This document discusses the differences between languages and dialects. It explains that a dialect is a subordinate variety of a language, while the standard variety of a language is the preferred dialect that has been chosen for political, social or economic reasons to serve as the model or norm. The document also discusses criteria for distinguishing languages from dialects, such as standardization, vitality, historicity, autonomy, and de facto norms. Regional dialects are defined as geographical variations in how a language is spoken, while accent refers to differences in pronunciation but not grammar or vocabulary.

1. BIL60204 SOCIOLINGUISTICS IN
LANGUAGE EDUCATION
Week 3

2. SOCIAL DIMENSIONS
• There are several important dimensions for
analysis which relate to the social factors
(Holmes, 2008):
• (i). Solidarity dimension
• (ii). Status dimension
• (iii). Formality dimension
• (iv). Functional dimension

3. • Exactly how do you decide what is a
language and what is a dialect of a
language?
• What criteria can you possibly use to
determine that, whereas variety X is a
language, variety Y is only a dialect of a
language?
LANGUAGE, DIALECTS, AND VARIETIES

4. • What are the essential differences between a
language and a dialect?

5. • Haugen (1966)(cited in Wardhaugh, 2010)
has pointed out that language and dialect
are ambiguous terms.
LANGUAGE AND DIALECTS

6.  A dialect is a subordinate variety of a
language (Wardhaugh, 2010). Exp. Texas
English and Swiss German are dialects of
English and German.
 The language name (i.e., English or German)
is the superordinate term (Wardhaugh,
2010).

7. • As a social norm, a dialect is a language that is
excluded from polite society…It is often equivalent to
nonstandard or even substandard, when such terms
are applied to language, and can connote various
degrees of inferiority, with that connotation of
inferiority carried over to those who speak a dialect
(Haugen, 1966)(cited in Wardhaugh, 2010).

8. The various relationships among languages
and dialects show how the concepts of
‘power’ and ‘solidarity’ is important.
POWER AND SOLIDARITY

9. A language has more power (i.e. status,
money, influence, etc.) than any of its dialects.
It is the powerful dialect but it has become so
because of non-linguistic factors
(Wardhaugh, 2010).
Exp. Standard English, Parisian French.
Why? How?

10. • ‘Solidarity’, on the other hand, is a feeling
of equality that people have with one
another. They have a common interest
around which they will bond (Wardhaugh,
2010).

11. • A feeling of solidarity can lead people to
preserve a local dialect or an endangered
language to resist power, or to insist on
independence.
• Exp.: It accounts for the persistence of local
dialects, the modernization of Hebrew, and
the separation of Serbo-Croatian into Serbian
and Croatian.

12. Example: Relationships between Thai and Lao
languages.
The Laotian understand spoken Thai and they hear Thai
constantly on the radio and television. Educated
Laotian can also read written Thai.
However, Thais do not readily understand spoken Lao
nor do they read the written variety.
Thus, Lao is low prestige language so far as Thais are
concerned; in contrast, Thai has high prestige in Laos.

13. • Is Cantonese a language or a dialect?
QUESTION

14. Bell (1979)(cited in Wardhaugh, 2010)
suggests the following criteria. Useful
in distinguishing different kinds of
languages:
i. Standardization
ii. Vitality
iii.Historicity
iv.Autonomy
v. Reduction
vi.Mixture
vii.de facto norms
LANGUAGE

15. • The process by which a language has been codified
in some way.
• Usually involves the development of such things as
grammars, spelling books, and dictionaries, and
possibly a literature.
I. STANDARDIZATION

16. • Requires that a measure of agreement be
achieved about what is in the language and
what is not. Once it becomes standardized, it
is possible to teach it in a deliberate manner.
• Governments are usually involved.
• An ongoing process as ‘living’ languages
change.
• Exp. English and French.

17. • Refers to the existence of a living community
of speakers.
• Distinguishes languages that are ‘alive’ from
those that are ‘dead’.
• Exp. Latin, Manx and Cornish (Celtic
languages of UK)
II. VITALITY

18.  Refers to the fact that a particular group of
people finds a sense of identity through
using a particular language: it belongs to
them.
 Social, political, religious, or ethnic
ties/factors. Language as a unifying force.
 Exp. German, Russian, Mandarin, Bahasa
Indonesia, Bahasa Malaysia/Melayu.
III. HISTORICITY

19. • A language must be felt (feeling) by its
speakers to be different from other
languages.
• Very subjective notion
• How autonomous is a language?
IV. AUTONOMY

20. • Refers to the fact that a particular variety may
be regarded as a sub-variety rather than as an
independent entity.
• Exp. Cockney, Pidgins
V. REDUCTION

21. • Refers to feelings speakers have about the
‘purity’ of the variety they speak.
• Exp. More important to speakers of French
and German than to speakers of English.
VI. MIXTURE

22. • Refers to the feelings that many speakers
have that there are both ‘good’ speakers
and ‘poor’ speakers and that the good
speakers represent the norms of proper
usage.
VII. DE FACTO NORMS

23. • Sometimes focusing on one particular sub-variety as
representing the ‘best’ usage.
• Standards must not only be established but they
must also be observed.
• Exp. Parisian French, Florentine variety of Italian,
Queen’s English? RP English?

24. • What is a standard language?

25. • The standard variety of any language is
actually only the preferred dialect of that
language (Wardhaugh, 2010). Exp. Parisian
French, Florentine Italian.
STANDARD LANGUAGE

26. • It is the variety that has been chosen for some
reasons, perhaps political, social, religious, or
economic, or some combination of reasons,
to serve as either the model or norm for
other varieties.

27. • It is the empowered variety.
• As a result, the standard is often not called a
dialect at all, but is regarded as the language
itself.

28. • One consequence is that all other varieties
become related to that standard and are
regarded as dialects of that standard with
none of the power of that standard
(Wardhaugh, 2010).

29. QUESTION
• Which dialect constitutes the standard
Malay language?

30. QUESTION
• What is your understanding of the term
“regional dialects”?

31. REGIONAL DIALECTS
• Regional variation in the way a language is spoken is
likely to be one of the most noticeable ways in which
we observe variety in language.
• Regional dialects are distinctive varieties of a
language found in a wide geographical area in which
the language is spoken (Wardhaugh, 2010).
• Geographical based

32. QUESTION
• What is the difference between “dialect” and
“accent”?

33. • The term dialect, particularly when it is used in
reference to regional variation, should not be
confused with the term accent.
• Standard English is spoken in a variety of accents,
often with clear regional and social associations.
• Exp. Accents associated with North America,
Singapore, India, Liverpool (Scouse), Boston, New
York, etc.

34.  However, many people who live in such places show a
remarkable uniformity to one another in their grammar and
vocabulary because they speak Standard English and the
differences are merely those of accent, i.e., how they
pronounce what they say.
 Exp. Received Pronunciation (RP) – “an accent (in UK)
associated with a higher social or educational background,
with the BBC and the professions, and (is) most commonly
taught to students learning English as a foreign language”
(Wakelin, 1977)(cited in Wardhaugh, 2010).
 Other names for RP – Queen’s English, Oxford English, and BBC
English.
 A social accent, rather than a regional one.