Language And Language: The Issue Of Languages And Dialects

Do you ever think about the way you speak and why? Well, Paul Robert does an excellent job explaining why people use the dialect they use in Speech Communities. He discusses that people change their use of language throughout their lives to conform to either society or to what kind of person they want to be, or to just conform to who they need to be at a particular moment, in which I agree. People’s choice of language, including myself, are affected by many of their surroundings, such as where they live and grow up at, their peers, and a person’s work place.

Language is an extremely important part of culture, but also spreads, develops, and changes over time. Language is a part of culture and can be used to define a culture. Language can be diffused in many ways. Today there are thousands of languages that are constantly being spoken and spread around the world. An example would be Singapore or South Africa. Singapore and South Africa are two completely different countries located in completely different parts of the world, yet both of their official languages is English. Languages can be spread and changed over

Language is a very important and significant part of individuals’ life. It is considered as one of the best device of social behavior. Language is a means with the help of which people communicate and send a social message to one another. But language does have very special characteristics according to which it changes and very depending on many factors. According to the researchers there are no two people who speak identically. Their languages vary as per their geographic location, age, gender, ethnicity, social background etc. many a time, it is observed that even the members from same family speak differently due to differences in their location ( Biber & Conrad, 2014). For example, in my neighborhood, there is a difference in the ways of

We are all members of a social group and members of `society´ as a whole. People interact in many ways and communication is just about the most common and among the most important. Whatever is meaningful to a group, from their everyday life to their traditions constitutes their very own culture and is generally respected by all group members. Language is only one of such items. For ethnic minority groups that may have a language of their own, their language is a cornerstone in their culture.

On October 22, 2014, Raffaella Zanuttini’s essay, “Our Language Prejudices Don’t Make No Sense,” was published in Pacific Standard magazine. This work was written to draw attention to the false assumptions made about different varieties of the English language. Zanuttini starts her essay by considering, “There are some things you just don’t say in a polite society” (173). With this statement, she is referring to the ridicule made on different varieties of language. Zanuttini offers a few examples of judgements people often make, negative concord demonstrating one of them. Negative concord is a part of the Russian language and many others, but in today’s English, those who speak with negative concord occupy a low position on the socioeconomic scale. Zanuttini then introduces an argument in which people believe the language they speak is inferior. The English language has many recipes and according to Zanuttini, these different variations can be associated with age, ethnic or social identity, and geographical location. Although, there is a prestige language that should be used for business matters. As a final remark, she describes how different varieties of the same language should be viewed. Zanuttini indicates different dialects are like bread. No bread is better than any other, but for certain purposes, different breads should be used. Just like bread, no variation of language should be judged.

“A language variety is basically the style of language that a speaker chooses, whether it be slang, jargon, formal or baby-talk. Social factors are the primary reason that speakers choose different styles,” (Payne). Language allows Cumulative human experience, shared perspective, as well as it allows complex, shared, goal directed behavior. “The physical environment of a conversation or oral presentation plays a large role in the variety of language an individual uses,” (Payne). The difference between how and individual may speak with their grandmother and how the speak to a friend is huge. There is always a time and place in which one should speak in a formal language, other times it is alright to talk informal. Language impacts my life in a huge way and it is mostly in a bad way. I surround myself by people that speak a lot of slang and a lot of curse words so it was bound to affect my language, the way I speak has a lot to do with the people I spend my time

A “first language” is someone's first spoken language as an infant, it is the first language they are taught or the first language they can fluently speak, “slang” is also a form of language; “slang” is an informal way of speaking, words are shortened and abbreviated. “Jargon” is something that is used by people with a profession or by a group and it is hard for others to understand because they are using special words or expressions; an example of people who may use jargon are police officers they use jargon to provide quick information. “Dialect” is a certain form of language which is peculiar to a specific

Language is used as a tool to convey ideas and varies between cultures. It can have certain forms that can make it easier or harder to convey ideas depending on what the speakers know. A dialect is a form of a language that connects people that live in the same part of a country. However, different dialects can still be understood by people that speak the same language. This allows ideas to be spread through different parts of a country and unifies the culture. Language can even unify people internationally if a person learns the language of a country on the other side of the world.

Language attitudes, which include people’s perception about the language variety in their own community and language varieties in other communities, has been one of the crucial topics in sociolinguistics since 1960s.

Source number two is the English Dialect Study- an Overview by Clive Upton found public.oed.com. Cilve explains what dialect is by saying is a variety of English that different from others because the distinctive linguistic features. These different

As different dialects of a language develop they are shared with the people of the area. People often use the dialect of those that they interact with most. To explain this simply, a person who only speaks Chicano English is fine in their daily interactions with other speakers of the dialect but they may have trouble speaking with a Northern Dialect. The spread of language change depends on the factors that are causing it. The natural change in language over time smarts in a small area and spreads to everyone that it comes in contact with.

Among the most important concepts to emerge are those relating to dialects and language standards. Sociolinguists have documented the presence of dialects in every language. These dialects, all of which are legitimate, are associated with educational, economic, social and historical conditions. Hence, even if an individual scrupulously studies all the possible dictionaries of a random language, he would still be somewhat of a stranger to that language since he is unaware of all the dialectal changes.

Language is the universal connection that brings all humans together. We share this common ground to communicate. The three major points that I would like to focus on are: How does language influence our culture? Does it define us, or does it refine us? And lastly, the impact that language has on our societies.

Talking about “dialects”, a term often mentioned along is “standard language”. When being brought into comparison with “dialect”, “standard language” usually serves as a legitimate variant with the highest level of excellence (Bex & Watts, 1999). Though positive in nature, standardization - the procedure of standardizing a language – often raises heated controversy because of its consequences on not only linguistics field but also the society. In the second part of the essay, I will focus on the disadvantages of language standardization.

Language is a system of communication which consists of a set of sounds and written symbols which are used by the people of a particular country or region for talking or writing. It is considered as an art because when used it able to help a person develop or create a certain picture in the mind. Language being an artifact of culture means that it is an interesting thing that is created by the people. It is an aspect of their way of life of the people. It also helps in development of the people as writers and intellects. As a culture it is a people’s way of life and therefore the impact it has to human beings cannot be under looked.