Language Varieties

• Milroy's theory talks about how people had the same socially structured linguistic norms but an increase in geographical mobility disrupts the tightly- knitted community.
• Kachru's Circle Model expresses the idea that the closer someone is to the inner circle, the more accurate their English is.
• Kachru's inner circle refers to the original versions of English being British and American English.
• Kachru's circle model is flawed because it relies of geography and the term 'inner circle' implies superiority which is a problem.
• The Triglassic Situation refers to Old English, Old French and Old Norman merging into Middle English.
• Old English is the merging of Celtic and Latin.
• The Great Vowel Shift was when orthography was beginning to become standardised.
• Hypercorrection is the speaker's insecurity in a social situation.
• Labov studied the post-vocalic rhotic 'r' sound in words such as 'farm'.
• A social network is a social structure made of individuals who are linked by one more connections such as kinship, friendships or relationships.
• MBE stands for Multicultural British English. It describes the idea of an over-arching variety of English that is related to Multicultural London English (MLE).
• Bernstein talks about there being a restricted and elaborated code relating to social class. Working class use restricted code.
• Communities of Practice are a group of people with a shared goal or interest, regardless of class, age, gender etc.
• World Englishes are different sociolinguistic contexts globally influence the use of English in different regions of the world.
• Crystal says that there are reasons for having English as an international Lingua Franca. The reasons are economic reasons, practical reasons and for personal advantage and prestige.
• Canagarajah goes against Kachru’s circle theory and says that “the circles are leaking“ because of human migration and technology connecting people through globalisation.
• Streven's map shows that English is divided and sub-varieties formed in the structure resembling a family tree.
• McArthur's Circle of World English shows clear divisions and then sub- divisions. Shows detailed patterns of the origin of specific language and helps us understand variation.
• Canagarajah criticised McArthur's Circle of World English and said that there is nothing in the centre. Pragmatics is more relevant than World Standard English and people adapt English to fit their purpose.
• Lingua Franca refers to using language as a means of communication and understanding. Using English as a common language.
• L2 language has developed because of the country being a former colony and therefore, adopting English. Or, it has not gone through colonialisation and learns English as a lingua franca.
• English is said to be a killer language because of its hegemonic influence of colonialism and power which leads to teaching English as part of culture and tradition.
• Peter Trudgill focused on how different social classes pronounced "-ing."
• Peter Trudgill found that lower class speakers tended to drop the 'g' sound at the end of "-ing" words.
• Trudgill discovered that the frequency of the "-ing" sound changed based on the formality of the situation.
• Ethnolect refers to the language of an ethnicity group.
• MLE refers to Multicultural London English which is an ethnolect/sociolect which originates from black speakers in London.
• Stenstrom looked at teenage language features found that they include:

  • Irregular turn taking
  • Vernacular language
  • Verbal duelling
• Eckert found that the slang used by teens was to establish youth culture and identity.
• Research by Cheshire concluded that important life events can determine relationships and social attitudes.
• Cheshire found that there was a difference between adult and child language which was caused by life events.
• Milroy focused on how communities and social networks affect language rather than individuals.
• Eckert concluded that age can be defined chronologically, biologically and socially.
• A criticisms of Labov's work is that it assumes that social stratification is still relevant in today's society.
• Eckert found that language differences were more closely linked to communities of practice rather than to specific social differences (class, ethnicity, gender etc.)
• Peter Trudgill's research's aim was to see if there was a correlation between class, gender and the use of non- standard forms.
• Petyt looked at the 'h' dropping in words such as 'horse' and 'hold' in the city of Bradford.
• Petyt concluded that the lower the social class, the more likely the speaker was to drop the 'h' sound.
• Peter Trudgill found that women of all social classes over-reported the number of standard forms they used which showed that they cared about the overt prestige.
• Restricted code (theorised by Bernstein), has a relaxed syntax with simple coordinating conjunctions.