Summary

 

Dialects

Dialects are mutually intelligible forms of a language that differ in systematic ways. Every speaker, whether rich or poor, regardless of region or racial origin, speaks at least one dialect, just as each individual speaks an idiolect. Dialects and languages reflect the underlying gram-mars and lexicons of their speakers.

Regional Dialects

In the United States, most dia-lectal differences are based on geographic region. The origins of many regional dialects of American English can be traced to the people who settled in North America in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Phonological differences: Accent refers to phonological differences caused by one’s native language. Regional dialects may differ not only in their pronunciation but also in their lexical choices and grammatical rules. This dialect, African American English (AAE),1 is spoken by a large population of Americans of African descent.

Syntactic differences: Although regional dialects differ in pronunciation, vocabu-lary, and syntactic rules, the differences are minor when compared with the totality of the grammar.

Social Dialects

They may be based on socioeconomic status, religious, ethnic, and racial differ-ences, country of origin, and even gender. The dominant, or prestige, dialect is often called the standard dialect. Standard American English (SAE) is a dialect of English that many Americans nearly speak.

AAE (African American English) is generally used in casual and informal situations, and is much more common among working-class people.

Phonological Differences between African American English and SAE

• r-Delection

• Neutralization of [ɪ] and [ɛ] before Nasal Consonants

• Diphthong Reduction

• Loss of Interdental Fricatives

Syntactic Differences between AAE and SAE

• Multiple Negatives

• Deletion of the Verb Be.

• Habitual Be

• There Replacement.

 African America Vernacular Englis (AAVE)

 African American Vernacular Engish  (AAVE) is the variety formerly known as Black English Vernacular or Vernacular Black English among sociolinguists, and commonly called Ebonics outside the academic community.    

SOUNDS: AAVE and standard English pronunciation are sometimes quite different.

Consonants: Clusters at the ends of words. When two consonants appear at the end of a word (for instance the st in test), they are often reduced: the final t is deleted.

The th sounds: The written symbol th can represent two different sounds in English: both an "unvoiced" sound as in thought, thin and think, and a "voiced" sound as in the, they and that. In AAVE the pronunciation of this sound depends on where in a word it is found.

• Vowels: When a nasal (n or m) follows a vowel, AAVE speakers sometimes delete the nasal consonant and nasalize the vowel. This nasalization is written with a tilde (~) above the vowel.
• Nasals consonants and front vowels: the vowels i in pin and e in pen sound different in all words.
• Diphthongs: Some vowels like those in night and about are called "diphthongs"; when the vowel is pronounced, the tongue starts at one place in the mouth and moves as the vowel is being pronounced.

 Chicano English

Is an ethnic dialect that children acquire as they acquire English in the neighborhood or other social setting during their languaje acquisition peiod. Chicano English is spoken only by native English speakers.

• Verb to be: Example: This is a school.    (CE) This a school.
• Multiple negations: Example: I don’t know no stories.