Dialect continuum

I am not a perfect English speaker as my mother tongue is Nepali. In my life I know or rather know a little bit about variation of Englishes in the world but the English I mostly use is Nepali English and American English. Nepali English is basically the English language derived from British English, however the tone and way of using English in Nepal is different. Currently, I am studying in the USA and people here use a different kind of English that I am not used to. American English is…

who are. But, I can relate to Amy Tan when she said that she grew up using different “Englishes”. I come from an Island where it was first inherited by the Spaniards then the French and later the English conquered. My forefathers made or created a dialect called Patois which is a mixture of the three languages and that is how they all communicated and this language was brought down to new generations, this language was not taught in schools but this is the language we used to communicate with…

language and it put the original language into the danger of not being used as much and it is then called, “endangered”. The dialects that form out of the original language have different variation of the languages and it sounds very different from the main language. The danger of dialects encourages people to associate themselves to the isolated languages because the dialects are more frequently used and it is more popular. However, the main language is usually avoided because it is general and…

a family of Polynesian, which is a sub-family of Austronesian languages. There are two official languages spoken in Hawaii: (1) Hawaiian; (2) English. Then we have Hawaiian Creole English (HCE), often known as “Pidgin” in Hawaii. This is not any dialect of Hawaiian or English, but combines aspects of both – hence making it a “creole” language. As last estimated of its native speakers in 2001, was of about 0.1% - making it an endangered species of language. It was first reported in 1778 as a…

In Wuthering Heights, some of the characters speak exclusively in the local dialect (the case of Joseph), other use it only to a certain extent and in certain situations (Mr Earnshaw, Hindley, Nelly), while there are other characters whose speech develops from a West Yorkshire dialect to Standard English when their social status changes (the case of Heathcliff and Hareton). Emily Brontë “gives her characters distinctive ways of speaking, according to their station in life and according to…

In Amy Tan’s essay, Mother Tongue, Tan discusses her struggles growing up as an Asian-American born to Chinese immigrants. She examines certain aspects of the language she speaks and writes, against the language her mother speaks and writes. Amy has a keen grip on “proper” English, most likely due to her being raised in America. Alternatively, Tan’s mother speaks in fragments of English due to her being an immigrant who fled China’s Cultural Revolution (Amy, 1990). Tan realises her different…

2.3 LANGUAGE BARRIERS 2.5.1 Phonology Phonology is related to the sounds of language; thus, phonology is an important part of the communication. People from different countries possess different phonology system. The differences in phonology can affect the way communicate in different language. For instance, Japanese and Korean learners do not have l and r in their language, therefore, they will have difficulty in pronouncing it (Lightbown, P., & Spada, N. M., 2006). Same as in Thai language…

Grounded by Language In Mother Tongue, Amy Tan begins her short story by giving the audience prior knowledge that Tan is not a scholar of English and she is not able to give much more than her past knowledge on the English language. She then proceeds to give the readers an idea of how much she is fascinated by language itself and gives it a grading scale from complex english to simple English. Tan presents her short story by giving the readers a recent experience that made her rethink the…

1. What are the advantages of teaching ELLs in their native language? And what might be some disadvantages? Teaching ELLs in their native language provides them with a solid foundation and easier development of language, enhanced thinking skills, and concepts that are clarified and organized. In addition, students are able to think in more abstract ways and because they are learning math, science, and social studies, as well as reading, in their native language, background experience is being…

they also had trouble understanding the native people. So it was hard for them to spread their religion amongst the natives until the natives and missionaries comprehended each other (Aikhenvald 2003, 4). The understanding of language, register, and dialect can also cause a separation amongst people and cultures. The previously mentioned Western Apache, have a relatively clear understanding of the “whitemen” or Anglo-Americans language; Consequently, they understand the Anglo-American fairly.…