This essay will discuss "Standard English is the yard stick of measuring forms that deviate in

phonology and grammar, from the Standard English of England". Firstly, it will identify what is
meant by Standard English. Secondly, it will discuss grammar and phonological variation and their
causes. Finally, it will identify three examples of phonological variation that Arabic speakers use in
producing English sounds, three examples of syntax variation that Arabic learners use in producing
English sentences, and three examples of morpheme variation in prefixing or suffixing words in
English. At the same time, it will explain the causes of such variation, that is the errors in the
performance of Arabic learners.
First of and foremost, Standard English is the variety that is taught in schools, used in formal writing
and media. It is codified in dictionaries and associated with the speech of well educated persons.
There are some standard English varieties spoken in different parts of the world. These are Standard
English English, Standard Scottish English, Standard Irish English, Standard Australian English,
Standard Canadian English and Standard US English. These varieties have few differences. ( Thomas
P222
However, there is much greater regional variation between nonstandard varieties of English in
England. The causes of these variation, according to Joan Beal, are the clear contrast between urban
and rural communities , as in Tyneside and Tyne and Wear in the north of England. Beal added that
social factors also have a great effect in that people of higher social status tend to use fewer local
forms of language. Moreover, the context of situation is another main factor that play a part in
making people avoid local features on more formal occasions. ( Thomas P.224 )
In focusing on the grammatical constructions of Standard English, we as learners can understanding
the differences between Standard English and nonstandard English. In this respect, we have to
examine the structure of the English sentence. A standard English sentence is made up of group of
words that termed phrases . For example, "the girls will cook a delicious dinner ". In this sentence,
"the" is a determiner, "girls" is a noun, "will" is an auxiliary verb "cook" is a lexical verb, "a" is
another determiner, "delicious " adjective, and "dinner" is another noun. In the above example,
"the girls" and "this delicious dinner" are noun phrases, while "will cock" is a verb phrase.( ( Thomas
P226 )
In terms of verb phrase, there are several differences in the form verbs that occurs in different
varieties of English. For instance, the speaker from South-west England used the phrases " I loves,
you loves, she/he/it loves, we loves and they loves'. On the other hand , a speaker belongs to East
Anglia used the phrases " I love, you love she/he/it loves, we love and they love'. This shows that
there is only one present- tense form used in these areas. This is , according to Chesire and Milory,
because non-standard varieties of English have not been codified. (( Thomas P227 )
However, Standard English, the codified one as stated above, distinguishes between the thirdperson singular and other verb forms in the present tense(I love, you love, she/he/it loves, we love
and they love). ( Thomas P. 227 )
Moreover, there are also differences in other verb forms. In examining, for instance, strong verbs,
differences appear in the form of past tense and past participle in Tyneside comparing with Standard
English. For example, in Standard English ,the past tense of "give" is "gave", and the past participle
is "given", in Tyneside it remains in the base "give". ( Thomas P.228 )

Differences between Standard varieties of English can be seen in how verbs are used. In this respect,
the verbs "have" and "do" may function as lexical or auxiliary verbs. For example, in " you had a
good time", "had" functions as a lexical verb, but in "had you a good time?", which is used in
Scotland, "had" functions as an auxiliary verb. ( Thomas P.230 )
"Do" in " He's doing very well in school" functions as a lexical verb, while, in the south of England,
the form "do" is found for the auxiliary verb and "does" for the lexical verb. However, in Australia, a
farther distinction between negative and positive forms are found. For example, " It don't look all
that good, does it ? " (( Thomas P,231 )
Another difference in grammatical construction is that Standard English English used the simple past
verb form "went" with time adverbials such as " last year". As in," I went to the camping last year.
On the other hand, Scottish and Irish English, Us English and Indian English, used a present
perfective form such as "have been" as in "I have been to the camping last year. ( Thomas P..234 )
Furthermore, in examining the progressive aspect usage with stative verbs (such as believe, like and
know), one can notice that this is a normal feature of varieties of English in Irish English, Indian
English and Scottish English,. For example," I was knowing it ". However, this feature does not occur
in Standard English of England. ( Thomas P. 235 )
There is also considerable variation in the use of modals verbs ( can, might, will, should, must etc ) in
English. In this respect, Trudgill and Hannah stated that "could" and" would" are used in Indian
English rather than "can" and " will" as in " we hope that you could join us". This is because these
two modals seen as more tentative and therefore show politeness. ( in Standard English, we hope
that you can join us). ( Thomas P.238 )
In Standard English, "must" has the meaning of obligation as in "you must be at the airport by ten"
,however, Miller argued that " have to" and " need to" are preferred for the use of obligation in
Scots ( a non-standard English) ( Thomas .P 238 )
Moreover, there is a rule of Standard English that only one modal verb can appear in a single verb
phrase. Verb phrase in Scottish English may contain double modal such as "He will can help us
tomorrow ". This can be understood in Standard English English as He will be able to help us
tomorrow. ( Thomas P. 238 )

In terms of noun phrase, nouns in Standard English either countable ( like pens, apples and
computers), or uncountable ( like milk, water and money). Uncountable nouns are themselves differ
in different varieties of English . For example, furniture would normally be a non-count noun in
Standard English, but in the English of India, furniture appears as a count noun Thus, forms such as"
a furniture" and "furnitures" are found. ( Thomas P.242 )
In terms of the pronoun usage, Tyneside speakers use the pronoun "us" rather than "me" as a firstperson non-subject pronoun (as in "Give us a kiss" ). Forms such as Usll do it have also been
found in this variety, effectively reversing the subject and non subject pronoun forms found in
Standard English. ( Thomas P..244 )

The second-person pronouns, both singular and plural, also can take place in comparing its use in
several varieties. According to Dick Leith and David Graddol, English originally had a distinction
between singular "thou" and plural "you", which has been lost in the standard variety.
However, some traditional dialects are still used the singular "thou", but many other varieties are
used "yous" instated of "you " as plural form.
In this respect, Milroy and Milroy quote the following example: " So I said to our Trish and our
Sandra, yous wash the dishes". This can be seen in north-east and northwest England, Scotland,
Northern and Southern Irland parts of North America and Australia. This is because many languages
use the plural; forms of pronouns as a polite form of address when referring to only one person. (
Thomas P.245 )
On the other hand, Standard English use the form " you" for the second-person pronoun both
singular and plural. What is striking is that in the south states of America, the plural made with " y'all
" to distinguish it from the singular "you". ( Thomas P245 )
Variation also exists at clause or sentence level. That is to say, in the way words, phrases and
clauses are but together. Subject, verbs and objects is the usual sentence construction in English,
however, subject and verb can be inverted as in, "Was he angry?" ( Thomas P. 247 )
Moreover, " it-clefting " is one construction that may be used in English to shed light on a particular
part of a sentence. For example, "Ahmed loves flower", in it-clefting system it will be: "It is the
flower that Ahmed loves", as the focus of information goes on "flower" rather than Ahmed. This
feature appears more in written English and less in spoken as speakers made the focus of
information by using stress or intonation on a particular part of the word. ( Thomas P.249 )
However, the use of intonation, according to Filppula and Harris, is not possible in Irish. That is to
say, this system of " it-clefting" is very famous in Irish English. So, "it's looking for more land a lot of
them are" can be found in Standard Irish English, not Standard English English. ( Thomas P.249 )
So far, this essay discuses some aspect of variation in grammar between Standard English and other
non-standard English. Now, it will discus some aspects of variation in phonology. "Phonology is the
study and identification of significant sound". (English Phonetics and Linguistics, P. 56)
There is no doubt that speakers of English do not speak the language identically. Every Englishspeaking country, and practically every region within those countries, has a distinctive accent.
In Britain, the desirable accent held up as a model is Received Pronunciation (RP). It is considered as
social rather than regional British English accent. It also can be called "The Queen's English" and BBC
English. P. 259 Therefore , it can be said that RP is the most preferred and respected accent in the
English speaking world. ( Wright P. 259 )
The same phoneme could be pronounced differently in different accents. For example, some
English speakers may or may not pronounce / r / in cart depending on where you come from. (
Wright P. 263 )
A distinction is often made between rhotic and non-rhoic accents. Speakers of both kinds of accents
will pronounce the / r/ in words like "carry". Speakers of rhotic accents will also pronounce an / r / in

words like " car" ; in this case, the / r/ is not followed by a vowel. This kind of pronunciation is also
called non-prevocalic. This system of distinction has also been used to distinguish between accents
in US, Canadian, Irish and Scottish accents may be identified of prevocalic / r / . (Wright P.262, 264 )
There are farther pronunciations of / r / that distinguishes speakers in terms of age and social class.
In this respect, Peter Trudgill argued that young speakers in Norwish, England pronounce / r / as / w
/. This makes the word rabbit sound like wabbit.; and this can be noticed in working class and middle
class urban accents in south and east England. (Wright P. 264
Moreover, a phoneme may be pronounced differently depending on its position in a word. In RP,
there is a "clear" and "dark" / l / . For example, when / l / occurs at the beginning of a word as in
leaf, or between two vowels as in feeling, it is known as a clear / l /. On the other hand, when it
occurs at the end of a word as in feel, it gives a different dark sound quality. . However, there is an
exception of this contrast between dark and clear / l/ . For example, speakers of Lancashire, as do
most American , typically use dark / l / regardless its position in a word. On the other hand, many
Irish English speakers use clear / l / wherever the sound occurs. (Wright P. 266)
There are other ways in which accents of English differ. They may differ in terms of prosody. This
concept includes features like rhythm, which is the use of stress to highlight one syllables in an
utterance, and intonation, which means a manner of producing tones, especially with regard to
accuracy of pitch. These make an important contribution to the overall sound of an accent. (Wright
P. 267 )
In this respect, different varieties of English used rhythm and intonation contrast to highlight the
same differences in meaning. In Jamaican English, for instance, many words receive stress on their
final syllables as in "celebrate". On the other hand, the same word tend to be stressed initially in RP
" celebrate". (Wright P.267 )
According to Gregory Guy and Julia Vonwiller, the high rising tone (HRT) occurs at the end of a
declarative sentence in Australian English ; it does not necessary indicate that the speaker is asking a
question, as in the following examples ; " she didn't relies what was wrong with it And it fell off
and she got the cane for breaking it ". (Wright P. 268 ) (Note, the symbol is used to indicate
HRT)
HRT can be noticed in other varieties of English. It occurs in the varieties of spoken English in
Tyneside, Liverpool, Manchester, and Birmingham. Guy and Vonwiller stated that spoken texts
require the speaker to monitor the listener. One way in which the speaker can check whether the
listener is following the strand of talk is to use HRT.
Most people tend to associate accents of English with different English-speaking areas. In examining
the regional variation in accent, one should know that dialect consists of grammar, words and their
meanings, and pronunciation. That is to say, some speakers may use formal speech marked by a
distinctive pronunciation features of ,for example, Tyneside English. But in casual talk ( as in a close
family setting ) they may use vocabulary, word forms and grammatical structure mark the variety of
English as being rooted in Tyneside. (Wright P. 270 )
The Great Vowel Shift was a major change in the pronunciation of the English language that took
place in the 15 th century. For example, in the Middle English period the long vowel that is now

pronounced in a word like food / u: / in RP was the typical pronunciation in a word like caw . So, a
systematic shift that affecting- becoming closer- the long vowels of English. (Wright P. 272 )
The Great Vowel Shift had a great impact on the pronunciation of English in different parts of
England. That is to say, it gave a rise to a division between northern accents ( that have kept some of
the old pronunciation ) and the rest.
Moreover, Chambers and Trudgill have documented the gradual diffusion of more resent sound
changes through the vocabulary of English ; a process they called "Lexical diffusion" . In this respect,
people in the south eastern part of England who first began to change the way they pronounced
vowels like those in blind and cow .
This is because the movement of wealthy and influential people from East Anglia and Kent to London
in the 15 th century helped the speared of the innovative pronunciation to London accents. Then,
these innovation was carried westwards and northwards as speakers with new pronunciation moved
around the country. (Wright P. 273 )
Furthermore, the mechanism by which new pronunciation spread from community to community
across the country is called "regional diffusion ". That is to say, the geographical spread of a
linguistic innovation depends on the movement of people and the continuing contact with the
speech communities they pass through.
In this respect, it is useful to mention the concept " vowel merger " which has resulted from that
mechanism. It means that two vowels merge to become a single vowel. For example, the
progressive merger of the vowels in words like cat and caught or hock and hawk in general American
English. The resulting merger of these two vowels sounds similar to the vowel in RP father / a: /
Moreover, Chambers and Trudgill have documented the gradual diffusion of more resent sound
changes through the vocabulary of English ; a process they called "Lexical diffusion" . In this respect,
people in the south eastern part of England who first began to change the way they pronounced
vowels like those in blind and cow . (Wright P. 273 )
This is because the movement of wealthy and influential people from East Anglia and Kent to London
in the 15 th century helped the speared of the innovative pronunciation to London accents. Then,
these innovation was carried westwards and northwards as speakers with new pronunciation moved
around the country. (Wright P. 273 )
What happens when English speakers from a number of different places end up forming a new
community, as in the case of Australia, is that new combination of accents grew up on their own in
this new place. (Wright P. 275 )
In the following pages, this easy will give three examples of phonological variation that Arabic
speakers use in producing English sounds, , then, three examples of syntax variation that Arabic
learners use in producing English sentences, and finally, three examples of morpheme variation in
prefixing or suffixing words in English. At the same time, it will explain the causes of such variation,
that is the errors in the performance of Arabic learners.
First, three examples of phonological variation that Arabic speakers use in producing English sounds:

1In Arabic language the phoneme / fa / stands for the phoneme / v / and / f / in English . So,
in producing words that contain the sound / v / as vacancy, and words that contain the sound / f /
as fast, Arabic speakers will pronounce them as / facancy / and / fast /.
2Egyptian accent has the phoneme / s / that stands for the consonant phoneme / / as in
words like thank and think. Thus , an Egyptian speaker may say "I sink " instead of "I think".
3Some young Arabic learners may pronounce the phoneme / k / as in words like cat and
cycle as / s /. So, cat is pronounced as / sat / , and cycle is pronounced as / si sel /. This is because
these young learners have no knowledge in how to pronounce consonant letters that followed by
vowels letters (a, o, u, e , i ).
Secondly, three examples of syntax variation that Arabic learners use in producing English sentences:
1As stated above, whereas English sentence structure is SVO, Arabic sentence structure can
be either SVO or VSO. In this respect, Arabic learners may write a VSO sentence directly into a SVO
sentence. Thus, " Ya'akul Ahmed jazar", which means Ahmed is eating carrots, will be written in
English as something like " Eating Ahmed carrots ".
2In terms of writing wisdom in English, Arabic learners may write the wisdom "A sound mind
in a sound body", as something like " a fine mind in a fine body ". This is because she or he
translates a word by word from Arabic into English.
3There is also some errors in the use of English preposition that are frequently made by
Arabic learners. For example, she or he may write " I will be there at Saturday " instead of on
Saturday.
In English, the meaning of the prefixing is that a morpheme which is placed at the beginning of a
root word. For example, im + possible = impossible. Suffixing, on the other hand, is a morpheme
that is placed at the end of a root word . For example, free + dom = freedom. (English Phonetics
and Linguistics. P 77)
Finally, some examples of morpheme variation in prefixing or suffixing words in English.:
1When an Arabic learner tries to write or say a sentence like " Al Sayara Allati Eshtaritoha " in
English, which means " the car that I bought", she or he may add an Arabic morpheme " ha" at the
end of " bought". So, the sentence will become as " the car that I bought it " . This is resulted
because the influence of mother tongue.
2Once again, young Arabic learners, may add the morpheme " ed " to the irregular past tense
forms " drinked". This is due perhaps to the fact that during the early stages of learning English,
students do not have good command of grammar rules.
3In Arabic, the verb could be in the plural form in case it follows a plural noun. For example,
Arabic young learner may write "the students studies their lessons." That is to say, she or he add " s
" to the verb study as a plural verb form.
4Arabic adjective can be either singular or plural. So, some Arabic students may also write an
English adjective in plural form. For example, " the boys are smarts ".

To sum up,
This essay discussed "Standard English is the yard stick of measuring forms that deviate in
phonology and grammar, from the Standard English of England". Firstly, it identified what is meant
by Standard English. Secondly, it discussed phonological and grammar variation and their causes.
Thirdly, it identified three examples of phonological variation that Arabic speakers use in producing
English sounds, three examples of syntax variation that Arabic learners use in producing English
sentences, and three examples of morpheme variation in prefixing or suffixing words in English. At
the same time, it will explain the causes of such variation, that is the errors in the performance of
Arabic learners. Finally, I believe that, in ordering to learn a particular language, students should not
follow their mother tongue rule of grammar or pronunciation. They should only follow the system
and rules of the language they are learning.