1.4. Social variations of american english
Within anyone region there is more than one form of English. Besides differences according to the gender and race there are differences according to economical and social factors of education and social class.
In North America socio-economic status shows up in pronunciation as middle-class speakers are on the whole more likely than those of the working class to adopt forms which are in agreement with the norms of the society. The now classic research of W. Labov in New York City in 1960s provided the first insight into these relations. W. Labov’s findings are: initial voiceless /T/ is realized more often as /t/ or /tT/ than as a fricative /T/ as the classification of speakers changes from upper-middle to low middle class and to working class /t/.
Social distinctions are especially perceptible in the area of grammar where a remarkable number of stigmatized features (often referred to as shibboleths /'SIbqlqTs/) apply supraregionally. A person who uses the following is regarded as uneducated, unsophisticated and uncouth:
● ain't: e.g. I ain't done yet.
● double modal: e.g. I might could help you.
● multiple negation: e.g. We don't need none.
● “them” as a demonstrative pronoun: e.g. Hand me them cups.
● no subject relative pronoun in a defining relative clause: e.g. The fellow wrote that letter is here.
● “don't” in the third person singular: e.g. She don't like it.
● “was” with the plural subject: e.g. We was there too early.
● such words as “come, done, seen, knowed” for the Simple Past Tense
● “took, fell, tore, went, wrote”, etc. as the Past Participle.
Usage research has revealed that those and other non-standard forms are used most by less educated working class of rural and urban districts and frequently they are the oldest speakers. The above mentioned non-standard forms are still very common. E.g. in Anniston, Alabama “don't” was found more than 90% of the time by all the working-class groups in contrast to the upper class usage where it accounts for only 10%.
- American english: Матеріали до вивчення курсу
- Contents
- 1.1. English as it exists today
- 1.2. Dialects vs variety/variation
- 1.3. English in america
- The languages of the usa and canada
- 1.3.1. Canadian English
- 1.3.2. Regional varieties of Canadian English
- 1.3.3. Regional varieties of English in the usa
- 1.4. Social variations of american english
- 1.5. Ethnic varieties of american english
- 1.5.1. Native American English
- 1.5.2. Spanish-influenced English
- 1.5.3. Black English
- 1.6. Male-female differences
- 1.6.1. Approaches to the Explanation of Cross-Sex Difference
- 1.6.2. Differences encoded in language
- 1.6.3. How to Avoid Sexist Language
- 1.7. British and american english: differences in pronunciation
- 1.7.1. Differences in Phonetic Inventory
- 1.7.2. Differences in Quality of the Phonemes
- 1.7.3. Phonotactic Differences
- Intervocalic /t/
- 1.7.4. Divergent Patterns of Phoneme Use in Sets of Words
- 1.7.5. Stress and Intonation
- 1.8. British english and american english: differences in morphology
- 1.8.1. Differences in the Verb
- 1.8.2. Differences in the Noun and Pronoun
- 1.8.3. Differences in the Preposition and the Adverbs
- Time Expressions:
- 1.9. British english and american english: differences in lexis
- British english and american english:
- BrE fulfil, instil may be interpreted as simplification. In AmE we find double “ll” in fulfill, instill, but both forms are used in AmE install(l), install(l)ment.
- BrE BrE
- Individual Words which Differ in Spelling
- Exercise 2
- Exercise 3
- Exercise 4
- Exercise 5
- Exercise 6
- Exercise 7
- Exercise 18
- Exercise 19
- 1. Eastern New England
- 2. Middle Atlantic
- 3. Southern
- 4. North Central
- 5. Southern Mountain
- Exercise 20
- Exercise 21
- List of Abbreviations
- Glossary