Dialect

In a nutshell

Language evolves and the geographical context influences its development. In Britain, language variation is apparent in different regions and the formation of dialects has therefore occured over decades. What exactly a dialect is and how it differs from language will be explored in this summary.

What is a dialect?

According to the OED, dialect is "a form of speech peculiar to a district; a variety of a language with non-standard vocabulary, pronunciation or idioms". Dialects include the following features: accent (phonology), lexis (words) and grammar. In Britain, there are dialect regions where language can vary significantly; these regional divisions are known as isoglosses.

Dialects evolve over time within regions. Not everyone from Yorkshire will have a strong Yorkshire accent, for example. This is because everyone has their own way of speaking (or personal dialect) known as idiolect which sets a person apart from all other speakers who speak the same dialect. Additionally, idiolect is part of your sociolect. This is language that is attributed to one's social background or status.

Dialect vs language

One way, and a political way at that, to identify a language as a language is to look at a country's official documents; these official documents, backed by official bodies, usually contain language use considered standard, i.e. not a dialect. Traditionally, people holding power (the wealthy and highly educated; the elite) would speak what is considered standard language. Therefore, any forms of English that diverged from the standard language used in schools, the church and the law were considered non-standard English or a dialect.

Historically, if you wanted to be a member of the high society, you had to write in standard English and speak with Received Pronunciation (RP). However, this way of thinking has changed and linguists emphasise that Standard English itself is technically another dialect originally from the South East Midlands.

Note: it's important to differentiate between a descriptivist attitude to language and a prescriptivist attitude to language. The former is about describing language and what is there, without judgement, while the latter is about valuing some forms of language over others, i.e. prescribing what is correct and what is not. Most linguists suggest taking on a descriptivist attitude to language.

Estuary English

In 1983, the linguist, David Rosewarne described Estuary English as being a kind of regional speech, initially thought of as being typical of the lower Thames Valley with an accent that sounds like a combination of cockney and advanced RP (i.e. the Queen's English). At the time, this English variant attracted unfavourable attention from the media. However, other linguists claim the dialect has gradually been spreading out from London for close to 500 years.

Dialect levelling

Many linguists observe the expansion of dialects and claim that there are two variants of dialect in Britain: a traditional dialect spoken by people in particular regions and a modern dialect termed by Trudgill (1988) as the mainstream dialect which is a dialect that shares features and spans the English nation. This does not mean that the different traditional, region-specific dialects are disappearing, but that they are evolving over time and perhaps not as diverse as they used to be. This results in a levelled non-standard dialect.

References
Rosewarne, D. (1983). Estuary English: tomorrow's RP?. English today, 10(1), 3-8.

Trudgill, P. (1988). Norwich revisited: Recent linguistic changes in an English urban dialect. English world-wide, 9(1), 33-49.