The British Dialect

Language varieties come about as the result of natural processes of change in the pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary of people who are geographically or socially separated from one another.

The most prestigious British dialect is Standard English. Standard English is the dialect used by educated people throughout the British Isles. However, most people in Britain have some regional dialect forms in their speech. In general, the higher people are on the social scale, the fewer of these regional forms their speech will exhibit. We will try to present the main ways in which regional dialects differ from Standard English.

1. Dialect variation

Variation within the Standard English

The Standard English dialect is subject to a certain amount of variation:

1. In the south of England speakers use contracted forms of Standard English Doesn’t he like it? , I haven’t got it, while towards the north speaker use, Does he not like it?, I’ve not got it. This is especially true in Cumbria, Scotland, Lancashire, Derbyshire.

2. Most grammatical descriptions of Standard English state that the ID precedes

the DO : She gave the man a book, She gave him it, She gave him the book

-when to is used, the DO can precede : She gave a book to the man, She gave it to him , She gave a book to him, She gave it to the man

- the forms with to are popular in the south but in the north, educated people use: She gave it him, She gave it the man, She gave the book him, She gave a book the man.

3. Regional differences in which participle forms are used after verbs such as need and want: Southern England - I want it washed, It needs washing

Parts of Midlands I want it washing, It needs washing

and northern England

4. Dividing English verbs in two classes according to whether or not they employ auxiliary do in negatives and interrogatives:

He walked. He didn’t walk. Did he walk?

He will go. He won’t go. Will he go?

a) Verbs of second type come into the category of modals and auxiliaries.

Ought to and used to are described sometimes in grammars as being auxiliaries. Older speakers are those that used them. He ought not to go. Ought he go? They used not to go. Used they to go? Young speakers, however use these verbs as being modals. He didn’t ought to go. Did he ought to go? They didn’t use to go? Did they use to go?

b) There is much regional and age-group variation concerning the verb to have. We must distinguish between stative and dynamic meanings of the verb.

I have some coffee in my cupboard. –stative meaning (stable quality or stable state of affairs, the verb meaning to be in possession of)

I have coffee with my breakfast. – dynamic meaning (activity or temporary state of affairs, the verb meaning to consume, to take)

5. Certain verb-particle constructions in English have alternative forms:

a) He turned out the light b) He turned the light out.

Put on your coat! Put your coat on!

In Britain, there is some variation. All speakers accept (a) and (b) as normal English, but those in the south mostly employ (b) forms, whereas Scottish speakers use forms (a).

Non-standard forms

Sometimes is hard to distinguish between features of colloquial style and those of non-standard dialect. In order to make it easier to distinguish them we will briefly present some types of differences:

a) multiple negation:

In Standard English - I didn’t have any dinner./ I had no dinner. Although these sentences have different stylistic connotations, they approximately mean the same thing.

In Standard English we can have one patio at a time, not both, as compared to other English dialects where we can have “multiple negation”: I didn’t have no dinner.

b)other aspects of negation in non-standard forms:

Ain’t is not found in Britain but is very common; it has two functions:

- it corresponds to the negative forms of the present tense of “be” in Standard English: aren’t, isn’t, am not. I ain’t coming. It ain’t there. We ain’t going.

- functions as the negative present tense of have,corresponding to Standard English haven’t, hasn’t. I ain’t done it. He ain’t got one.