Standard English, dialects and variants.

English as a global language. English as a mother tongue and the national language. English as the official language of the state. English as a foreign language. English as a microsystem of its national variants: British English, American English, Canadian English, Australian English, New Zealand English, etc.

English is the world’s most widely used language. It is spoken as a native language by 300 million people. It is spoken as a mother tongue & it is the national of the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, South Africa. English is recognized as the 2^nd language in India, Wales, Malta, Ghana, Nigeria, Puerto-Rico, Gibraltar. English is taught in many schools all over the world: in Russia, Germany, Japan.

English is lingua-franca of business, science, politics, pop-music, education. Lingua-franca is used as means in communication among people of different mother tongues. More than 50% of scientific literature is English, 60% of radio broadcast is in English. It is the universal language of international aviation. The airlines of 157 nations in the world use English as the language of discourse.

Nowadays, the demand to learn English is great. English is spoken all over the world & the form of English is not identical in all countries where it is spoken. Though, the written form of educated English is practically identical in all countries. The differences b/w different variants of the English language exist esp. in pronunciation & vocabulary with some minor variants in grammar. But there is some norm of the English language recognized by all people who speak English. This norm is Standart English.

Standard English (Standard English vocabulary, Standard English grammar, Received Pronunciation). Variants and dialects as regional varieties of the English language. Dialects in Great Britain, cockney

Standard English is the official language of Great Britain, taught at schools & universities, used by the press, radio & TV, spoken by educated people. Standard English manifests itself on the following levels:

- Phonetic – Received Pronunciation (RP) – is Standard English spoken without any accent

- Grammar – Standard English Grammar (SEG) – grammar in books we study

- Vocabulary – Standard English Vocabulary (SEV) – the layer of the voc.

Standard English is contrasted to Variants & Dialects of Eanglish.

There are 2 variants of Eng on the territory of the British Isles - Scottish & Irish. Some of the most frequently used Scotisizms are: bairn-ребёнок, bonny-красивый, lassy- a girl, glamour- charm, tartan. The main variants of English outside Great Britain are Am. English, English in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

Local dialects are variants of the English language used in some localities and districts, which have no standards. 5 main groups of dialects England and Wales, which include from 2 to 10 dialects: Notheren(3); Midland(10); Eastern(4); Western(2); Southeren(8). There are also 9 dialects in Scotland & 3 in Ireland. Their sphere of application is confined to the oral speech of population in locality. Dialect peculiarities are preserved in the speech of elderly people.

Cockney is the local southern dialect of London. Cockney is lively & its voc. is imaginative & colorful. There are some specifically cockney words and expressions: up the pole = drunk. Its specific feature is “the rhyming slang” in which some words are substituted by other words rhyming with them: boots = daisy roots; feet = plates of meet; hat = fit for tat; drunk = elephant’s trunk; head = a loaf of bread; a cup of tea = a cup of rosy lea.

Main territorial variants of English outside Britain. American English. Vocabulary differences in the language variants

Peculiarities of Am English have been brought about by several historical processes:

1) Some words in AmE retain the m-ng now obsolete in Britain, e.g. (1) fair in AmE retains the m-ng ‘autumn’, (2) to guess - ‘to think, (3) the word thrifty in AmE retains the sense of ‘thriving, prosperous, which is now obsolete in England except in some dialects, (4) dry in AmE means ‘thirsty’, (5) curious – ‘fine’, ‘excellent’. Such words are called Americanisms.

2) To name the unfamiliar fauna & flora of America & unknown things, new words & phrases were formed of familiar Eng elements: e.g. sunfish, blue-jack (a small American oak), white pine, white oak; birds were often named from their calls: flicker, whip-poorwill. Such words and set phrases in AmE are sometimes called Americanisms proper.

3) A great number of words were borrowed from the languages of Indians, & Spanish to name the unfamiliar flora & fauna of the American continent & other unknown things which were beyond the bounds of English experience. the names of animals & plants: raccoon (еhot), scunk (скунс), opossum (onoccyм), hickory (пекан), persimmon (xypмa), squash (кабачок), the names of the items of Native Am culture: wigwam, tomahawk, canoe, moccasin, squaw, succotash.

Spanish borrowings in AmE are rather numerous: cinch, mustang, ranch, canyon, mesa (literary "table», a flat- top mountain), sierra (jagged mountains), and bonanza (prosperity). From Mexican through Spanish came coyote, mezquite, peccary (pigs). The Mexicans contributed: buckaroo (cowman), sombrero, la reata (the lasso), poncho, bronco, corral, mescal, tequila, calabozo (calaboose - coll).

Negro dialects are not numerous: piccaninny (a Negro child), banjo (a Negro instrument), juba (a kind of dance), hoodoo or voodoo (to bring bad luck, a cause of bad luck).

4) Some words changed their m-ng on the Am soil. Some of them have acquired a more general m-ng, e.g. (1) to fix in BrE means "to establish", "to make stable", in AmE it can describe any kind of adjustment or repair, you may even "fix coffee or breakfast"; (2) candy - in England means a particular form of sweetmeat. In America candy is a general name for everything included in BrE term "sweets". Some words in America have been narrowed in m-ng, e.g. gun in England denotes almost any kind of firearm except the pistol. In America it is especially the pistol.

5)Due to the historical and cultural differences (social, political) Br and Am variants use different words for the same objects and phenomena, e.g.: goods-freight; postman-letter carrier; railway-railroad; timber-lumber. Sometimes words existing in both variants differ in the frequency of usage, e.g. Americans prefer to use‘ apartment ’ instead of ‘flat’, ’schedule’ instead of ‘timetable’.

6) American realias - unique names for unique objects and phenomena of Am nature and culture form a separate group of Americanisms, e.g. ‘ gerrymander’ (from Elbridge Gerry (1800) who wanted to redraw electoral districts)