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Abstract:It is universally acknowledged that regional variants exist in each language, for it is impossible that people always employ the same pronunciation or vocabulary or even grammar to express the same meaning no matter how large the scope in which a language is used may be. The author of this paper is just to exemplify some regional variants in English and to analyze the factors that account for the variants ,with the purpose of teaching English well in the most efficient way.
Key Words:regional variants English the factors
IIntroduction
Since after World War I, English has been no longer the language only belonging to the British people; instead, it has become the most international of languages. Today English is not only spoken in Great Britain, but also in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Singapore and some other countries and regions. In such a wide dispersed territory, it is, of course, natural that there are numerous variants in English due to kinds of influences. In fact, sometimes we may notice some obvious differences in the language spoken by people from different countries or even from different regions in the same country. Thus we may say that geographical dispersion is in fact the classic basis for linguistic variants, which may also be termed as "dialects".
II Regional variants and phonology
Regional variants seem to be realized mainly in phonology. That is, we generally, first of all, recognize a different regional variant from a speaker’s pronunciation. For instance, dance, either , ask , tomato, and clerk are respectively pronounced[da:ns], [ ′aiδ],[a:sk], [t′ma:tu], [kla:k] in England, but in America they are pronounced[doens][′iδ] , [ａ:sk], [t′meitu], [klａ:k].Besides, in British English, words with a suffix–ary or–ery usually have only one stress while in American English such words may have two stresses: a chief stress as well as a sub-stress. Take dictionary and millinery for example, in British English they are read [′diksnri], [′milinri], but in American English they are supposed to be read [′diks、neri], [′mili﹑neri].Just a few are mentioned here.
III. Variants at the lexical level
Variants at the lexical level are also quite obvious. We have already become familiar with many pairs of words which mean the same but have totally different spellings in British English and in American English. For instance, cinema, railway, flat, lorry are British English words. In American English, movie, railroad, apartment, truck are respectively used instead. Not only the people from different countries, but also people from different regions in the same country may employ different words to mean the same. For example, in most parts of the USA, people usually say "soft drink" if they want to drink something without alcoholic, but near Boston people are likely to use the word "tonic" instead. Also, in most parts of the USA, people are used to saying "park a car" while people from the district of Toledo are likely to say "rank a car" and some people from the state of Delaware may say "file a car".
IVGrammaticalvariation
Grammatical variation tends to be less extensive and certainly less obtrusive. Take British English and American English for example, only some sentence patterns and collocations may be different. In British English, we can find: "I haven’t any sister." " I’ll catch you up" and "at weekends" while in American English we can read "I don’t have any sister.""I’ll catch up with you" and "on weekends".
V Then how did these variants come about
As seen from the above, variation is infinite and its causes likewise. It is impossible to enumerate all the forces of change. However, I’d like to analyze here a few chief factors that possibly account for regional variants.
1)Migration away from its cultural and economical centre may be a most important cause of regional variants in English. When people from England travelled to other countries, they took the English language with them. At first, the language remained the same as the the language used in England, but slowly it began to change from one part of the world to another.
2)A second cause of variants in English may be the influence of the centres of prestige and culture. For example, the words guy, fan, buck are probably regarded as slangs by some British people, while in America they are actually some quite popular words because they were used in some great works again and again by a few famous writers such as Brett. Harte, Mark Twain. Also, British people seldom say drive-in-movie theatres, drive-in-banks, or drive-in-restaurants, but American people talk about those quite often because those places appear here and there in America as a result of that many Americans own private cars. Furthermore, influenced by American Indian culture, there are a great many words such as to howl (to cry), moose (large sort of deer) in American English, which are rarely used by the British people.
3)Effects of environmental factors may serve as a third cause of variants in English. There may be different features of topography, different kinds of climate, different kinds of plant and animal life in different regions. As a result, there appear some various expressions to represent the differences.
4)Different types of regional institutions and practices may also influence a language and result in variants in it. For example, the West of America is far and wide, so one does not need to fence area of grazing land for his own sheep or cattle. The unfenced green grazing land there is thus for all to use. For this reason, people there call this kind of grazing land common, or green, while in the South and the East, people are likely to say grassland’ or meadow’. Again, such a sentence as" John got his arm stuck in the drain cover, so the fire brigade was called in" surely puzzles Chinese people. But it is quite natural in Britain, for a fire brigade in that country is often called in to solve kinds of problems.
5)Variants in English may also arise on account of regional differences in naming things. For example, curd-like milk is called bonny-clapper or bonny-clabber in the east of New England, while people in most parts of America name it curdled milk’. Likewise, a vessel for holding or carrying water is named bucket in the east and north of New England and in the South, while people living to the north of the Hudson Valley and New York state call it pail’. And paper bag’ is named toot in the Pennsylvania German area.
VI Conclusion
So far, I have exemplified some of the regional variants in English, and at the same time I have also tried to analyze some of the causes of the variants. Now I have to make clear that all I have done is just for teachers of English to realize that there exist regional variants in English and that we must try to help our students get familiar with them, or at least help students understand some of the regional variants when we come across them, for we study, teach and use English in order to communicate not only with British people and American people, but also with people who can speak English from other countries.
References:
[1]M.A.K. Halliday.An Introduction to Functional Grammar.1985 .
[2]Randolph Quirk. Sidney Greenbaum.A University Grammar of English.1973.
[3]戚雨村.语音学引论.上海外语教育出版社，1985，5.
[4]索振羽,叶蜚声.现代语言学教程.北京大学出版社， 1987.
(作者单位：陕西延安职业技术学院）
Key Words:regional variants English the factors
IIntroduction
Since after World War I, English has been no longer the language only belonging to the British people; instead, it has become the most international of languages. Today English is not only spoken in Great Britain, but also in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Singapore and some other countries and regions. In such a wide dispersed territory, it is, of course, natural that there are numerous variants in English due to kinds of influences. In fact, sometimes we may notice some obvious differences in the language spoken by people from different countries or even from different regions in the same country. Thus we may say that geographical dispersion is in fact the classic basis for linguistic variants, which may also be termed as "dialects".
II Regional variants and phonology
Regional variants seem to be realized mainly in phonology. That is, we generally, first of all, recognize a different regional variant from a speaker’s pronunciation. For instance, dance, either , ask , tomato, and clerk are respectively pronounced[da:ns], [ ′aiδ],[a:sk], [t′ma:tu], [kla:k] in England, but in America they are pronounced[doens][′iδ] , [ａ:sk], [t′meitu], [klａ:k].Besides, in British English, words with a suffix–ary or–ery usually have only one stress while in American English such words may have two stresses: a chief stress as well as a sub-stress. Take dictionary and millinery for example, in British English they are read [′diksnri], [′milinri], but in American English they are supposed to be read [′diks、neri], [′mili﹑neri].Just a few are mentioned here.
III. Variants at the lexical level
Variants at the lexical level are also quite obvious. We have already become familiar with many pairs of words which mean the same but have totally different spellings in British English and in American English. For instance, cinema, railway, flat, lorry are British English words. In American English, movie, railroad, apartment, truck are respectively used instead. Not only the people from different countries, but also people from different regions in the same country may employ different words to mean the same. For example, in most parts of the USA, people usually say "soft drink" if they want to drink something without alcoholic, but near Boston people are likely to use the word "tonic" instead. Also, in most parts of the USA, people are used to saying "park a car" while people from the district of Toledo are likely to say "rank a car" and some people from the state of Delaware may say "file a car".
IVGrammaticalvariation
Grammatical variation tends to be less extensive and certainly less obtrusive. Take British English and American English for example, only some sentence patterns and collocations may be different. In British English, we can find: "I haven’t any sister." " I’ll catch you up" and "at weekends" while in American English we can read "I don’t have any sister.""I’ll catch up with you" and "on weekends".
V Then how did these variants come about
As seen from the above, variation is infinite and its causes likewise. It is impossible to enumerate all the forces of change. However, I’d like to analyze here a few chief factors that possibly account for regional variants.
1)Migration away from its cultural and economical centre may be a most important cause of regional variants in English. When people from England travelled to other countries, they took the English language with them. At first, the language remained the same as the the language used in England, but slowly it began to change from one part of the world to another.
2)A second cause of variants in English may be the influence of the centres of prestige and culture. For example, the words guy, fan, buck are probably regarded as slangs by some British people, while in America they are actually some quite popular words because they were used in some great works again and again by a few famous writers such as Brett. Harte, Mark Twain. Also, British people seldom say drive-in-movie theatres, drive-in-banks, or drive-in-restaurants, but American people talk about those quite often because those places appear here and there in America as a result of that many Americans own private cars. Furthermore, influenced by American Indian culture, there are a great many words such as to howl (to cry), moose (large sort of deer) in American English, which are rarely used by the British people.
3)Effects of environmental factors may serve as a third cause of variants in English. There may be different features of topography, different kinds of climate, different kinds of plant and animal life in different regions. As a result, there appear some various expressions to represent the differences.
4)Different types of regional institutions and practices may also influence a language and result in variants in it. For example, the West of America is far and wide, so one does not need to fence area of grazing land for his own sheep or cattle. The unfenced green grazing land there is thus for all to use. For this reason, people there call this kind of grazing land common, or green, while in the South and the East, people are likely to say grassland’ or meadow’. Again, such a sentence as" John got his arm stuck in the drain cover, so the fire brigade was called in" surely puzzles Chinese people. But it is quite natural in Britain, for a fire brigade in that country is often called in to solve kinds of problems.
5)Variants in English may also arise on account of regional differences in naming things. For example, curd-like milk is called bonny-clapper or bonny-clabber in the east of New England, while people in most parts of America name it curdled milk’. Likewise, a vessel for holding or carrying water is named bucket in the east and north of New England and in the South, while people living to the north of the Hudson Valley and New York state call it pail’. And paper bag’ is named toot in the Pennsylvania German area.
VI Conclusion
So far, I have exemplified some of the regional variants in English, and at the same time I have also tried to analyze some of the causes of the variants. Now I have to make clear that all I have done is just for teachers of English to realize that there exist regional variants in English and that we must try to help our students get familiar with them, or at least help students understand some of the regional variants when we come across them, for we study, teach and use English in order to communicate not only with British people and American people, but also with people who can speak English from other countries.
References:
[1]M.A.K. Halliday.An Introduction to Functional Grammar.1985 .
[2]Randolph Quirk. Sidney Greenbaum.A University Grammar of English.1973.
[3]戚雨村.语音学引论.上海外语教育出版社，1985，5.
[4]索振羽,叶蜚声.现代语言学教程.北京大学出版社， 1987.
(作者单位：陕西延安职业技术学院）