social variation according to sociolinguistcs, and the variation between accents and dialects in addition to RP

1. Social Variation
Mohammad R. A. ALMALLAH
145394

2. RP (Received Pronunciation) : a social
accent:
It is the accent of the best educated and the
most prestigious members of English society.
The label derives from the accent which was
“received” at the royal court. The RP was
promoted by the BBC for decades. It is a social
accent not a regional one, and it conceals a
speaker’s regional origin.

4. Social dialects
Dialects are linguistic varieties which are
distinguishable by their vocabulary,
grammar and pronunciation; the speech of
people from different social, as well as
regional, groups may differ in these ways.

5. Standard English
Is a social dialect. Standard English is more
accommodating than RP, and allows for some
variation within its boundaries. It is estimated
that up to 15 percent of the British regularly use
standard British English. In Standard English, a
limited amount of grammatical variation is
acceptable.

6. Non standard dialects:
Any linguistic form that is not a part of
Standard English is regarded as “non-
standard”. The standard dialect is the first
to be codified, so other dialects are always
compared to the standard dialect.

7. Non standard is a term that gives negative
connotations. This is because the term is related
to the less prestigious classes. But we must
understand that there is nothing regarded as
bad or inferior in linguistics. Therefore,
linguistically speaking these non standard forms
are regarded as different. Some sociolinguists
use the term “vernacular” rather than “non
standard” to avoid any negative implication.

8. Vernacular forms have features that differ
from those of the standard forms. They tend
to be learnt at home and used in informal
and casual contexts. Vernacular dialects, like
vernacular languages, lack public or overt
prestige although they are valued by their
users, especially as a means of expressing
solidarity.

9. Caste dialects
People can be grouped together on the basis of
similar social and economic factors. People’s
languages reflect their social grouping when they
use different social dialects. Social dialects can be
seen clearly in Indonesia or India where social
groupings are very clear. In these countries there
area caste systems determined by birth, and strict
social rules govern the behavior of each group.
These rules govern matters like job, marriage and
dressing. These social distinctions are also reflected
in speech, and a person’s social dialect reflects his
social background.

10. Social Class dialects
• The term (social class) refers to a group of
people who share similarities in economic and
social status. Status differences are in relation
to (family background, wealth, education).
• There is a strong relationship between social
class and language patter, and that’s why
people of different social classes do not speak
the same way.

11. On the level of vocabulary:
• For example, in England there were words that
marked the upper class English people (U
speakers) from the (non U speakers). For
example, (U speakers) used “sitting room” rather
than “lounge”. They used “bag” instead of “Hand
bag”.. However, the barriers between social
groups are not fixed, because you can move up or
down the social ladder. This is because the choice
of vocabulary is superficial and can conceal/ hide
social class membership.

12. On the level of pronunciation:
• the speech of different social groups is
distinguished by frequency which they use
particular features.
• The same linguistic variable is likely to have
different values in different speech
communities.
• New York: /r/ is pronounced more by higher
social classes.
• England: /r/ is pronounced less by higher
social classes.

13. On the level of grammatical patterns
• There is also a variable that prove social
grouping. The higher social groups use more
of the standard grammatical forms and few of
non-standard or vernacular forms. For
example, the Standard English would use “she
walks every day”, “I finished my homework”,
while the vernacular would use “ she walk”
and “I finish”.

14. Grammatical Patterns
• There is a pattern of negation
called “negative concord” which means
double negation. It is not used by
Standard English as it only uses one
negation form. However, most vernacular
dialects can have more than one negative
form. It is much more frequent in lower
class rather than UMC.

15. Thank
You