Prof Elhaloui

Whats the difference between accent and dialect?

An accent refers to the phonetic and phonological distinctions between language varieties.

What is a dialect?
A dialect is any variety of a language spoken by a group of people that is characterized by systematic differences from other varieties of the same language.

Can you give examples?

Types of differences
Phonetic Phonological Morphological Syntactic Lexical (Semantic)

How can you tell if two varieties are dialects or separate languages?

A possible criterion is mutual intelligibility

Mutual intelligibility
Language varieties are mutually intelligible when speakers of one variety can understand speakers of another variety, and vice vesa.

It aint that easy

In China, speakers of Mandarin cannot understand speakers of Cantonese, and vice versa.
However, they are considered by speakers to be dialects of the same language.

Why?

It aint that easy, Cont.

Tohono Oodham and Pima are mutually intelligible varieties. However, they are considered by speakers to be different languages. Why?
Tohono Oodham: South central Arizona. 60 villages on 7 reservations. Also spoken in Mexico Pima: Central Sonora-Chihuahua border, scattered, Mexico

I dont know what a dialect is. But I think that Tartarian is JUST a foreign dialect!

Clearly, political concerns can affect the classification of language varieties.

Dialect Continuum
Dialect D
Dialect C Dialect B Dialect A
Mutually intelligible

Dialect Continuum
Dialect D
Dialect C
Virtually intelligible

Dialect B Dialect A
Mutually intelligible

Dialect Continuum
Dialect D
Dialect C Dialect B Dialect A
Mutually intelligible
Mutually intelligible Virtually intelligible

Dialect Continuum
Dialect D
Dialect C
Not mutually intelligible

Dialect B Dialect A

Idiolect

An idiolect is a type of variation that is different from speaker to speaker, not from community to community.

Language Variation
Regional Socioeconomic Political Age Gender Ethnicity

Language and Gender

Coushatta Mens and Womens Speech (Mary R. Haas)

Women
Lakawtakko
Ka

Men
lakawtakkos
kas

Language and Gender

Coushatta Mens and Womens Speech (Mary R. Haas) Women lakawwil molhil Men lakawwis molhis

Language and Gender

It has been noted that men tend to speak at a lower pitch than women.

Is it biological?
Longer vocal cords tend to create a lower pitch.

Size of the vocal tract tends to foster lower pitch

So ...

One would then expect larger people to speak at a lower pitch.

But ...
what about people like this guy:

It may not be entirely biological

Graddol & Swann (1989) provide evidence indicating that the difference in pitch may be at least partially socially determined.

Cultural Evidence

Relative pitch differs at a cultural level. In a study among Polish men and American men, Polish men were found to speak at a higher frequency, even though they were of comparable sizes (the Americans may have even been smaller overall).

Pre-adolescents
In a study among pre-adolescents, girls tended to speak at a higher pitch than boys. However, these children had not reached the age at which voices biologically vary.

Important Note

Linguistically speaking, no one dialect or language is better, more correct, or more logical than any other.

Standard vs. Non-Standard English

What makes a variety standard?

Prestige Standard varieties are those that are associated with speakers that have high prestige.

Prestige

Prestige has nothing to do with the structural properties of a language, but depends on who is associated with that variety.

Prestige

In Middle English, double negatives were commonly used by speakers of standard Middle English.
Today, however, users of double negatives are not generally members of the higher socioeconomic groups. Hence, double negatives are non-standard.

Overt vs. Covert Prestige

Overt prestige is the prestige associated with standard dialects. Covert prestige is the prestige associated with non-standard dialects.

Covert prestige is often the result of identity with a particular social group.

Dialect Prejudice
Often there is prejudice against speakers of a particular language variety. Such prejudice may cause people to make judgments about a person based on their dialect.

Standard vs. Non-Standard

Some people make a conscious choice to change their dialect, or to learn a standard dialect. There are even classes which teach women to speak with a lower pitch, assuming that more masculine speech has a higher prestige.

Language Styles

We often use different styles of speaking, depending upon the social context.

Register
Would you like some coffee?

vs.
Want some coffee?

Jargon

Sometimes we use specialized language when speaking to others in the same occupation.

Computerese, Legalese, Doctorese, etc.

Slang

Common Slang:
fridge, TV, etc.

In-group Slang:
Email Abbreviations (BTW, LOL, ROTFL, IMHO, etc.)