Regional varieties of the English vocabulary

The West

1. barrow pit (esp. Rocky Mountains) – a ditch to conduct water off a surface road
2. davenport (widespread) - couch or sofa
3. pop (widespread in West and North) - carbonated beverages; soda predominates in California, Arizona, southern Nevada
4. snowmachine (Alaska) – a motor vehicle for travel over snow. Outside Alaska known as a snowmobile

Pacific Northwest

1. chechaco - derogatory term for newcomers to the Northwest. (from Chinook Jargon)
2. crummy - a vehicle used to transport forest workers
3. gyppo - contract work (or worker). Corruption of "gypsy"
4. potlatch - a social gathering; a Native American festival during which the chief gives away his possessions (from Chinook Jargon)
5. Skid road or Skid row - a path made of logs or timbers along which logs are pulled; (widespread) a run-down, impoverished urban area
6. skookum - good, strong, powerful, first rate. (from Chinook Jargon)
7. snoose - chewing snuff or dipping tobacco, especially taken by loggers
8. spendy - expensive
9. Tyee - Chief, boss, a person of distinction. (from Chinook Jargon)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter III

Dialects and regional varieties

The expansion of the British Empire and—since World War II—the influence of the United States has spread English around the world. Because of that global spread, English has developed a host of English dialects and English-based creoles languages and pidgins.

Several educated native dialects of English have wide acceptance as standards in much of the world. In the United Kingdom much emphasis is placed on Received Pronunciation, an educated dialect of South East England. General American, which is spread over most of the United States and much of Canada, is more typically the model for the American continents and areas (such as the Philippines) that have had either close association with the United States, or a desire to be so identified. In Oceania, the major native dialect of Australian English is spoken as a first language by the vast majority of the inhabitants of the Australian continent, with General Australian serving as the standard accent. The English of neighboring New Zealand as well as that of South Africa have to a lesser degree been influential native varieties of the language.

Aside from these major dialects, there are numerous other varieties of English, which include, in most cases, several sub varieties, such as Cockney, Scouse and Geordie within British English; Newfoundland English within Canadian English; and African American Vernacular English ("Ebonics") and Southern American English within American English. English is a pluricentric language, without a central language authority like France's Académie française; and therefore no one variety is considered "correct" or "incorrect" except in terms of the expectations of the particular audience to which the language is directed.

 

Scots has its origins in early Northern Middle English and developed and changed during its history with influence from other sources, but following the Acts of Union 1707 a process of language attrition began, whereby successive generations adopted more and more features from Standard English, causing dialectalisation. Whether it is now a separate language or a dialect of English better described as Scottish English is in dispute, although the UK government now accepts Scots as a regional language and has recognized it as such under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. There are a number of regional dialects of Scots, and pronunciation, grammar and lexis of the traditional forms differ, sometimes substantially, from other varieties of English.

Just as English itself has borrowed words from many different languages over its history, English loanwords now appear in many languages around the world, indicative of the technological and cultural influence of its speakers. Several pidgins and creoles languages have been formed on an English base, such as Jamaican Patois, Nigerian Pidgin, and Tok Pisin. There are many words in English coined to describe forms of particular non-English languages that contain a very high proportion of English words.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1.1 Constructed varieties of English

Basic English is simplified for easy international use. Manufacturers and other international businesses tend to write manuals and communicate in Basic English. Some English schools in Asia teach it as a practical subset of English for use by beginners.

English reform is an attempt to improve collectively upon the English language.

Manually Coded English constitutes a variety of systems that have been developed to represent the English language with hand signals, designed primarily for use in deaf education. These should not be confused with true sign languages such as British Sign Language and American Sign Language used in Anglophone countries, which are independent and not based on English.

Seaspeak and the related Airspeak and PoliceSpeak, all based on restricted vocabularies, were designed by Edward Johnson starting from the 1980s to aid international cooperation and communication in specific areas.

Simplified Technical English was historically developed for aerospace industry maintenance manuals and is now used in various industries.

Special English is a simplified version of English used by the Voice of America. It uses a vocabulary of only 1500 words.

 

 

 

 

 

Conclusion

My course work gives an account of the history and development of a number of distinct and highly diversified varieties of English – varieties that, in varying degrees, are recognizably different from one another and from standard British and standard American English. Most people would have little difficulty in identifying the English-speaking region in which the following sentences might be heard:

“Ye'll be duin wi't afore I win hame, will ye no?”

“There's tall you are!”

“I'm after missing the bus ”(‘I have just missed the bus’)

“The ooms and oupas of the platteland”

It should be borne in mind that speakers of local forms of English are often unaware that others regard their speech as in any way unusual. Martyn Wakelin, in his book The Archaeology of English (1988), for example, cites a conversation between Lady Constance Chatterley and her husband's gamekeeper Mellors, who, although having been a lieutenant in the Indian Army, used ‘broad Derbyshire’ when it suited him:

‘'Appen yer'd better 'ave this key an' Ah mun fend for t'bods some other road.’ (Perhaps you had better have this key, and I must make provision for the birds in some other way.)…