Важно совсем не то, что пишут на заборах. Заборы и существуют для того, чтобы на них писали непристойности.(с) И.Порошин
Чтоб не потерять. Разница в ирландском английском и английском английском
читать дальшеО произношении в ирландском языке.Статья А. А. Коростелёвой
Норма произношения в ирландском языке
Само заглавие этой статьи парадоксально, - дело в том, что произносительная норма как таковая, общепринятое, стандартное произношение в ирландском гэльском языке отсутствует. Для того чтобы понять, как могла сложиться такая "аномальная" с привычной для нас точки зрения ситуация, обратимся к проблеме взаимоотношений ирландского языкового стандарта - кáйдона - и ирландских диалектов. Положение о том, что отношения между нормативным языком и диалектами в принципе могут быть различны, само по себе не ново (примером этого могут служить радикально отличающиеся условия функционирования русского и немецкого литературных языков внутри соответствующих языковых систем). Людям, привыкшим иметь дело с более "благополучными" языками, при столкновении с ирландской языковой ситуацией может показаться странным то, насколько шаткими могут быть, оказывается, позиции литературного стандарта в системе языка и насколько сложными, чтобы не сказать - агрессивными, могут быть его отношения с диалектами.
В силу ряда исторических причин, которых мы не будем здесь касаться, современный ирландский языковой стандарт -официальный кайдон (an Caighdeán Oifigiúil; само слово "caighdeán" означает 'стандарт') был принят только в 1958 году, что было закреплено соответствующим изданием, в котором излагалась орфография и грамматика созданного учеными кодифицированного il'a:n] - oileán 'остров', [t'ax] и [t 'ax] - teach 'дом', одинаково принадлежат западному региону. Выходом из положения может быть некое усредненное западное произношение, не восходящее однозначно ни к одному из коннахтских диалектов. Кроме того, существует немалая вероятность того, что в результате дальнейшего общения с южанами или северянами в речи иностранного студента с изначально поставленным западным произношением появится южный или северный налет. Перспектива выработки такого "мозаичного" произношения не должна нас смущать. Очень многие ирландцы, в совершенстве владеющие кайдоном, говорят как раз с таким "пестрым" произношением, которое сами они с улыбкой называют canúint neodrach ('нейтральный диалект'): это может быть "юго-западное" (смешение совместимых южных и западных особенностей в пропорции один к одному), западное с вкраплением южных элементов, "северо-западное" и любое другое смешанное произношение. Все эти разновидности характерны для молодого поколения с родным английским и выученным ирландским. Это люди, не приверженные какому-то одному диалекту и не смотрящие свысока на любого, кто не владеет "дивной и мелодичной речью Кошь Фарриге" (или любого другого местечка с населением в несколько сот жителей). Может показаться удивительным, что все они свободно понимают друг друга, но это так.
Существуют ли какие-то аргументы в пользу южного или северного произношения? Безусловно. Допустим, человек только и живет, что поэзией Пирса Феритера, Эогана О'Рахилли, Дайви О'Бруадара и Эогана О'Салливана [5], читает их по ночам со слезами на глазах, а засыпая, кладет под подушку; наконец он решается ради них учить ирландский язык, и тут ему ни с того ни с сего советуют ставить западное произношение, потому что это проще; неудивительно будет, если он плюнет такому советчику в лицо.
Вместе с тем наличие южного или северного произношения на фоне кайдона может влиять на грамматический строй речи и переходить в нарушение нормативной грамматики. Совершенно естественно, например, будет, если учащийся с хорошо поставленным и отшлифованным южным произношением, много общавшийся с южанами, невольно начнет ставить слова женского рода после известных предлогов в дательный падеж или регулярно употреблять частицу do перед глаголами в прошедшем времени - это довольно безобидные мелочи, за которыми трудно уследить, однако с точки зрения грамматики это уже отход от кайдона. Дело в том, что как южное, так и северное произношение будут требовать дани в виде определенных грамматических форм, будут, что называется, "тянуть на себя", и понадобится осознанное владение языком и постоянный самоконтроль, чтобы южная или северная фонетика не повлекла за собой диалектизмы в грамматике и лексике.
Понятно, что обучение у преподавателя-ирландца с чисто южным или чисто северным произношением не оставляет иностранному студенту выбора: в таком случае, разумеется, следует благоговейно воспроизводить все особенности произношения преподавателя, исключая, впрочем, дефекты речи.
Практический вывод для тех, кто после всего сказанного не боится приступить к самостоятельному изучению ирландского языка: рекомендуем 1) начинать знакомство с ирландским языком с изучения системы кайдона; 2) ориентироваться в своем произношении на западные, коннахтские диалекты (если у вас нет веских причин поступать иначе) и, выбрав какую-то одну из каждой пары вариативных черт. (/i/ или /о/ для oi в начале слова, /х/ или /k/ для ch в консонантной группе, мягкие зубные или аффрикаты и т.д.), твердо ее придерживаться, не смущаясь тем, что образовавшееся в результате сочетание этих черт, скорее всего, не будет в точности соответствовать конкретному диалекту Корка Дорха или другого ирландскоговорящего района, - это нормально.
Библиография
A View of the Irish Language. Dublin, 1969
Breathnach R. Revival or survival? An examination of the Irish language policy of the state // Studies, 1956, vol. 45
Gramadach na Gaeilge agus Litriú na Gaeilge: An Caighdeán Oifigiúil. BÁC, 1958 Foclóir Póca. English - Irish, Irish - English Dictionary. BÁC, 1986
Ó Baoill, D. Is beannaithe lucht an Chaighdeán óir is leo… // Teangeolas, 1983, vol. 17
Ó Baoill, D. P. Language planning in Ireland: the standardization of Irish // International Journal of the sociology of language, 1988, vol. 70, 109-126
Ó Baoill, D. P. Lárchanúint don Ghaeilge. Research report for the Linguistics Institute which proposes a standardised dialect for Irish. Institiúid Teangeolaíochta Éireann. BÁC, 1987
Ó Baoill, D. P. & Ó Riagáin, P. Reform of the orthography, grammar and vocabulary of Irish // Language reform: history and future V, 173-195. Hamburg, 1990
Ó Dónaill, N. Foclóir Gaeilge - Béarla. BÁC, 1977
O'Murchu, S. Céard é an Caighdeán? // Teangeolas, 1983, vol. 17
O'Rahilly, T.F. Irish dialects past and present. Dublin, 1972
Stair na Gaeilge. Maigh Nuad, 1994
Сноски:
[1] Gramadach na Gaeilge agus Litriú na Gaeilge: An Caighdeán Oifigiúil. BÁCC, 1958.
[2] Niall Ó Dónaill. Foclóir Gaeilge - Béarla. BAC, 1977.
[3] Dónall P.Ó Baoill. Lárchanúint don Ghaeilge. Research report for the Linguistics Institute which proposes a standardised dialect for Irish. Institiúid Teangeolaíochta Éireann. BÁC, 1987.
[4] Foclóir Póca. English - Irish, Irish - English Dictionary. BÁC, 1986
[5] Классические ирландские поэты XVII - XVIII вв., происходившие родом с Юга.
Автор статьи - Анна Александровна Коростелёва - преподаватель современного ирландского языка в Московском Государственном Университете, писатель, переводчик классической и современной ирландской литературы, в том числе произведений Бриана О'Нуаланя (он же Бриан О'Нолан, Флан О' Брайен), Шеймаса Мак Анны, "Мойры", "Ястреба" и многих других ирландских авторов.
209.85.129.132/search?q=cache:bJaS5GMmudAJ:ling...
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This essay is made up of two parts. In the first part I will be looking at the type of English spoken in Belfast. The things that I will look at are some history of Belfast English and the difference between Belfast English and standard English. The facts are taken from the book Belfast English and Standard English Dialectal variation and Parameter Setting by Alison Henry. In the second part I will be looking at Irish English in general. For that I will use the book Real English the grammar of English dialects in the British Isles by James and Lesley Milroy.
Belfast English
English speakers in Belfast are largely monolingual, and there is no community of native Irish speakers in the area. However some parents choose to send their children to Irish-medium schools to learn Irish. Most Belfast English speakers' Irish is learnt as a subject in secondary school if at all. Since there are few bilingual speakers, any Irish influences are almost certainly derived from historical contact between the two languages.
The English spoken in this area sprang up when English and Scottish settlers came to Ireland in the seventeenth century. The settlers' plantations were in such big scales that they held the economic and political power, and since they spoke English this was the language that gradually took over. The use of Irish in the Belfast area had died out by the end of the seventeenth century.
Rural Ulster speech consists of two main dialects, namely Ulster Scots, which is closely related to Scottish English, and the Central or Mid-Ulster dialect, which has more influences from Irish. Many people from other areas have moved to Belfast in search for work, so their dialects cannot really be said to belong to either of these two groups.
Belfast English can be considered to be conservative compared to standard English, it is said that they speak English as it was spoken in Shakespearean times. Some of the constructions of Irish English were used in earlier forms of standard English. For example the use of for to with infinitives, where standard English today only uses to:
It wouldn't do for to say that.
They seem for to be late.
This usage has a long history in English and not just in vernacular varieties. It is not only found in a number of present day dialects, but also in earlier forms of the literary language.
Belfast is known to be a divided society with little contact between the Protestant and Catholic communities, despite this there are no clear differences either phonological or grammatical between their English. It is not possible to determine which community a person belongs to simply by how they speak English.
Belfast English is a variety that has little status and is not officially recognised. Both Protestant and Catholic schools teach their children standard English, which is seen as the "correct" English. To be able to use standard syntax is seen as a mark of education whilst local syntax thus is seen as lack of education.
In the book Belfast English and Standard English Dialectal variation and Parameter Setting, Henry talks about how subject-verb agreement is optional in Belfast English. In standard English the -s ending only occur with third person singular objects, whilst in Belfast English it is possible for a plural subject noun phrase to occur with a verb showing the -s ending. This is a phenomenon that has been pointed out in a number of sociolinguistic studies and it is known as "singular concord". For example Policansky 1976, Milroy 1981 and Finlay 1988.
The eggs is/are cracked.
The machines works/work well.
It should be noted that while it is possible to use a singular verb when the subject is plural it is not possible to use a plural verb with a singular subject.
Inversion is possible in embedded questions:
I wonder did they go.
She asked had anybody called.
Belfast English has relative clauses where relativised element is a subject, and where the relative pronoun is not phonetically realised:
I have a sister lives in Dublin.
There are people don't read books.
Certain finite subordinate clauses occur with null subjects:
They were lucky got away.
You were as well took the job when you were offered it.
Irish English
I will be looking at the non-standard grammatical characteristics of English usage in Ireland. By non-standard I mean the features that do not correspond to the standard English norms. They are not talked about in dictionaries and grammar books. An example of this is the singular and plural in second-person pronouns. In standard English it is the same in both singular and plural, we can say you to one or more than one person. In some dialects, especially those spoken in Ireland and some others with Irish connections, we find the vernacular form youse:
Standard English Irish English
person sing. plur. person sing. plur.
1st. I we 1st. I we
2nd. you you 2nd. you youse
3rd. he/she/it they 3rd. he/she/it they
This illustrates the differences that can exist between vernacular and standard forms of English. The table is taken from the book Real English the grammar of English dialects in the British Isles by James and Lesley Milroy. An example:
Did youse kids hear that? (Irish English)
Did you kids hear that? (Standard English)
The majority of the population in Ireland speak some form of non-standard English as a first language. The linguistic features vary from region to region: someone from Dublin will obviously speak differently from a native of Belfast. Despite of this, the dialects of Ireland do share a number of linguistic features which separates them from dialects spoken elsewhere.
The type of English spoken in Ireland is sometimes said to be a mixture of the language of Shakespeare and the Irish of the Gaelic earls. This assumption can in a sense be true. Modern Irish English does bear the marks of two major historical events. First we have the various types of English and Scots that were brought to Ireland during the English and Scottish colonisation in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.. Secondly there is an early hybrid jargon which arose as a result of the contact between the Irish and English languages. The linguistic impact of the contact between Irish and English is most clearly seen in those areas where Irish is still spoken as a mother tongue or where it has survived until recently.
A well-known feature of Irish English is a construction of be after and an ing-participle, as in:
She's after selling the boat
Which is a ´hot-news` perfect, that is, an event that has taken place in the very recent past. A translation of the sentence might be ´She has just sold the boat`. The construction is almost certainly a direct borrowing from Irish:
Tá sí treís an bád a dhíol
Be she after the boat selling
As I talked about in the part on Belfast English, the schools teach their children standard English. The local dialects are seen as lack of education. This is a very sad thing, because if the local dialect is repeatedly looked upon as something bad, then people will stop using it and it will die out. If we then look on how many people actually use the standard form in their everyday life, we find that they are not many.
Irish English differs in many ways from standard English, in grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary. But it is also a fact that Irish English differs from place to place. As I said before, a person from Dublin will speak differently from a person from Belfast. There are different dialects and accents, and all languages changes with time. We borrow words from other languages to our own and words that already exist are changed in pronunciation or in the field of usage, and some words are simply abandoned and forgotten.
Written by Sofia Rundgren (Team South)
www.eng.umu.se/city/sofia/Linguistics/irish_eng...
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Dialects of English
Dr. C. George Boeree
English is actually an unusual language. Already a blend of early Frisian and Saxon, it absorbed Danish and Norman French, and later added many Latin and Greek technical terms. In the US, Canada, Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and elsewhere, it absorbed terms for indigenous plants, animals, foodstuffs, clothing, housing, and other items from native and immigrant languages. Plus, the various dialects, from Cockney to Jamaican, and innumerable sources of slang, from Polari to hip hop, continue to add novel terms and expressions to the mix. It is no surprise to hear from people learning English what a student once told me: English just has too many words!
Pronunciation (for our purposes):
i: as in beet
i as in bit
ei as in bait
e as in bet
æ as in bat
a: as in father
å as in pot (RP)
o as in paw
ou as in coat
u as in cook
u: as in kook
œ as in but
' as in ago
yu: as in cute
ai as in kite
oi as in coy au as in cow
c as in church
j as in judge
th as in thin
dh as in then
sh as in shush
zh as in azure
ng as in ring
hw as in whale
hy as in huge
ü as in German
ö as in French
kh as in Scottish loch (lokh)
gh as in Dutch
ñ as in Spanish
? as t in Cockney bottle (bo?'l)
British English
Map from Pictures of England (www.picturesofengland.com)
Southern
Southern English engages in r-dropping, that is, r's are not pronounced after vowels, unless followed by another vowel. Instead, vowels are lengthened or have an /'/ off-glide, so fire becomes /fai'/, far becomes /fa:/, and so on.
regular use of "broad a" (/a:/), where GA (General American) would use /æ/.
"long o" is pronounced /'u/, where GA uses /ou/.
final unstressed i is pronounced /i/, where GA uses /i
.
t between vowels retained as /t/ (or a glottal stop, in its variants), where GA changes it to /d/.
The English of well-bred Londoners, especially graduates of the public schools (e.g. Eton and Harrow) and "Oxbridge" universities, was the origin of "the Queen's English," also known as Received Pronunciation (RP), BBC, or "posh."
Cockney
Originally the dialect of the working class of East End London.
initial h is dropped, so house becomes /aus/ (or even /a:s/).
/th/ and /dh/ become /f/ and /v/ respectively: think > /fingk/, brother > /brœv'/.
t between vowels becomes a glottal stop: water > /wo?i/.
diphthongs change, sometimes dramatically: time > /toim/, brave > /braiv/, etc.
Besides the accent, it includes a large number of slang words, including the famous rhyming slang:
have a butchers -- take a look [from butcher's hook = look]
north and south -- mouth
plates -- feet [from plates of meat = feet]
boat race -- face
skin and blister -- sister
trouble -- wife [from trouble and strife = wife]
dustbin lids -- kids / children
whistle -- suit [from whistle and flute = suit]
oily rag -- fag = cigarette
jam jar -- car
mince pies -- eyes
pen and ink -- stink
porkies -- lies [from pork pies = lies]
titfer -- hat [from tit for tat = hat]
apples and pears -- stairs
Jimmy -- urinate [from Jimmy Riddle = piddle]
Bertie Woofter -- gay man [from Bertie Woofter = poofter]
China -- mate / friend [from China plate = mate]
Khyber -- buttocks [from Khyber Pass = ass]
rabbit and pork -- talk
tea leaf -- thief
taters -- cold [from potato mold = cold]
dog and bone -- phone
loaf -- head [from loaf of bread = head]
brown bread -- dead
elbows and knees -- trees
gold watch -- Scotch
pride and joy -- boy
current bun -- Sun
dicky -- shirt [from dicky dirt = shirt]
pots and pans -- hands
jugs -- ears [from jugs of beers = ears]
ones and twos -- shoes
daisies -- boots [from daisy roots = boots]
bird -- prison [from bird lime = time, as in doing time]
(from Kryss Katsiavriades at www.krysstal.com/cockney.html)
Estuary English
From London down the Thames and into Essex, Sussex, and even Kent, a new working and middle class dialect has evolved and is rapidly become "the" southern dialect. It combines some of the characteristics of Cockney with RP, but makes much less use of Cockney slang.
East Anglian
This dialect is very similar to the Southern:
t between vowels usually becomes a glottal stop.
/ai/ becomes /oi/: time > /toim/.
RP yu becomes u: after n, t, d... as in American English.
East Midlands
The dialect of the East Midlands, once filled with interesting variations from county to county, is now predominantly RP. R's are dropped, but h's are pronounced. The only signs that differentiate it from RP:
ou > u: (so go becomes /gu:/).
RP yu; becomes u: after n, t, d... as in American English.
The West Country
r's are not dropped.
initial s often becomes z (singer > zinger).
initial f often becomes v (finger > vinger).
vowels are lengthened.
West Midlands
This is the dialect of Ozzie Osbourne! While pronunciation is not that different from RP, some of the vocabulary is:
are > am
am, are (with a continuous sense) > bin
is not > ay
are not > bay
Brummie is the version of West Midlands spoken in Birmingham.
Lancashire
This dialect, spoken north and east of Liverpool, has the southern habit of dropping r's. Other features:
/œ/ > /u/, as in luck (/luk/).
/ou/ > /oi/, as in hole (/hoil/)
Scouse is the very distinctive Liverpool accent, a version of the Lancashire dialect, that the Beatles made famous.
the tongue is drawn back.
/th/ and /dh/ > /t/ and /d/ respectively.
final k sounds like the Arabic q.
for is pronounced to rhyme with fur.
Yorkshire
The Yorkshire dialect is known for its sing-song quality, a little like Swedish, and retains its r's.
/œ/ > /u/, as in luck (/luk/).
the is reduced to t'.
initial h is dropped.
was > were.
still use thou (pronounced /tha/) and thee.
aught and naught (pronounced /aut/ or /out/ and /naut/ or /nout/) are used for anything and nothing.
Northern
The Northern dialect closely resembles the southern-most Scottish dialects. It retains many old Scandinavian words, such as bairn for child, and not only keeps its r's, but often rolls them. The most outstanding version is Geordie, the dialect of the Newcastle area.
-er > /æ/, so father > /fædhæ/.
/ou/ > /o:'/, so that boat sounds like each letter is pronounced.
talk > /ta:k/
work > /work/
book > /bu:k/
my > me
me > us
our > wor
you plural > youse
Wales
Welsh English is characterized by a sing-song quality and lightly rolled r's. It has been strongly influenced by the Welsh language, although it is increasingly influenced today by standard English, due to the large number of English people vacationing and retiring there.
Scotland
Scotland actually has more variation in dialects than England! The variations do have a few things in common, though, besides a large particularly Scottish vocabulary:
rolled r's.
"pure" vowels (/e:/ rather than /ei/, /o:/ rather than /ou/)
/u:/ is often fronted to /ö/ or /ü/, e.g. boot, good, muin (moon), poor...
There are several "layers" of Scottish English. Most people today speak standard English with little more than the changes just mentioned, plus a few particular words that they themselves view as normal English, such as to jag (to prick) and burn (brook). In rural areas, many older words and grammatical forms, as well as further phonetic variations, still survive, but are being rapidly replaced with more standard forms. But when a Scotsman (or woman) wants to show his pride in his heritage, he may resort to quite a few traditional variations in his speech. First, the phonetics:
/oi/, /ai/, and final /ei/ > /'i/, e.g. oil, wife, tide...
final /ai/ > /i/, e.g. ee (eye), dee (die), lee (lie)...
/ou/ > /e/, e.g. ake (oak), bate (boat), hame (home), stane (stone), gae (go)...
/au/ > /u/, e.g. about, house, cow, now... (often spelled oo or u)
/o/ > /a:/, e.g. saut (salt), law, aw (all)...
/ou/ > /a:/, e.g. auld (old), cauld (cold), snaw (snow)...
/æ/ > /a/, e.g. man, lad, sat...
also: pronounce the ch's and gh's that are silent in standard English: nicht, licht, loch...
Plus, the grammar:
Present tense: often, all forms follow the third person singular (they wis, instead of they were).
Past tense (weak verbs): -it after plosives (big > biggit); -t after n, l, r, and all other unvoiced consonants (ken > kent); -ed after vowels and all other voiced consonants (luv > luved).
Past tense (strong verbs): come > cam, gang > gaed and many more.
On the other hand, many verbs that are strong in standard English are weak in Scottish English: sell > sellt, tell > tellt, mak > makkit, see > seed, etc.
Past participle is usually the same as the past (except for many strong verbs, as in standard English)
Present participle: -in (ken > kennin)
The negative of many auxiliary verbs is formed with -na: am > amna, hae (have) > hinna, dae (do) > dinna, can > canna, etc.
Irregular plurals: ee > een (eyes), shae > shuin (shoes), coo > kye (cows).
Common diminutives in -ie: lass > lassie, hoose > hoosie...
Common adjective ending: -lik (= -ish)
Demonstratives come in four pairs (singular/plural): this/thir, that/thae, thon/thon, yon/yon.
Relative pronouns: tha or at.
Interrogative pronouns: hoo, wha, whan, whase, whaur, whatna, whit.
Each or every is ilka; each one is ilk ane.
Numbers: ane, twa, three, fower, five, sax, seeven, aucht, nine, ten, aleeven, twal...
And finally, the many unique words: lass, bairn (child), kirk (church), big (build), bonny, greet (weep), ingle (household fire), aye (yes), hame (home)... As you can see, Scottish English in its original glory is as near to being different language as one can get, rather than simply another dialect of English. See Clive P L Young's Scots Haunbuik at www.electricscotland.com/tourist/sh_gram.htm for more detail.
There are also several urban dialects, particularly in Glasgow and Edinburgh. The thick dialect of the working class of Edinburgh can be heard in the movie Trainspotting.
In the Highlands, especially the Western Islands, English is often people's second language, the first being Scottish Gaelic. Highland English is pronounced in a lilting fashion with pure vowels. It is, actually, one of the prettiest varieties of English I have ever heard.
Ireland
English was imposed upon the Irish, but they have made it their own and have contributed some of our finest literature. Irish English is strongly influenced by Irish Gaelic:
r after vowels is retained
"pure" vowels (/e:/ rather than /ei/, /o:/ rather than /ou/)
/th/ and /dh/ > /t/ and /d/ respectively.
The sentence structure of Irish English often borrows from the Gaelic:
Use of be or do in place of usually:
I do write... (I usually write)
Use of after for the progressive perfect and pluperfect:
I was after getting married (I had just gotten married)
Use of progressive beyond what is possible in standard English:
I was thinking it was in the drawer
Use of the present or past for perfect and pluperfect:
She’s dead these ten years (she has been dead...)
Use of let you be and don’t be as the imperative:
Don’t be troubling yourself
Use of it is and it was at the beginning of a sentence:
it was John has the good looks in the family
Is it marrying her you want?
Substitute and for when or as:
It only struck me and you going out of the door
Substitute the infinitive verb for that or if:
Imagine such a thing to be seen here!
Drop if, that, or whether:
Tell me did you see them
Statements phrased as rhetorical questions:
Isn’t he the fine-looking fellow?
Extra uses of the definite article:
He was sick with the jaundice
Unusual use of prepositions:
Sure there’s no daylight in it at all now
As with the English of the Scottish Highlands, the English of the west coast of Ireland, where Gaelic is still spoken, is lilting, with pure vowels. It, too, is particularly pretty.
Australian English
Australian English is predominantly British English, and especially from the London area. R’s are dropped after vowels, but are often inserted between two words ending and beginning with vowels.
The vowels reflect a strong “Cockney” influence: The long a (/ei/) tends towards a long i (/ai/), so pay sounds like pie to an American ear. The long i (/ai/), in turn, tends towards oi, so cry sounds like croy. Ow sounds like it starts with a short a (/æ/). Other vowels are less dramatically shifted.
Even some rhyming slang has survived into Australlian English: Butcher’s means look (butcher’s hook); hit and miss means piss; loaf means head (loaf of bread); Noah’s ark means shark; Richard the third means turd, and so on.
Like American English has absorbed numerous American Indian words, Australian English has absorbed many Aboriginal words:
billibong -- watering hole
coolabah -- a type of tree
corroboree -- a ceremony
nulla-nulla -- a club
wallaby -- small kangaroo
wombat -- a small marsupial
woomera -- a weapon
wurley -- a simple shelter
...not to mention such ubiquitous words as kangaroo, boomerang, and koala!
Aborigine and colonialist myths blended easily, and there are a number of fearsome creatures. For example, the bunyip lives near bilibongs and eats children. Also living in bilibongs is the mindi, a hairy snake. A yowie is the Australian version of Sasquatch. And the min-min light is their version of a will-o-the-wisp.
Many common words refer to the traditions of the bushman or bushie -- the early explorers and settlers of the outback (wilderness). You can find many of these in Australia’s national song, Waltzing Matilda.
billy -- tin pot for making tea
cooee -- call used in the outback
dingo -- native dog
jackeroo -- young station hand
joey -- young kangaroo
jumbuck -- sheep
matilda -- backpack
never-never -- the far outback
squatter -- rancher
station -- ranch
swagman -- bushman or tramp
tucker -- food
Colorful expressions also abound:
Like a greasespot -- hot and sweaty
Like a stunned mullet -- in a daze
Like a dog’s breakfast -- a mess
Up a gumtree -- in trouble
Mad as a gumtree full of galahs -- insane
Happy as a bastard on Fathers’ Day -- very happy
Dry as a dead dingo’s donger -- very dry indeed
Another characteristic of Australian English is abbreviated words, often ending in -y, -ie, or -o:
aussie -- Australian
chalky -- teacher
chewie -- chewing gum
chockie -- chocoloate
coldie -- a cold beer
cossie -- swimming costume (swimsuit)
footy -- football (Australian rules, of course)
frenchie -- condom
frostie -- a cold beer
garbo -- garbage man
lavvy -- lavatory
lippie -- lipstick
lollies -- sweets
mossie -- mosquito
mushies -- mushrooms
oldies -- one’s parents
rellies -- one’s relatives
sammie -- sandwich
sickie -- sick day
smoko -- cigarette break
sunnies -- sunglasses
And, of course, there are those peculiarly Australian words and expressions, such as g’day (guhdoy to American ears), crikey, fair dinkum, no worries, Oz, Pavlova, and Vegemite!
New Zealand
New Zealand English is heard by Americans as "Ozzie Light." The characteristics of Australian English are there to some degree, but not as intensely. The effect for Americans is uncertainty as to whether the person is from England or Australia. One clue is that New Zealand English sound "flatter" (less modulated) than either Australian or British English and more like western American English.
South Africa
South African English is close to RP but often with a Dutch influence. English as spoken by Afrikaaners is more clearly influenced by Dutch pronunciation. Just like Australian and American English, there are numberous words adopted from the surrounding African languages, especially for native species of animals and plants. As spoken by black South Africans for whom it is not their first language, it often reflects the pronunciation of their Bantu languages, with purer vowels. Listen, for example, to Nelson Mandela or Bishop Tutu.
Alan Millar of South Africa wrote me with some additional information:
i - as in bit is pronounced 'uh'
long /a:/ in words like 'past', 'dance'
t in middle of words pronounced as d's ('pretty' becomes '/pridi:/')
donga - ditch, from Xhosa
dagga - marijuana, from Xhoixhoi (?)
kak - bullshit, from Afrikaans
fundi - expert, from Xhosa and Zulu umfundi (student).
Dialects also varies slightly from east to west: In Natal (in western South Africa), /ai/ is pronounced /a:/, so that why is pronounced /wa:/.
On top of all this, the dialects of the ethnic group referred to in South Africa as "Coloured" (i.e. of mixed racial backgrounds) have a dialect quite distinct from the dialects of "white" South Africans.
Alan also suggests that South African has a "flatter" (less modulated) sound, similar to that of New Zealand as contrasted with Australian English.
Canada
Canadian English is generally similar to northern and western American English. The one outstanding characteristic is called Canadian rising:
/ai/ and /au/ become /œi/ and /œu/, respectively.
Americans can listen to the newscaster Peter Jennings -- one of the best voices on the telly! -- for these sounds.
One unusual characteristic found in much Canadian casual speech is the use of sentence final "eh?" even in declarative sentences.
Most Canadians retain r's after vowels, but in the Maritimes, they drop their r's, just like their New England neighbors to the south.
Newfoundland has a very different dialect, called Newfie, that seems to be strongly influenced by Irish immigrants:
/th/ and /dh/ > /t/ and /d/ respectively.
am, is, are > be's
I like, we like, etc. > I likes, we likes, etc.
American English
American English derives from 17th century British English. Virginia and Massachusetts, the “original” colonies, were settled mostly by people from the south of England, especially London. The mid Atlantic area -- Pennsylvania in particular -- was settled by people from the north and west of England and by the Scots-Irish (descendents of Scottish people who settled in Northern Ireland). These sources resulted in three dialect areas -- northern, southern, and midland. Over time, further dialects would develop.
The Boston area and the Richmond and Charleston areas maintained strong commercial -- and cultural -- ties to England, and looked to London for guidance as to what was “class” and what was not. So, as the London dialect of the upper classes changed, so did the dialects of the upper class Americans in these areas. For example, in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s, r-dropping spread from London to much of southern England, and to places like Boston and Virginia. New Yorkers, who looked to Boston for the latest fashion trends, adopted it early, and in the south, it spread to wherever the plantation system was. On the other hand, in Pennsylvania, the Scots-Irish, and the Germans as well, kept their heavy r’s.
On the other hand, vocabulary in America was much more open to change than back in the old country. From the Indians, we got the names for many North American animals and plants, and thousands of place names. Here is a partial list (from an exhaustive list compiled by Mark Rosenfelder (www.zompist.com/indianwd.html):
abalone -- Costanoan aulun
bayou -- Choctaw bayuk
caribou -- Algonquian
caucus -- Algonquian caucauasu 'counselor'
chipmunk -- Algonquian chitmunk
hickory -- Algonquian pawcohiccora
high muckamuck -- Chinook hiu muckamuck
hogan -- Navajo hogan
hominy -- Algonquian
how [greeting] -- Dakota háo, Omaha hau
moccasin -- Natick mohkussin
moose -- Natick moos
mugwump -- Natick mugquomp 'captain'
muskrat -- Natick musquash + 'rat'
opossum -- Powhatan aposoum
papoose -- Algonquian papoos
pecan -- Algonquian paccan
persimmon -- Cree pasiminan 'dried fruit'
potlatch -- Nootka patshatl
powwow -- Algonquian
raccoon -- Algonquian arathkone
sachem -- Narraganset sâchim
sasquatch -- Halkomelem sesqec
skunk -- Massachuset squnck
sockeye [salmon] -- Salish sukkegh, or Northern Straits Salish seqey'
squash -- Massachuset asko:o:tasquash
squaw -- Massachuset squa
succotash -- Narraganset msíckquatash
tepee -- Dakota thipi
terrapin -- Algonquian *toolepeiwa
toboggan -- Micmac toba:kan
tomahawk -- Algonquian tamahaac
totem -- Ojibwa ninto:te:m
wampum -- Algonquian wampumpeage
wapiti -- Shawnee wapiti 'white rump'
wickiup -- Fox wikiyapi
wigwam -- Abnaki wikewam
woodchuck -- Algonquian otchek
The slave trade brought many new words from the Caribbean:
barbecue -- Carib barbricot
caiman -- Carib acayuman
canoe -- Caribbean
cassava -- Taino caçábi
chigger -- Cariban chigo
guava -- Caribbean
hammock -- Taino
hurricane -- Carib huracan 'his one leg'
iguana -- Arawak iwana
maize -- Carib mahiz
mangrove -- Taino mangle
papaya -- Carib
pawpaw -- Carib (same source as papaya)
potato -- Taino batata
savannah -- Taino zabana
tobacco -- Arawak tzibatl
From the Indians of Mexico, we adopted many other words, some through Spanish and others directly:
avocado -- Nahuatl ahuacatl
chile, chili -- Nahuatl chilli
chocolate -- Aztec xocolatl
cigar -- Maya sik'ar 'smoke'
cocoa, cacao -- Nahuatl cacahuatl
coyote -- Nahuatl cóyotl
guacamole -- Nahuatl ahuaca-molli 'avocado sauce'
mescal -- Nahuatl mexcalli
mesquite -- Nahuatl mizquitl
mole -- Nahuatl -molli 'sauce'
ocelot -- Nahuatl ocelotl
peyote -- Nahuatl peyotl
shack -- Nahuatl xacalli 'thatched cabin'
shark -- Maya xoc
tamale -- Nahuatl tamalli
tomato -- Nahuatl tomatl
From slaves, we got another set of words, all the way from Africa:
goober -- Bantu -guba
gumbo -- Bantu -gombo 'okra'
okra -- Ashante nkru
yam -- Fulani nyami 'to eat'
Speaking of slaves, southern speech in particular was influenced by slave speech habits, which in turn were based in part on original African languages and in part on the creoles which spread from the African coast and the West Indies. When southerners say “I done lost it,” they are using a slave creole construction.
More willing immigrants added to other dialects. The Germans and the Irish had a huge impact on the colonies and early states. The dialects of central Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and the Dakotas were strongly influenced by the Germans, while the city dialects of the north were influenced by the Irish.
New York City became the door to the United States in the 1800’s, and we see the impact of other immigrants, such as Jews and Italians: words such as spaghetti, pasta, pizza, nosh, schlemiel, yenta; expressions such as wattsamatta and I should live so long. The absence of the th sounds in the original Dutch of NYC, as well as in Italian and Yiddish and the English dialect of the Irish, led to the distinctive dese and dose of New York -- only now starting to diminish.
There is also a western dialect, which developed in the late 1800’s. It is literally a blend of all the dialects, although it is most influenced by the northern midland dialect. Although there are certainly differences between the dialects of, say, Seattle, San Francisco, Phoenix, and Denver, they are far less distinct than, for example, the differences between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh!
Out west, there were also the influences of non-English speaking people, notably the original Spanish speaking populations and the immigrant Chinese (mostly Cantonese). Although they did not influence pronunciation or syntax, they provided a huge number of words. In the domain of food alone, we find tacos, tamales, frijoles, and burritos, chow mein, lo mein, fu yung, and chop suey. Many words from Mexico were actually already adopted from Mexican Indian languages: tomato and coyote spring to mind.
The dialects of the United States (with approximate areas):
Northern
Northern New England (Maine and New Hampshire)
Boston area (eastern Massachussets, Rhode Island)
Northeastern (Connecticut, western Massachusetts, Vermont, upstate New York, lower Michigan, northern Illinois)
New York City area (including most of Long Island and northern New Jersey)
North central (upper Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, the Dakotas)
Northern midland
Philadelphia area (inc. eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey, Delaware, and the Baltimore area)
Pittsburgh area (western Pennsylvania)
Ohio-Plains (Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas...)
Southern midland
Appalachia (western Virginia, West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, eastern Tennessee)
Arkansas-Oklahoma
Southern
Virginia (eastern)
North Carolina (eastern)
South Carolina
Georgia-Florida
Mississippi-Gulf (including Alabama, Louisiana, eastern Texas, western Tennessee, western Kentucky)
West Texas
Western (Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, California)
Southern and south midland:
"drawl" [lengthening, fronting, and raising vowels]
/ai/ > /æ:/ in find, mind
/oi/ > /o/ in boil, oil
/u:/ > /yu:/ in due, tuesday
au/ > /æu/ in out, doubt
/e/ > /ei/ in bed, head
/e/ > /i/ in pen, ten
greasy > greazy
carry > tote
dragged > drug
you > you all, y’all
Southern:
help, bulb, wolf > /hep/, /bœb/, /wuf/
Southern vs south midland:
drop r’s -- strong, sometimes retroflex, r’s
wash: /wa:sh/ -- /wosh/, /worsh/
think: /thingk/ -- /theingk/
egg: /eg/ -- /eig/
moon: /mu:n/ -- /mü:n/
snake doctor -- snake feeder
snap beans -- green beans
goobers -- peanuts
Northern vs north midland:
fog, hog: /fag/, /hag/ -- /fog/, /hog/
roof: /ruf/, /huf/ -- /ru:f/, /hu:f/
cow, house: /kau/, /haus/ -- /kæu/, /hæus/
wash: /wa:sh/ -- /wosh/, /worsh/
darning needle -- snake feeder
pail -- bucket
teeter-totter -- see-saw
fire-fly -- lightning-bug
Eastern New England, Boston area, NYC area
drop r’s
insert transitional r’s, as in law’r’n awdah
Eastern New England, Boston area, Virginia area
/æ/ frequently becomes /a/, e.g. in aunt, dance, glass
Mary-marry-merry (/eir/-/ær/-/er/) distinctions preserved only in r-less areas, rapidly disappearing from American speech
NYC and north midland, and spreading rapidly
loss of voiceless w: which > /wic/
loss of voiceless y: human > /yum'n/
A simplified way of differentiating the dialects is based on the words for two American favorites: the submarine sandwich and the soft drink:
Submarine sandwich
New York: hero
Philadelphia: hoagy
Boston: grinder
Southern: poor-boy
Soft drink
Boston: tonic
Northern and North Midland, east of the Susquehanna: soda
Northern and North Midland, west of the Susquehanna: pop
South and South Midland: cold drink
(not to mention soda pop and soda water, and even coke in Rhode Island!)
The old cities of the eastern US each have their own peculiarities. New York is famous for its addition of central off-glides: pier becomes /pi:'/, pair becomes /pe'/, poor becomes /po'/. The aw (/o/) sound is raised and has a central off-glide as well: ball and coffee approach /bu'l/ and /cu'fi:/! And her becomes /hö'/!
I live in south-central Pennsylvania, which is a great location for hearing various eastern accents. There are actually five in Pennsylvania: In the northern tier, near upstate New York, the accent is Northern. In Pittsburgh and the surrounding area they say /stil/ and /mil/ instead of steel and meal. In the south, near West Virginia, you hear Appalachian, and people still say you’uns and refer to their grandparents as Mammaw and Pappy!. And, in the center of the state is what is called the Susquehanna accent, which is a variation on the Philadelphia area dialect, with a lot of German and Scots-Irish influences. And we can't forget the Philadelphia accent itself:
/i/ often becomes /i:/, as in attitude and gratitude
/i:g/ > /ig/, as in the Philadelphia Eagles, pronounced /ig'lz/
/eig/ > /eg/, so plague is prnounced /pleg/
/u:r/ > /or/, so sure sounds the same as shore
/aul/ > /al/, e.g. owl
/aur/ > /ar/, so our sounds like are
mayor > /meir/
/æ/ > /iæ/, so Ann sounds like Ian
very and ferry become /vœri:/ and /fœri:/
/st/ > /sht/ at the beginning of words, so street is /shtri:t/
l is always "dark," that is, pronounced in the back of the throat
(See Phillyspeak, by Jim Quinn, at www.citypaper.net/articles/081497/article008.sh... for more.)
In the Lancaster area (part of the Susquehanna dialect), the Pennsylvania German influence is obvious in some of the words and sentence structure: We red up the room, outen the light, and throw the cow over the fence some hay. We say that the peanut butter is all, the road is slippy, and I read that wunst (once). A slide is a sliding board, sneakers are all Keds, vacuum cleaners are sweepers, little pieces are snibbles, and if you are looking a bit disheveled, you are furhuddled. And at any local restaurant, they will ask you: Can I get you coffee awhile?
Dialects typically vary in their status. In the colonial and revolutionary times, a Boston, New York, or Virginia accent marked you as a gentleman or lady. In the early part of the 1900’s, the accent of suburban New York was tops: Listen to the recordings of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, for example. Unlike "General American" (the radio and television reporter’s accent), FDR dropped his r’s and drawled his vowels luxuriously.
General American is a rather innocuous blend of Northern and Northern Midland dialect, with none of the peculiar words or pronounciations of any particular area. Today, the Western dialect has established itself, via the entertainment industry, as equal. Even Southern and Southern Midland English, long scorned by Northerners, have reestablished their status, especially after the presidencies of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.
Two dialects are still seen as being substandard by many Americans: Appalachian and Black English. Unlike other dialects, they have considerable grammatical differences that make them sound to the mainstream as simply horrible English.
In Appalachia, for example, they say us’ns and you’ns. Both Appalachian dialect and Black English speakers often double negatives (he ain’t got none), double comparatives and superlatives (more bigger, most biggest, gooder, bestest), over-regularize the past tense (stoled or stealed), and over-regularize plurals (mouses, sheeps, childrens).
Although the prejudice against people from Appalachia is real enough, the long tradition of prejudice against black Americans has been very difficult to eliminate, and that includes the disrespect accorded Black English. Despite some attempts to consider it another language (the Ebonics movement), it is in fact a variation on the Southern dialect, with input from Gullah and other slave creoles, plus the constant creation of slang, especially in northern urban areas ("the Ghetto").
webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/dialectsofenglish.html
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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiberno-English
читать дальшеО произношении в ирландском языке.Статья А. А. Коростелёвой
Норма произношения в ирландском языке
Само заглавие этой статьи парадоксально, - дело в том, что произносительная норма как таковая, общепринятое, стандартное произношение в ирландском гэльском языке отсутствует. Для того чтобы понять, как могла сложиться такая "аномальная" с привычной для нас точки зрения ситуация, обратимся к проблеме взаимоотношений ирландского языкового стандарта - кáйдона - и ирландских диалектов. Положение о том, что отношения между нормативным языком и диалектами в принципе могут быть различны, само по себе не ново (примером этого могут служить радикально отличающиеся условия функционирования русского и немецкого литературных языков внутри соответствующих языковых систем). Людям, привыкшим иметь дело с более "благополучными" языками, при столкновении с ирландской языковой ситуацией может показаться странным то, насколько шаткими могут быть, оказывается, позиции литературного стандарта в системе языка и насколько сложными, чтобы не сказать - агрессивными, могут быть его отношения с диалектами.
В силу ряда исторических причин, которых мы не будем здесь касаться, современный ирландский языковой стандарт -официальный кайдон (an Caighdeán Oifigiúil; само слово "caighdeán" означает 'стандарт') был принят только в 1958 году, что было закреплено соответствующим изданием, в котором излагалась орфография и грамматика созданного учеными кодифицированного il'a:n] - oileán 'остров', [t'ax] и [t 'ax] - teach 'дом', одинаково принадлежат западному региону. Выходом из положения может быть некое усредненное западное произношение, не восходящее однозначно ни к одному из коннахтских диалектов. Кроме того, существует немалая вероятность того, что в результате дальнейшего общения с южанами или северянами в речи иностранного студента с изначально поставленным западным произношением появится южный или северный налет. Перспектива выработки такого "мозаичного" произношения не должна нас смущать. Очень многие ирландцы, в совершенстве владеющие кайдоном, говорят как раз с таким "пестрым" произношением, которое сами они с улыбкой называют canúint neodrach ('нейтральный диалект'): это может быть "юго-западное" (смешение совместимых южных и западных особенностей в пропорции один к одному), западное с вкраплением южных элементов, "северо-западное" и любое другое смешанное произношение. Все эти разновидности характерны для молодого поколения с родным английским и выученным ирландским. Это люди, не приверженные какому-то одному диалекту и не смотрящие свысока на любого, кто не владеет "дивной и мелодичной речью Кошь Фарриге" (или любого другого местечка с населением в несколько сот жителей). Может показаться удивительным, что все они свободно понимают друг друга, но это так.
Существуют ли какие-то аргументы в пользу южного или северного произношения? Безусловно. Допустим, человек только и живет, что поэзией Пирса Феритера, Эогана О'Рахилли, Дайви О'Бруадара и Эогана О'Салливана [5], читает их по ночам со слезами на глазах, а засыпая, кладет под подушку; наконец он решается ради них учить ирландский язык, и тут ему ни с того ни с сего советуют ставить западное произношение, потому что это проще; неудивительно будет, если он плюнет такому советчику в лицо.
Вместе с тем наличие южного или северного произношения на фоне кайдона может влиять на грамматический строй речи и переходить в нарушение нормативной грамматики. Совершенно естественно, например, будет, если учащийся с хорошо поставленным и отшлифованным южным произношением, много общавшийся с южанами, невольно начнет ставить слова женского рода после известных предлогов в дательный падеж или регулярно употреблять частицу do перед глаголами в прошедшем времени - это довольно безобидные мелочи, за которыми трудно уследить, однако с точки зрения грамматики это уже отход от кайдона. Дело в том, что как южное, так и северное произношение будут требовать дани в виде определенных грамматических форм, будут, что называется, "тянуть на себя", и понадобится осознанное владение языком и постоянный самоконтроль, чтобы южная или северная фонетика не повлекла за собой диалектизмы в грамматике и лексике.
Понятно, что обучение у преподавателя-ирландца с чисто южным или чисто северным произношением не оставляет иностранному студенту выбора: в таком случае, разумеется, следует благоговейно воспроизводить все особенности произношения преподавателя, исключая, впрочем, дефекты речи.
Практический вывод для тех, кто после всего сказанного не боится приступить к самостоятельному изучению ирландского языка: рекомендуем 1) начинать знакомство с ирландским языком с изучения системы кайдона; 2) ориентироваться в своем произношении на западные, коннахтские диалекты (если у вас нет веских причин поступать иначе) и, выбрав какую-то одну из каждой пары вариативных черт. (/i/ или /о/ для oi в начале слова, /х/ или /k/ для ch в консонантной группе, мягкие зубные или аффрикаты и т.д.), твердо ее придерживаться, не смущаясь тем, что образовавшееся в результате сочетание этих черт, скорее всего, не будет в точности соответствовать конкретному диалекту Корка Дорха или другого ирландскоговорящего района, - это нормально.
Библиография
A View of the Irish Language. Dublin, 1969
Breathnach R. Revival or survival? An examination of the Irish language policy of the state // Studies, 1956, vol. 45
Gramadach na Gaeilge agus Litriú na Gaeilge: An Caighdeán Oifigiúil. BÁC, 1958 Foclóir Póca. English - Irish, Irish - English Dictionary. BÁC, 1986
Ó Baoill, D. Is beannaithe lucht an Chaighdeán óir is leo… // Teangeolas, 1983, vol. 17
Ó Baoill, D. P. Language planning in Ireland: the standardization of Irish // International Journal of the sociology of language, 1988, vol. 70, 109-126
Ó Baoill, D. P. Lárchanúint don Ghaeilge. Research report for the Linguistics Institute which proposes a standardised dialect for Irish. Institiúid Teangeolaíochta Éireann. BÁC, 1987
Ó Baoill, D. P. & Ó Riagáin, P. Reform of the orthography, grammar and vocabulary of Irish // Language reform: history and future V, 173-195. Hamburg, 1990
Ó Dónaill, N. Foclóir Gaeilge - Béarla. BÁC, 1977
O'Murchu, S. Céard é an Caighdeán? // Teangeolas, 1983, vol. 17
O'Rahilly, T.F. Irish dialects past and present. Dublin, 1972
Stair na Gaeilge. Maigh Nuad, 1994
Сноски:
[1] Gramadach na Gaeilge agus Litriú na Gaeilge: An Caighdeán Oifigiúil. BÁCC, 1958.
[2] Niall Ó Dónaill. Foclóir Gaeilge - Béarla. BAC, 1977.
[3] Dónall P.Ó Baoill. Lárchanúint don Ghaeilge. Research report for the Linguistics Institute which proposes a standardised dialect for Irish. Institiúid Teangeolaíochta Éireann. BÁC, 1987.
[4] Foclóir Póca. English - Irish, Irish - English Dictionary. BÁC, 1986
[5] Классические ирландские поэты XVII - XVIII вв., происходившие родом с Юга.
Автор статьи - Анна Александровна Коростелёва - преподаватель современного ирландского языка в Московском Государственном Университете, писатель, переводчик классической и современной ирландской литературы, в том числе произведений Бриана О'Нуаланя (он же Бриан О'Нолан, Флан О' Брайен), Шеймаса Мак Анны, "Мойры", "Ястреба" и многих других ирландских авторов.
209.85.129.132/search?q=cache:bJaS5GMmudAJ:ling...
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This essay is made up of two parts. In the first part I will be looking at the type of English spoken in Belfast. The things that I will look at are some history of Belfast English and the difference between Belfast English and standard English. The facts are taken from the book Belfast English and Standard English Dialectal variation and Parameter Setting by Alison Henry. In the second part I will be looking at Irish English in general. For that I will use the book Real English the grammar of English dialects in the British Isles by James and Lesley Milroy.
Belfast English
English speakers in Belfast are largely monolingual, and there is no community of native Irish speakers in the area. However some parents choose to send their children to Irish-medium schools to learn Irish. Most Belfast English speakers' Irish is learnt as a subject in secondary school if at all. Since there are few bilingual speakers, any Irish influences are almost certainly derived from historical contact between the two languages.
The English spoken in this area sprang up when English and Scottish settlers came to Ireland in the seventeenth century. The settlers' plantations were in such big scales that they held the economic and political power, and since they spoke English this was the language that gradually took over. The use of Irish in the Belfast area had died out by the end of the seventeenth century.
Rural Ulster speech consists of two main dialects, namely Ulster Scots, which is closely related to Scottish English, and the Central or Mid-Ulster dialect, which has more influences from Irish. Many people from other areas have moved to Belfast in search for work, so their dialects cannot really be said to belong to either of these two groups.
Belfast English can be considered to be conservative compared to standard English, it is said that they speak English as it was spoken in Shakespearean times. Some of the constructions of Irish English were used in earlier forms of standard English. For example the use of for to with infinitives, where standard English today only uses to:
It wouldn't do for to say that.
They seem for to be late.
This usage has a long history in English and not just in vernacular varieties. It is not only found in a number of present day dialects, but also in earlier forms of the literary language.
Belfast is known to be a divided society with little contact between the Protestant and Catholic communities, despite this there are no clear differences either phonological or grammatical between their English. It is not possible to determine which community a person belongs to simply by how they speak English.
Belfast English is a variety that has little status and is not officially recognised. Both Protestant and Catholic schools teach their children standard English, which is seen as the "correct" English. To be able to use standard syntax is seen as a mark of education whilst local syntax thus is seen as lack of education.
In the book Belfast English and Standard English Dialectal variation and Parameter Setting, Henry talks about how subject-verb agreement is optional in Belfast English. In standard English the -s ending only occur with third person singular objects, whilst in Belfast English it is possible for a plural subject noun phrase to occur with a verb showing the -s ending. This is a phenomenon that has been pointed out in a number of sociolinguistic studies and it is known as "singular concord". For example Policansky 1976, Milroy 1981 and Finlay 1988.
The eggs is/are cracked.
The machines works/work well.
It should be noted that while it is possible to use a singular verb when the subject is plural it is not possible to use a plural verb with a singular subject.
Inversion is possible in embedded questions:
I wonder did they go.
She asked had anybody called.
Belfast English has relative clauses where relativised element is a subject, and where the relative pronoun is not phonetically realised:
I have a sister lives in Dublin.
There are people don't read books.
Certain finite subordinate clauses occur with null subjects:
They were lucky got away.
You were as well took the job when you were offered it.
Irish English
I will be looking at the non-standard grammatical characteristics of English usage in Ireland. By non-standard I mean the features that do not correspond to the standard English norms. They are not talked about in dictionaries and grammar books. An example of this is the singular and plural in second-person pronouns. In standard English it is the same in both singular and plural, we can say you to one or more than one person. In some dialects, especially those spoken in Ireland and some others with Irish connections, we find the vernacular form youse:
Standard English Irish English
person sing. plur. person sing. plur.
1st. I we 1st. I we
2nd. you you 2nd. you youse
3rd. he/she/it they 3rd. he/she/it they
This illustrates the differences that can exist between vernacular and standard forms of English. The table is taken from the book Real English the grammar of English dialects in the British Isles by James and Lesley Milroy. An example:
Did youse kids hear that? (Irish English)
Did you kids hear that? (Standard English)
The majority of the population in Ireland speak some form of non-standard English as a first language. The linguistic features vary from region to region: someone from Dublin will obviously speak differently from a native of Belfast. Despite of this, the dialects of Ireland do share a number of linguistic features which separates them from dialects spoken elsewhere.
The type of English spoken in Ireland is sometimes said to be a mixture of the language of Shakespeare and the Irish of the Gaelic earls. This assumption can in a sense be true. Modern Irish English does bear the marks of two major historical events. First we have the various types of English and Scots that were brought to Ireland during the English and Scottish colonisation in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.. Secondly there is an early hybrid jargon which arose as a result of the contact between the Irish and English languages. The linguistic impact of the contact between Irish and English is most clearly seen in those areas where Irish is still spoken as a mother tongue or where it has survived until recently.
A well-known feature of Irish English is a construction of be after and an ing-participle, as in:
She's after selling the boat
Which is a ´hot-news` perfect, that is, an event that has taken place in the very recent past. A translation of the sentence might be ´She has just sold the boat`. The construction is almost certainly a direct borrowing from Irish:
Tá sí treís an bád a dhíol
Be she after the boat selling
As I talked about in the part on Belfast English, the schools teach their children standard English. The local dialects are seen as lack of education. This is a very sad thing, because if the local dialect is repeatedly looked upon as something bad, then people will stop using it and it will die out. If we then look on how many people actually use the standard form in their everyday life, we find that they are not many.
Irish English differs in many ways from standard English, in grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary. But it is also a fact that Irish English differs from place to place. As I said before, a person from Dublin will speak differently from a person from Belfast. There are different dialects and accents, and all languages changes with time. We borrow words from other languages to our own and words that already exist are changed in pronunciation or in the field of usage, and some words are simply abandoned and forgotten.
Written by Sofia Rundgren (Team South)
www.eng.umu.se/city/sofia/Linguistics/irish_eng...
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Dialects of English
Dr. C. George Boeree
English is actually an unusual language. Already a blend of early Frisian and Saxon, it absorbed Danish and Norman French, and later added many Latin and Greek technical terms. In the US, Canada, Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and elsewhere, it absorbed terms for indigenous plants, animals, foodstuffs, clothing, housing, and other items from native and immigrant languages. Plus, the various dialects, from Cockney to Jamaican, and innumerable sources of slang, from Polari to hip hop, continue to add novel terms and expressions to the mix. It is no surprise to hear from people learning English what a student once told me: English just has too many words!
Pronunciation (for our purposes):
i: as in beet
i as in bit
ei as in bait
e as in bet
æ as in bat
a: as in father
å as in pot (RP)
o as in paw
ou as in coat
u as in cook
u: as in kook
œ as in but
' as in ago
yu: as in cute
ai as in kite
oi as in coy au as in cow
c as in church
j as in judge
th as in thin
dh as in then
sh as in shush
zh as in azure
ng as in ring
hw as in whale
hy as in huge
ü as in German
ö as in French
kh as in Scottish loch (lokh)
gh as in Dutch
ñ as in Spanish
? as t in Cockney bottle (bo?'l)
British English
Map from Pictures of England (www.picturesofengland.com)
Southern
Southern English engages in r-dropping, that is, r's are not pronounced after vowels, unless followed by another vowel. Instead, vowels are lengthened or have an /'/ off-glide, so fire becomes /fai'/, far becomes /fa:/, and so on.
regular use of "broad a" (/a:/), where GA (General American) would use /æ/.
"long o" is pronounced /'u/, where GA uses /ou/.
final unstressed i is pronounced /i/, where GA uses /i
.t between vowels retained as /t/ (or a glottal stop, in its variants), where GA changes it to /d/.
The English of well-bred Londoners, especially graduates of the public schools (e.g. Eton and Harrow) and "Oxbridge" universities, was the origin of "the Queen's English," also known as Received Pronunciation (RP), BBC, or "posh."
Cockney
Originally the dialect of the working class of East End London.
initial h is dropped, so house becomes /aus/ (or even /a:s/).
/th/ and /dh/ become /f/ and /v/ respectively: think > /fingk/, brother > /brœv'/.
t between vowels becomes a glottal stop: water > /wo?i/.
diphthongs change, sometimes dramatically: time > /toim/, brave > /braiv/, etc.
Besides the accent, it includes a large number of slang words, including the famous rhyming slang:
have a butchers -- take a look [from butcher's hook = look]
north and south -- mouth
plates -- feet [from plates of meat = feet]
boat race -- face
skin and blister -- sister
trouble -- wife [from trouble and strife = wife]
dustbin lids -- kids / children
whistle -- suit [from whistle and flute = suit]
oily rag -- fag = cigarette
jam jar -- car
mince pies -- eyes
pen and ink -- stink
porkies -- lies [from pork pies = lies]
titfer -- hat [from tit for tat = hat]
apples and pears -- stairs
Jimmy -- urinate [from Jimmy Riddle = piddle]
Bertie Woofter -- gay man [from Bertie Woofter = poofter]
China -- mate / friend [from China plate = mate]
Khyber -- buttocks [from Khyber Pass = ass]
rabbit and pork -- talk
tea leaf -- thief
taters -- cold [from potato mold = cold]
dog and bone -- phone
loaf -- head [from loaf of bread = head]
brown bread -- dead
elbows and knees -- trees
gold watch -- Scotch
pride and joy -- boy
current bun -- Sun
dicky -- shirt [from dicky dirt = shirt]
pots and pans -- hands
jugs -- ears [from jugs of beers = ears]
ones and twos -- shoes
daisies -- boots [from daisy roots = boots]
bird -- prison [from bird lime = time, as in doing time]
(from Kryss Katsiavriades at www.krysstal.com/cockney.html)
Estuary English
From London down the Thames and into Essex, Sussex, and even Kent, a new working and middle class dialect has evolved and is rapidly become "the" southern dialect. It combines some of the characteristics of Cockney with RP, but makes much less use of Cockney slang.
East Anglian
This dialect is very similar to the Southern:
t between vowels usually becomes a glottal stop.
/ai/ becomes /oi/: time > /toim/.
RP yu becomes u: after n, t, d... as in American English.
East Midlands
The dialect of the East Midlands, once filled with interesting variations from county to county, is now predominantly RP. R's are dropped, but h's are pronounced. The only signs that differentiate it from RP:
ou > u: (so go becomes /gu:/).
RP yu; becomes u: after n, t, d... as in American English.
The West Country
r's are not dropped.
initial s often becomes z (singer > zinger).
initial f often becomes v (finger > vinger).
vowels are lengthened.
West Midlands
This is the dialect of Ozzie Osbourne! While pronunciation is not that different from RP, some of the vocabulary is:
are > am
am, are (with a continuous sense) > bin
is not > ay
are not > bay
Brummie is the version of West Midlands spoken in Birmingham.
Lancashire
This dialect, spoken north and east of Liverpool, has the southern habit of dropping r's. Other features:
/œ/ > /u/, as in luck (/luk/).
/ou/ > /oi/, as in hole (/hoil/)
Scouse is the very distinctive Liverpool accent, a version of the Lancashire dialect, that the Beatles made famous.
the tongue is drawn back.
/th/ and /dh/ > /t/ and /d/ respectively.
final k sounds like the Arabic q.
for is pronounced to rhyme with fur.
Yorkshire
The Yorkshire dialect is known for its sing-song quality, a little like Swedish, and retains its r's.
/œ/ > /u/, as in luck (/luk/).
the is reduced to t'.
initial h is dropped.
was > were.
still use thou (pronounced /tha/) and thee.
aught and naught (pronounced /aut/ or /out/ and /naut/ or /nout/) are used for anything and nothing.
Northern
The Northern dialect closely resembles the southern-most Scottish dialects. It retains many old Scandinavian words, such as bairn for child, and not only keeps its r's, but often rolls them. The most outstanding version is Geordie, the dialect of the Newcastle area.
-er > /æ/, so father > /fædhæ/.
/ou/ > /o:'/, so that boat sounds like each letter is pronounced.
talk > /ta:k/
work > /work/
book > /bu:k/
my > me
me > us
our > wor
you plural > youse
Wales
Welsh English is characterized by a sing-song quality and lightly rolled r's. It has been strongly influenced by the Welsh language, although it is increasingly influenced today by standard English, due to the large number of English people vacationing and retiring there.
Scotland
Scotland actually has more variation in dialects than England! The variations do have a few things in common, though, besides a large particularly Scottish vocabulary:
rolled r's.
"pure" vowels (/e:/ rather than /ei/, /o:/ rather than /ou/)
/u:/ is often fronted to /ö/ or /ü/, e.g. boot, good, muin (moon), poor...
There are several "layers" of Scottish English. Most people today speak standard English with little more than the changes just mentioned, plus a few particular words that they themselves view as normal English, such as to jag (to prick) and burn (brook). In rural areas, many older words and grammatical forms, as well as further phonetic variations, still survive, but are being rapidly replaced with more standard forms. But when a Scotsman (or woman) wants to show his pride in his heritage, he may resort to quite a few traditional variations in his speech. First, the phonetics:
/oi/, /ai/, and final /ei/ > /'i/, e.g. oil, wife, tide...
final /ai/ > /i/, e.g. ee (eye), dee (die), lee (lie)...
/ou/ > /e/, e.g. ake (oak), bate (boat), hame (home), stane (stone), gae (go)...
/au/ > /u/, e.g. about, house, cow, now... (often spelled oo or u)
/o/ > /a:/, e.g. saut (salt), law, aw (all)...
/ou/ > /a:/, e.g. auld (old), cauld (cold), snaw (snow)...
/æ/ > /a/, e.g. man, lad, sat...
also: pronounce the ch's and gh's that are silent in standard English: nicht, licht, loch...
Plus, the grammar:
Present tense: often, all forms follow the third person singular (they wis, instead of they were).
Past tense (weak verbs): -it after plosives (big > biggit); -t after n, l, r, and all other unvoiced consonants (ken > kent); -ed after vowels and all other voiced consonants (luv > luved).
Past tense (strong verbs): come > cam, gang > gaed and many more.
On the other hand, many verbs that are strong in standard English are weak in Scottish English: sell > sellt, tell > tellt, mak > makkit, see > seed, etc.
Past participle is usually the same as the past (except for many strong verbs, as in standard English)
Present participle: -in (ken > kennin)
The negative of many auxiliary verbs is formed with -na: am > amna, hae (have) > hinna, dae (do) > dinna, can > canna, etc.
Irregular plurals: ee > een (eyes), shae > shuin (shoes), coo > kye (cows).
Common diminutives in -ie: lass > lassie, hoose > hoosie...
Common adjective ending: -lik (= -ish)
Demonstratives come in four pairs (singular/plural): this/thir, that/thae, thon/thon, yon/yon.
Relative pronouns: tha or at.
Interrogative pronouns: hoo, wha, whan, whase, whaur, whatna, whit.
Each or every is ilka; each one is ilk ane.
Numbers: ane, twa, three, fower, five, sax, seeven, aucht, nine, ten, aleeven, twal...
And finally, the many unique words: lass, bairn (child), kirk (church), big (build), bonny, greet (weep), ingle (household fire), aye (yes), hame (home)... As you can see, Scottish English in its original glory is as near to being different language as one can get, rather than simply another dialect of English. See Clive P L Young's Scots Haunbuik at www.electricscotland.com/tourist/sh_gram.htm for more detail.
There are also several urban dialects, particularly in Glasgow and Edinburgh. The thick dialect of the working class of Edinburgh can be heard in the movie Trainspotting.
In the Highlands, especially the Western Islands, English is often people's second language, the first being Scottish Gaelic. Highland English is pronounced in a lilting fashion with pure vowels. It is, actually, one of the prettiest varieties of English I have ever heard.
Ireland
English was imposed upon the Irish, but they have made it their own and have contributed some of our finest literature. Irish English is strongly influenced by Irish Gaelic:
r after vowels is retained
"pure" vowels (/e:/ rather than /ei/, /o:/ rather than /ou/)
/th/ and /dh/ > /t/ and /d/ respectively.
The sentence structure of Irish English often borrows from the Gaelic:
Use of be or do in place of usually:
I do write... (I usually write)
Use of after for the progressive perfect and pluperfect:
I was after getting married (I had just gotten married)
Use of progressive beyond what is possible in standard English:
I was thinking it was in the drawer
Use of the present or past for perfect and pluperfect:
She’s dead these ten years (she has been dead...)
Use of let you be and don’t be as the imperative:
Don’t be troubling yourself
Use of it is and it was at the beginning of a sentence:
it was John has the good looks in the family
Is it marrying her you want?
Substitute and for when or as:
It only struck me and you going out of the door
Substitute the infinitive verb for that or if:
Imagine such a thing to be seen here!
Drop if, that, or whether:
Tell me did you see them
Statements phrased as rhetorical questions:
Isn’t he the fine-looking fellow?
Extra uses of the definite article:
He was sick with the jaundice
Unusual use of prepositions:
Sure there’s no daylight in it at all now
As with the English of the Scottish Highlands, the English of the west coast of Ireland, where Gaelic is still spoken, is lilting, with pure vowels. It, too, is particularly pretty.
Australian English
Australian English is predominantly British English, and especially from the London area. R’s are dropped after vowels, but are often inserted between two words ending and beginning with vowels.
The vowels reflect a strong “Cockney” influence: The long a (/ei/) tends towards a long i (/ai/), so pay sounds like pie to an American ear. The long i (/ai/), in turn, tends towards oi, so cry sounds like croy. Ow sounds like it starts with a short a (/æ/). Other vowels are less dramatically shifted.
Even some rhyming slang has survived into Australlian English: Butcher’s means look (butcher’s hook); hit and miss means piss; loaf means head (loaf of bread); Noah’s ark means shark; Richard the third means turd, and so on.
Like American English has absorbed numerous American Indian words, Australian English has absorbed many Aboriginal words:
billibong -- watering hole
coolabah -- a type of tree
corroboree -- a ceremony
nulla-nulla -- a club
wallaby -- small kangaroo
wombat -- a small marsupial
woomera -- a weapon
wurley -- a simple shelter
...not to mention such ubiquitous words as kangaroo, boomerang, and koala!
Aborigine and colonialist myths blended easily, and there are a number of fearsome creatures. For example, the bunyip lives near bilibongs and eats children. Also living in bilibongs is the mindi, a hairy snake. A yowie is the Australian version of Sasquatch. And the min-min light is their version of a will-o-the-wisp.
Many common words refer to the traditions of the bushman or bushie -- the early explorers and settlers of the outback (wilderness). You can find many of these in Australia’s national song, Waltzing Matilda.
billy -- tin pot for making tea
cooee -- call used in the outback
dingo -- native dog
jackeroo -- young station hand
joey -- young kangaroo
jumbuck -- sheep
matilda -- backpack
never-never -- the far outback
squatter -- rancher
station -- ranch
swagman -- bushman or tramp
tucker -- food
Colorful expressions also abound:
Like a greasespot -- hot and sweaty
Like a stunned mullet -- in a daze
Like a dog’s breakfast -- a mess
Up a gumtree -- in trouble
Mad as a gumtree full of galahs -- insane
Happy as a bastard on Fathers’ Day -- very happy
Dry as a dead dingo’s donger -- very dry indeed
Another characteristic of Australian English is abbreviated words, often ending in -y, -ie, or -o:
aussie -- Australian
chalky -- teacher
chewie -- chewing gum
chockie -- chocoloate
coldie -- a cold beer
cossie -- swimming costume (swimsuit)
footy -- football (Australian rules, of course)
frenchie -- condom
frostie -- a cold beer
garbo -- garbage man
lavvy -- lavatory
lippie -- lipstick
lollies -- sweets
mossie -- mosquito
mushies -- mushrooms
oldies -- one’s parents
rellies -- one’s relatives
sammie -- sandwich
sickie -- sick day
smoko -- cigarette break
sunnies -- sunglasses
And, of course, there are those peculiarly Australian words and expressions, such as g’day (guhdoy to American ears), crikey, fair dinkum, no worries, Oz, Pavlova, and Vegemite!
New Zealand
New Zealand English is heard by Americans as "Ozzie Light." The characteristics of Australian English are there to some degree, but not as intensely. The effect for Americans is uncertainty as to whether the person is from England or Australia. One clue is that New Zealand English sound "flatter" (less modulated) than either Australian or British English and more like western American English.
South Africa
South African English is close to RP but often with a Dutch influence. English as spoken by Afrikaaners is more clearly influenced by Dutch pronunciation. Just like Australian and American English, there are numberous words adopted from the surrounding African languages, especially for native species of animals and plants. As spoken by black South Africans for whom it is not their first language, it often reflects the pronunciation of their Bantu languages, with purer vowels. Listen, for example, to Nelson Mandela or Bishop Tutu.
Alan Millar of South Africa wrote me with some additional information:
i - as in bit is pronounced 'uh'
long /a:/ in words like 'past', 'dance'
t in middle of words pronounced as d's ('pretty' becomes '/pridi:/')
donga - ditch, from Xhosa
dagga - marijuana, from Xhoixhoi (?)
kak - bullshit, from Afrikaans
fundi - expert, from Xhosa and Zulu umfundi (student).
Dialects also varies slightly from east to west: In Natal (in western South Africa), /ai/ is pronounced /a:/, so that why is pronounced /wa:/.
On top of all this, the dialects of the ethnic group referred to in South Africa as "Coloured" (i.e. of mixed racial backgrounds) have a dialect quite distinct from the dialects of "white" South Africans.
Alan also suggests that South African has a "flatter" (less modulated) sound, similar to that of New Zealand as contrasted with Australian English.
Canada
Canadian English is generally similar to northern and western American English. The one outstanding characteristic is called Canadian rising:
/ai/ and /au/ become /œi/ and /œu/, respectively.
Americans can listen to the newscaster Peter Jennings -- one of the best voices on the telly! -- for these sounds.
One unusual characteristic found in much Canadian casual speech is the use of sentence final "eh?" even in declarative sentences.
Most Canadians retain r's after vowels, but in the Maritimes, they drop their r's, just like their New England neighbors to the south.
Newfoundland has a very different dialect, called Newfie, that seems to be strongly influenced by Irish immigrants:
/th/ and /dh/ > /t/ and /d/ respectively.
am, is, are > be's
I like, we like, etc. > I likes, we likes, etc.
American English
American English derives from 17th century British English. Virginia and Massachusetts, the “original” colonies, were settled mostly by people from the south of England, especially London. The mid Atlantic area -- Pennsylvania in particular -- was settled by people from the north and west of England and by the Scots-Irish (descendents of Scottish people who settled in Northern Ireland). These sources resulted in three dialect areas -- northern, southern, and midland. Over time, further dialects would develop.
The Boston area and the Richmond and Charleston areas maintained strong commercial -- and cultural -- ties to England, and looked to London for guidance as to what was “class” and what was not. So, as the London dialect of the upper classes changed, so did the dialects of the upper class Americans in these areas. For example, in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s, r-dropping spread from London to much of southern England, and to places like Boston and Virginia. New Yorkers, who looked to Boston for the latest fashion trends, adopted it early, and in the south, it spread to wherever the plantation system was. On the other hand, in Pennsylvania, the Scots-Irish, and the Germans as well, kept their heavy r’s.
On the other hand, vocabulary in America was much more open to change than back in the old country. From the Indians, we got the names for many North American animals and plants, and thousands of place names. Here is a partial list (from an exhaustive list compiled by Mark Rosenfelder (www.zompist.com/indianwd.html):
abalone -- Costanoan aulun
bayou -- Choctaw bayuk
caribou -- Algonquian
caucus -- Algonquian caucauasu 'counselor'
chipmunk -- Algonquian chitmunk
hickory -- Algonquian pawcohiccora
high muckamuck -- Chinook hiu muckamuck
hogan -- Navajo hogan
hominy -- Algonquian
how [greeting] -- Dakota háo, Omaha hau
moccasin -- Natick mohkussin
moose -- Natick moos
mugwump -- Natick mugquomp 'captain'
muskrat -- Natick musquash + 'rat'
opossum -- Powhatan aposoum
papoose -- Algonquian papoos
pecan -- Algonquian paccan
persimmon -- Cree pasiminan 'dried fruit'
potlatch -- Nootka patshatl
powwow -- Algonquian
raccoon -- Algonquian arathkone
sachem -- Narraganset sâchim
sasquatch -- Halkomelem sesqec
skunk -- Massachuset squnck
sockeye [salmon] -- Salish sukkegh, or Northern Straits Salish seqey'
squash -- Massachuset asko:o:tasquash
squaw -- Massachuset squa
succotash -- Narraganset msíckquatash
tepee -- Dakota thipi
terrapin -- Algonquian *toolepeiwa
toboggan -- Micmac toba:kan
tomahawk -- Algonquian tamahaac
totem -- Ojibwa ninto:te:m
wampum -- Algonquian wampumpeage
wapiti -- Shawnee wapiti 'white rump'
wickiup -- Fox wikiyapi
wigwam -- Abnaki wikewam
woodchuck -- Algonquian otchek
The slave trade brought many new words from the Caribbean:
barbecue -- Carib barbricot
caiman -- Carib acayuman
canoe -- Caribbean
cassava -- Taino caçábi
chigger -- Cariban chigo
guava -- Caribbean
hammock -- Taino
hurricane -- Carib huracan 'his one leg'
iguana -- Arawak iwana
maize -- Carib mahiz
mangrove -- Taino mangle
papaya -- Carib
pawpaw -- Carib (same source as papaya)
potato -- Taino batata
savannah -- Taino zabana
tobacco -- Arawak tzibatl
From the Indians of Mexico, we adopted many other words, some through Spanish and others directly:
avocado -- Nahuatl ahuacatl
chile, chili -- Nahuatl chilli
chocolate -- Aztec xocolatl
cigar -- Maya sik'ar 'smoke'
cocoa, cacao -- Nahuatl cacahuatl
coyote -- Nahuatl cóyotl
guacamole -- Nahuatl ahuaca-molli 'avocado sauce'
mescal -- Nahuatl mexcalli
mesquite -- Nahuatl mizquitl
mole -- Nahuatl -molli 'sauce'
ocelot -- Nahuatl ocelotl
peyote -- Nahuatl peyotl
shack -- Nahuatl xacalli 'thatched cabin'
shark -- Maya xoc
tamale -- Nahuatl tamalli
tomato -- Nahuatl tomatl
From slaves, we got another set of words, all the way from Africa:
goober -- Bantu -guba
gumbo -- Bantu -gombo 'okra'
okra -- Ashante nkru
yam -- Fulani nyami 'to eat'
Speaking of slaves, southern speech in particular was influenced by slave speech habits, which in turn were based in part on original African languages and in part on the creoles which spread from the African coast and the West Indies. When southerners say “I done lost it,” they are using a slave creole construction.
More willing immigrants added to other dialects. The Germans and the Irish had a huge impact on the colonies and early states. The dialects of central Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and the Dakotas were strongly influenced by the Germans, while the city dialects of the north were influenced by the Irish.
New York City became the door to the United States in the 1800’s, and we see the impact of other immigrants, such as Jews and Italians: words such as spaghetti, pasta, pizza, nosh, schlemiel, yenta; expressions such as wattsamatta and I should live so long. The absence of the th sounds in the original Dutch of NYC, as well as in Italian and Yiddish and the English dialect of the Irish, led to the distinctive dese and dose of New York -- only now starting to diminish.
There is also a western dialect, which developed in the late 1800’s. It is literally a blend of all the dialects, although it is most influenced by the northern midland dialect. Although there are certainly differences between the dialects of, say, Seattle, San Francisco, Phoenix, and Denver, they are far less distinct than, for example, the differences between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh!
Out west, there were also the influences of non-English speaking people, notably the original Spanish speaking populations and the immigrant Chinese (mostly Cantonese). Although they did not influence pronunciation or syntax, they provided a huge number of words. In the domain of food alone, we find tacos, tamales, frijoles, and burritos, chow mein, lo mein, fu yung, and chop suey. Many words from Mexico were actually already adopted from Mexican Indian languages: tomato and coyote spring to mind.
The dialects of the United States (with approximate areas):
Northern
Northern New England (Maine and New Hampshire)
Boston area (eastern Massachussets, Rhode Island)
Northeastern (Connecticut, western Massachusetts, Vermont, upstate New York, lower Michigan, northern Illinois)
New York City area (including most of Long Island and northern New Jersey)
North central (upper Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, the Dakotas)
Northern midland
Philadelphia area (inc. eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey, Delaware, and the Baltimore area)
Pittsburgh area (western Pennsylvania)
Ohio-Plains (Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas...)
Southern midland
Appalachia (western Virginia, West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, eastern Tennessee)
Arkansas-Oklahoma
Southern
Virginia (eastern)
North Carolina (eastern)
South Carolina
Georgia-Florida
Mississippi-Gulf (including Alabama, Louisiana, eastern Texas, western Tennessee, western Kentucky)
West Texas
Western (Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, California)
Southern and south midland:
"drawl" [lengthening, fronting, and raising vowels]
/ai/ > /æ:/ in find, mind
/oi/ > /o/ in boil, oil
/u:/ > /yu:/ in due, tuesday
au/ > /æu/ in out, doubt
/e/ > /ei/ in bed, head
/e/ > /i/ in pen, ten
greasy > greazy
carry > tote
dragged > drug
you > you all, y’all
Southern:
help, bulb, wolf > /hep/, /bœb/, /wuf/
Southern vs south midland:
drop r’s -- strong, sometimes retroflex, r’s
wash: /wa:sh/ -- /wosh/, /worsh/
think: /thingk/ -- /theingk/
egg: /eg/ -- /eig/
moon: /mu:n/ -- /mü:n/
snake doctor -- snake feeder
snap beans -- green beans
goobers -- peanuts
Northern vs north midland:
fog, hog: /fag/, /hag/ -- /fog/, /hog/
roof: /ruf/, /huf/ -- /ru:f/, /hu:f/
cow, house: /kau/, /haus/ -- /kæu/, /hæus/
wash: /wa:sh/ -- /wosh/, /worsh/
darning needle -- snake feeder
pail -- bucket
teeter-totter -- see-saw
fire-fly -- lightning-bug
Eastern New England, Boston area, NYC area
drop r’s
insert transitional r’s, as in law’r’n awdah
Eastern New England, Boston area, Virginia area
/æ/ frequently becomes /a/, e.g. in aunt, dance, glass
Mary-marry-merry (/eir/-/ær/-/er/) distinctions preserved only in r-less areas, rapidly disappearing from American speech
NYC and north midland, and spreading rapidly
loss of voiceless w: which > /wic/
loss of voiceless y: human > /yum'n/
A simplified way of differentiating the dialects is based on the words for two American favorites: the submarine sandwich and the soft drink:
Submarine sandwich
New York: hero
Philadelphia: hoagy
Boston: grinder
Southern: poor-boy
Soft drink
Boston: tonic
Northern and North Midland, east of the Susquehanna: soda
Northern and North Midland, west of the Susquehanna: pop
South and South Midland: cold drink
(not to mention soda pop and soda water, and even coke in Rhode Island!)
The old cities of the eastern US each have their own peculiarities. New York is famous for its addition of central off-glides: pier becomes /pi:'/, pair becomes /pe'/, poor becomes /po'/. The aw (/o/) sound is raised and has a central off-glide as well: ball and coffee approach /bu'l/ and /cu'fi:/! And her becomes /hö'/!
I live in south-central Pennsylvania, which is a great location for hearing various eastern accents. There are actually five in Pennsylvania: In the northern tier, near upstate New York, the accent is Northern. In Pittsburgh and the surrounding area they say /stil/ and /mil/ instead of steel and meal. In the south, near West Virginia, you hear Appalachian, and people still say you’uns and refer to their grandparents as Mammaw and Pappy!. And, in the center of the state is what is called the Susquehanna accent, which is a variation on the Philadelphia area dialect, with a lot of German and Scots-Irish influences. And we can't forget the Philadelphia accent itself:
/i/ often becomes /i:/, as in attitude and gratitude
/i:g/ > /ig/, as in the Philadelphia Eagles, pronounced /ig'lz/
/eig/ > /eg/, so plague is prnounced /pleg/
/u:r/ > /or/, so sure sounds the same as shore
/aul/ > /al/, e.g. owl
/aur/ > /ar/, so our sounds like are
mayor > /meir/
/æ/ > /iæ/, so Ann sounds like Ian
very and ferry become /vœri:/ and /fœri:/
/st/ > /sht/ at the beginning of words, so street is /shtri:t/
l is always "dark," that is, pronounced in the back of the throat
(See Phillyspeak, by Jim Quinn, at www.citypaper.net/articles/081497/article008.sh... for more.)
In the Lancaster area (part of the Susquehanna dialect), the Pennsylvania German influence is obvious in some of the words and sentence structure: We red up the room, outen the light, and throw the cow over the fence some hay. We say that the peanut butter is all, the road is slippy, and I read that wunst (once). A slide is a sliding board, sneakers are all Keds, vacuum cleaners are sweepers, little pieces are snibbles, and if you are looking a bit disheveled, you are furhuddled. And at any local restaurant, they will ask you: Can I get you coffee awhile?
Dialects typically vary in their status. In the colonial and revolutionary times, a Boston, New York, or Virginia accent marked you as a gentleman or lady. In the early part of the 1900’s, the accent of suburban New York was tops: Listen to the recordings of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, for example. Unlike "General American" (the radio and television reporter’s accent), FDR dropped his r’s and drawled his vowels luxuriously.
General American is a rather innocuous blend of Northern and Northern Midland dialect, with none of the peculiar words or pronounciations of any particular area. Today, the Western dialect has established itself, via the entertainment industry, as equal. Even Southern and Southern Midland English, long scorned by Northerners, have reestablished their status, especially after the presidencies of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.
Two dialects are still seen as being substandard by many Americans: Appalachian and Black English. Unlike other dialects, they have considerable grammatical differences that make them sound to the mainstream as simply horrible English.
In Appalachia, for example, they say us’ns and you’ns. Both Appalachian dialect and Black English speakers often double negatives (he ain’t got none), double comparatives and superlatives (more bigger, most biggest, gooder, bestest), over-regularize the past tense (stoled or stealed), and over-regularize plurals (mouses, sheeps, childrens).
Although the prejudice against people from Appalachia is real enough, the long tradition of prejudice against black Americans has been very difficult to eliminate, and that includes the disrespect accorded Black English. Despite some attempts to consider it another language (the Ebonics movement), it is in fact a variation on the Southern dialect, with input from Gullah and other slave creoles, plus the constant creation of slang, especially in northern urban areas ("the Ghetto").
webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/dialectsofenglish.html
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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiberno-English
@темы: Интересности
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12.07.2009 в 15:22-
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12.07.2009 в 15:24-
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12.07.2009 в 15:24заодно теперь ясно, почему я относительно неплохо понимаю валлийцев %)
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13.07.2009 в 16:49-
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13.07.2009 в 16:58