Recommended reading: Taitt - chapters 10, 11, 12, 13, Crystal - English around the world, English today

LINGUISTIC VARIETY IN GREAT BRITAIN

Regional dialects in Great Britain

1 What is the difference between an accent and a dialect? What is an isogloss?

2 How many dialects are distinguished in Great Britain? What is the most significant dialectal division?

3 Give examples of words or phrases illustrating the phonological, lexical and grammatical variety.

4 Comment on Cockney as both a regional and social variety.

5 Comment on its general characteristics (status, history, traditions) , phonological features, grammatical structures and lexis of Scottish English, Welsh English and Irish English.

AMERICAN ENGLISH

1 Which varieties of British English led to the development of American English?

2 What varieties of American English do we distinguish?

3 What is General American? In which parts of America is it likely to be heard?

4 What languages did American English borrow from?

5 How does the language of native Americans contribute to changes in British English?

6 What was the attitude towards American English in England?

7 What are Americanerisms?

8 How did Noah Webster contribute to the recognition of American English?

Provide typically British spellings of the following words:

cipher _______, inflection _______, omlet _______, jail _______, anemic _______,

Provide typically American spellings of the following words:

kerb _______, grey _______, pyjamas, _______, plough _______, centre _______,

9 What are the most conspicuous differences between British and American pronunciation?

Provide the American and British English phonetic transcriptions of the following words:

half AE _______, Br E _______

clerk AE _______, Br E _______

been AE _______, Br E _______

ate AE _______, Br E _______

fragile AE _______, Br E _______

lieutenant AE _______, Br E _______

schedule AE _______, Br E _______

medicine AE _______, Br E _______

10 What are the most popular examples of American-British lexical synonyms?

Provide typically British equivalents of the following American terms.

gasoline _______, hood _______, raise _______,second story _______, two weeks ________,

Provide typically American equivalents of the following British terms.

chips ________, queue ________, roundabout ________, sweets ________, pub ________,

11 What is black English vernacular?

12 What are its main grammatical and phonological features?

13 Black and white American English - in what way do they influence each other?

14 What are Africanerisms?

ENGLISH IN CANADA, NEW ZEALND, SOUTH ARICA

PIDGINS AND CREAOLES

1 Characterise Australian English in terms of:

• its origin,

• characteristic vocabulary,

• regional varieties,

• pronunciation.

2 Characterise English spoken in New Zealand. Compare it to Australian English with respect to its roots an linguistic features.

3 Characterise Canadian English in comparison to British and American English.

4 Characterise English spoken in South Africa in terms of its origin and unique features.

5 Discuss the development of pidgins and creoles on the example of English spoken in the West Indies.

6 What is Krio? Would you consider it to be a pidgin, creole, independent language. Explain why?

7 What are the characteristic features of English spoken in India?

8 What is Singlish?

9 What is Tok Pisin?

10 Has English become an international language? What rivals did/ does it have? What are its main advantages and disadvantages as a lingua franca?

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