Our
work embraces the majority of British dialects, i.e. Geordie, Yorkshire,
Scouse, Derbyshire, Nottingham, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Black
Country, Brummie, Norfolk, Estuary English, Cockney, Cornwall, Scottish,
Wenglish and Hiberno-English. The information about all of them was
taken from magazines, newspapers, books, scientific works and websites.
The main source of information was Internet because of the lack of information
in libraries.
According
to the studied materials we can make such conclusions:
-
The concept dialect should be distinguished from accent.
The term dialect refers to a specific variety of a language,
which differs systematically from other varieties in terms of pronunciation,
grammar and vocabulary, but which is still generally comprehensible
to speakers of other dialects within that language. Varieties of dialects
can be distinguished not only by their vocabulary and grammar, but also
by differences in phonology. If the distinctions are limited to phonology,
one may use the term accent. Accent refers simply to different pronunciation
patterns and, despite popular belief to the contrary everybody speaks
with an accent. In other words, dialect is an umbrella term for a variety
of linguistic features, one of which is accent - the sound patterns
of a specific dialect. Thus, within England, a northerner using
naught to mean nothing is an example of lexical
variation, but a Liverpudlian pronouncing the word nothing
differently from the way a Londoner might say it is a difference in
accent. People from different geographical places clearly speak differently,
but even within the same small community, people might speak differently
according to their age, gender, ethnicity and social and educational
background.
-
There are two types of dialects: geographical and social. Geographical
are used by people of some particular territory. Social are used in
one and the same social class or educational group.
- One should distinguish
between standard dialect and non-standard dialect. Standard dialect
is such a dialect that is supported by institutions in the state. It
may be approved by government and presented as a "correct"
form of a language in schools. Non-standard dialect isn’t supported
by institutions.
- Each culture made
a lot of changes during the development of English language. That’s
why, for example, Brummie has some unusual tones which are similar to
Scandinavian, Cornish trace its roots back to Celtic tribes, Geordie
reflects old Anglo-Saxon pronunciations, etc.
- There is a great
difference between Standard English and dialect speech. Thus two people
from different counties of one and the same country can’t understand
each other in spite of the fact that their native language is English.
Some words and constructions of sentences are absolutely incomprehensible.
- From all British
dialects 76% accounts for dialects of England; 8% - for Scotland and
the last 16% - for Wales and Northern Ireland.
- The phonetics also
plays a very important role. The way individuals pronounce certain words
is often a good clue to their background. Speakers who do not pronounce
the initial “h” in the word house, for instance, immediately
reveal something about themselves. Perhaps the most salient feature
of pronunciation in Great Britain is the distinction between speakers
in the north who generally pronounce words such as bath,
grass and dance with a short vowel – rather
like the vowel in the word cat – and those in the south,
who use a long vowel for these words – rather like the sound you are
asked to produce when a doctor examines your throat. Thus one can immediately
deduce something about a person who pronounces baths to
rhyme with maths or pass to rhyme with mass.
- Grammar refers to
the structure of a language or dialect. A grammar describes the way
individual words change their appearance, such as when the word
walk becomes walked to indicate an event in past
time and also the way in which words are combined together to form phrases
or sentences. In Yorkshire dialect, for instance, a speaker might mark
the past tense of to be by saying I were,
you were, he, she and it were,
we were, they were whereas speakers of other dialects
might differentiate by using I was and he,
she and it was. You should avoid the temptation
to draw misguided conclusions about what is “correct” and “incorrect”
grammar, however: the Yorkshire pattern is in fact more regular and
indeed mirrors the model for every other verb in English – I
played, you played, I went,
you went and so on. Instead you should make a distinction between
“standard” and “non-standard” grammar, where “standard”
grammar refers to a variety that has become widely acknowledged as a
prestigious form, mainly due to its use by people in positions of authority
and because of its universal acceptance as the written norm. Just as
speakers with a broad accent do not reflect their pronunciation in writing,
most people whose speech is characterised by features of non-standard
grammar, consciously switch to more standard forms in writing. However,
there is a great deal of difference between written and spoken language,
both in terms of purpose and audience and this is reflected in their
different grammars.
Language
by its very nature is dynamic and constantly evolving, new words and
expressions are almost daily being absorbed and some older words are
falling into disuse.
With
communication and travel nowadays being so easy and fast, language is
evolving more rapidly now than at any other time and some people are
commuting daily over greater distances than they would have considered
travelling for an annual holiday 50 years ago. People are moving house
more often, they settle in new areas and thus the regional lines are
becoming blurred. In the course of time dialects are mixing and their
number reduces progressively. But this doesn’t mean that dialects
will die out someday. They will continue to exist and develop with people’s
help. That’s why it’s very important to study British dialects.