MINISTRY OFHIGHER AND SECONDARY SPECIAL EDUCATION
OF THEREPUBLIC OF UZBEKISTAN
GULISTAN STATEUNIVERSITY
В«TerritorialVarieties of English Pronunciation В»
Gulistan 2008
1.Functional stylistics and dialectology
Theproblem of the work is concerned with varieties of English in different regionsof Britain and various countries of the world. It is quite clear of course thatdialectology is inseparably connected with sociolinguistics, the latter dealswith language variation caused by social difference and differing social needs;it studies the ways language interacts with social reality.
Wepropose now a definition of this field of science: Sociolinguistics is thebranch of linguistics which studies different aspects of language - phonetics, lexicand grammar with reference to their social functions in the society. The aim isto explain language phenomena in connection with factors outside the languagefaculty itself in terms of large-scale social structure and in terms of howpeople use language to communicate with one another.
Thoughin the past fifteen years Sociolinguistics has come of age and is a fastexpanding and increasingly popular subject it should be fair to mention herethat language has always been viewed as a social phenomenon, the most importantmeans of human intercourse. So it is evident that language is indissolublylinked with the society; in it we can see a faithful reflection of the societyin which people live.
Itis quite clear, of course, that such fields of science as linguistics, sociolinguistics,psycholinguistics are inseparably linked in the treatment of various languagestructures. For example, the subject matter of ethnolinguistics graduallymerges into that of anthropological linguistics and that into sociologicallinguistics and that into stylistics, and the subject matter of socialpsychology.
Somescholars consider functional stylistics to be a branch of Sociolinguisticssince it studies the distinctive linguistic characteristics of smaller socialgroupings (such as those due to occupational class, age and sex differences)(38, 68).
Inthe case of English there exists a great diversity in the spoken realization ofthe language and particularly in terms of pronunciation. The varieties of thelanguage are conditioned by language communities ranging from small groups tonations. Now speaking about the nations we refer to the national variants ofthe language. In then - treatment we follow the conception of AD Shweitzer.According to him national language is a historical category evolving fromconditions of economic and political concentration which characterizes theformation of a nation. In other words national language is the language of anation, the standard of its form, the language of a nation's literature.
Itis common knowledge that language exists in two forms: written and spoken. Anymanifestation of language by means of speech is the result of a highlycomplicated series of events. The literary spoken form has its nationalpronunciation standard. A В«standardВ» may be defined as В«a socially acceptedvariety of a language established by a codified norm of correctness В».
Todayall the English-speaking nations have their own national variants ofpronunciation and each of them has peculiar features that distinguish it fromother varieties of English.
Itis generally accepted that for the В«English EnglishВ» it is В«Received PronunciationВ»or RP; for В«The American EnglishВ» - В«General American pronunciationВ»; for the AustralianEnglish - В«Educated AustralianВ» (we shall speak about it in detail later in thebook).
Standardnational pronunciation is sometimes called an В«orthoepic normВ». Somephoneticians, however, prefer the term В«literary pronunciationВ».
Thoughevery national variant of English has considerable differences inpronunciation, lexic and grammar, they all have much in common which gives usground to speak of one and the same language - the English language.
Itwould not be true to say that national standards are fixed and immutable. Theyundergo constant changes due to various internal and external factors.Pronunciation, above all, is subject to all kinds of innovations. Therefore thenational variants of English differ primarily in sound, stress and intonation.It is well-known that there are countries with more than one national language,the most common case being the existence of two national languages ​​on the sameterritory. For this Canada will be an example, where two different languages ​​- Englishand French - form the repertoire of the community. In this case scholars speakabout bilingualism in contrast to monolingualism typical of a country with onenational language. Here arises the problem of interference, that is «linguisticdisturbance which results from two languages ​​(or dialects), coming into contactin a specific situation »[1].
Itmay be well to state that every national variety of the language falls intoterritorial or regional dialects. Dialects are distinguished from each other bydifferences in pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary. We must make clear that,when we refer to varieties in pronunciation only, we use the word В«accentВ» .1 Solocal accents may have many features of pronunciation in common andconsequently are grouped into territorial or area accents. In Britain, forexample, Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cheshire accents form the group of В«Northernaccent В». We must admit, however, that in most textbooks on phonetics the word В«dialectВ»is still used in reference to the regional pronunciation peculiarities, thoughin the latest editions both in this country and abroad the difference in terms В«dialectsand accents В»is generally accepted. As we see, those terms should be treateddifferently when related to different aspects of the language. It is, however,true that there is a great deal of overlap between these terms. For certaingeographical, economic, political and cultural reasons one of the dialectsbecomes the standard language of the nation and its pronunciation or its accent- The received standard pronunciation. This was the case of London dialect,whose accent became the В«RPВ» (В«Received PronunciationВ») of Britain.
Ithas been estimated that the standard pronunciation of a country is nothomogeneous. It changes in relation to other languages, and also togeographical, psychological, social and political influences. In England, forexample, we distinguish В«conservative, general and advanced RPВ».
Asa result of certain social factors in the post-war period - the growingurbanization, spread of education and the impact of mass media, StandardEnglish is exerting an increasing powerful influence on the regional dialectsof Great Britain. Recent surveys of British English dialects have revealed thatthe pressure of Standard English is so strong that many people are bilingual ina sense that they use an imitation of RP with their teachers and lapse intotheir native local accent when speaking among themselves. In this occasion theterm diglossia should be introduced to denote a state of linguistic duality inwhich the standard literary form of a language and one of its regional dialectsare used by the same individual in different social situations. This phenomenonshould not be mixed up with bilingualism that is the command of two differentlanguages. In the case of both diglossia and bilingualism the so-calledcode-switching takes place. In recent years the effect of these forms oflinguistic behavior is studied by sociolinguists and psychologists.
Aswas stated above, language, and especially its oral aspect varies with respectto the social context in which it is used. The social differentiation oflanguage is closely connected with the social differe...
