MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE, YOUTH AND SPORT

OF UKRAINE

Kyiv National Linguistic University

Project Work in English Lexicology

LOCAL DIALECTS IN THE BRITISH ISLES

Antonina Chernova

Group 301 (Па01-10)

Translators’/Interpreters’ Department

Research supervisor:

V.G. Nikonova

Professor, Doctor of Philology

Kyiv 2012

THEORETICAL FOUNDATION OF THE PROBLEM

The United Kingdom is probably the most dialect-obsessed nation in the world. The inhabitants of the British Isles speak with a broad range of dialects, each with specific phonetic properties. English dialects may be different from each other, but all speakers within the English-speaking world can still generally understand them. What is more dialects are peculiar to some districts, having no normalized literary form.

Regional varieties possessing a literary form are called variants. In Great Britain there are two variants, Scottish English and Irish English, and five main groups of dialects: Northern, Midland, Eastern, Western and Southern.

One of the best known Southern dialects is Cockney. Traditionally, it refers to people born within a certain area, that is covered by "the sound of Bow bells". Geographically and culturally, it is often used to refer to working-class Londoners, particularly those in the East End. Cockney English is also characterized by its own special vocabulary and usage in the form of "cockney rhyming slang". The way it works is that you take a pair of associated words where the second word rhymes with the word you intend to say, then use the first word of the associated pair to indicate the word you originally intended to say, for example: pride and joy -  boy, brown bread -  dead, apples and pears – stairs, Adam and Eve – believe, John Major – pager.

Some of the more characteristic features of the Cockney include the following:

• Extensive glottalisation:

Waterloo - Wa’erloo; City - Ci’y; A drink of water – a drin’ a wa’er;

A little bit of bread with a bit of butter on it- A li'le bi' of breab wiv a bi' of bu'er on i'.

• Dropping ‘h’ at the beginning of certain words:

house – ‘ouse; hammer – ‘ammer; hat – ‘at.

• TH fronting which involves the replacement of the dental fricatives, and by labiodentals [f] and [v] respectively, e.g.

thin - fin ; brother - bruvver ; three - free .

• Vowel lowering, e.g. dinner = dinna ; marrow= marra

The next dialect is Scottish. Note that Scottish English is different than Scots, a language derived from Northumbrian Old English that is spoken in Scotland as well. That being said, Scots has a strong influence on how English in Scotland is spoken.

One difference between Standard English and Scottish English is the use of negations, for example in Scotland they say I amn't instead of I'm not. Another thing that occurs in many Scottish dialects is that not is replaced by no or nae /ne/. So, instead of the word "cannot," they would say "cannae." Similarly, "do not" becomes "dinnae," and so forth e.g.   She's no coming; I've nae got it; I cannae come.

Instead of the word "understand" they use the word "ken." This word is also occasionally used to substitute for "know," as in "I dinnae ken where the fellow be."

Many Scottish dialects, but also dialects in Northern Ireland, use the ending -s in the first and second persons and in the third person plural to describe a past event in present tense e.g.  I goes along the river and I sees this squirrel hiding behind a tree. Those in Standard English may be replaced by they in Scottish English e.g. Look at they shoes.

/æ/  INSTEAD OF  /a:/ : Standard English speakers pronounce words like can't, glass and dance with a long a-sound /a:/, while Scottish English speakers (as in Irish English) pronounce them with /æ/ instead. The same goes for words like banana, gala and tomato ( /a:/ may be used in some Scottish dialects ,though).

/e/  INSTEAD OF  /i/ : Another feature is that in words like city, money and hazy the ending is pronunced as in words like gate and face, e.g.  [cite] and [h'eze]

NON-DIPHTHONGAL PRONUNCIATION:  In most English accents words like gate, face and boat are pronunced with diphthongs; /æi/ in gate, /æu/ in boat and /ei/ in face. In Scottish accents they are pronunced with a long vowel instead: [ge:t], [fe:s] and [bo:t].

Scottish English has inherited a number of lexical items from Scots, which are comparatively rare in other forms of Standard English. General items are outwith, meaning "outside of"; wee, the Scots word for small; bonnie for pretty, attractive; bairn for child, pinkie for little finger and janitor for caretaker.

A speaker from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, for instance, might pepper his speech with localised vocabulary, such as gan for “to go” or clarts for “mud”. He may often use regional grammatical constructions, such as the past tense constructions I’ve went and I’ve drank or the reflexive pronouns mysel, yoursel, hissel etc. In addition he probably uses a range of local pronunciations. For all these reasons he could be described as a Geordie dialect speaker from the North East Engalnd.

Probably the most noticeable feature of Geordie grammar is a confusing difference in pronoun forms. The term us is used to indicate a singular "me", while the plural form for "us" is wu or even wuz. So give us it means 'give me it' and give wu it means 'give us it'. "Our" is pronounced wor. Typical members of the family thus include: wor lass -  'wife' wor kid -  'younger brother' wor fatha -  'father', etc.

The negative form of the verb "to do" is divvent instead of "don't" and there are distinctive past tense forms of verbs such as tell (telt), forget (forgetten) and put (putten). A broad speaker might say, for example: I telt you to give us a one, but you've forgetten. If you divvent give us it noo, I'm gannin yearm. ('I told you to give me one, but you've forgotten. If you don't give me it now, I'm going home.'). Another notable feature is a combination of certain words such as "might" and "could" which are not allowed together in most standard varieties. It is possible to say, for example: "He might could come tomorrow."  Also, the object pronoun can be used at the end of a sentence for emphasis: I really love chips me. I cannet understand it, me. Words spelled with an "l" such as "walk" are pronounced with a distinctive lengthened “a” sound usually written "waak" in dialect writing. Also in Geordie, "blow" becomes blaa and "cold" cowld.

To put the finishing touch, it should be mentioned that for many years, certain English dialects have been viewed more positively than others. Many of us make assumptions based on the way people speak — judging certain dialects or accents as too posh, harsh, aggressive, unfriendly, ‘unintelligent’ or ‘common’. Unfortunately many individuals have suffered as a result of this irrational prejudice. No one dialect is better at communicating meaning than another.

Key words and expressions from the text:

1. broad range – великий діапазон, широкий спектр;

2. phonetic property – фонетичні властивості;

3. intend – мати намір;

4. labiodental – губно-зубний звук;

5. ‘the sound of Bow bells’ – так названа територія жителів Лондона, які

народилися у межах чутності дзвонів церкви Сент-Мері-ле-Боу (St. Mary-le-Bow) і являються істинними носіями діалекту кокні;

6. negation – заперечення;

7. substitute – замінювати;

8. hazy – туманний, оповитий серпанком, неясний, невизначений;

9. localized vocabulary – словник слів з урахуванням місцевої специфіки;

10. distinctive lengthened – відмінне подовження;

11. to make assumption – робити припущення;

12. posh – розкішний, шикарний;

13. harsh – грубий, неприємний, різкий.