Language, dialect and variety:

Early Dialect Geography Early Dialect Geography

Dialectology
Study of dialect
Dialect (in common use):
- low-status, rustic, substandard, variety of a
language. language.
- No written form.
- Regarded as a deviation from the standard.
Dialect (Linguistics): no dialect is linguistically
superior to another. We are all speakers of a
dialect.
2
Criteria in differentiating language
from dialect
Mutual intelligibility?
- Norwegian, Swedish and Danish: languages or
dialects?
- Are all types of German or Chinese mutually - Are all types of German or Chinese mutually
intelligible?
- Culture? (Perceptual dialectology)
- Political status? A language is a dialect with
an army and navy (Max Weinreich)
3
Standard ideology
Prestige is a social, not a linguistic, concept
Whether a linguistic form is believed to have
high or low prestige depends, not on its
linguistic shape, but on the perceived social linguistic shape, but on the perceived social
status or importance of the speakers who use
it. (James Milroy 2012: 572)
4
Traditional Dialectology
Distribution of variants depending on region/
geographical areas.
The distribution of various features is marked with
bars called isoglosses bars called isoglosses
Main dialects tend to be separated by isogloss
bundles, or coincidences of isoglosses.
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Isoglosses/isogloss bundles
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Rhenish Fan
A transitional area between High German and Low German,
defined by the divergence of a series of isoglosses
The division into Low, Middle and Upper German is based
upon the extent to which the second o High German Sound
shift operated in the precursors of modern dialects
7
Rhenish Fan 1
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Geographical dialect continuum
Dialects/languages merge into each other
without a discrete break (Chambers & Trudgill
1998: 5)
The difference between one areal dialect and The difference between one areal dialect and
another is gradual not an abrupt or discrete.
Dialect continuum.
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Geographical dialect continuum
A--------B-------C--------D--------E-------F-------G-------
-I--------J-----K-------L--------M-------N-------O--- --Z
- Looking at dialects spoken in different localities: only
slight but incremental changes occur slight but incremental changes occur
-If we travel from village to village we notice small
differences, the further we get from the starting point
the larger the differences
- Speakers from village A understand speakers from
village B very well, and those of village F quite well,
those of village Mwith difficulty, and those of village Z
not at all.
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Dialect continuum
These minute and almost imperceptible
changes form part of only a series of links in a
longer chain, which is not limited by a political
boundary (political boundaries are artificial). boundary (political boundaries are artificial).
Dialects on the outer edges of the
geographical area may not be mutually
intelligible, but will be linked by a chain of
mutual intelligibility
(Chambers and Trudgill 1998: 5
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Dialect continuum
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Dialect continuum
13
History of dialectology
Arose partly as a response to prevailing view among
the Neo-Grammarians (Junggrammatiker) that all
sound changes were regular and exceptionless
Modern study of regional variation in language Modern study of regional variation in language
started around 1870s, especially in German-speaking
areas
Advances in practical phonetics, e.g. Elliss
palaeotype made measurement of accent
differences feasible:
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/paleotype.htm
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Georg Wenker (1876)
posted a questionnaire with 38 short
sentences to 1266 schoolmasters in the Rhine
valley, asking them to translate them into
local dialect, e.g.
Im Winter fliegen die trocknen Bltter durch die Im Winter fliegen die trocknen Bltter durch die
Luft herum,
In winter the dry leaves fly around through the
air.
After a decade, he had received around 45,000
completed questionnaires
15
Upshot
probably realized hed bitten off more than he
could chew
restricted himself to afew variants in North
and Central Germany and Central Germany
Sprachatlas des Deutschen Reiches (1881)
and later and based on his work Deutscher
Sprachatlas (1926)
16
one of Wenkers hand-written maps
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Wenkers survey of German
dialects
Wenkers survey of German dialects (50,000
locations became the foundation of subsequent
studies, despite the fact that it was never published
(1,659 map sheets on which linguistic information
had been drawn manually, 22 colours, each map: had been drawn manually, 22 colours, each map:
60x60 centimeters)
Digitaler Wenker-Atlas (DiWA) Schmidt and Herrgen
2001-9):
1. digital reproduction, publication and archiving of the
historical hand-drawn maps.
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Digitaler Wenker-Atlas (DiWA) www.diwa.info
2. combine the historical maps with additional sources of
linguistic and non-linguistic information, which can be
georeferenced and linked to any place of interest on
the map:
Other linguistic maps from more recently published
small- area dialect atlases
Sounds recordings of the 40 sentences on which
Wenkers survey was based
Bibliographical references about locations/regions
Non-linguistic maps which may turn out to be relevant
for explanations of linguistic change 19
Historical maps and recent maps (real-time
studies)
Historical maps or historical and recent maps
can be compared, enabling users to:
1. gain a syncrhonic view of certain phenomena
2. Look at 100 years of dialect development. 2. Look at 100 years of dialect development.
Real-time analyses can be conducted for those
parts of the German-speaking area where
Wenkers survey and recent regional atlases
overlap.
20
Jules Gilliron (1854-1926)
Swiss linguist. Used a fieldworker, Edmond Edmont,
so phonetic data collected was consistently
transcribed
Edmont was untrained (a grocer by trade) Edmont was untrained (a grocer by trade)
Over a four-year period he interviewed just 1 or 2
people in each of 639 localities, total 700 informants
(of which only 60 female, age 15-85)
Much bigger questionnaire: ~1500 items
Atlas linguistique de la France (1902-10 in fascicles)
21
Later Life
http://www.archivespasdecalais.fr/Anniversair
es/8-janvier-1849-naissance-d-Edmond-
Edmont
22
6 Isoglosses: limits of distribution of a variable
23
Survey of English Dialects
Early study of English dialects by Alexander Ellis
(1889)
transcriptions of 970 words
42 dialects recognised
Joseph Wright (1885- 1930) English Dialect
Dictionary(1905)
mammoth project, but coverage incomplete (a snapshot of
English dialects at the end of the 19th century)
written evidence required
good work on grammar
so well received that further study thought unnecessary
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u and non-u dialects
25
Survey of English Dialects
suggested by John Orr,
student of Gilliron
work started 1947 by
Eugen Dieth (Zurich) and
Harold Orton (Sheffield,
then Leeds)
1095 questions eliciting
1270 items
387 phonological
128 morphological
730 lexical
77 syntax
Nine topics then Leeds)
completed by Orton after
Dieths death in 1956
published in parts1962-71
Nine topics
farmstead
cultivation
animals
nature
house and housekeeping
human body
numbers, time, weather
social activities
states, actions, relations
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Types of questions in SED
Naming questions
What do you call a dog with half a dozen breeds in it?
What am I doing now? (mimes drinking)
Completing questions
If you drop a glass on the floor it might
A man who cant see at all is
Converting questions Converting questions
Base form: When I have an apple I eat it
Yesterday when I had an apple I it
Whenever Ive had an apple Ive always it
Talking questions
What can you make from milk?
What trees do you have around here?
Reverse questions
Whats the barn for, and where is it?
What do you mean by corn in these parts?
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Sample questionnaire showing later modifcations
28
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Data collection
Dialect surveys depend critically on collection of good data
Rely on information gained first-hand from speakers of the
dialects themselves: fieldwork is an essential part of the
subject. It is time-consuming and difficult.
Problems:
1. how to 'enter' a community sensitively enough to gain the 1. how to 'enter' a community sensitively enough to gain the
confidence of its members
2. how to find relevant people to study
3. how to persuade them to be part of the investigation, including
being recorded
4. how to minimise the disruption caused to their lives by the data
collection process
5. how to recompense the community for its co-operation
30
What to sample
As already seen, historically dialect surveys have
always been interested in variation in
lexis
phonology
Efforts now made also to sample variation in
morphology
syntax
31
How to elicit data
Conversational method
natural, but can be hit-and-miss
Direct elicitation
Need to be subtle in elicitation Need to be subtle in elicitation
Avoid observers paradox
Avoid, especially, effects of imitation
Need to compromise
Try to be natural while asking unnatural things
e.g. What do you call this? (pointing to head)
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Data analysis
How are these lines
on the map
arrived at?
The numbered dots
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The numbered dots
represent individual
informants
source: H Orton & N Wright (1974) A word geography
of England, London, Seminar Press reprinted in
LM Davis (1983) English Dialectology: An Introduction,
University of Alabama Press
Data analysis
Dialect surveys provide maps like these for
every single individual observation
So SED had hundreds or thousands of
maps, each showing an individual result maps, each showing an individual result
Drawing the lines may be easy, but it
doesnt stop there
34
35
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Criticisms
Data collection methods do not reflect normal
use of language
Single word answers hide
effects of continuous speech effects of continuous speech
possibility of variance in usage
Disproportionate number of NORMans as
informants: non-mobile old rural men
Dialectology should include young people
living in cities i.e. YUMFs (young urban mobile
females)
37
Summary
Primary goals of early linguistic atlases:
1. Describing regional differences in languages
2. Documentation of the oldest available forms of
spoken language. Idea of the death of dialects. spoken language. Idea of the death of dialects.
No surprise that the first Atlas (Wenker 1878) deals
with heterogeneous area linguistically. Gillirons first
Atlas with the Rhone valley, a region of contact
between Switzerland, Italy and Savoy where
Romance varieties are spoken.
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Later linguistic atlases
Later linguistic atlases methodological
progress
Hans Kurath (1938) Linguistic Atlas of New
England: England:
1. More informants per location, chose
according to education and social criteria.
2. Informants responses classified as types
(spontaneous, suggested)
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Later linguistic atlases
3. Making of phonographic recordings
as a supplement to direct
transcriptions. transcriptions.
4. Social criteria were applied: age,
sex, ethnic group, social class,
education
40
Hisrtorical dialectology. Linguistic
atlases of earlier English
[I]t was the tradition of the Neogrammarian to
project the present-day language on[to] a
reconstructed, historical proto-system.
The reason for this is that present-day The reason for this is that present-day
phenomena can be explained as the result of
language change
(Veith 1994/2006; see also Kirk 2001: 351)
Quoted in Kehrein 2012: 482)
41
Linguistic Atlases of earlier English
Dialectal equivalents of OE, ME, MHG vowels as
represented by one or more lexemes: GOOD, BOOK,
TOOK, POOR as reflexes of ME /o:/.
Results were viewed as the outcome of regional
processes of divergence from the relevant proto- processes of divergence from the relevant proto-
systems.
http://archive.ling.ed.ac.uk/ihd/elalme_scripts/lib/cre
ate_feature_map.php?mapid=1550006
http://archive.ling.ed.ac.uk/ihd/elalme_scripts/lib/cre
ate_feature_map.php?showother=ShowOthers&mapi
d=1550001
42
Historical dialectology
[T]he study of contemporary dialect] provides
fascinating insights into the history of the
English language.
Grammatical features from Middle English
dialects, and even some from the Old English
period, have been remarkably preserved in
regional speech, and many are still in use
today. (Widdowson, 2005:12).
43
Historical dialectology
[en, for him]could variously be taken to be a
quite distinct form or, more easily, as simply
the rapid articulation of himitself, but it is in
fact a modern survival of the Old English fact a modern survival of the Old English
masculine object pronoun hine, and deserves
to be regarded as such. (Upton, 1997: 217)
44
Historical dialectology
1. V+ /ng, nd, mb/ in LONG (<lang,
long>, <and, ond>, <lamb
lomb>)
2. Present indicative inflexions 2. Present indicative inflexions
3. The northern subject rule
4. Zero genitive
45
AMONG
LALME (M 685) LAE (Ph 7)
LALME
LAE
46
/a/ when followed by /ng/
/a/ when followed by /ng/ has remained
quite stable in the four northermost counties
(Northumberland, Cumberland, Durham,
Westmorland, the north of Lancashire and Westmorland, the north of Lancashire and
most of Yorkshire.
The main difference is that southern /o/ has
spread to south Yorkshire
47
Present indicative plural (Northern
Subject Rule)
ye seuen Minstre Prestes yat serues god..
(Athelstans charter, London British Library
Cotton Charter iv 18, East Riding Yorkshire,
14
th
c.) 14
th
c.)
where the maisters of the church thinkes
most convenient (York Clergy Wills, 16 th c.)
thay byde than byrnes so bold (Anturs IV, 15
th c. ) they wait then, nobles so bold
48
Present indicative plural
1. SED (northern subject rule):
- people shoots them (Nb 4)
- sheep bleets (Nb 1, 4, 5, 8)
- the farmers wears them (Nb 8) - the farmers wears them (Nb 8)
- the barns gets holiday (Cu 5)
2. SED (Verb adjacent to a subject pronoun):
- They starts clipping (Y 21)
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Zero genitive
ME:
saint Iohn minstre dor sain Iohn laghes on sain Iohan Rike
(Athelstan)
2. eModE :
My brother Christofer children (YW 1564) My brother Christofer children (YW 1564)
My husband best gown (TE 1479-2)
3. SED:
Jack Mary (Y 7)
Johnson pigs (Y 11)
My husband people (Cu 3)
A lad tale (Y 4)
the old man daughter (Y 24)
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Comparison of LALME and LAE
reveals:
Persistence of the northern
subject rule and the zero genitive
northern English from the 20th northern English from the 20th
century until in mid-20thc.
51
Historical dialectology
Variables to consider:
1. Space
2. Time 2. Time
1. Text-type
2. Registers
3. Writing conventions
52
Social Variables in Historical
Sociolinguistics
Language use is affeced by the conventionalised
practices of professional coalitions, writers sharing
similar communicative goals and applying similar
genre-specific rules of writing Texts created by
members of a particular discourse community can members of a particular discourse community can
no longer be examined solely with reference to to
the variables of time and space, since at least some
of their linguistic choices have been influenced by
inherited, borrowed, or recontextualised discourses,
English or foreign (Merurman-Solin 2004: 28)
53
Social Variables in Historical
Sociolinguistics
In addition to variables tradicionally viewed as
relevant in sociolinguistics (age, gender, rank
and so on), diastratic variation (according to
social class) may be conditioned by SOCIAL social class) may be conditioned by SOCIAL
FUNCTIONS OF WRITING. According to
Meurman-Solin (2102: 474) this topic has not
been studied in detail.
Stylistic literacy has not gained the status of
significant conditioning factor as the
traditional variables.
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Social Variables in Historical
Sociolinguistics
Interdisciplinary work will provide
knowledge about sociolonguistically
relevant language-external variables: relevant language-external variables:
- Community type
- Distance, networks
55
Historical sociolinguistics (data)
Corpora based on editions
Many unedited texts have been marginalised,
as they dont have the status of text-types
traditionally included in the canon. traditionally included in the canon.
Inbalance between genres in corpora
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