Sociolinguistics lecture 2

We will discuss chapter no.1

We said that sociolinguistics discusses the relationship between
language use and society how different social factors affect the
way people speak .
Last time we talked about functions of language ,did we?
We talked about informative function language when language is
used to pass information .
We talked about the clue pairing function where people use
language to get information about other people for example if I
speak to somebody and he started using English I would think of
them as highly educated because they can speak English
,listening to people can enable me to know their origin or social
class ..etc.
So we talked about the social function of language when we use
language to initiate relationship with other people and that

Peter Trudgill takes us to discuss or he tries to define the term

language and how the term language is deferent from dialect is
different from accent, it`s easy to define a dialect , we said that

DIALECT:

Dialect is one form of language

So language can be spoken using different dialects and how the

dialect is different from accent. And we discussed this.
We said that accent is related to pronunciation.
and then Peter Trudgill talks about the term language and he
mentioned the fact that language is a very hard term to define
because what makes a language a language and what makes
different dialects belong to the same language?
So what are the criteria that people use to define language?

So how can we define language?

How could we say that these two dialects belong to the same
language or these two dialects don't belong to the same
language?

For example:
May be we cannot say that English and French belong to the
same language. It is true historically speaking maybe French
and Italian is related being dissentience of one language which
used to be Latin, long time ago. But what makes two languages
the similar; let's take for example Italian and French one
criterion to define varieties as belonging to one language
is linguistic similarity.
So we say that linguistic similarity can be used to define or to
identify two languages as belongs to the same variety.

Language continuum

Peter Trudgill the author of the book warns us that linguistic

similarity cannot always be trusted.

Sometimes you would go to people living close to each other and

they speak similar varieties or dialects , yet when you ask these
people if they were speaking the same language they will tell you
no , we are speaking different languages, we are not speaking the
same language.

And he gives you, he introduces us to the term language

continuum, he says: there are many language Continuums around
the world, areas where continues, where the change from one
language to another is gradual.
If you go along the border between France and Italy, Germany,
you would notice people living on this border and across the
borders can understand one another.

A German would understand a person on the other side of Italy or

of France. They speak similar dialects, yet if you ask these people
what do you speak.
The person or the villagers of the Italian side will say, I speak
Italian
And if you go to the other side he would say, I speak Dutch or
German.

These are cases of language continuum and so linguistic

similarity is not enough, thaw those people speak linguistic similar
variety, yet for them they not speak the same language.
so here comes the role of culture and political factors . So
political and cultural factors are important in defining what
makes a language the way it is. Or what makes two varieties
belong to the same language

Language continues in Arab world, I'll give you example:

If you take the example the varieties that we speak, there are
similarities but if you ask people they will tell we speak different
dialects.
In this chapter,
Ill give you an example from the Arab world, if you go to
the border line here , the southern border you would know
that here in Saudi Arabia the dialect spoken across the
border in the south between Yemen and the very southern
areas of Saudi Arabia, you notice that there are linguistic
similarities. People speak the similar dialects. And the
change from these dialects to other dialects spoken in the
western side will be gradual.

Also if you go to the eastern, the eastern boarders of Saudi

Arabia, you would know the style living in the eastern board
speak similar dialects similar to the other gulf dialects spoken.
And the same thing if you go to the northern border of Saudi
Arabia you would know that people living across border from
Jordan, they speak dialects similar to those who live in the other
side of the boarder.

So these are language Continuums and so cultural and political

factors play role in defining what makes language.

In the book Peter Trudgill gives you example from Yugoslavia, he

says that Yugoslavia before the civil war, in Yugoslavia people
would speak different languages, not languages different dialects.
People could understand each other weather a Serbian, krwatian ,
Albanian or a Muslim Bosnian.
You would understand one another but after the civil war and the
breakup of Yugoslavia and the rise of these different states ,
people start to think of themselves as speaking different
languages. And the differences between the spoken varieties in all
three areas are merely lexical.
If you look at the grammar, you would notice that there are no
much differences regarded with the grammar or even phonology,
most of the differences are lexical , and people who created the
Serbian state they start to call their language, to give their
language a name and to use written system different from that
one that used by the Croatian or that used by the Muslim
Bosnian .

So these are examples of how people view and perceive

language.
So linguistic similarity is not enough to define varieties as
belonging to the same language.

I'll give you another example in the Arab world. Take the Arabic
for example, linguistic similarity is not enough to indicate the

variety spoken in the in the Arab world. In the Arab world it`s may
be find it easy to understand. May be Egyptian Arabic ,it is easy to
understand Egyptian Arabic, Syrian Arabic because of linguistic
similarity , yet listening to a Moroccan speaking would be really
very hard to understand unless that Moroccan person speaks in
some standard form of Arabic , he tries to make himself
understandable , you would really find it very hard to understand

If you listened to a Moroccan villager, you would find it difficult,

you may be not able to understand a word or you might get one
word or some words, this will happen in Moroccan Arabic and
north Africa Algeria ...,
yet if you ask all of us, if you ask these Moroccans, if you ask us
what type of varieties do they speak?
You would say they speak Arabic.
So for them and for us this is Arabic , so linguistic similarity is not
really important for us, what really is important to us here is
cultural and social factors, political factors, the historical
factors that we share one history, one culture and of course
there some similarities but differences are larger. Yet for us
Moroccan varieties are for us part of the Arabic language.
So this is an example for the Arab world.
Do you have any question so far?

Arabic and Hebrew , there are similarities, there are

Semitic languages and there are some similarities but
there are differences. We cannot consider Arabic and
Hebrew as the same language for us. Because there are

still differences and of course linguistic criteria, cultural,

political criteria's would lead us to say that differently not
the same language.
So Peter Trudgill tries to draw attention to the fact that actually
the term language is not easy to define and maybe it's easier to
define the term dialect, the term accent, yet language is very
hard to define.
And he discusses as I said the criteria used to
So what's really makes a language has to do with
linguistic factors, cultural political factors and he gives
example from Yugoslavia and I give the example for
Moroccan and Egyptian Arabic.

Variety

So instead of using for Peter Trudgill better than using language,

the word language and the word dialect, it is easier to use a
neutral term (term that is neutral) which is variety.

He suggests that we use the term varieties instead of saying

language or dialect, we would say varieties.
And then at the end of the chapter Peter Trudgill tries to
differentiate between standard language and non
standard language and he says that a standard language is a
variety that is supper imposed on the speaker of the language, it
has its own history, at some point in time this dialect or this
variety was chosen to be use as a medium of education, it could
be used in print. And he gives you example of Standard English.
So Standard English is a dialect of English.

In England and in the British) there are many many dialects but
the dialect that is chosen by the people who live there to be used
in media , to be used in education , in print , is the language or
the variety or the dialect that is used by some people who live in
the south east of England . And this variety was taken to be the
standard with super imposed on all other people, it taught in
school, used in the media and broadcast and all formal situations
Of course in informal situation you can use your own dialect.
He discusses the history of this standard variety of English. And
he discussed that standard variety of English developed out of the
English dialect used in around London and it was modified
through the centuries by speakers at the court, by scholars and
by writers a then it became the variety used by the upper classes
in England.
Of course we have different Standard English.
We have standard British English, we have American
standard English and we have standard, may be Australian
English .this standard English has a codified grammar. It has its
own grammar which you have to learn , which you have to follow
when you speak in formal situation or in writing, and it is a
general consciences among educated people to what it is a
standard variety or what is a standard English is.
So it is the variety that imposed from above, over The range of
original and social dialects and therefore a stander variety,
Standard English is a superposed variety.
A variety that was imposing over speaker of other
varieties and used in education and media.

Then Peter Trudgill mentioned the fact that Standard English is

different from other varieties, not only grammar but also in
pronunciation. We also associate Standard English with as known
as RP or the Received Pronunciation or the pronunciation of
the queen.
Until recently, you cannot get a job in BBC unless you speak
Standard English, the way it is and the standard the RP accent.
Now BBC started to have a more relaxed attitude. So some of the
broadcasters would speak Standard English but they use their
Scottish accent or they speak their Irish accent or whatever.

And this takes us to the idea of prestige. Peter Trudgill tells us

that standard variety, standard English, draw certain prestige and
statues, it has more statues and prestige more than other English
dialects. Yet we cannot say that because it is not prestigious but it
is better than other vs.
It is true Standard English is associated with formal situations with
higher forms or modes of language.
Yet we cannot say it is better than other spoken varieties. Peter
Trudgill holds this humane towards language, he believes that all
languages are equally good, all dialects are equally good.
We cannot say this language is better than the other language or
this Standard English is better than spoken varieties in the British
islands. This dialect is better than the dialects.
He says that people who decide whether or not this dialect or
language is better than the other dialect or this language. Even
though this dialect or this variety has more prestigious or it is
more prestigious statues in society.
So it is really attitudes of people towards non standard dialects
which make these standard dialects unacceptable or not so

prestigious. Its people who decide the prestige as factor of

dialect. But nothing in the dialect itself or in the language itself
which makes it better than other languages. All languages, all
dialects, standard and non standard have their own structure,
they have their own grammar which is used by their speaker.
Sociolinguistic in general is that part of linguistics which
is concerned with language. Language as social and
cultural phenomena. It tries sociolinguistic investigate the
relation between language and society and find
connection between language use and social factors like
age, sex of the speaker, other social factors like: social
class
Any questions before I take you to the exercises in the
chapter?
Actually the English which we use now in class, which use in
writing is a Standard English. If you go to Britain, if you try to
walk on the street and listen to people, notice that not everybody
there speaks the English you hear now or we use now.
Many of the structures which we think ungrammatical are used by
native speakers.
If you go to Norwich or south east of England, you would find
people who would say:
For example: they has instead of them have.
So this is non standard, yet people who speak the dialect use it.
the we use in class norm the English we use in writing is standard
English is the English you study in school, which should run from a
grammar book , but not everybody in England nor in America
use standard English. there are many examples of nonstandard
using .

For example, it is not grammatical to say everybody are here

instead of everybody is here.
These are native speakers. Native speakers who dont speak
standard English but they know they have to use it if they want to
get job, they have to use it if they write an article or if they write
a letter
I'd like you now to go to exercise one at the end of the chapter if
you open your emes; chapter 1 is true or false. Please try to do
it .and then go over exercise 2 you dont have to answer all the
questions but go over them and then you go to exercise 3.
Exercise 3 is important .we will go over it together.
You have to pay attention while reading the chapter, and i`ll say
this again and again, do not study just from the emes you have to
buy the book, and the book is in Khwarizmi. You have to buy the
book and read chapter 1. The book is short, it is easy to read and
it is not different.
The emes is a summary that if you read it before you read the
chapter it will help you, it is a guide. It is not mean that you dont
study from the book. The emes is good you can take it as a
summary, a summarization of the chapter.

Exercise 1:
expect this type of questions in the exam. I would ask you to
identify whether the statements are true or false and ill ask you to
correct them.

Focus in examples we discussed in class, examples that I

mentioned in class are important, if you find other examples not
discussed in class, you can just ignore them.

Let's go to exercise 1:

Write (t) if the statement is true or (f) if it is false:

Expect this type of question from me
Emes is a summary .
1) Sociolinguistic sees language as an abstract system of
communication (f)
Sociolinguistic is the study of the actual use of language. here he
said the abstract system of communication, actually in
sociolinguistic we deal with or we focus on the actual use , how
people use language in the actual world, what do they do with
language. How social factors and social class make people speak
in a different ways.

Ex: if you are a working class in England, you would speak a non
Standard English more than if you were a middle class etc.

2) Language serve as a mean of communication, information only

to speak
We said that language is not only communicating and information.
We said language had other functions, it has the clue pairing
function, the social function, we use language to initiate
relationships etc.

3) In sociolinguistic neither the language nor the dialect

represents a clear cut concept.(t)
We said yes, language could mean different things and the same
thing for dialects

4) It is possible to state with linguistic things where a dialect area

end and another begins.(f)
Exactly is this possible?
Of course this is false, we cannot say at this very area people
would start this dialect and if I moved three or four meters people
will speak a different dialect. This is not true. We cannot speak
about the change from one dialect to another in these absolute
terms.
Remember we talk today, we discussed language continuum and
dialect continuum, and how people across the boarders speak
similar dialects. We cannot say if I walk to for one hundred meter
all of a sudden people would speak another dialect. This happens
gradually and we call this continues dialect or land
Continuums.

5) It is always the case that if two speakers understand one

another, then they are speaking dialects of the same language.
No if you asked, for example we have talked about the
Scandinavian example. Peter Trudgill said that people who live
in Scandinavian countries and Sweden and Norway , they are
speaking different languages , yet educated people who speaks

standard varieties of these languages, they perfectly understand

one another yes they are speaking different languages.
So though these people speak different languages they
understand one another, though they understand one another if
you ask them do you speak the same language they will say no.
And this is what Peter Trudgill describes at the book as
heterogeneity and discreetness.
6) A Norwegian, Swedish and Polish languages are mutual
intelligibility criterion
Languages, therefore we may consider them to be varieties of
the same language
(False)
If you ask these Norwegian or Sweden people they will say they
are not speaking the same language, though they can understand
one another.
7) In the sum of sociolinguistics states that if two speakers can
understand the speech of one another then they speak the same
dialect or the same language.
This is not always true
8) The term accent refers only to differentiate pronunciation
(True)
9) Its possible to speak Standard English with any regional accent
of English
(True)
If you go to UK you would find people speak Standard English with
Scottish accent, you would find people who speak Standard

English but with welsh accent so Standard English can be spoken

using different accents
10) Those how speak Standard English with the RP accent come
from a particular geographical regain of England
(False)

Not necessary because its true people who live in certain areas
they speak Standard English, but RP for accent is associated with
a certain area, yet it can be spoken from people who belong to
different regional areas.
11) It is possible to speak Standard English with a foreign accent.
(True)
Like we do here, sometimes if you are Egyptian or Saudi and try
to speak English, you will not speak it as native speakers. You may
speak it with an accent that people know that you are not a native
speaker.
12) The term dialect is used only to describe non standard
dialects
(False)
DIALECT is used even to describe standard varieties or
standard dialects.
13) There is only one standard variety of English
(False)
Because we can talk about English standard English and standard
Scottish English and standard Australian English
14) A standard variety of any language is more systematic and
better than a non standard variety

(False)
Because we Peter Trudgill think that all varieties and all languages
are equally good and there is no language or variety which is
better than other languages even if that variety was the standard
language.

15) Inferiority of non standard dialects is doing to the association

with less privilege war in a non organized group of society.
It is true though he marked it as false

We consider these dialects non standard because of attitudes,

because we associate them with the less perseveres or the less
organized people. This should be true
Let me go to exercise two:
Before I go to exercise how did you find exercise one?
Was it difficult to do?
Not bad, ok. things would be better if you read the emes and read
the chapter .but it is good as we go over all the statements in all
q , this will highlight important things in the chapter .

Ok. Let's go to exercise 2:

Discuss the invocations of the political and cultural factors

aspects that used in terms of language and dialect. why
are such factors more important than linguistic factors?

Thats what I said about linguistic similarities, we said that

linguistic similarities or the criterion of linguistic similarities is not
enough to define two varieties as they belonging to the same
language because there are cases in the language in the world
where people understand or do not understand one another yet
they believe that they speak the same dialect and this where
cultural and political factors come to play , and you here can
discuss the example from Yugoslavia , the different Croatian
and Serbian and Bosnian varieties that once were spoken by
people, you can discuss the language continuum along the
borders of the German and Dutch and French borders.
You can discuss also the example of the Scandinavian
speakers of Scandinavia where those people understand one
another they dont consider themselves to speak the same
dialect.
This how you answer this question

I'll go to exercise 3:

Exercise 3 is good that it attracts your attention to important

terms in the chapter:

1) Dialect: a dialect is a variety of a language; it refers to all

aspects of grammar and pronunciation.

Accent: is one aspect of dialect it's restricted to pronunciation.

Idiolect: what's an idiolect, maybe I discussed this last time.

We talked about language, dialect, and accent. What is the

idiolect?

It is a distinctive way of pronouncing or speaking, so an idiolect is

the dialect of the individual. So every one of us has his individual
dialect. So its individual way of speaking.
It is possible that we all speak the same dialect and all of us use
the variety (the Hejaz variety and the Gideon variety) yet every
one of us has his way of speaking. So an idiolect refers to
individual unique way to use language. It refers to individual or
the dialect that used by individual.
Ex: you speak different way from your brother or sister or other
people, you have your own way of speaking.

Then we go to

a language variety, a language variety this is a neutral term used

by Peter Trudgill to refer to any linguistic variety, a language a
dialect etc

What is a social dialect:??

of course these are differences between people in their speech
because of differences in social class.
We will discuss this next time when we discuss language and
social

Social dialect: is the way people speaks differently because they

belong to different social classes

Geographical regional dialect : of course people speak different

dialects ,
in each society people speaks the same way,??
I dont think so , people may speak differently and they do speak
differently and differences could be the result of different social
factors.
One factor social class we will discuss it later. Another factor is the
sex of the speaker , a third factor is the ethnicity of the speaker so
there are different reasons of why people speaks differently and in
sociolinguistic we are trying to find this relationship between
language use and social factors.

Children speaks differently than adult if we consider age

The geographical regional dialect: these are the dialects or
linguistic differences we find among people because they come
from different regions
If you take Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, you know that people
speak different regional dialects depending on the region they
come from. People in Hejaz speak different than people living in
the central region or who live in the south.
So these are geographical or regional dialect.
And the same thing for English , for example : if we talk about
different regional dialects we will find Scottish English different
from English- English , even within England we talk about different
dialects because people are from different regions.

DIALECT continuum:
we said that the dialect continuum ?
is the area where the change from one dialect to another is
gradual. We can not say people at this village will stop speak
Hijazy and all of a sudden change ,the change is gradual. The
same thing if we talk about boarders in the south, north and in
the east.

Mutual intelligibility::
this is one of the criterions suggested by Peter Trudgill. Peter
Trudgill suggested mutual intelligibility, he said that one of the
criteria that help us to identify two varieties belonging to one
language is mutual intelligibility, if people can understand one
another, the ability to understand one another, this is mutual
intelligibility. But according to Peter Trudgill mutual intelligibility
is not enough to identify two varieties belonging to the same
language and remembers the example from Scandinavian,
Norwegian speakers and Sweden who can understand one
another. Yet if you ask educated speakers who speaks standard
varieties do you speak the same language do you speak Swedish ,
they will tell you no , we speak Norwegian , we dont speak
Sweden .

Standard dialect: is a dialect, that is a verity that is super impose

people and used in media ,print ,and for formal situation non
standard dialect is a dialect that is used by people who speak
dialects other than standard dialect.

Superposed variety is the variety that is imposed on speakers

of other non standard variety, like standard English

Linguistic autonomy: when we two countries have its separate or

different languages

Linguistic prestige is, when one language has a statues, when we

talk about linguistic prestige, we talk about statues which a
certain variety or language enjoys

For example if you take Standard English it enjoys a certain

linguistic prestigious, it has statues that considered to better than
other varieties, it is used in media in print, in formal
communication and interaction and situation

Classical Arabic is enjoys linguistic prestigious to be better than

other spoken forms of Arabic

What I would like you to be attention to over the weekend, be

attention of your emes and your assignments