Ways of Reading Third Edition - Martin Montgomery, Alan Durant, Nigel Fabb, Tom Furniss, Sara Mills 2007

6.3 Language variation
Unit 6 Language and place
Section 2 Language variation

To investigate how we read such conventional ’imagery’ of different textual voices, we must first consider how variation in language correlates with place. We can then explore more precisely how such variation is manipulated in literary, non-literary and media texts as a significant resource.

6.3.1 Variation within as well as between languages

The many languages of the world are related to each other in families (IndoEuropean, Dravidian, etc.). This family structure of languages involves overlapping and historically connected varieties, which in many cases have loaned each other words, sounds and structures. Even within what is called a single language, however, there is typically variation from region to region, as well as between classes, ethnic groups and genders.

6.3.2 Dialect and accent

Variation within a given language can involve differences in the sound system, when speakers from a particular region (or social group) consistently pronounce words in different ways from other groups. Examples of this type of variation are the words ’rather’ and ’farmer’, which are pronounced differently in different parts of Britain. ’Tomato’ and ’dynasty’ differ between British and American English; and ’nothing’ and ’hotel’ differ between British English and Indian English.

Alongside differences in pronunciation, there can also be consistent differences in other aspects of the language. Different words are used in different places to refer to equivalent things or ideas. The word ’throat’, for example, varies with ’gullet’, ’thropple’ and ’quilter’ in different parts of Britain. A ’faucet’ is what American English speakers call a ’tap’; ’pants’ are ’trousers’; and ’suspenders’ are equivalent to ’braces’. A ’cot’ in India is an adult ’bed’, not, as in British English, a child’s bed. In South Africa, a ’robot’ is a traffic light as well as an automaton. ’Outwith’ in Scotland means the same as ’outside’ or ’beyond’ in England. Dialect maps of such variation can be drawn to show the traditional geographical distribution of different words representing the same (or closely similar) meanings.

Differences also occur in grammar. Scottish English, ’the potatoes need peeled’, matches Southern English English ’the potatoes need to be peeled’. Yorkshire ’thou knowest’ parallels Southern English English ’you know’. American English ’they did it Monday’ parallels British English ’they did it on Monday’. British English ’I didn’t like it either’ matches Indian English ’I didn’t like it also’.

When variations according to place are found exclusively in pronunciation, we speak of different accents; when variation according to region occurs simultaneously at the level of sound, vocabulary and grammar, we speak of different dialects. It is possible, therefore, to speak of a Yorkshire accent if we are referring only to pronunciation, or of a Yorkshire dialect if we are referring to all the ways language in Yorkshire varies in relation to other regions. Similarly, we can speak of a ’West of Scotland’ accent or dialect, and of a ’South East of England’ accent or dialect.

The issue is complicated, however, by the fact that language also varies according to class (and, to a lesser degree, according to age, subculture and profession). Because these variations affect vocabulary and grammar as well as pronunciation, it is also possible to speak of class dialects and social dialects, as well as accents (see Unit 9, Language and society). The relation between regional dialects and social dialects is variable. Sometimes they reinforce one another; sometimes one will override the other. For example, the language of the upper classes in Scotland is likely to have more in common with that of the equivalent social group in England than with that of working-class speakers in Scotland.

6.3.3 Attitudes towards variation

What makes accent and dialect important - both in social interaction and as regards ways of reading - is that people feel very strongly, and also quite differently, about different varieties. Attitudes are often based on stereotypical contrasts between the localities with which the varieties are historically associated, for instance the contrast between rural and industrial. Such attitudes also rely on our ability to ’place’ a language variety; when this is not possible, and judgement is made simply on the basis of the sound itself rather than on the basis of attached social knowledge, stereotypical views tend to evaporate. Conventional attitudes towards different language varieties also rely on an assumed fixed point of ’standard’ pronunciation or grammar. The ’standard’ variety is the one that is given most prestige. Pronunciation or grammar that is thought to stray from it is implicitly compared with it, and as a result perceived as ’non-standard’.

One limitation of stereotypical views about accent and dialect is that, although they are apparently attuned to the idea of variation, they tend to be insensitive towards actual variations: do all working class people really sound the same? Or all Americans? Or all Scots? Or all Nigerians? Or all English people? The further from a person’s own experience someone else’s variety is, the less precise intuitions about it - and about the contrasts it enters into with other varieties - are likely to be. (This insight is easily tested by considering how much accent differentiation you can confidently match with social distinctions in television programmes or films produced in some part of the English-speaking world relatively distant from where you live.)

6.3.4 The repertoire of varieties available to individual speakers

The fact that language varies according to the regional and social identity of the user does not, however, result in each speaker being consistent in how he or she speaks or writes. In different situations, or when communicating about different topics, a speaker will automatically modify his or her language. Speakers shift - in response to subtle changes in situation and relationship - between different parts of the linguistic repertoire available to them. Variations that arise according to situation of use, rather than according to the identity of the user, are known as registers (see Unit 7: Language and context: register). Speakers who are able to use more than one dialect can manipulate those dialects as if they were registers, changing between them to achieve specific effects in any given situation (e.g. of appropriacy or marked inappropriacy). This type of shifting is especially common between a regional and a ’standard’ variety. (For a literary example of this, see the discussion of Lady Chatterley’s Lover in Unit 9, Language and society.)