1. Variants and Dialects of the English Language

2. Standard English, variant, dialect
Main variants of English
Local Variants of English
Pidgin

3. Standard English the official language of Great Britain
recognized as acceptable wherever English is spoken or understood
literary and current English

4. Local Dialects
varieties of the English language peculiar to some districts and having no normalized literary form

5. Variants
regional varieties possessing a literary form

6. Dialects of the Standard English Language
traced back to Old English dialects
Northern
Western
Midland
Eastern
Southern
Lowland (Scottish or Scotch)

7. Dialects of the Standard English Language
Scottish English (the 2nd place) and Irish English – variants of English (I.V. Arnold)
there is literature composed in them
R.Burns (Scottish), Sean O’Casey (Irish)

8. Dialects of the Standard English Language
Dialects differ from standard English by:
phonetic peculiarities
grammar peculiarities
lexical peculiarities

9. Dialects of the Standard English Language
Cockney – Southern dialect – the regional dialect of London
[w] and [v] – wery vell
[au] and [a:] – house [ha:s]
rhyming slang – hat is tit for tat

10. Lexical Peculiarities of Dialects
dialect words are connected with local customs, social life, and natural conditions e.g. loch – Scottish lake, kirk – church
names of objects and processes connected with farm keeping, names of tools, domestic animals and so on
e.g. shelty – Shetland pony

11. Lexical Peculiarities of Dialects
emotionally coloured words e.g. bonny – beautiful, healthy-looking, loon – a clumsy, stupid person
word-building patterns e.g. Irish diminutive suffixes –an, -een, -can – bohereen ‘narrow road’ bothar ‘road’
e.g. girl girleen

12. Lexical Peculiarities of Dialects
different meaning in the national language and the local variety e.g. to call – in Scottish ‘to drive’, short – ‘rude’

13. Lexical Peculiarities of Dialects
dialect words penetrate into Standard English e.g. bairn ‘child’, bonny ‘handsome’, glamour ‘charm’ – from Scottish
e.g. whiskey, blarney ‘flattery’, shamrock – from Irish
dialect words may be used as technical terms in literary English e.g. lug ‘ear’ – handle, cuddy ‘ass’ – jack-saw

14. Lexical Peculiarities of Dialects
dialects are chiefly preserved in rural areas
in speech of the elderly
used mostly for the purposes of oral communication
dialects are declining in importance
are used to characterize speech of personages in books

15. Variants of the English Language
British English
American English
Australian English
Canadian English

16. Differences between the Variants
phonetic peculiarities
grammatical peculiarities
spelling peculiarities
lexical peculiarities

17. American English regional variety of English
has its own literary standard (norms of speaking and writing) – Standard American or American National Standard

18. American English is not a separate language (H.L. Mencken)
has neither grammar nor vocabulary of its own
the differences between the variants are not systematic

19. American English. Lexical Peculiarities
general English – words found on both sides of the Atlantic
Americanisms – specific of present-day American usage
Briticisms – typical of British English

20. American English. Lexical Peculiarities
general English
e.g. country, nation, language, etc.
a notion may have two synonyms used both in Great Britain and in the USA. Difference is in frequency
e.g. post – mail, timetable – schedule post, timetable are more frequent in Britain
mail, schedule - in the USA

21. American English. Lexical Peculiarities.Americanisms
historical Americanisms – words which retained their old meanings whereas in British English their meanings have changed
e.g. fall ‘autumn’, to guess ‘think’, homely ‘ugly’

22. Americanisms
proper Americanisms – lexical units denoting some realia that have no counterparts in Britain
e.g. junior high school, senior high school
dude ranch ‘a sham ranch used as a summer residence for holiday-makers from the city’

23. Americanisms
lexical units denoting phenomena observable in Britain but expressed in a descriptive way
e.g. campus ‘ grounds of school or college’

24. Americanisms
partial Americanisms – polysemantic words typical of the American variant in one of their meanings
e.g. pavement – ‘street or road covered with a stone, asphalt, concrete, etc. мостовая – Americanism
‘paved path for pedestrians at the side of the road’ – Briticism тротуар (Am. sidewalk)
‘the covering of the floor made of flat blocks of wood, stone, etc. дорожное покрытие – general English
‘soil’ (geol.) почва – general English

25. Americanisms
lexical units that have different distribution in British and American variants
e.g. to ride a bike, a horse – British
to ride on the train, to ride in a boat - American

26. Americanisms differences in emotional and stylistic colouring
e.g. politician – ‘someone in politics’ – British/ derogatory meaning in American

27. Americanisms
American borrowings – words which reflect the historical contacts of the Americans with other nations on the American continent
e.g. ranch, sombrero, canyon – Spanish
wigwam, canoe, toboggan, caribou - Indian

28. Americanisms
American shortenings – produced in the USA, represent informal stylistic strata of vocabulary
e.g. mo – ‘moment’, circs – ‘circumstances’, cert – ‘certainly’

29. Lexical peculiarities
usage of prepositions
e.g. I start my holiday on Friday. (BE) – I start my vacation Friday. (AE)
e.g. a quarter to five (BE) – a quarter of five (AE)
e.g. to chat to smb (BE) – to chat with smb (AE)

30. Lexical peculiarities
word-building
affixes –ette, -ee, super- e.g. kitchenette, draftee, supermarket
conversion e.g. to major major
blending e.g. motel=motor+hotel
shortening and initial abbreviation e.g. b.f. – boy friend

31. Local Dialects of the American English
Northern
Southern
Midland (North Midland and South Midland)

32. Local Dialects of the American English
differences in pronunciation
e.g. New York dialect – ir in bird, girl; ear in learn – [oi] – [boid], [goil], [loin]
differences in vocabulary
e.g. cottage cheese - Standard American
pot cheese – New York City
Dutch cheese – Inland Northern

33. Canadian, Australian, Indian Variants
characterized by a high percentage of borrowings from the language of the people who inhabited the land before the colonizers came
lexical units denote some specific realia of the new country: local animals, plants, weather conditions, new social relations

34. Canadian, Australian, Indian Variants
local words later on may become international
may have several dialects (12 in Australian)
e.g. shack ‘a hut’, to fathom out ‘to explain’ – Canadian
bungalow, mango, sari, jute – Indian
dingo, kangaroo, boomerang - Australian

35. Pidgin (contact language)
name given to any language created, usually spontaneously, out of a mixture of other languages as a means of communication between speakers of different tongues

36. Pidgin (contact language)
have simple grammars
few synonyms
learned as second language rather than natively
vocabulary is usually limited to 1500 words
basic vowels like [a], [i], [u], [e], [o]
separate words that indicate tense, usually before the verb

37. Pidgin (contact language)
origin – from the Chinese pronunciation of the business
Pidgin English (Canton English) – Chinese-English-Portuguese pidgin used for commerce in Canton during the 18th and the 19th centuries

38. Pidgin (contact language)
West African Pidgin English – 17th century – English traders traded with various West African tribes

39. Pidgin (contact language)
Hawaii Pidgin English – created so that the Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, Filipinos, as well as Hawaiians and Americans could do business
e.g. akamai ‘smart, intelligent’, brah ‘brother’, boddah you? ‘Are you disturbed by this?, Howzit ‘How are you?’