Classification of Dialects General American English

• We all speak a dialect (variety of a language). • Also called "Network Standard English" • Dialects can be classified in three ways: • Spoken by broadcasters. • Geographical region in which they are spoken (Southern, New England, Australian, Jamaican). • Developed by schools of broadcasting in • use by particular ethnic groups/social classes (AAVE, the 1930s and 1940s. working class) • Speaker's region of origin cannot be easily • prestige within a community identified. – the standard dialect serves as a norm for mass media, • Developed so that listeners wouldn't be education, etc. offended by having to listen to someone from – all other dialects are viewed, non-pejoratively, as nonstandard another part of the country.

Non-Standard Dialects Non-Standard Dialects

• May or may not be defined geographically. • Includes: • E.g., Appalachian English is. • African American Vernacular English • African American English is not (it is spoken in (AAVE). all regions of the country). • Appalachian English (AppE). • More often defined socially (sometimes called the "social" dialects). • Ozark English. • Almost always the dialect spoken by an • Cajun English. economically disadvantaged group or a • Spanish-influenced English. socially-devalued group. • Gullah.

AAVE Origin of Dialects

• Note that all of the following labels refer to • Regional dialects of the US are thought to the same dialect group: reflect the settlement patterns of different • African-American Vernacular English (AAVE). groups of speakers of British English (many different dialects there). • African-American English (AAE). Most social dialects are thought to develop • Black English. • when one group of speakers becomes • Black English Vernacular. isolated from the rest of the population. • Ebonics. • Isolation may be physical or social. • Includes more syntactic and morphological • E.g., AppE speakers were isolated to the changes than other English dialects. mountains of Appalachia until the 1940s.

1 Origin of AAVE Origin of AAVE

• Developed differently; by a Pidgin- • During the slave trade, the slave ships Creole process. deliberately included people from different countries before setting sail. • Pidgin = language of first contact (two • Slaves spoke different languages and could not groups who speak different languages communicate well; less likely to mutiny. develop a code to communicate). • In order to communicate, the slaves developed a pidgin language which • Creole = expanded version of a pidgin eventually was mixed with the English of used by subsequent generations. the slave holders and evolved into present day Black English.

Other dialects and Phonology and Dialect Evaluation • Dialect differences are apparent in most • Dialect differences are not a disorder. aspects of language. • though we may provide services for – Phonological and semantic differences most someone who wishes to learn to use a common. different dialect (it is unclear if public funds – Morphological and syntactic differences also seen. can be used for this purpose however). • All dialects share more features than they differ on (that's why we can usually • We need to ensure that any differences we understand each other). hear are not just dialect differences. • No one unique feature change is typical of a • May need to ask caregivers (may even hear particular dialect. the changes in caregiver's speech).

Other dialects and Other dialects and Evaluation Evaluation • Fortunately most dialect differences in • Regardless of racial origin, if the speaker uses English relate to vowels and most clinical mostly a standard dialect, the published tests are problems in English relate to consonants. probably appropriate. • May want to consult parents about dialect spoken. • Some tests provide guidelines for adjusting • Conversational speech samples helpful because for dialect differences (but most do not). the child is more likely to use their usual dialect. • Almost all published tests are designed to • For speakers of non-standard dialects, intelligibility evaluate speakers of the standard dialects. may be an issue in conversation.

2 Social Stratification of Dialect Social Stratification of Dialect

• Research shows that grammatical and • Wolfram & Schilling-Estes (1998) distinguish two phonological features of AAE are used types of stratification • gradient stratification, occurring more frequently in low most often by younger, working-class socioeconomic groups than high socioeconomic groups speakers in urban communities and in • sharp stratification, commonly occurring in low socioeconomic groups but rarely in high socioeconomic informal speaking contexts groups • The use of a greater number of linguistic • Grammatical features of AAE are more likely to show a pattern of sharp stratification than phonological features results in a “denser” AAE dialect features of the dialect • The relationship between dialect density • Because features with sharp stratification are found and socioeconomic level is known as only in working class speakers, a generalization can be made that working class speakers of AAE exhibit social stratification greater dialect density than middle and upper class speakers who use the dialect

Second Language Learners Second Language Learners

• Differences among languages are evident • May want to inquire about skills in the first in all aspects of phonology. language. • phoneme inventory • Ask parents or other speakers of the • allophonic rules language about how well the child does in • morphophonemic rules that language. • phonotactics. • A problem with production in one language may carry over to another language. • Could apply this principle to speakers of non-standard dialects as well.

Spanish & English Spanish Consonant Phonemic Inventory Shared Sounds

Stops p b t d k g Nasals m n ¯ Stops [p, b, t, d, k, g] Nasals [m, n] (spirants) B D ƒ Fricatives [f, D, s] [h] (aspiration in some dialects) Fricatives f s x Glides w j Affricate [tS] Affricate tS Liquid [l] Liquid l Glides [ ] w, j 20 Flap R Vowels [i, e, u, o] Trill r‹ *produced in some dialects

3 Spanish & English (cont.) Word Level Stress Unshared Sounds

English Nasal [N]* Penultimate syllable of words ending in vowel, /n/, or /s/ Fricatives [ ]* 20 T, v, z, S, Z e.g., [ ] “soup”, [ ] “they eat”, [ ]“cars” Affricate [dZ]* sopa komen kotSes Liquid [r] Vowels [I, E, Q, √, ´, U, ç, A, Œ’, AÉI, AÉU, çÉI] Final syllable of other words Spanish Nasal [¯] e.g., [relox] “watch”, [mitad] “half” Spirants [B, ƒ, ∏] 6 Flap [R] Irregular stress marked with accent Trill [r‹] (*in some Spanish dialects) e.g., [baldes] “Valdés” 46 Vowels [a]

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