Dialect continuum

When you think about English as a school subject, how do you define it? Do you define it as a boring chore, a frustrating and fruitless endeavor; or maybe as a way to express yourself and communicate what you think about the world? The truth about English is that there is no one ultimate “right” definition for it, because English is about everyone’s different ideas, perspectives, and understandings.What we've done in English 191 so far has been English because we communicated and influenced…

Language is one of the oldest and first uses of communication. Whether it is body language or sign language. Language is the one thing that everyone in the world has in common. “There are about 5000 languages spoken in the world today (a third of them in Africa), but scholars group them together into relatively few families - probably less than twenty. Languages are linked to each other by shared words or sounds or grammatical constructions. The theory is that the members of each linguistic…

The Church of Please and Thank You “One of the big moments in the spread of English took place in India in 1835. [British politician] Thomas Babington Macaulay proposed that English be used to create a class of Indian middlemen who would be sympathetic to British interests, without the necessity of large numbers of British citizens coming out and running the show” (Traves 102). As you can see, English has impacted different cultures over the years. As English continues to grow over time,…

it is important to know the difference between a language disorder and a language difference. A Language Disorder is a deficit in producing and comprehending language. A language difference is a style of language that differs from the standard dialect of mainstream culture. For example, a person who lives in Mississippi may speak differently than a person from Ohio. Both individuals speak English the region’s they are from have structural differences and language usage rules. This is an ethical…

Annotated Bib Ba Banutu-Gomez, Michael. “Globalization has called for the use of one common language, that language is English because English speaking companies contribute to 40 % of world output.”. 231+. Communications is more affected in the United States for worldwide business. In order to communicate within the different countries, there has to be a common English language between them. This article revealed that with English as standard language, the companies could be without language…

Sea Shanties are a class of work songs that date back as far as the 16th century in Scotland. However, they truly flourished over a span of fifty years in the mid 1800’s after being popularized by the Atlantic merchant trade. Sailors used chants for synchronizing shipboard labor. They are typically flexible in lyric form that would allow for easy improvisation. This would allow the shantyman (leader/head) to lengthen or shorten the call and response to match the work. Shantyman (solo):…

1. There are many perspectives on the different accents found across the U.S., and the documentary, “American Tongues”, reveals just how many there are. Everything from the taste of home one gets when a familiar dialect pierces the drone of “normal speech” heard day in and day out, or the enticing words of a Southern Belle attracting anyone within earshot, to the struggles one must endure to modify, or cover up, their native tongue and the harsh stereotypes given to people after speaking only a…

to analyze the meaning of dialect levelling in the broader context of the language change. Going through specific study cases this work will identify the factors that causes dialect accommodation phenomenon and the effect that this is having on identities of local communities. Analyze geographical factors and social-psychological implication will give us a clearer picture of the dialect continue change that has been occurring in Britain, and it’s consequences. Dialect leveling is an…

TTYL: Translating Technology into Your Language The Analytical View of Technology Communication Derek Walcott once said, “The English language is nobody’s special property. It is the property of the imagination: it is the property of the language itself” (BrainyQuote, par 1). Language comes in many beautiful forms from every area around the world, summing up to about roughly 6,500 spoken languages today. One language that our generation has become familiar with is the language of technology.…

I think George Orwell made a good point when he said “the English language is in a bad way”. However in this generation it is not politics that is affecting our language; it is social media. Websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have all clearly made an impact on the way we speak and write the English language. Social media has become a quick and easy way to communicate. And while it may have its few benefits, it has definitely had its negative effects on society. Emoticons,…