Language, Dialect and

Accent
Dr. K. Lakehal-Ayat
Mentouri University
Constantine 2011
 Nature of a language
• The linguist makes no value judgment. S/he
recognizes and acceptsLAthNeGUeAxGisEtence of
language varieties.
• School traditions emphasize a single “correct”
standard formR.egional diaDleIActLsECT
Social
• Linogruistics acknowledges that a
dialects
St Am
bocSetotiatlBriere
Scer ncEnadstgteildasas a standard
i lhe,ct may English
•form
Or is treated as PRESTIGIOUS by some members
of
society Queen’s
. English
Oxford Accent
• Linguists in recent decades have become more
interested in the language of the people who (by a
rigid conception of a St. Language) do not talk
“properly”: language of small children and
foreigners.
• The language of children has therefore a linguistic
interest quite apart from its psychological interest as
the development of speech in infancy.
• The mixed languages of former colonies (Jamaican
Creole or Haitian Creole) have been studied with the
same interest as can be studied Fr or Eng.
 Language and Dialect
• Both terms are often used interchangeably.
• Principle of mutual intelligibility
differentiates between them.
• In most
NOT onng l wstiiitmutually
iu cfIhbtahaintelligible
eseynsa,aer b are
vum ytutrauaatHindi
taken nhlldyeraonn
caAUseslr,Aatnnhtoyeg2uvuaasreigeteoei fsisownaheci dhoiaraer aln
fa ct o constituteabl
UNintelligi twore m , thyen.of
dialects they
socio-political
edocutther dependsare the se pa r a t e l a n
rs . Wsame e ni r e ci h , 1
g9ulanguage.
4a5g1:e3s..
 Solely because they are not (or
not recognized as) literary
languages
BecauseDialec Itn of the
the speakers
given
language do nLotahnavgeuaasga t ee
t of tAheRri
t SeuAbroarbdiwnaotredl term
h
AowBnCI
Because they are not used in press or
et i l Lara t unr
D ia lgee,ucotar vgeeyrAtilltgeleS,
• Anthropological linguists define dialect as the
specific form of a language used by a speech
community.
• No one speaks a language ; everyone speaks a
is a concept in
dialectSposociolinguistics
f a lancogmthat
e ec h
umagdescribes a more or less
e dwsci hreoet igdreounptioffypeaoppel awrthiocuuslealrandguaai
• Those
u nt
y
i

gleecni t uaa
stand asni q ue
rthe
d
themselves. o a nd m u ut a yll a c ce p t ed
r pr o p e r ve r s i o n ofwa y
a
laanfact
in m on g
g u using these terms
age, are
• TO EXPRESS A SOCIAL DISTINCTION
 Dialect is also the term used to
describe differences in speech that
are associated with different regions
or different social groups or classes.

• As we move around a speech community, we find

variation in the speech of its members that is
associated with their place of living or their social
grouping.
 Accent
• Differences in pronunciation between varieties
• Oxford accent: certain phonological
characteristics particular to English spoken in
that town.
• Term is used also to refer to some foreign non
native features in the speech of a person
(foreigner)
• You speak English with an accent
Am Eng Br Eng

Pro/nkuan:cri Pron u n ci a
/ k a :
a/tion
/tion
Lexis
gLeax petrol

sis
Morphology
Mo rp h ol dived
d o v

eogy
I haven’t

I don’t S yn t a
a b oo
x
Dialect continuum
 Linguistic variable
• As a basic tool for distinguishing social variation
• It is a linguistic item which has at least “variant
forms the choice of which depends on other (non
linguistic ) factors such as age, social status and
situation”.
• /j/ -> /dz/, /ʔ/, /g/, /y/
• /q/ -> /q/, /g/, /k/, /ʔ/