МІНІСТЕРСТВО ОСВІТИ ТА НАУКИУКРАЇНИ
ЧЕРНІВЕЦЬКИЙ НАЦІОНАЛЬНИЙУНІВЕРСИТЕТ
ім. ЮРІЯ ФЕДЬКОВИЧА
ФАКУЛЬТЕТЕ ІНОЗЕМНИХ МОВ
The main variants of the English language
Чернівці2011
Plan
GeneralCharacteristics of the English Language in Different Parts of theEnglish-Speaking World
Lexical Differencesof Territorial Variants
Some Points ofHistory of the Territorial Variants and Lexical interchange between them
Local Variantsin the British Isles and in the USA
TheRelationship between the English National language and British Local Dialects
Local Dialectsin the USA
Conclusions
References
Dictionary
General Characteristics of the English Language in DifferentParts of the English-Speaking World
It is natural that the English language is not used with uniformity inthe British Isles and in Australia, in the USA and -in New Zealand, in Canadaand in India, etc. The English language also has some peculiarities in Wales,Scotland, in other parts of the British Isles and America. Is the nature ofthese varieties the same?
Modern linguistics distinguishes territorial variants of a nationallanguage and local dialects. Variants of a language are regional varieties of astandard literary language characterized by some minor peculiarities in thesound system, vocabulary and by their own literary norms. Dialects arevarieties of a language used as a means of oral communication in smalllocalities, they are set off (more or less sharply) from other varieties bysome distinctive features of pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary.
Close inspection of the varieties mentioned above reveals that they areessentially different in character. It is not difficult to establish that thevarieties spoken in small areas are local dialects. The status of the othervarieties is more difficult to establish.
It is over half a century already that the nature of the two mainvariants of the English language, British and American (Br and AE) has beendiscussed. Some American linguists, H. L. Mencken for one, spoke of twoseparate languages with a steady flood of linguistic influence first (up toabout 1914) from Britain to America, and since then from America to the BritishIsles. They even proclaim that the American influence on British English is sopowerful that there will come a time when the American standard will beestablished in Britain. Other linguists regard the language of the USA as adialect of English.
Still more questionable is the position of Australian English (AuE) andCanadian English (CnE).
The differences between the English language as spoken in Britain, theUSA, Australia and Canada are immediately noticeable in the field of phonetics.However these distinctions are confined to the articulatory-acousticscharacteristics of some phonemes, to some differences in the use of others andto the differences in the rhythm and intonation of speech. The few phonemescharacteristic of American pronunciation and alien to British literary normscan as a rule be observed in British dialects.
The variations in vocabulary, to be considered below, are not verynumerous. Most of them are divergences in the semantic structure of words andin their usage.
The dissimilarities in grammar like AE gotten, proven for BE got, provedare scarce. For the most part these dissimilarities consist in the preferenceof this or that grammatical category or form to some others. For example, thepreference of Past Indefinite to Present Perfect, the formation of the FutureTense with will as the only auxiliary verb for all persons, and some others.Recent investigations have also shown that the Present Continuous form in themeaning of Future is used twice as frequently in BE as in the American,Canadian and Australian variants; infinitive constructions are used more rarelyin AE than in BE and AuE and passive constructions are, on the contrary, morefrequent in America than in Britain and in Australia.
Since BE, AE and AuE have essentially the same grammar system, phoneticsystem and vocabulary, they cannot be regarded as different languages. Nor canthey be referred to local dialects; because they serve all spheres of verbalcommunication in society, within their territorial area they have dialectaldifferences of their own; besides they differ far less than local dialects(e.g. far less than the dialects of Dewsbury and Howden, two English"towns in Yorkshire some forty miles apart). Another consideration is that AEhas its own literary norm and AuE is developing one. Thus we must speak ofthree variants of the English national language having different acceptedliterary standards, one spoken in the British Isles, another spoken in the USA,the third in Australia. As to CnE, its peculiarities began to attractlinguistic attention only some 20 years ago. The fragmentary nature of theobservation available makes it impossible to determine its status.LexicalDifferences of Territorial Variants
Speaking about the lexical distinctions between the territorial variants,of the English language it is necessary to point out that from the point ofview of their modern currency in different parts of the English-speaking worldall lexical units may be divided into general English, those common to all thevariants and 1ocally-marked, those specific to present-day usage in one of thevariants and not found in the others (i.e. Briticisms, Americanisms,Australianisms, Canadianisms, -etc.).
When speaking about the territorial differences of the English languagephilologists and lexicographers usually note the fact that different variantsof English use different words for the same objects. Thus in describing thelexical differences between the British and American variants they provide longlists of word pairs like
BE
flat
underground
lorry
pavement
post
tin-opener
government
leader
AE
apartment
subway
truck
sidewalk
mail
can-opener
administration
editorial
faculty
teaching staff
From such lists one may infer that the words in the left column are theequivalents of those given in the right column and used on the other side of theAtlantic. But the matter is not as simple as that.
These pairs present quite different cases.
It is only in some rare cases like tin-opener—can-opener orfishmonger—fish-dealer that the members of such pairs are semanticallyequivalent.
In pairs like government—administration, leader—editorial only onelexical semantic variant of one of the members is locally-marked. Thus in thefirst pair the lexical semantic variant of administration—'the executiveofficials of a government' is an Americanism, in the second pair the wordleader in the meaning of 'leading article in a newspaper' is a Briticism.
In some cases a notion may have two synonymous designations used on bothsides of the Atlantic ocean, but one of them is more frequent in Britain, theother—in the USA. Thus in the pairs post—mail, timetable—schedule,notice—bulletin the first word is more frequent in Britain, the second—inAmerica. So the difference here lies only in word-frequency.
Most locally-marked lexical units belong to partial Briticisms, Americanisms,etc., that is they are typical of this or that variant only in one or some oftheir meanings. Within the semantic structure of such words one may often findmeanings belonging to general English, Americanisms and Briticisms, e.g., inthe word pavement, the meaning 'street or road covered with stone, asphalt,concrete, etc is an Americanism, the meaning 'paved path for pedestrians at theside of the road' is a Briticism (the corresponding American expression issidewalk), the other two meanings 'the covering of the floor made of flatblocks of wood, stone, etc.' and 'soil' (geol.) are general English. Very oftenthe meanings that belong to general English are common and neutral, central,direct, while the Americanisms are colloquial, marginal and figurative, e.g.shoulder—general English—'the joint connecting the arm or forelimb with thebody', Americanism—'either edge of a road or highway'.
There are also some full Briticisms, Americanisms. For example, the wordsfortnight, pillar-box are full Briticisms, campus, mailboy are fullAmericanisms, outback, backblocks are full Australianisms.
These may be subdivided into lexical units denoting some realia that haveno counterparts elsewhere (such as the Americanism junior high school) andthose denoting phenomena observable in other English-speaking countries butexpressed there in a different way (e.g. campus is defined in Britishdictionaries as 'grounds of a school or college'). The number of lexical unitsdenoting some realia having no counterparts in the other English-speakingcountries is considerable in each variant. To these we may refer, for example,lexical units pertaining to such spheres of life as flora and fauna (e.g. AuEkangaroo, kaola, dingo, gum-tree), names of schools of learning (e.g. juniorhigh school and senior high school in AE or composite high school in CnE), namesof things of everyday life, often connected with peculiar national conditions,traditions and customs (e.g. AuE boomerang, AE drug-store, CnE float-house).But it is not the lexical units of this kind that can be considereddistinguishing features of this or that variant. As the lexical units are theonly means of expressing the notions in question in the English language someof them have become common property of the entire English-speaking community(as, e.g., drug-store, lightning rod, super-market, baby-sitter that extendedfrom AE, or the hockey terms that originated in Canada (body-check, red-line,puck-carrier, etc.); others have even become international (as the formerAmericanisms motel, lynch, abolitionist, radio, cybernetics, telephone,anesthesia, or the former Australianisms dingo, kangaroo and cockatoo).
The numerous locally-marked slangisms, professionalisms and dialectismscannot be considered distinguishing features either, since they do not belongto the literary language.
Less obvious, yet not less important, are the regional differences ofanother kind, the so-called derivational variants of words, having the sameroot and identical in lexical meaning though differing in derivational affixes(e.g. BE acclimate—AE acclimatize, BE aluminium—AE aluminum).
Sometimes the derivational variation embraces several words of the sameword-cluster. Compare, for example, the derivatives of race (division ofmankind) in British and American English:
BE racial/racialist a, racialist n, racialism n
AE racist a, racist n, racialism/racism n
When speaking about the territorial lexical divergences it is notsufficient to bring into comparison separate words, it is necessary to comparelexico-semantic groups of words or synonymic sets, to study the relationswithin these groups and sets, because on the one hand a different number ofmembers in a lexico-semantic group is connected with a different semanticstructure of its members, on the other hand even insignificant modifications inthe semantic structure of a word bring about tangible difference in thestructure of the lexico-semantic group to which the word belongs.
For example, the British and Australian variants have different sets ofwords denoting inland areas: only inland is common to both, besides BE hasinterior, remote, etc., AuE has bush, outback, backblocks, back of beyond, backof Bourke and many others.
Accordingly, the semantic structure of the word bush and its position inthe two variants are altogether different: in BE it has one central meaning('shrub') and several derived ones, some of which are now obsolete, in AuE ithas two semantic centres ('wood' and 'inland areas') that embrace five main andfour derived meanings.
Lexical peculiarities in different parts of the English-speaking worldare not only those in vocabulary, to be disposed of in an alphabetical list,they also concern the very fashion of using words. For instance, thegrammatical valency of the verb to push is much narrower in AuE, than in BE andAE (e.g. in this variant it is not used in the patterns VVen, NVen,NVing, NprpVing. Some patterns of the verb are typicalonly of one variant (e.g. NVen and NprpVing—of BE, NV andNVing — AE). There are also some features of dissimilarity in theword's lexical valency, e.g. a specifically British peculiarity observed innewspaper style is the ability of the verb to be used in combination with nounsdenoting price or quality (to push up prices, rents, etc.).
As to word-formation in different variants, the word-building meansemployed are the same and most of them are equally productive. The differencelies only in the varying degree of productivity of some of them in this or thatvariant. As compared with the British variant, for example, in the Americanvariant the affixes -ette, -ее, super-, as in kitchenette, draftee, super-market,are used more extensively; the same is true of conversion and blending (as inwalk-out—'workers' strike' from (to) walk out; (to) major—'specialize in asubject or field of study' from the adjective major; motel from motor + hotel,etc.). In the Australian variant the suffixes-ie/-y and-ее, as well asabbreviations are more productive than in BE.
Thus, the lexical distinctions between different variants of English areintricate and varied, but they do not make a system. For the most part they arepartial divergences in the semantic structure and usage of some words.
Some Points of History of the Territorial Variants andLexical interchange between them
The lexical divergences between different variants of English have beenbrought about several historical processes.
As we have known the English language was brought to the Americancontinent at the beginning of the 17th century and to Australia at the end ofthe 18th century as a result of the expansion of British colonialism. It isinevitable that on each territory in the new conditions the subsequentdevelopment of the language should diverge somewhat from that of BritishEnglish.
In the first place names for new animals, birds, fishes, plants, trees,etc. were formed of familiar English elements according to familiar Englishpatterns. Such are mockingbird, bullfrog, catfish, peanut, sweet potato,popcorn that were coined in AE or dogger — 'professional hunter of dingoes',Bushman—'Australian soldier in Boer War—formed in AuE.
New words were also borrowed to express new concepts from the languageswith which English came into contact on the new territories. Thus in theAmerican variant there appeared Indian hickory, moose, racoon, Spanish canyon,mustang, ranch, sombrero, etc.
At the same time quite a number of words lost in BE have survived on theother continents and conversely, certain features of earlier BE that have beenretained in England were lost in the new varieties of the language, changedtheir meaning or acquired a new additional one.
For example, Chaucer used to guess in the meaning of to think, so do thepresent day Americans; the English however abandoned it centuries ago and whenthey happen to hear it today they are conscious that it is an Americanism. Thesame is true of the words to loan for to lend, fall for autumn, homely forugly, crude, etc.
The word barn designated in Britain a building for storing grain (theword was a compound in Old English consisting of bere—'barley' andaern—'house'); in AE it came also to mean a place for housing stock,particularly cattle. Similarly, corn was applied in America to an altogetherdifferent cereal (maize) and lost its former general meaning 'grain'. The wordstation acquired the meaning of 'a sheep or cattle ranch', the word bush—themeaning of 'wood’ and shrub (AuE scrub)— .'any vegetation but wood' in AuE.Modern times are characterized by considerable levelling of the lexicaldistinctions between the variants due to the growth of cultural and economicties between nations and development of modern means of communication.
For example, a large number of Americanisms have gained currency in BE,some becoming so thoroughly naturalized that the dictionaries in England nolonger mark them as aliens (e.g. reliable, lengthy, talented, belittle). Othershave a limited sphere of application (e.g. fan— colloq. 'a person enthusiasticabout a specific sport, pastime, or performer', to iron out—'smooth out,eliminate'). The influx of American films, comics and periodicals resulted inthe infiltration of American slang, e.g. gimmick—'deceptive or secret device',to root—'support or encourage a contestant or team, as by applauding orcheering', etc.
Certain uses of familiar words, which some 50 years ago were peculiar tothe US, are now either completely naturalized in Britain or evidently on theway to naturalization. Numerous examples will be found by noting the words andmeanings indicated as American in dictionaries at the beginning of the centuryand in present days.
At the same time a number of Briticisms have passed into the language ofthe USA, e.g. smog which is a blend of smoke and fog, to brief— 'to giveinstructions'. This fact the advocates of the American language theorydeliberately ignore. Sometimes the Briticisms adopted in America compete withthe corresponding American expressions, the result being the differentiation inmeaning or spheres of application, for example, unlike the American store, theword shop, taken over from across the ocean at the beginning of the 20thcentury is applied only to small specialized establishments (e.g. gift shop,hat shop, candy shop), or specialized departments of a department store. Britishluggage used alongside American baggage in America differs from its rival incollocability (luggage compartment, luggage rack, but baggage car, baggagecheck, baggage room). In the pair autumn—fall the difference in AE is ofanother nature: the former is bookish, while the latter colloquial.
Local Variants in the British Isles and in the USA
Local Dialects in the British lsles
In the British Isles there exist many speech varieties confined toparticular areas. These local dialects traceable to Old English dialects may beclassified into six distinct divisions: 1) Lowland (Scottish p£ Scotch,North of the river Tweed), 2) Northern (between tne rivers Tweed and Humber),3) Western, 4) Midland and 5) Eastern (between the river Humber and theThames), 6) Southern (South of tne Thames). Their sphere of application isconfined to the oral speech of the rural population in a locality and only theScottish dialect can be said to have a literature of its own with Robert Burnsas its greatest representative.
Offspring’s of the English national literary language, the British localdialects are marked off from the former and from each other by some phonetic,grammatical and lexical peculiarities.
Careful consideration of the national and the dialect vocabulariesdiscloses that the most marked difference between them lies in the limitedcharacter of the dialect vocabularies. The literary language contains manywords not to be found in dialects, among them technical and scientific terms.
1. Local lexical peculiarities, as yet the least studied, are most noticeablein specifically dialectal words pertaining to local customs, social life andnatural conditions: laird—'landed proprietor in Scotland', burgh—'Scottishchartered town', kirk—'church1, loch—'Scottish lake or landlocked arm of thesea', etc. There are many names of objects and processes connected withfarming, such as the names of agricultural processes, tools, domestic animalsand the like, e.g. galloway—'horse of small strong breed from Galloway,Scotland', kyloe—'one of small breed of long-horned Scotch cattle',shelty—'Shetland pony'. There is also a considerable number of emotionallycoloured dialectal words, e.g. §cot. bonny—'beautiful, healthy-looking',braw—'fine, excellent', daffy—'crazy, silly', cuddy—'fool, ass', loon—'clumsy,stupid person'.
In addition, words may have different meanings in the national languageand in the local dialects, e.g. in the Scottish dialect the word to call isused in the meaning of 'to drive', to set—'to suit', short—'rude',silly—'weak', etc.
Dialectal lexical differences also embrace word-building patterns. Forinstance, some Irish words contain the dimmutіve suffixes -an -een, -can, as inbohaun—'cabin' (from Irish both—'cabin'); bohereen— 'narrow road' (from Irishbothar—'road'); mearacaun—'thimble' (from Irish mear—'finger'); etc. Some ofthese suffixes may even be added to English bases, as in girleen, dogeen,squireen (squirrel), etc. Some specifically dialectal derivatives are formedfrom standard English stems with the help of standard English affixes, e.g. Scot,flesher—'butcher', Sudden ty—'suddenness’.
A great number of words specifically dialectal appeared as a result ofintense borrowing from other languages, others are words that have disappearedfrom the national literary language or become archaic, poetical, such asgang—'go', OE sangan; bairn—.'child', OE beam, etc. Thus, the lexicaldifferences between the English national language and its dialects are due tothe difference in the spheres of application, different tempos of development,different contacts with other peoples, and deliberate elaboration of literarynorms.
The Relationship Between the English National Languageand British Local Dialects
The local dialects in Britain are sharply declining in importance at thepresent time; they are being obliterated by the literary language. This processis two-fold. On the one hand, lexical units of the literary language enterlocal dialects, ousting some of their words and expressions. On the other hand,dialectal words penetrate into the national literary language. Many frequentwords of common use are dialectal in origin, such as girl, one, raid, glamour,etc. Some words from dialects are used as technical terms or professionalismsin the literary language, e.g. the Scotch cuddy—'ass' is used in the meaning ofjack-screw and lug—'ear' in the meaning of handle.
Dialect peculiarities (phonetic, grammatical, but mainly lexical) modifyin varying degrees the language spoken in different parts of Britain. Thesespeech-forms are called regional variants of the national language and they aregradually replacing the old local dialects. It should be noted that the worddialect is used in two meanings nowadays: to denote the old dialects which arenow dying away, and to denote the regional variants, i.e. a literary standardwith some features from local dialects.
The most marked difference between dialects and regional variants in thefield of phonetics lies in the fact that dialects possess phonemicdistinctions, while regional variants are characterized by phoneticdistinctions. In matters of vocabulary and grammar the difference is in thegreater number and greater diversity of local peculiarities in the dialects ascompared with the regional variants.
lexicaldialect english languageLocal Dialectsin the USA
The English language in the United States is characterized by relative uniformitythroughout the country. One can travel three thousand miles withoutencountering any but the slightest dialect differences. Nevertheless, regionalvariations in speech undoubtedly exist and they have been observed and recordedby a number of investigators.
The following three major belts of dialects have so far been identified,each with its own characteristic features: Northenr Midland and Southern,Midland being in turn divided into North Midland and South Midland.
The differences in pronunciation between American dialects are mostapparent, but they seldom interfere with understanding. Distinctions in grammarare scarce. The differences in vocabulary are rather numerous, but they areeasy to pick up. Cf., e.g., Eastern New England sour-milk cheese. InlandNorthern Dutch cheese, New York City pot cheese for Standard American cottagecheese (творог).
The American linguist «O. F. Emerson maintains that American Englishhad not had time to break up into widely diverse dialects and he believes thatin the course of time the American dialects might finally become nearly asdistinct as the dialects in Britain. He is certainly greatly mistaken. Inmodern times dialect divergence cannot increase. On the contrary, in the UnitedStates, as elsewhere, the national language is tending to wipe out the dialectdistinctions and to become still more uniform.
Comparison of the dialect differences in the' British Isles and in theUSA reveals that not only are they less numerous and far less marked in theUSA, but that the very nature of the local distinctions is different. What isusually known as American dialects is closer in nature to regional variants ofthe literary language. The problem of discriminating between literary anddialect speech patterns in the USA is much more complicated than in Britain.Many American linguists point out that American English differs from BritishEnglish in having no one locality whose speech patterns have come to berecognized as the model for the rest of the country.
Conclusions
1. English is the national language of England proper, the USA, Australiaand some provinces of Canada. It was also at different times imposed on theinhabitants of the former and present British colonies and protectorates aswell as other Britain- and US-dominated territories, where the population hasalways stuck to its own mother tongue.
2. British English, American English and Australian English are variantsof the same language, because they serve all spheres of verbal communication.Their structural peculiarities, especially morphology, syntax andword-formation, as well as their word-stock and phonetic system are essentiallythe same. American and Australian standards are slight modifications of thenorms accepted in the British Isles. The status of Canadian English has not yetbeen established.
3. The main lexical differences between the variants are caused by thelack of equivalent lexical units in one of them, divergences in the semanticstructures of polysemantic words and peculiarities of usage of some words ondifferent territories.
4. The so-called local dialects in the British Isles and in the USA .areused only by the rural population and only for the purposes of oral communication.In both variants local distinctions are more marked in pronunciation, lessconspicuous in vocabulary and insignificant in grammar.
5. The British local dialects can be traced back to Old English dialects.Numerous and distinct, they are characterized by phonemic and structuralpeculiarities. The local dialects are being gradually replaced by regionalvariants of the literary language, i. e. by a literary standard with aproportion of local dialect features.
6. Local variations in the USA are relatively small. What is called bytradition American dialects is closer in nature to regional variants of thenational literary language.
References
1. Wells,J. C. (1982). Accents of English 2: The British Isles.
2. Moore, B2008, Speaking our language: the story of Australian English, Oxford UniversityPress, Melbourne, p. 69.
3. Wells2006. Accents of English. P.595/
4. ConciseOxford companion to the English language, pp. 96–102. 2005.
5. Crystal,David (2003). The Cambridge encyclopedia of the English language (2nd ed.).Cambridge University Press.
Dictionary
uniformity [] одноманітність; однаковість
set off1) відзначати2) відкладати) протиставляти
revealI[] 1) відкривати,викривати
scarce[] 1. 1) убогий,недостатній 2) рідкісний; дефіцитний
fragmentary[] 1) уривчастий;фрагментарний
designation[] 1) вказівка 2) призначення, ціль
pedestrian[] 1. 1) пішохід 2) учасник змагань із спортивної ходьби
marginal[]) граничний 4)мінімальний
tangible[] 1. 1) відчутний(на дотик); що сприймається дотиком; матеріальний
intricate[] заплутаний,складний; скрутний
barn[] 1) комора;сарай; клуня, стодола 2) стайня; корівник
grain []1. 1) зерно2) хлібнізлаки
shrub []кущ, чагарник
influx[] 1) місцевпадання (притоки в річку) 2) приплив
infiltration [] 1)просочування, інфільтрація 2) проникання
advocate1. [] 1)прихильник, прибічник; оборонець
elaboration[] 1) розробка;уточнення 2) вироблення; переробка; опрацювання
obliterate[] 1) стирати,викреслювати; знищувати 2) згладжувати(ся)
oust[] 1) виганяти,займати (чиєсь) місце; витісняти
penetrate[] 1) проникативсередину, пронизувати, проходити крізь
diversity[] 1) відмінність,несхожість; різниця, різноманітність 2) строкатість
conspicuous[] показний;помітний; що впадає у вічі