Li2 Language Variation

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Li2 Language Variation

• Regional variation
• Part 1

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Todays topics

• Regional variation across languages
• Language vs dialect vs accent
• Types of variation
• Using dialects to reconstruct the past

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Introduction

• All languages have dialects, and all vary in the
  same ways (phonologically, morphologically,
  lexically, etc.).

Bolivia pipocas Argentina pochoclos cf. maiz
perlado, Mexico (etc.?) palomitas (de maiz),
ancua alepa cabritas cancha canchitas
canguil cocaleca copos de maiz cotufas
crispeto/a/es maíz frito maíz inflado maíz
pira pocorn pop popcorn poporopo pororó
rosas roscas rositas de maíz tostones

• general word naranja
• Caribbean china

• general word autobús
• Caribbean, Canary Islands guagua
• Mexico camión
• some villages in Spain empresa

• general Latin America jugo
• general Spain zumo

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Dutch chicken
Frisian Islands
Std Dutch kip (?) Flemish kieken German Küken
chick, Hühn Frisian hin
HOLLAND
Zeeland
BELGIUM
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Definitions

• Language two speech varieties are different
  languages if they are not mutually intelligible.
• Dialect A variety of a language that is
  mutually intelligible with its comparandum but
  has grammatical differences.
• Accent A variety of a language that differs in
  pronunciation but not in grammatical (i.e.
  morphological and syntactic) structure.

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Variation and isoglosses

• Lexical
• carbonated beverage
• girl
• British vs. American
• knock up
• fag
• khaki pants

• Phonetic/phonological
• a/? merger
• Morphological
• 2pl pronoun
• Syntactic
• multiple modals

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The A/? merger
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Girl
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(No Transcript)
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Carbonated beverages
tonic!
Based on c. 290K responses
50 pop responses by county
50 soda responses by county
50 coke responses by county
also dope, cocola
Vaux, Bert. 2003. Harvard Dialect Survey.
http//cfprod01.imt.uwm.edu/Dept/FLL/linguistics/d
ialect/ McConchie, Alan. 2002. The Great Pop vs.
Soda Controversy. http//www.popvssoda.com/.
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The Survey of English Dialects and its descendants

• Undertaken in 1950s-60s
• Fieldworkers visited 313 villages and interviewed
  about 1000 people
• Source for
• Orton, Harold W. Halliday, eds. 1962. Survey of
  English Dialects The Basic Material. Leeds E.J.
  Arnold Son Ltd.
• Orton, H. et al. 1978 The Linguistic Atlas of
  England. London Croom Helm.
• Upton and Widdowson, Oxford Atlas of English
  Dialects (1996)

rhotic
rhotic
rhotic
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World Englishes

• carbonated bevs
• sub
• gymshoes

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Gym shoes
Other English options
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Name that country

• runners (Canada, Ireland)
• sandshoes (Aus, some Eng)
• trainers (England)
• plimsolls indoor version?
• kicks (AAVE)

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Rain sun ?
80. What do you call it when rain falls while the
sun is shining?a. sunshower (36.02)c. the
devil is beating his wife (6.14)h. I have no
term or expression for this (54.07)

• Some English options elsewhere
• foxes wedding (England, Wales)
• monkeys wedding (South Africa, parts of England)
• monkeys in labour (Sierra Leone)
• the monkeys' dance (Wales)
• donkeys wedding (India)

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Using dialects to reconstruct the past
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Settlement history

• Diffusion of methods of wood construction
• Upper South log construction brought from PA
• Lower South frame construction from Southern
  Tidewater hearth
• Upper North frame construction from New England
• Lower North post-log construction, from PA vis
  National Road

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A descendant crawfish
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Another dirt dauber
Mud wasps are some of the most easily
recognised wasps due to their large size and
bright black and yellow colouring. These wasps
have a long thin waist and long slender legs and
are usually seen when they stop by puddles to
collect mud which they roll into a ball and carry
off to construct a nest.
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Archaism
But look, the morn, in russet mantle clad, Walks
o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill. (Hamlet
1.1.166ff)
3-way deixis (cf. Spanish, Armenian, Turkish,
etc.) 1 here this this (mass), thease
(count) 2 there that that 3 yonder yon thick(y),
thon
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French horse
Areas with k (cf. Proto-Romance caballus,
French cheval)
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Prothesis
gloss star wait school
Latin stella sperare scola
Spanish estrella esperar escuela
Portuguese estrela esperar escola
French étoile espérer école
Occitan estèla esperar escòla
Catalan estrella esperar escola
Italian stare sperare scuola
Sardinian istédhu isperare isciòla
Romanian stea spera scoala
French dialects lacking prothesis