The Outline

1. The definition of dialect.

2. Dialects in English speaking countries.

3. Idiolect, definition and usage.

The term dialect (from the Greek Language word dialektos, Διάλεκτος, means “to speak, interpret”) is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. Definition of a dialect is simply this: "A variation of a given language spoken in a particular place or by a particular group of people."

AsAlan Davies defines dialect - distinct use of grammar and vocabulary, usually marking the geographical origin of its users. Current emphasis on urban rather than rural provenance retains the geographical basis for difference (some cities exhibit group-related difference by locality), but what distinguishes urban from rural dialect studies is the emphasis on social class as a dialect marker (taken from Labov). Typically, one dialect is selected as the prestige from and designated as the standard language. Dialects not selected as the standard language are said to lack an army and navy because they lack power and privilege. The provision of and expansion of the standard to whole populations is a major contribution of education. Standard dialect manifest themselves mainly in writing, but education also impacts on the spoken language, such that there is a draft among the educated to use standard (that is, prestige) forms in speech as well as in writing [1, pp.36].

Speakers of any given language sometimes get offended when their particular language style is called a dialect. A regional or social variety of a language distinguished by pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary, especially a variety differing from the standard literary language or speech pattern of the culture in which it exists. The problem with this definition is that it implies that there is some sort of "standard" language from which all of the various dialects of that language differ.

Dialect corresponds to the differences in style of speech of people who speak the same language but live in different regions and can be used to differentiate people from different regions. Mostly the regional differences affect the development of a dialect but at times it can also be a result of a social class. The dialects can be divided into standardized and non standardized dialects. The standardized dialects are accepted by authorities such as standard British and American English. People in different locations are exposed to a different set of factors and they use a certain vocabulary and accent depending on where they live. Children speak as they see their parents speaking and this is transferred from one generation to another and the dialect is formed.

Think of British and American English as two dialects that have their differences in grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation and you will be better able to understand what a dialect means.

Dialects of English language are dialects, which were developed as a result of British Empire expanding all over the world and after the II world war – influence of USA all over the world. The British English originated in south and American English in middle west of America. Except these two dialects there are a lot of other dialects of English language, for example about 23 variants in Great Britain, and about 50 variants in America. The dialects aredivided into sub-dialects.

A dialect is distinguished by its vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation (phonology, including prosody). Where a distinction can be made only in terms of pronunciation, the term accent is appropriate, not dialect. Other speech varieties include: standard languages, which are standardized for public performance (for example, a written standard); jargons, which are characterized by differences in lexicon (vocabulary); slang; patois; argots.

The regional accents of English speakers show great variation across the areas where English is spoken as a first language. This article provides an overview of the many identifiable variations in pronunciation, usually deriving from the phoneme inventory of the local dialect, of the local variety of Standard English between various populations of native English speakers.

Pronunciation:

• Letter r is pronounced in all positions in Am.E., for eg.: car, undertake, transfer, sort, far and so on;

• In the words as ask, half, last, answer, dance, past and others the vowel a is pronounced as[ a:]in BrE, while in AmE this sound is pronounced as [];

• In one and two syllable words as stop, not, shop, doctor, modern the stress on letter o is pronounced as [o] in BrE and as sound [ ] in AmE;

• In the words as tune, new, suit, due letter u is pronounced as [ju:] in BrE and as [u:] in AmE.

• The pronunciation of some words are different:

The word	AmE	BrE
either	[i:]	[ai]
neither	[i:]	[ai:]
advertisement	[ai]	[]
candidate	[ei:]	[i]
tomato	[ei]	[a:]
process	[a]	[ u]

The difference in writing the words:

writing the words:	AmE	BrE
The words with endings - our	Honor, labor, color	Honour, labour,colour
The words with endings - re	Center, liter, fiber	Centre, litre, fibre
The words with endings - ce	Defense, license, practise, offense	Defence, licence, practice,, offence
The words with endings - s	Organization, analyze	Organisation, analyse
The loss of endings	Program, catalog	Programme, catalogue
The doubling letters	Traveling, canceling	Travelling, cancelling