan tidak benar dan standarnya penggunaan fungsi bahasa. Artikel ini lebih lanjut membahas masalah dialektologi yang berkaitan dengan dialektologi struktural dan generatif. Sedangkan dialek dalam pembahasan ini berkaitan dengan dialek yang pergunakan oleh masyarakat yang tinggal di wilayah pinggiran (rural dialect), dialek masyarakat urban (urban dialect), dialek berdasarkan wilayah atau geografi (geographical dialect continua), dan dialek sosial yang berkembang di masyarakat (social dialect continua).
Kata kunci: dialektologi, dialek, sinkronik, diakronik
1 Dosen Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Widya Dharma, Klaten; e-mail: [email protected], [email protected] 2 Dosen Program Studi Tadris Bahasa Inggris, Sekolah Tinggi Agama Islam (STAIN) Salatiga; e-mail: [email protected]
79 © Diterbitkan oleh Pusat Penerbitan Unwidha, 2011 Jl. Ki Hajar Dewantara, Klaten 57401 Jawa Tengah Indonesia. INTRODUCTION Dialectology, obviously, is the Chambers and Trudgill (2004) study of dialect and dialects. In common continue that in the relationship between usage, a dialect is a substandard, low- geographical space, language variation, status, often rustic form of language, and the (European) nation-state, space and generally associated with the peasantry, language appear to be trivially linked; in the working class, or other groups lacking fact, a whole sub-discipline of linguistics in prestige. Dialect is also a term which is (that of dialectology) construes its often applied to forms of language, professional identity around the particularly those spoken in more isolated assumption that languages vary in parts of the world, which have no written geographical space. The link between the form. Dialects are also often regarded as nation-state and geographical space some kind of (often erroneous) deviation appears just as natural—there are no from a norm–as aberrations of a correct or nations without a territory. But unlike standard form of language. The notion dialectologists, political scientists, that all speakers are speakers of at least sociologists and others who have one dialect–that standard English, for investigated the emergence of the example, is just as much a dialect as any European nation-states have given this other form of English–and that it does not link a considerable amount of theoretical make any kind of sense to suppose that reflection. This suggests that this link— any one dialect is in any way and perhaps that between language and linguistically superior to any other. space as well — is not as natural as it may Dialects are spoken languages, and look at first sight. But how are dialectal in speech a role is played by elements that variation and the nation-state related to cannot be expressed even in a each other? phonetically written text. Cultural and Empirically, the question becomes social factors give rise to exceptions relevant as soon as we look at dialect which may be more important than the continua across national borders. actual structures (Chambers and Trudgill, However, there may also be a more 2004). For example, in 1939 the ideological relationship between the two; Department of Dialects of the Royal after all, the origins of systematic dialect Netherlands Academy of Sciences and geography go back to the late 19th Letters at Amsterdam, which has some century, the very same time when 1,500 correspondents in all parts of the nationalist thinking reached a climax in country, sent a questionnaire to these Europe. At first glance, the coincidence respondents asking them to indicate the seems to be purely coincidental, for places in their vicinity in which virtually dialectology was at the time, and the same spoken language was used as in continues to be, interested in (areal, their own place of residence. For various diatopic) diversity; as such, it would areas the dialect boundaries resulting hardly seem to be able to contribute to the from this survey were found to differ in ideological construction of a some respects from those of older maps. geographically bounded nation state. But The discrepancies appear to be the result at a second look, it becomes apparent that of various factors, because of differences early dialectology and the nation-state had in historical and contemporary some common interests. development, strongly diverges from that in the Netherlands (Daan, 1999).
80 © Diterbitkan oleh Pusat Penerbitan Unwidha, 2011 Jl. Ki Hajar Dewantara, Klaten 57401 Jawa Tengah Indonesia. DIALECTOLOGY AND tongue Zunge LINGUISTICS tide Zeit ‘time’ Dialectology is to some extent an The claim about the regularity of autonomous discipline, with its own goals sound change is thus substantially correct. and methods. The common ground with Wenker’s survey of German dialects other branches cover linguistic science, nevertheless showed that the situation was especially phonetics, historical linguistics actually more complex than had originally and sociolinguistics. Modern been suggested. One of the linguistic dialectologists are usually trained as features which the survey investigated linguists, and many of them contribute to was the change of mediaeval German /u_/ the literature on phonology or syntax or to modern German /au/. This other branches as well as to dialect studies. diphthongisation is thought to have Obviously, detailed descriptions of started in the southeast of the German- peripheral and secondary dialects are speaking area and to have spread directly relevant to theories of phonology northwards and westwards, with dialects and grammar. It is perhaps surprising, in the north and southwest of the area dialectologiststhen, to discover that remaining unaffected by the change. We interchanges between and theoretical would therefore expect there to be a linguists are not as common as they might single isogloss bisecting the German- be, though in recent years both groups speaking area, dividing areas which have have come to realize that the rich the original /u_/ from those which have variability of linguistic systems can the newer /au/. Wenker found, however, illuminate and challenge universal claims that the isogloss for /hu_s/: /haus/ Haus about grammar and phonology. ‘house’ did not coincide with the isogloss Some philologists had found rather for /hu_s/: /aus/ aus ‘out’, which in turn startling, pointed out that if a sound did not coincide with that for /bru_n/: change took place it would take place in /braun/ braun ‘brown’ and so on. There all cases. That is, it would affect all words were some dialects where the sound that had the sound in question, or at least change had not been carried through all words in which the sound occurred in a regularly, and where some words had the particular environment. If word-initial /t/ original vowel and other words the newer changed to /ts/ as the result of a sound diphthong (Chambers and Trudgill, 2004). change, as we know it did during the history of the German language, it would Structural Dialectology change to /ts/ in every single case. The fact that sound change is regular in this In more recent times linguistics has way explains why regular had a certain amount of influence on correspondences are found between dialectology. Modern linguistic thinking, related languages and dialects. The for example, indicated that it was a German sound change /t/ > /ts/ did not drawback of traditional dialectology that take place in English, which retained the it tended to treat linguistic forms in original /t /, and for this reason English isolation rather than as parts of systems or word-initial /t /regularly corresponds to structures. We can illustrate this point in German /ts/ (spelt z): the following way. The local accents of three towns in East Anglia have different English German pronunciations of the vowel of words like ten zehn road: tell zählen ‘to count’
81 © Diterbitkan oleh Pusat Penerbitan Unwidha, 2011 Jl. Ki Hajar Dewantara, Klaten 57401 Jawa Tengah Indonesia. road nose be not only meaningful but also revealing. Lowestoft [roud] [nouz] His main innovation was to construct a Ipswich [roud] [nouz] higher-level system which could Colchester [r:ud] [n:uz] incorporate two or more dialect systems. Ipswich, for instance, has the (partial) This phonetic information suggests that it vowel system: would be reasonable to draw an isogloss for this vowel dividing Lowestoft and /u_/ (as in boot) Ipswich in the north from Colchester in /ou/ (nose, knows) the south. However, if we examine some /au/ (house) further pronunciations, the picture looks a little different: Corresponding to this, Lowestoft has:
rowed knows /u_/ (boot) Lowestoft [r:ud] [n:uz] /ou/ (nose) Ipswich [roud] [nouz] /:u/ (knows) Colchester [r:ud] [n:uz] /au/ (house)
It now emerges that it would be more Weinreich called this kind of revealing to draw an isogloss between system a diasystem. It illustrates the Lowestoft in the north and Ipswich and partial differences and partial similarities Colchester in the south, because of related varieties, and points out the Lowestoft has two vowels at this point in systematic nature of the correspondences its phonological system whereas the other between them. In the schema above, towns have only one. Lowestoft English, location of L /ou/ ~ /:u/ above I /ou/ is an in common with other varieties spoken in illustration of lexical correspondences: it the northern part of East Anglia, shows that words that have either /ou/ or distinguishes by means of this additional /:u/ in variety L (Lowestoft) will have /ou/ vowel phoneme between pairs such as: in I (Ipswich). The two lexical sets of L nose – knows; road – rowed; moan – correspond to the one lexical set of I, and mown; and sole – soul. These two given the L form we can always predict vowels, as the spelling suggests, were what the I form will be (although not, of originally distinct in all varieties of course, vice versa). A diasystem can be English, but have become merged in most regarded as being merely a display modern varieties. In drawing the isogloss device–a way for the linguist to present in this second way we are grouping the facts about the relationship between varieties together not according to varieties. Alternatively, the stronger claim whether they are phonetically similar or can be made that the diasystem has some not, but on the basis of their phonological kind of reality in the sense that speakers systems. Equally, we are now comparing and listeners may know and use such a individual forms not as ‘the same’ or system in their production and/or ‘different’ but as constituent parts of their comprehension. Weinreich himself own systems. regarded the diasystem as something Since dialectology is based on the more than an artificial construct, and comparison of one variety with another, wrote that ‘a diasystem is experienced in there was a strong tendency for linguists a very real way by bilingual (including to ignore dialectology. Weinreich “bidialectal”) speakers and corresponds to attempted to reconcile the two areas of what students of language contact have study by showing that comparison could called “merged system”. Weinreich also
82 © Diterbitkan oleh Pusat Penerbitan Unwidha, 2011 Jl. Ki Hajar Dewantara, Klaten 57401 Jawa Tengah Indonesia. suggested that diasystems could be the nasal; and (4) rounding: /i/ becomes constructed at the lexical and grammatical /u/ before a following labial consonant. levels (Chambers and Trudgill, 2004). In English, we would therefore have to look for our underlying forms in Generative Dialectology southwestern accents because Generative dialectology involved southeastern varieties are not rhotic. On the application of concepts and findings the other hand, it is actually not possible from generative phonology to the to take southwestern forms as basic description and comparison of different because of another feature, the East dialects. Generative dialectology Anglian distinction noted above for presupposed a two-level approach to Lowestoft and Norwich between the phonology which posited (a) underlying vowels of moan and mown, and road and forms, which were the phonological forms rowed. To cope with this contrast, we in which lexical items were listed in the have to have distinct underlying forms for lexicon, and (b) phonological rules which the two lexical sets, and then apply a rule converted these underlying forms into that merges them for other varieties. Since surface forms and thus, ultimately, into southwestern varieties do not make this their actual pronunciation. In particular, distinction, they cannot be basic. East forms involved in alternations of various Anglian varieties, on the other hand, are kinds appeared in the lexicon in only one not rhotic and can therefore not be basic form, the others being the result of the either. Underlying forms, that is to say, application of rules. This produced a cannot be taken from any one dialect, and simplicity of description and made are in fact best regarded as forms which possible the representation of are more abstract, in the sense that they generalizations about the way in which do not necessarily occur in any one the language works which, it was dialect. By giving up the claim that supposed, the native speaker knows and diasystemic underlying forms must be operates with. determined by a single dialect, generative Generative dialectology worked on dialectology eventually avoided this the assumption that a single underlying dilemma. However, a number of form can be postulated for related dialects, difficulties remained. Generative and that these dialects differ in the dialectology could cope with inventory phonological rules that apply to the differences by rules such as (i), and with underlying forms, the environments in distribution differences by rules such as which the rules apply, and (c) the order in (ii). It was therefore an advance on which the rules apply. We can illustrate structural dialectology. But it was not by this from dialects of modern Greek. Four any means an unqualified advance, for of the phonological rules set up by Brian dialectology could only cope with Newton for northern Greek dialects are: incidence differences if they were (1) high vowel loss: unstressed /i/ and /u / phonologically conditioned and regular. are lost; (2) voicing assimilation: There is an important difference in voiceless stops become voiced before English English varieties involving the voiced stops; voiced stops become incidence of /æ/ and /ɑ_/ in words such as voiceless before voiceless stops, (3) path, grass and laugh. At first, it might vowel epenthesis: when the final seem that generative dialectology could consonant of a word-final consonant handle this difference by a simple rule, cluster is a nasal, an /i / is inserted before because the vowel in question occurs, in this lexical set, before one of the voiceless
83 © Diterbitkan oleh Pusat Penerbitan Unwidha, 2011 Jl. Ki Hajar Dewantara, Klaten 57401 Jawa Tengah Indonesia. fricatives θ s or f. It might be possible, and dialect. ‘Accent’ refers to the way in then, to postulate underlying /æ/ and which a speaker pronounces, and derive southern /ɑ_/ by the following rule: therefore refers to a variety which is æ → ɑ_ / —— phonetically and/or phonologically However, this rule turns out to be different from other varieties. ‘Dialect’, much too general because even in the on the other hand, refers to varieties south of England there are many words which are grammatically (and perhaps which have /æ/ in the environment: maths, lexically) as well as phonologically ass, mass, raffle, cafeteria, etc. (If we try different from other varieties (Knowles, to state the rule the other way, with /ɑ_/ 1997). Chambers and Trudgill (2004) as the underlying vowel, there are still point out that if two speakers say, problems because of a number of words respectively, I done it last night and I did such as half, calf and master which have it last night, we can say that they are /ɑ_/ even in the north.) This difference speaking different dialects. The labels between northern and southern accents is ‘dialect’ and ‘accent’, too, are used by phonologically conditioned, as the rule linguists in an essentially ad hoc manner. suggests, but it is not regular. The rule can This may be rather surprising to many therefore only work if large numbers of people, since we are used to talking of words are labelled as exceptions in the accents and dialects as if they were well- lexicon. The complexities increase if we defined, separate entities: ‘a southern attempt to deal with the set of words accent’, ‘the Somerset dialect’. Usually, including dance, plant, sample, etc., however, this is actually not the case. which also has /æ/ in the north and /ɑ_/ in Dialects and accents frequently merge the south, because of an even greater into one another without any discrete number of ‘irregular’ words, like ant, break. romance, ample, etc., which have /æ/ in There was no such thing at this time both regions (Chambers and Trudgill, as a standard English language in our 2004). modern sense. Not only did the original settlers come from many different tribes, Early English Dialects they also arrived over a long period of The term ‘language’, then, if from a time, so that there must have been linguistic point of view a relatively considerable dialect variety in the early nontechnical term. If therefore we wish to kingdoms. As groups achieved some local be more rigorous in our use of descriptive dominance, their speech was accorded labels we have to employ other prestige, and the prestigious forms spread terminology. One term we shall be using over the territory that they dominated. In in this book is variety. We shall use some cases the immigrants took control of ‘variety’ as a neutral term to apply to any existing Celtic kingdoms, for example particular kind of language which we Northumbria subsumed the old kingdoms wish, for some purpose, to consider as a of Bernicia and Deira (Higham, 1986). single entity. The term will be used in an Here there would already be a ad hoc manner in order to be as specific communications infrastructure which as we wish for a particular purpose. We would enable the prestigious forms to can, for example, refer to the variety spread. Within their borders, there would ‘Yorkshire English’, but we can equally thus be a general tendency towards well refer to ‘Leeds English’ as a variety, homogeneity in speech. The evidence of or ‘middle-class Leeds English’ – and so the earliest written records suggests a on. More particular terms will be accent rough correlation between dialects and
84 © Diterbitkan oleh Pusat Penerbitan Unwidha, 2011 Jl. Ki Hajar Dewantara, Klaten 57401 Jawa Tengah Indonesia. kingdoms, and the dialects of Anglo- the pronunciation of this word, however, Saxon are conventionally classified by has the vowel sound [e], and was kingdom: Northumbrian, Mercian, West originally a Kentish form. Saxon and Kentish. The northern dialects, But when England finally became a Northumbrian and Mercian, are usually single kingdom, innovations would spread grouped together under the name Anglian. across the whole of the country, and begin The pattern of change which was to cross old borders. Eventually this established at this period survived until created a situation in which some features the introduction of mass education in the of language are general and others nineteenth century. localized. The general features are Subsequent development of English interesting because they form the nucleus dialects can in some cases be traced to of the later standard language. This point shifts in political boundaries. The new is worth emphasizing, because there is a Scottish border, for example, cut the common misconception that dialects arise people of the Lowlands off from the rest as a result of the corruption or of Northumbria, with the result that the fragmentation of an earlier standard dialects on either side of the border began language. Such a standard language had to change in different directions. The never existed. The standard language political boundary between Mercia and arose out of the dialects of the old Northumbria, for instance, disappeared kingdoms (Knowles, 1997). over 1000 years ago, and yet there are still marked differences in speech north and The starting point south of the Mersey. In south-east The point of departure for Lancashire, a consonantal [r] can still be considering colonial English is heard in local speech in words such as represented by the dialects of England in learn, square, but this is not heard a few the early modern and late modern periods miles away in Cheshire. Traces of the old respectively, specifically in the dialect of Kent survive in modern seventeenth century for the northern Standard English. There are indications hemisphere and in the late eighteenth and that Kent was settled by some early nineteenth centuries for the southern homogeneous tribal group, possibly Jutes hemisphere. At both these times the or Frisians, and so Kentish may have had position of the dialects was determined by marked differences from the earliest times. inherited geographical distributions which, A distinctive feature of Kentish concerned in the case of the earlier century, stemmed the pronunciation of the vowel sound from the dialect configuration of Middle written
85 © Diterbitkan oleh Pusat Penerbitan Unwidha, 2011 Jl. Ki Hajar Dewantara, Klaten 57401 Jawa Tengah Indonesia. Within the early modern period the split which applied across the entire closer one moves to the present day the country. The rise of urban centres and more differentiated the view of dialect their specific forms of English meant that divisions in England becomes, largely changes could travel from one such centre because of a greater amount of attestation to another. An instance of this is provided which allows one to refine the dialect by Norwich in East Anglia. Here h- picture of England (Trudgill, 1990). For dropping was an innovation which instance, it becomes clear that the East entered the area from the outside (Trudgill, Anglia area of the Middle English East 1999; Hickey, 2004). Midland region was separate from the centre of the country (Trudgill, 2001a; The perfect in English Hickey, 2004). The south-west, consisting In English, as in other languages, of Devon, east and central Cornwall and the category of the perfect can have probably Somerset and Dorset, appears as different shades of meaning. To assess its a dialectally distinct subregion of the meaning it is important to note that south. An important factor in the perfect and perfectivity are distinct: refinement of the dialect divisions of perfectivity is an aspect category opposed England is certainly the development of to imperfectivity and refers to an action or large conurbations like Tyneside, situation which is not described as having Birmingham–Coventry, Bradford–Leeds, a specific duration but is viewed in its Merseyside and, naturally, the continuing entirety without reference to its internal expansion of London. Migration into structure (Comrie 1976; Auer, 2002). these areas altered their dialect The perfect in English, on the other composition, for instance the Irish hand, is used to express the temporal emigration to Merseyside and Tyneside location of an event prior to the moment (Beal, 1993; Hickey, 2004) in the of utterance, which may coincide with the nineteenth century affected forms of ‘speaker-now’, but does not necessarily English spoken there. have to. The event is perceived as having There are in fact instances of relevance for the present situation. In immigration into England which may English, as in other languages, this have had an effect on varieties there in the relevance can have different early modern period. Trudgill (2001b; manifestations, which will be briefly Hickey, 2004) sees the contact with Dutch introduced here, following Comrie (1976; and French speakers in late sixteenth- and Auer, 2002). The perfect in English is early seventeenth-century Norwich as periphrastically constructed, with the instrumental in the rise of third-person- lexical verb and the auxiliary BE or singular forms without -s inflection. The HAVE, and in this it follows a cross- Strangers, as they were referred to,were linguistic tendency (Dahl 1985; Auer, crucially most strongly present at the time 2002). when the internal competition in English First of all, the ‘perfect of persistent between -th and -s forms was greatest. situation’ can be observed: duration of a Population movements within England, situation or action from a point of time in chiefly the exodus from the countryside to the past until the present moment is the towns, had consequences for English. expressed: The towns became increasingly (1) I have known Max since 1960 independent of the surrounding (McCawley, 1976). countryside linguistically and the regional divisions were matched by an urban–rural
86 © Diterbitkan oleh Pusat Penerbitan Unwidha, 2011 Jl. Ki Hajar Dewantara, Klaten 57401 Jawa Tengah Indonesia. Furthermore, it may be expressed and forms of all dialects are admitted that situations in the past may have an on an equal footing into the Dictionary. impact on the present moment. This is indicated by the ‘perfect of result’: Even so the use of only here indicates that recognition of dialects is something of a (2) I can’t come to your party tonight – I concession. The second half of the have caught the flu (McCawley, 1976) century saw the compilation by vicars, Thirdly, the ‘experiential perfect’ school teachers and gentlemen in different describes that experiences made at some parts of the country of lists of local dialect stage between past and present still have words. More scholarly interest in dialects relevance for the present moment: increased after about 1870, when linguists began to look for regularity in sound (3) Have you ever studied Spanish? change. It was soon found that standard languages did not exhibit regularity. With A further group, which however is hindsight, this is not surprising in the case rather marginal in Standard English (StE), of English, in view of the dialect mixture is the BE-perfect. This is a state perfect which gave rise to the standard language. formed with the auxiliary BE and a A particular urgency was added by the restricted number of verbs, particularly belief that the process of standardization GO. was destroying local dialects. The same belief many years later led to the survey (4) He is gone now. of English dialects (Orton and Dieth, Occasionally the perfect is also 1962). employed in order to indicate that Although dialectologists were something happened recently. The event trying to understand the nature of sound has just taken place and is still present in change, they took no interest whatsoever the mind of the speaker: in the rapid changes taking place around them in the formation of urban dialects. (5) I’ve just seen a shooting star. However, even the study of the dialects of small communities showed that their This category we will meet again in speech was not regular or uniform, and connection with the Hiberno-English (HE) that it was necessary to take account of after-perfect. What all types of perfect social variation in speech. It was not until have in common is the connection the late 1960s that sociolinguists began to between an event in the past and the study the speech of the English urban ‘speaker-now’ (Auer, 2002). masses (Trudgill, 1974; Knowles, 1975). Rural dialect Urban dialect The idea that rural dialects, In the course of the nineteenth particularly in the west and the north, century, a number of industrial towns preserved features that had become grew into enormous conurbations with archaic elsewhere had been known for massive working-class populations. The centuries. The dialect origin of Standard population of Liverpool, for example, English itself is explicitly brought out in passed 5000 in about 1700, 50000 in the Murray's preface to the Oxford dictionary: 1780s, and the Merseyside conurbation as Down to the Fifteenth Century the a whole had passed 500000 by the time of language existed only in dialects, all the 1841 census. From the 1840s on, the of which had a literary standing: during this period, therefore, words conurbation continued to grow as a result
87 © Diterbitkan oleh Pusat Penerbitan Unwidha, 2011 Jl. Ki Hajar Dewantara, Klaten 57401 Jawa Tengah Indonesia. of large-scale immigration, particularly 1960s (Knowles, 1975) indicated that in from Ireland, with the result that, middle-class speech national norms were according to the 1861 census, one superimposed on the north western Liverpudlian in four had actually been features of the original town dialect (As born in Ireland. The evidence suggests elsewhere, women's speech tended to that, until 1830 or later, Liverpool had a show more national influence than that of dialect similar to that of local areas of men.) The Scouse accent, on the other Lancashire, but that a new urban dialect hand, has incorporated features of the must have developed from about the speech of immigrants, and developed 1840s (Knowles, 1975). pronunciations of certain vowels and Urban dialects are not confined to consonants, and some prosodic patterns, large towns, but grow with the which are markedly different from conurbation, spreading to neighbouring national norms. Repeated across the small towns and then along local country, the linguistic outcome of the communication networks over the the growth of conurbations was a de facto surrounding countryside. The great challenge to the national supremacy of conurbations of Manchester-Salford and 'polite' London English. Leeds-Bradford were built up from At the same time that dialectology conglomerations of small towns and was beginning to be influenced directly (if villages. Merseyside, on the other hand, only slightly) by linguistics, it was also developed by continuous expansion from beginning to be influenced indirectly by a central hub at the waterfront (Smith, the social sciences. Some dialectologists 1953). Since then it has spread west began to recognize that the spatial across the Wirral into North Wales, and dimension of linguistic variation had been east across south Lancashire, where it is concentrated on to the exclusion of the limited by the influence of Manchester. social dimension. To some, this was felt Popular London speech (of which to be a deficiency, since social variation Cockney is the prototypical example) has in language is as pervasive and important influenced the speech of ordinary people as regional variation. All dialects are both all over the Home Counties and the south regional and social. All speakers have a east. As a result of the growth of these social background as well as a regional and other conurbations, the speech of location, and in their speech they often most people in towns and their urban identify themselves not only as natives or fields—and that means most people in the inhabitants of a particular place but also country—has been influenced by the local as members of a particular social class, urban accent. age group, ethnic background, or other At the same time, especially after social characteristic. The concentration of the building of railways, an increasing work on the language of norms and the number of people were in direct or working class, it was therefore realized, indirect contact with 'polite' London had led to considerable ignorance about English. The resulting competition the dialects spoken by other social groups. between national and local norms has led It also gradually came to be realized to the social stratification of urban speech. that the focusing of traditional Middle-class speech typically shows the dialectology on rural dialects had led to modification of the traditional town an almost total neglect, in many countries, dialect by national norms, while working- of the speech forms used by the majority class speech is more influenced by local of the population, namely those who lived norms. A study of Liverpool speech in the in towns and cities. This was of course
88 © Diterbitkan oleh Pusat Penerbitan Unwidha, 2011 Jl. Ki Hajar Dewantara, Klaten 57401 Jawa Tengah Indonesia. particularly true of heavily urbanized mean ‘working-class London East End countries such as England, where perhaps English’ it is still a variety spoken by tens 90 per cent of the population live in towns. of thousands of people. Sivertsen, Linguists and dialectologists remained however, obtained most of her data from ignorant about the way in which most four speakers, all of them women over people in England (and elsewhere) speak, sixty living in Bethnal Green. De Camp and have therefore been missing out on a (1959), similarly, investigated the speech great deal of linguistic data. The feeling of San Francisco by studying the speech therefore developed that the study of of people known to him, and of people urban dialects was not only an interesting known to them. Wolfgang Viereck (1985), but a necessary task. This development in the same vein, studied the speech of towards social and urban dialectology has Gateshead, a town of 115,000 inhabitants to be seen in its historical context. The in the northeast of England, by initial impetus for dialectological work, as investigating the speech of twelve men, we have seen, lay in comparative ten of them over seventy. His justification philology, and it was because of this for this was that he was concerned not to historical emphasis that dialectologists produce an accurate description of had looked mainly to rural speech forms. Gateshead dialect as it is spoken today, Urban dialects were felt, correctly, to be but to select speakers of what he less conservative. They tended to be considered ‘pure’ Gateshead dialect: relatively new, often resulting from dialect, presumably, from the time before immigration from surrounding rural areas, it became altered by external influences. and were therefore less interesting for Actually, linguistic studies suggest that philologists. Similarly, in any given there is probably no such thing as a ‘pure’ locality, dialectologists were not dialect, since most varieties of language interested in any social variation present appear to be variable and to show signs of but simply in obtaining information on the influence from other varieties. These most conservative variety spoken there. studies, and others like them, provide When the emphasis in linguistic studies valuable records of the speech of the changed, however, the way was open for people who were interviewed. In a few the emphasis in dialectology also to instances, they may record obsolescent change, to a certain extent. The trend forms and rare constructions. The towards the study of social and urban problem is that there is no way of dialects thus reflects the growth in the knowing if what they are describing is synchronic approach to the study of truly the language of the town in question language – an approach which showed or simply that of an individual the particularly rapid development from the investigator happens to have come across. 1930s onwards (Chambers and Trudgill, 2004). Geographical dialect continua Many early urban dialect studies, There are many parts of the world not surprisingly, were carried out in the where, if we examine dialects spoken by manner of traditional dialectology, people in rural areas, we find the ignoring the social dimension, and following type of situation. If we travel selecting informants as available. from village to village, in a particular According to Sivertsen (1960), is direction, we notice linguistic differences essentially a work in rural dialectology which distinguish one village from carried out in one of the largest cities in another. Sometimes these differences will the world. Even if we take ‘Cockney’ to be larger, sometimes smaller, but they
89 © Diterbitkan oleh Pusat Penerbitan Unwidha, 2011 Jl. Ki Hajar Dewantara, Klaten 57401 Jawa Tengah Indonesia. will be cumulative. The further we get linked by a chain of mutual intelligibility); from our starting point, the larger the the Scandinavian dialect continuum, differences will become. The effect of this comprising dialects of Norwegian, may therefore be, if the distance involved Swedish and Danish; the North Slavic is large enough, that (if we arrange dialect continuum, including Russian, villages along our route in geographical Ukrainian, Polish, Czech and Slovak; and order) while speakers from village A the South Slavic continuum, which understand people from village B very includes Slovenian, Serbian, Croatian, well and those from village F quite well, Macedonian and Bulgarian. The notion of they may understand village M speech the dialect continuum is perhaps a little only with considerable difficulty, and that difficult to grasp because, as has already of village Z not at all. Villagers from M, been noted, we are used to thinking of on the other hand, will probably linguistic varieties as discrete entities, but understand village F speech quite well, the fact that such continua exist stresses and villagers from A and Z only with the legitimacy of using labels for varieties difficulty. In other words, dialects on the in an ad hoc manner. Given that we have outer edges of the geographical area may dialect continua, then the way we divide not be mutually intelligible, but they will up and label particular bits of a continuum be linked by a chain of mutual may often be, from a purely linguistic intelligibility. At no point is there a point of view, arbitrary. Note the complete break such that geographically following forms from the Scandinavian adjacent dialects are not mutually dialect continuum: intelligible, but the cumulative effect of (1) /hem_ɑ hɑ jɑ intə sɔ me_d the linguistic differences will be such that sɔm et .ɑm_ɑlt .ɑusabɑin /; (2) /hem_ɑ the greater the geographical separation, hɑr jɑ intə sɔ myk_ət sɔm the greater the difficulty of ɑ ɑ ɔ ɑ comprehension. This type of situation is et . m_ lt . _sbe_n/; (3) /jem_ə h r j/ ɔ ɔ ɑ ɑ ɔ known as a geographical dialect ik_ə s my_ə s m et . m_ lt . _səbe_n/; ɑ ɔ continuum. and (4) /heimə h r e. iç_ə s myç_ə ɔ ɑ ɑ ɔ There are many such continua. In s m et . m_ lt . _səbein/. Europe, for example, the standard As it happens, (1) and (2) are varieties of French, Italian, Catalan, southern and central Swedish respectively, Spanish and Portuguese are not really (3) and (4) eastern and western mutually intelligible. The rural dialects of Norwegian respectively. But there seems these languages, however, form part of to be no particular linguistic reason for the West Romance dialect continuum making this distinction, or for making it which stretches from the coast of Portugal where we do. The motivation is mainly to the centre of Belgium (with speakers that we have a linguistically arbitrary but immediately on either side of the politically and culturally relevant dividing Portuguese–Spanish border, for instance, line in the form of the national frontier having no problems in understanding each between Sweden and Norway. other) and from there to the south of Italy. In some cases, where national Other European dialect continua include frontiers are less well established, dialect the West Germanic continuum, which continua can cause political difficulties – includes all dialects of what are normally precisely because people are used to referred to as German, Dutch and Flemish thinking in terms of discrete categories (varieties spoken in Vienna and Ostend rather than in ad hoc or continuum-type are not mutually intelligible, but they are terms. The South Slavic dialect
90 © Diterbitkan oleh Pusat Penerbitan Unwidha, 2011 Jl. Ki Hajar Dewantara, Klaten 57401 Jawa Tengah Indonesia. continuum, as we have seen, incorporates a shibboleth (Chambers and Trudgill, the standard languages, Slovenian, 2004). Serbian, Croatian, Macedonian and Bulgarian. This description, however, Social dialect continua conceals a number of problems to do with Dialect continua can also be social autonomy and heteronomy. Until recently, rather than geographical, and continua of for example, Serbian and Croatian were this type can also pose problems. A good thought of in Yugoslavia as a single example of this is provided by Jamaica. language. Since the break-up of that The linguistic history of Jamaica, as of country, however, many politicians have many other areas of the Caribbean, is very wanted to stress their separateness, while complex. One (simplified) interpretation the government of Bosnia has argued that of what happened is that at one time the Bosnian constitutes a third language situation was such that those at the top of distinct from the other two. Similarly, the social scale, the British, spoke English, Bulgarian politicians often argue that while those at the bottom of the social Macedonian is simply a dialect of scale, the African slaves, spoke Jamaican Bulgarian – which is really a way of Creole. This was a language historically saying, of course, that they feel related to English but very different from Macedonia ought to be part of Bulgaria. it, and in its earlier stages probably was From a purely linguistic point of view, not too unlike modern Sranan (another however, such arguments are not English-based Creole spoken in Surinam). resolvable, since dialect continua admit of The following extract from a poem in more-or-less but not either-or judgments. Sranan demonstrates that it is a language Casual observations about the way clearly related to English (most words people speak are common topics of appear to be derived from English) but conversation. English people in America, nevertheless distinct from it and not for instance, soon come to expect that mutually intelligible with it: they will be told they have just said idear for ‘idea’, and Australians in England mi go – m’e kon, I’ve gone – I come, sootwatra bradi, the sea is wide. quickly grow immune to the remark that tak wan mofo, Say the words, ala mi they pronounce the second syllable of mati, you all my friends, tak wan mofo, ‘Australia’ as if it were rile. Among say the words. m’go, I’ve gone, m’e linguists, observations like these are so kon . . . I come . . . frequent that they sometimes impede normal conversation. But they are by no Over the centuries, however, means restricted to linguists. Indeed, it is English, the international and prestigious very likely that dialect differences have language of the upper social strata, been topics of conversation for as long as exerted a considerable influence on people have been talking to one another. Jamaican Creole. (Jamaican Creole was One of the most venerable dialect recognized as being similar to English, observations, and perhaps the most fatal and was therefore often (erroneously) one, is recorded in the Old Testament, regarded, because of the social situation, when the Gileadites were battling the as an inferior or debased form of it.) Two Ephraimites along the Jordan. Whenever things have happened. First, the ‘deepest’ the Gileadites captured a fugitive, they Creole is now a good deal closer to asked him if he was an Ephraimite. If he English than it was (and than Sranan is). said no, they would then ask him to name Secondly, the gap between English and an ear of corn, which the Gileadites called Jamaican Creole has been filled in. The
91 © Diterbitkan oleh Pusat Penerbitan Unwidha, 2011 Jl. Ki Hajar Dewantara, Klaten 57401 Jawa Tengah Indonesia. result is that, while people at the top of difficulty to arise out of the Jamaican the social scale speak something which is situation (and that in many other parts of clearly English, and those at the bottom the West Indies) is educational. West speak something which clearly is not, Indian children are considered to be those in between speak something in speakers of English, and this is therefore between. The range of varieties from the language which they are taught to read ‘pure’ English to ‘deepest’ Creole forms and write in and are examined in. the social dialect continuum. Most Educationists have only recently come to speakers command quite a wide range of begin to realize, however, that the relative the continuum and ‘slide’ up and down it educational failure of certain West Indian depending on stylistic context. children may be due to a failure by The following examples from educational authorities to recognize this different points on West Indian dialect semi-foreign language problem for what it continua illustrate the nature of the is. phenomenon: It’s my book I didn’t get One of the first dialect studies to any Do you want to cut it? attempt to take social factors into account was the Linguistic Atlas of the United its mɑi buk ɑi didnt .et eni du ju States and Canada. When work was wɔnt tu k_t it begun on this survey in the 1930s it was iz mɑi buk ɑi didn .et non du ju ɑ very much in the mould of traditional w _n tu kot it dialectology. However, fieldworkers on ɑ ɑ iz mi buk din .et non ju w _n the original New England section of the kot it survey were instructed to select socially ɑ mi buk dɑt ɑ in .et non iz kot ju ɑ different types of informant. Taking note w _n kot it of the social dimension of linguistic ɑ ɑ ɑ ɑ fi mi buk d t mi n bin .et non variation in this way was an important ɑ kot ju w _n fu kot it step, but the process by which informants There is no well-motivated reason were classified was obviously still for saying, of some point on the somewhat subjective–exactly how continuum, that ‘English stops here’ or uneducated was ‘uneducated’? – and ‘Jamaican Creole starts here’. The result selection was rather haphazard–field is that, whether in Jamaica or in, say, workers were restricted to people they Britain, Jamaicans are considered to speak happened to be able to come into contact English. In fact, some Jamaicans do speak with (Chambers and Trudgill, 2004). English, some do not, and some speak a variety or varieties about which it is not CONCLUSION really possible to adjudicate. Clearly, the Realizing this English dialectology varieties spoken by most Jamaicans are development, sometimes it will put us not foreign to, say, British English into hard position to resume these facts, speakers in the same way that French is, although it is perhaps possible to have a but they do constitute in many cases a very slight indirect and direct impact. The semi-foreign language. Again this is a dialect-speaking teachers-to-be, who difficult notion for many people to grasp, during their studies hear about dialects since we are used to thinking of languages and the science of dialects, will no longer as being well-defined and clearly feel like uncivilized dialect-speakers. This separated entities: either it is English or it will be possibly indicated by their older is not. The facts, however, are often colleagues who are well-educated. In this somewhat different. The most obvious way, a more objective, less emotional
92 © Diterbitkan oleh Pusat Penerbitan Unwidha, 2011 Jl. Ki Hajar Dewantara, Klaten 57401 Jawa Tengah Indonesia. judgment of dialect and dialect-speakers REFERENCES can gradually become common Auer, P. (August 2002). Dialects across knowledge. The city-country changes are borders. Paper presented in the 11th also gradually taking place, changes that International Conference on are being promoted by altering social Methods in Dialectology (Methods structures. The judgments of urban and XI), Joensuu, Amsterdam. rural varieties are independent of Chambers, J. K. & Trudgill, P. (2004). relationships in areas outside of language. Dialectology (2nd Eds). Cambridge: Many nuances that appear in this domain Cambridge University Press. would have to be examined jointly and Daan, J. C. (1999). Dialects. John sustainability by teachers, lecturers, Benjamin company: handbook of linguists, sociologists and psychologists. perceptual dialectology, Vol. 1, 9- The different forms of folk speech 1.4 are, however, also regionally recognizable. De Camp, D. 1959. ‘The pronunciation of But the characteristics of these varieties English in San Francisco’. Orbis 8: are to be found less on the level of the 54–77. language will and more in the formation Higham, N. 1986: The Northern Counties of habits. The vernacular (the form of to AD 1000. London: Longman. language) speaker can very well avoid Hickey, R. 2004. Legacies of Colonial using a certain number of words that are English: Studies in Transported considered uneducated or less civilized, Dialects. Cambridge: Cambridge but it is not easy to wipe out the University Press. pronunciation peculiarities. The tendency Knowles, G. (1997). A cultural history of to do so will in any case be verified by the English language. London: group consciousness in the society. Arnold–A Member of the Hodder Because each dialect is bound to its own Headline Group. region and has characteristics that are also Knowles, G. (1975). Scouse: the urban bound to its region, some groups may dialect of Liverpool. Unpublished replace the word dialect with the less Ph.D dissertation. Leeds: ambiguous term regional variety which is University of Leeds. more comprehensive and less burdened McCawley. (1976). Grammar and with any contemptuous connotation. It is Meaning: Papers on Syntactic and a way of speaking which brings to mind Semantic Topics. London: the following thought. For instance, the Academic Press, 257–272. soft pronunciation of the consonant g and Oton, H., & Dieth, E. (1962). Survey of the fact that the consonant n is English dialects. Leeds: E. J. pronounced so emphatically at the end of Arnold. the verb forms are both very noticeable, Sivertsen, E. (1960). Cockney Phonology. where in the case of other groups of Oslo: Oslo University Press. people in regions with the particular Smith, W. (1953). A scientific study of intonation is an indication to emphasize Merseyside. Liverpool: Liverpool their pronunciation. University Press. Trudgill, P. (1990). The Dialects of England. Oxford: Blackwell. Viereck, W. (1985). ‘Linguistic atlases and dialectometry: the Survey of English Dialects’. In Kirk, Sanderson and Widdowson. 94–112.
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