Group 2: Language Variation

Language variation is an important topic in sociolinguistics, because it refers to social factors in society
and how each factor plays a role in language varieties.

1. Dialect- is a regional or social variety of a language distinguished by pronunciation, grammar,

and or vocabulary.
- It is a term used to characterize a way of speaking that differs from the standard variety if the
language.
E.g.
Cebuano-Visayan, Tagalog, Hiligaynon, Ilocano are just some examples of dialects in the
Philippines. Another example of a dialect is ‘New York English’, ‘Texan English’, and etc.
2. Accent- is a person’s distinctive pronunciation. It only affects the phonological levels of a
linguistic variety.
E.g.
American accent vs. British accent vs. Aussie accent
3. Vernaculars= a language particular group, profession, region, or country especially as spoken
rather than formally written.
- A vernacular is primarily called the mother tongue.
E.g.
Afro-American English is an example of vernacular. Another examples are Cebuano-Visayan,
Tagalog, and etc.
4. Standards= are developed as a result of socio-political processes. They are a standard variety
includes both formal and informal or colloquial variety.
E.g.
Standard American English is an example of a standard language.
5. Social Factors Leading to Language Variation
a. Gender= it affects the language variation by influencing the language choice between men
and women.
E.g.
Men’s language can be direct, non-standard and aggressive, while women’s is less harsh,
emotional and standard.
b. Class/ Social Class= the structure of relationship between groups where people are classified
based on the education, occupation, and income.
E.g.
People from the lower working class would use the ‘-in’ variant like ‘readin’, rather than
‘reading’. On the other hand, the upper middle class would always use the standard ‘-ing’
variant like ‘reading’.
c. Ethnicity= refers to the group of people that share cultural characteristics. It affects language
variation because the people in an ethnic group usually have to learn the language prominent in
an area.
E.g.
In Mandarin-Chinese, there’s no sound similar to ‘si’ such as singer, sing, and other. Chinese
tend to say ‘shinger’ rather than ‘singer’. Since a lot of Chinese are now studying English, they
need to adopt this phenomenon in order for them to pronounce the word correctly. In Filipino
language, a lot of words are being borrowed due to the fact that they don’t exist to the culture
of Filipinos, for example, the word ‘computer’, ‘cellphone’, and etc.
d. Age- affects language variation because of the language being used by some people are
chosen only.
E.g.
Baby talk, talking to elderly, and etc.