UNIVERSITY OF CRAIOVA FACULTY OF LETTERS

TEACHER, IOANA MURAR

STUDENT, PISOI IOANA MIRELA

Earlier forms of English were characterized by extreme variation on all levels, being in fact described as a loose conglomerate of unstable varieties. Thinking that language is a form of social behavior of a certain communities which are split into groups, each having different behavior, we can notice that there exists a variation in English as a language phenomena. Starting from this, there are numerous varieties of English; any use of language involving variation. As commonly known, variety of a language is a form that differs from other forms of the language systematically and coherently. The most important types of variation of English depend on the USE and the USER of the languages, and there are: Types of variation Region
relates to

USER
it can be

A change of region if
there is or

social group

changeable

field of discourse situation

relates to

a change of social group

medium

USE

according to

purpose attitude activities spoken/written However, English has long been identified to be a pluricentric language (Clyne 1991), and more recently linguists have been paying increasing attention to the use of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), as there is widespread agreement about the fact that "the vast majority of verbal exchanges in English do not involve any native participants relationship

speakers at all"; And so the sysmatic description of varieties of English, native and non-native, is steadily gaining omentum in contemporary sociolinguistics. Moreover, Both, language use and language user, may: Communicate in more than one regional or soial variety Switch varieties according to the situation

Adopt a new regional or social variety

All languages change over time and vary according to place and social setting. The way we speak is influenced by many factors the roots of our elders, our social and educational background, our working environment, our friends and our own sense of identity.

Dialects

Variety of a language used by a certain group of people, usually because of regional defferences.

As said above, this type of variation as the next one, relate to the language user. People use a social variety because of their affiliation with a certain social group; At the same time, there a lot of people communicate in more than one regional variety and so there can be a switch of varieties depending on the situation. Varieties according to region have a well-established label both in popular an technical use: dialects.

There is a variation in speech according to education, socioeconomic group and ethnic group, some small differences correlating with age and sex, being in the same time a big polarity between uneducated and educated speech. Refers more to educated and uneducated speech used by the speaker/writer. e.g. : I dont want nothing // I dont want anything

STANDARD ENGLISH: It refers to uniformity, what is common to all.

Degree of acceptance of the language. There is a degree of acceptance of a single standard of English. NATIONAL STANDARS OF ENGLISH. British and American English. What is called national standards should be seen as distinct from the standard English. There are two national standards: American English (AmE) and British English (BrE). Between the two of them, there are few grammatical differences, as the fact that AmE has two past participles for get and BrE only one, and that in BrE either a singular or a plural verb may be used with a singular collective noun. OTHER NATIONAL STANDARDS.

Despite the differences between grammar and vocabulary which are few, scots with ancient national and educational institutions is nearest to the self-confident independence of BrE and AmE. Hiberno-English, or Irish English, may also be considered a national standard, being regarded as independent of BrE by educational services, as well as Britain; However, there is little ways of the development of a separate grammar and vocabulary. Moreover, Canadian English is in a similar relation to AmE; South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand are in different position from a direct contact with BrE or AmE, but in the same time, orthography and grammar of South African English is identical with BrE. Australian English is the dominant form of English in the Antipodes. Better said, there exist:

Scots HibertoEnglish Canadian English

South Africa

New Zealand Australia

PRONUNCIATION AND STANDARD ENGLISH. Pronunciation is a special case in that it distinguishes one national standard from another and it links in a most obvious way the national standards to the regional varieties. In BrE, one type of pronunciation comes close to the status of standard.

A speaker has repertoire of varieties according to filed and switches to the appropriate one as occasion demands.

interview cookery

low football

meeting

There are differences between spoken and written English, which came from two things: one is situational since the use of a written medium normally presupposes the absence of the person addressed and writers must be far more explicit to ensure that they are understood. The other source of difference is that many of the devices that are used generally to transmit language by speech are impossible to represent with limited repertoire. Written Form V/S Spoken Form

Varieties according to attitude are often called stylistic, but style is a term which is used with several different meanings. There is about a choice that depends on our attitude and to the purpose of our communication, by recognizing between formal and informal. Choice that depends on our attitude to the:

Hearer/reader Purpose of communication Formal Neutral -

Topic

Informal

Bibliography GREENBAUM, S. & QUIRK, R. (1990) A Students Grammar of the English Language. London: Pearson English Language Teaching. DAVID CRYSTAL, Style: The Varieties of English http://www.ic.arizona.edu/~lsp/ GABRIEL FERNANDO & JARA MUNOZ, Varieties of English. DENNIS FREEBORN & PETER FRENCH, DAVID LANGFORD. (1993), Varieties of English.