Some Characteristics of English That Are Close to Stylistic Ones a) Territorial Varieties of English

With respect to the accepted literary norm (standard) of the language, we distinguish Standard (Received) English (the variant that is fixed in the written language, in works of fiction, in radio and TV speech, etc.), and non‑standard English (не входящий в литературную норму), which is represented by dialects and variants of the language found in the different geographical areas where English is used. To the dialects are usually referred the non‑standard varieties of English used on the territory of Great Britain, while the word variants (varieties) refers to the use of English outside this territory, e.g. the English language of the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc.

English dialects are divided into northern (including the Scottish dialect) and southern (including 'cockney', the dialect of the area south of London).

The Scottish dialect comes back to the Gaelic language (гаэльский язык), a language of Celtic origin (кельтский) and to the Scottish (Scots) language (one of the Germanic languages): cf. such words used by speakers of English in the area of Scotland as bairn (=child), auld (= old), ben (= mountain), bonnie (= beautiful), canny (= careful), brae (= slope, bank), haggis (= pudding), ilka (= every), keek (= look), kirk (= church), laddie, lassie (= boy, girl), loch (= lake). The pronunciation of Scottish dialectal words may also have some peculiarities, e.g. [u:] instead of [au], e.g. [hu:s] (= house), [u:t] (= out), [du:n] (= down); [ai] instead of [ou] – e.g. [stain] (= stone), [bain] (= bone), [raid] (= road), etc.; long [ae] instead of long [a:] in certain words, e.g. [daens] (= dance), [laest] (= last); the consonant [r] is produced by vibration of the tip of the tongue. The poet Robert Burns wrote in the Scottish dialect.

The Southern dialect of English is phonetically characterized by the dental‑nasal [n] instead of the purely nasal [ng] (He is doin'/sittin', instead of 'doing', 'sitting'); by the loss of the consonant [h] in the initial position: [ia] (=hear), [art] (= heart), etc. Elements of this dialect can be observed in the speech of the characters in the novels of Thomas Hardy (19^th century English classical writer).

The Irish dialect of English is spread in Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK. It is not the Irish language itself (which is of Celtic origin and is spoken in the Irish Republic – in the southern part of the island), but a variety of English, which includes: Irish words: girsha (= little girt), gaurlagh (= baby), colleen (= young girl), donny (= of weak health), cardia (= friendship); also – English words with a changed meaning: likely (= good), bravely (= very well), to join (= to cry), able (=strong), harvest (= autumn), to learn smb. (= to teach).

Variants of English used outside the territory of Great Britain are found in the former British colonies. One of the most notable and widespread is the American variant, which has preserved some of the features of the English language of the 17^th century (the period of Early New English – the language used by the first British settlers in America). It has certain peculiarities of pronunciation, which include: the pronunciation of the sound [r] in any position in the word (girl, here) and the retroflexive articulation of this sound (as different from its alveolar articulation in British English); the substitution of the vowel [ae] for the long [a:] in ask, last, after, grass, laugh, chance, etc. (as in the Scottish dialect); pronunciation of the back lower variant of the vowel [a] instead of [o] in words like hot, pot, stop, cop, college, etc.; the loss of [j] before the vowel [u] after some consonants: cf. [su:t] for suit, [nu:] for new, [tu:n] for tune, [duti] for duty; the use of the dark variant of the consonant [l] in all positions; the voicing of some voiceless consonants in interlocal position (better, letter, closer); a slight nasalisation of vowels before or after nasal consonants (can't, stand).

There are also differences in vocabulary, e.g. fall (British – autumn), guess (= think), baggage (= luggage), drug (= medicine), store (= shop), can (= tin), elevator (= lift), hardware (= ironmongery), grades (= marks), mail (= post), bill (= banknote), to pay a check (= to pay a bill), gas (= petrol), hog (= pig), to line (= to queue up), movies (= pictures, cinema film), stocks (= shares), information desk (= enquiry‑office), sidewalk (= pavement), carousal [karu'sel] (= merry‑go‑round), vacation (= holiday), class (= form; the boy is now in his first class at school), closet (= cupboard), candy (= sweets), sick (= ill), ten minutes after five (= past five), etc. As for grammar forms, American English uses gotten instead of got, and the future auxiliary will with all the persons. It also prefers simplified variants of spelling: color (=colour), favorite (= favourite), theater (=theatre), center (=centre), telegram (= telegramme), etc.