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Linguistics

Notes The variety according to region as a criterion is the most well-known and has been called ‘dialect’.
Dispersion in geographical terms has been the basis for the establishment of dialects. Sometimes
dialects diverge so vastly that they become independent language. For example, Dutch, English,
Norwegian, and Danish as distinct languages emerged from the dialectical varieties of their ancestor
Germanic. But such vast variations are rare. Regional variation manifests itself most commonly in
phonology, though occasional difference in grammar or vocabulary cannot be ruled out. American
English (AmE) and British English (BrE), Canadian English, Australian English are the dialects of
English on international geographical basis. Scots, Irish, Northern Midland, London, and Southern
varieties within the British English are examples of the regional variation.
Within each dialect area, one notices linguistic variation according to education and social standing.
The uneducated speech is most easily identified with the regional dialect, while educated speech
tends to transcend regional limitations. Educated speech has the additional advantage of being
patronised by the government, the universities, the learned professions, the press, and the political
parties, for which reason it is accorded implicit social and political sanction, allowing it, therefore, to
become ‘Standard English’. Speech deviating from Standard English is termed ‘substandard’ to
distinguish it from ‘dialectal’. Standard English is reasonably monolithic despite regional and national
pulls.
Varieties according to the subject matter of the discourse are called ‘register’. It is very clear that
every profession, every subject uses peculiar vocabulary which distinguished one register from another.
Literary critics have their own language, while engineers and doctors have different needs expressed
by vocabulary which especially meets their needs. Different registers exist in English too.
Varieties depend on the medium also. The two commonly used media being speaking and writing,
their products are different. One difference is situational. Speech involves two or more persons, while
writing can be, and most frequently is, done by an individual insulated from others. Writing generally
entails the necessity of explicitness, leaving nothing vague or unsaid,—things which are compensated
for by the physical presence of the speaker and hearer. The other difference arises out of the limitation
of the graphic system which is unable to cope with devices of spoken language such as emphasis,
stress and intonation.
Varieties according to attitude are called style. Depending upon the attitude of the speaker about the
hearer of the subject matter, the variety can be anywhere between stiff, formal, cold on the one hand
and relaxed, informal, warm, friendly on the other. On this basis, for the sake of simplicity, we have
two varieties ‘formal’ and ‘informal’ interposed by the third called ‘neutral’.
As regards the varieties due to interference, English, being an international language, is being learnt
by people of different cultures and countries which allow lexical and grammatical structures of their
languages to enter the English language. Such varieties of English as spoken by the French, the
Russians, or the Japanese, are examples of varieties of English according to interference. Indian English
is a special case of this category because it is learnt and studied not as a foreign language, but as a
second language.
Self-Assessment
1. Answer the following questions:
(i) What is Isogloss?
(ii) Define Registers.
13.4 Summary

• Sociolinguistics is the branch of linguistics concerned with the social functions of language use
and the impact of social context on language. As opposed to other branches of linguistics which
seek to understand the formal and structural aspects of language, sociolinguistics focuses on
how social structures, situations and contexts acan alter the rules, functions and uses of language.

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