Amber Daniels
Sociolinguistics Fall ‘12
9/23
Chapter two, “Languages, Dialects, and Varieties,” of Wardhaugh’s book introduces and
defines a number of important terms in the study of Sociolinguistics: variety, language, dialect,
vernacular, patois, and koine. These are contrasted with the differences produces in one person’s
speech by both style and accent, the former of which refers to the characteristic of speaking more
or less informally and in different registers suiting different occupations and situations (47-48),
and the latter of which refers merely to the pronunciation of the sounds and is only a superficial
qualifier (43).
Variety may refer to the differences found among language usage or it may refer more
specifically to one such example of these differences, used by a person or group of people.
Language and dialect on the other hand have both more concrete definitions, and more difficulty
in implementing the distinction between them. In general, a language will be said to consist of a
group of dialects divided by either locality or social classes, but this is often complicated by
political concerns and notions of national identity, as is exemplified by the quote, “A language is
a dialect with an army and a navy” (28). Vernacular is a word used for the particular dialect a
person grows up speaking, and patois is another word for a dialect that does not have a literary
tradition – both of these terms carry some negative connotations. Koine is another term for a
lingua franca.
What is considered to be the ‘language’ and what is merely a ‘dialect’ is also
compounded by the value judgments of the speakers, and often the language is defined in terms
of one prestigious dialect which dominates any other, lesser dialects to the point where it is
called the language itself. A special situation which reflects the interwoven nature of dialects is
called a ‘dialect continuum’, which is “a continuum of dialects sequentially arranged over space:
A, B, C, D, and so on. Over large distances the dialects at each end of the continuum may well
be mutually unintelligible, and also some of the intermediate dialects may be unintelligible with
one or both ends, or even with certain other intermediate ones. In such a distribution, which
dialects can be classified together under one language, and how many such languages are there?”
(42). Thus arises dialect geography, the name given to “attempts made to map the distributions
of various linguistic features” (43), isoglosses of a particular feature, and dialect boundaries.
Among attempts to authoritatively quantify the difference between languages is that of Bell’s
seven criteria: standardization, vitality, historicity, autonomy, reduction, mixture, and de facto
norms “(Bell, 1976, pp. 147-57)” (31).
An important concept in this chapter is the influence of “ideological dimensions – social,
cultural, and sometimes political – beyond…purely linguistic ones” (32). Frequent examples are
made between small European countries with intelligible ‘languages’ and the unification of
Chinese ‘dialects’ through one writing system, though they are mutually unintelligible. The
concept of language as ideology is confluent with the concept of language as identity and thus
impacts the politicizing of language teaching in schools. What is considered the ‘norm’ will of
course be taught by preference in any particular social system, and a notion of ‘correct’ versus
‘incorrect’ is formed which motivates the adherents of prescriptivism, or an ‘us’ versus ‘them’
mentality which denounces language varieties other than ‘our own.’
As a group discussion activity, decide what varieties of language that you speak are
languages, dialects, vernacular, patois, or koine, and on the other hand what are your particular
styles/registers and accent, and how do these interact? Do you use one language for certain
registers and a different one for others?