Britain and Ireland
English in England
° Isoglosses in England
- An isogloss is a line drawn on a map
which separates areas which differ in some
linguistic feature, of pronunciation,
grammar or vocabulary.
- Common isoglosses for English dialects
°An obvious one is the presence or
absence of /r/ when it is not immediately
before a vowel, e.g. in words like car and
card. Within England the absence is
typical of large regions of the south, but
parts of the south and south-west still retain
non-prevocalic /r/.
English in Scotland
° The term Scotland comes from Latin Scotii
a term for the Irish, who settled the western
coast of Scotland and Christianised it
before England was converted from the
south with the mission of Saint Augustine at
the end of the 6th century.
° The adjective Scottish has two further
variants Scots and Scotch Scots - particular
variety of English spoken natively in
Scotland Scotch - country’s type of
whiskey.
Welsh English Irish English
° The word Welsh derives from the Old ° The English of the south of Ireland is called
English word wealh‘foreigner’, ‘slave’ - simply Irish English (just as one has Canadian
but also ‘Celt’ English or Australian English). The term Hiberno-
° The Celtic language - is found in two English has gone out of fashion somewhat as it is
major varieties, a northern and a southern an unnecessary Latinism; Anglo-Irish is also
one. The north of Wales tends to be more unsuitable as this is used to refer to politics in the
rural and the south, certainly in the Republic of Ireland and to literature written in
regions of Swansea and Cardiff, is mainly English by Irish authors.
urban.
° The vocabulary of Irish English is not very
° The most general feature of Welsh
different from that of British English, with the
English is the lilting intonation due to the
exceptions of rural terms in Ulster English
rise-fall at the end of statements as
opposed to the fall in other forms of
°The term ‘Northern Irish English’ refers to the
English.
varieties spoken in the state of Northern Ireland
established with the partition of the country in
1921.
 North America
United States English
The modern era history of North America begins with
the discovery of Central America by Christopher
Columbus in 1492 when he landed on the island of
Hispaniola.
The most general means of referring to English in the
United States is American English.
Divisions of American English There are traditionally
three main dialects areas in the United States
(excluding Canada):
o Midland, West (General American)
o North (coastal states on the Atlantic, New Engalnd)
o South ( coastal states on South Atlantic + Golf of
Mexico)
Phonology
1) Presence of (retroflex) syllable-final /r/ (in General
American). This /r/ may be absent in the South and
conservative varieties in the North East.
2) Raising, lengthening and frequent nasalisation of
/æ/ is very common. The lexical distribution of /æ/ and
/ɑ:/ is different from British English: e.g. cancel, dance,
advance all have /æ/ in American English.
3) Lowering of /ɔ/ to /a/ as in pot /pat/.
African American English
The term African American English (formerly
referred to as ‘African American Vernacular
English’ and much earlier as ‘Black English’) refers
to the varieties of English spoken by those people in
the United States who stem from the original African
population transported there.
Three basic views on the origin of African American
English:
o Baby talk theory Now completely out-dated;
o Creole hypothesis
o Dialect origin view
Phonological simplification - The sounds of the
English which formed the base for African
American English have been reduced, particularly
the phonotactics have been affected with
consonant clusters being simplified
(desk > dess; master > massa, with r-dropping in
syllable-final position).
Chicano Canadian English Caribbean English
English Canada is the second largest country in the From the point of view of English
world. Official languages: French and English. the Caribbean can be seen as
The word ‘Chicano’ Phonology consisting of the following
refers to the The main feature is what is called Canadian
islands:
people, culture 1) Jamaica, Cayman
Raising by which is meant that the diphthongs Islands
and forms of English /ai, au/ are pronounced as /əɪ, ʊə/ before 2) Leeward Islands (St. Kitts
of those individuals voiceless consonants and /ai, au/ before Nevis, Montserrat, Antigua,
in the USA who are voiced ones, e.g. knife /nəɪf/ Virgin Islands)
of Latin American : knives /naɪvz/; house /hʊəs/ 3) Windward Islands (St
origin. : houses /haʊzɪz/. /æ/ is raised somewhat to Lucia, St Vincent, Barbados,
/ɛ/ (as in AmE.); /ɔ/ is unrounded to Grenada)
Linguistic features
4) Trinidad and Tobago
of Chicano English /ɑ/: stop /stɑp/.
Exists in various forms where
Lexis speakers use a variety close to
o Vowel variations
The lexis of Canadian English contains many general standard English one
o Final consonant elements from native American languages, speaks of an ‘acrolect’. Where
deletion those of the First Nations, such people use the most vernacular
as kayak ‘canoe of Greenlander’; parka ‘skin variety of their location the term
o Consonant ‘basiclect’ is found. In between
jacket with hood attached’. The much
variations there is a continuum of middle
quoted interjection eh? is supposed to be a
variaties known collectively as
shibboleth for Canadians but tends to be ‘mesolectal’ varieties.
avoided because of its all too obvious
character.
 Australia and New Zealand
Australia
The official language is English, a large
variety of native languages are spoken in
small quantities by the aborigines or native
Australians.
Main linguistic features
-Phonology
>Long vowels and diphthongs differ
considerably from British English but form a
coherent system.
>Centralisation of vowel beginning beat
/bəɪ/, boot /bəʊt/.
>Retraction or advancing of initial
element: high /hʌɪ/, how /æʊ/.
>Lowering of initial element: say /sʌɪ/,
so/sʌʊ/.
>Short front vowels are noticeably raised:
man [mɛn], men [men],
New Zealand
The official language is English; there are also
native languages spoken by the Maori (native
New Zealanders) who represent less than 8% of the
population of present-day New Zealand.
*Linguistic Features
-Basically similar to Australian English. New Zealand
has Maori loanwords which are obviously not
found in Australian English, e.g. tamarillo for
tomato. In the area of phonology one can note
that front short vowels are raised considerably -
even more than in Australian English - giving man
/mɛn/, men /mɪn/ with a diphthongisation of /ɪ/:
pin /pɪən/.
 Varieties by type
Settler varieties white population in North America, South Africa,
Australia and New Zealand
Non-settler varieties typical of the situation in Asia

Shift varieties typical of African slaves in the Caribbean and the later
southern United States, Native Americans, the black and
the Indian population in South Africa (as with Xhosa
English), Zimbambwe, other locations in sub-Saharan
Africa along with the Aboriginal population in Australia
and the Maori population in New Zealand.

Pidgins and creoles certain situations where there was intermittent contact
between speakers of English and those of native
languages during the colonial period
Immigrant varieties case with Mexican and Central American labour
immigrants to the south-east United States and lately with
people from eastern Europe or West Africa moving to
Britain and Ireland in search of works