Regional Varieties of the English Language

English is the world’s most widely used language
Historical and economic reasons
English is the national language of English proper, the USA, Australia, New Zealand, some provinces of Canada
English is the official language in Wales, Scotland, Gibraltar, the island of Malta

English is the world’s most widely used language
English was enforced as an official language on the peoples who fell under US or Britain’s domination in Asia, Africa, Central and South America.
People in these countries speak their mother tongue and have a good command of English.

English is the world’s most widely used language
After the Second World War as a result of the national literation movement throughout Asia and Africa many former colonies have gained independence and in some of them English as the state language has been replaced by the national language

English is the world’s most widely used language
By Hindi in India
By Urdu in Pakistan
By Burmese in Burma

English is the world’s most widely used language
Today English is spoken as a mother tongue by about 300 million people
The majority of native speakers of English live in the USA, about four times as many as in the UK

English is the world’s most widely used language
As a second language, English is the sole official language in 25 countries.
It is the language of international communication used for:
Commerce and tourism
Science and technology
Economic and military aid
Air-traffic control
Communication at sea

English is the world’s most widely used language
English is now acknowledged to be the world’s most important language:
The number of speakers of the language
The extent to which the language is geographically dispersed
Functional load of the language (science, literature)
Economic and political influence of the native speakers of the language in the world

Local Dialects and Regional Varieties
Local Dialects are varieties of the English language peculiar to some districts and having no normalized literary form
Regional Varieties possessing a literary form are called variants
In Great Britain there are two variants: Scottish English and Irish English

Local Dialects and Regional Varieties
Five main groups of dialects:
Nothern
Midland
Eastern
Western
Southern
Every group contains several up to ten dialects

Cockney – Southern dialect, regional dialect of London
As spoken by the educated lower middle classes, it is a regional dialect marked by some deviations in pronunciation but few in vocabulary and syntax
As spoken by the uneducated, Cockney differs from Standard English not only in pronunciation but also in syntax.
Cockney has attracted much literary attention

Cockney words
Balmy/barmy – mentally unbalanced
Garn – go on (interjection of disbelief)
Toff – a person of the upper class
Up to the pole - drunk

Dialects
Dialects are now chiefly preserved in rural communities, in the speech of elderly people
Words from dialects and variants can penetrate into Standard English
Bog – spongy, peaty ground of marsh
Whiskey – national drink

Scottish Dialect
The contribution of Scottish dialect is great.
Some of the most commonly used Scottish words are:
Barn – child
Bonny – handsome
Slogan
Tartan
Wee - tiny

American English

American English
American English is not a dialect, it is a regional variety, because it has a literary normalized form called Standard American

American English
For more than three centuries the American Vocabulary developed more or less independently of the British stock
In recent years many americanisms have been introduced into British usage:
Cafeteria, cocktail, egghead, fan, disk jockey, show business, star, chewing gum, credit card, know-how, baby-sit, boyfriend, brainstorm, bookstore, to park, to package, to network, briefs, comics, reds

American English and British English
Pronunciation is the most striking difference:
AE Intonation does not rise or fall as that of BE, it sounds more monotonous
American voices usually have a higher pitch. That is why AE often seems too emphatic and American voices seem louder than those of British speakers