Исследование по теме "The development of dialects and accents of English language".

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The development of dialects and accents of English language.

Папакина Екатерина Сергеевна

10класс

МОУ «ШКОЛА №102 ГОРОДА ДОНЕЦКА»

Научный руководитель: Кохан Светлана Анатольевна,

учитель английского языка, специалист высшей категории, старший преподаватель.

1.The purpose of this research is to study the development and characteristics of the existing dialects of England.

2. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that this issue, in spite of its extensive study is interesting and informative, due to the fact that the issue involves a lot of things likelinguistic, geographical and historical material. And getting to write this work, I had to learn many scientific publications on the history and geography of England. And combining the history of England with geographical features, I tried to consider, analyze and describe the different dialects.

3.The subject of the work is the research of the development of the English dialects.

4. Working hypothesis: If they enter some lessons into the school curriculum for English language to review the history of the origin of language and the origin of a particular dialect of England with the historical events connected with the origin and existence of this dialect, I think it will be clearer and more interesting for student to learn the country which language they are studying. They’ll want to read more literature on the history of England, and as a result to know better the daily life, morals, culture and to love this country.

5. Our work embraces the majority of British dialects, i.e. Geordie, Yorkshire, Scouse, Derbyshire, Nottingham, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Black Country, Brummie, Norfolk, Estuary English, Cockney, Cornwall, Scottish, Wenglish and Hiberno-English. The information about all of them was taken from magazines, newspapers, books, scientific works and websites. The main source of information was Internet.

6. Language by its very nature is dynamic and constantly evolving, new words and expressions are almost daily being absorbed and some older words are falling into disuse. In the course of time dialects are mixing and their number reduces progressively. But this doesn’t mean that dialects will die out someday. They will continue to exist and develop with people’s help. That’s why it’s very important to study British dialects.

5. The results of the questionnaire show the interest of pupils in this question.

CONTENT

Introduction…………………………………………………………………..4

The development of dialects and accents of English language……………..6

Chapter1.The origins of English dialects…………………………………....6

1.1 Before English (Prehistory - c. 500AD)……………………………….......6

1. Indo-European……………………………………………………………....6

2. Spread of Indo-European Languages……………………………………….6

3. Germanic……………………………………………………………………7

4. The Celts…………………………………………………………………….8

5. The Romans………………………………………………………………….8

1.2. Old English (c. 500 - c. 1100)……………………………………………..9

1. Invasions of Germanic Tribes……………………………………………….9

2. The Vikings………………………………………………………………...10

1.3 Middle English……………………………………………………………10

1. Norman Conquest………………………………………………………...10

2. French (Anglo-Norman) Influence……………………………………….11

3. Middle English after the Normans. ………………………………………..12

4. Resurgence of English…………………………………………………….12

1.4. Early modern English (c. 1500 - c. 1800)……………………………...13

1. The English Renaissance………………………………………………….13

2. Printing Press and Standardization………………………………………13

3. International Trade………………………………………………………. 14

1.5. Late modern English (c. 1800 - Present)……………………………….14

1.The Industrial and Scientific Revolution.…………………………………..14

2. Colonialism and the British Empire……………………………………...15

3. Present Day………………………………………………………………..15

1.6. English today……………………………………………………………16

Chapter2.Dialects and accents of English…………………………………..17

2.1 What is dialect?......................................................................................17

2.2 British dialects…………………………………………………………...17

2.3 The classification of British dialects according to their location……….18

1. England…………………………………………………………………….18

2. Scotland……………………………………………………………………23

3. Wales……………………………………………………………………….23

4. Ireland……………………………………………………………………...23

Conclusion……………………………………………………………………24

Sources and links……………………………………………………………..25

Appendix……………………………………………………………………..26

Introduction.

English is the language of Shakespeare and the language of Chaucer. It's spoken in dozens of countries around the world, from the United States to a tiny island named Tristan da Cunha. It reflects the influences of centuries of international exchange, including conquest and colonization, from the Vikings through the 21st century. 

English is actually an unusual language.  Already a blend of early Frisian and Saxon, it absorbed Danish and Norman French, and later added many Latin and Greek technical terms.  In the US, Canada, Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and elsewhere, it absorbed terms for indigenous plants, animals, foodstuffs, clothing, housing, and other items from native and immigrant languages.  Plus, the various dialects, from Cockney to Jamaican, and innumerable sources of slang, from Polari to hip hop, continue to add novel terms and expressions to the mix.  It is no surprise to hear from people learning English: “English has too many words!”

The English language has its origin in the language of the old Germanic tribes (Angles, Saxons and Jutes), migrated from the continent in the V-VI centuries in Britain inhabited by the Celts. The interaction of tribal dialects in the formation of the English nation has led to the formation of regional dialects.

But in Great Britain there are many varieties of this language, called dialects or accents.

It’s quite a difficult task to draw a line between the concept of the language version and the concept of the dialectal speech, because by the definition, both of them can be described as a variant of pronunciation of the language that is specific to a particular group of people. But we must not forget that the main difference lies in the fact that some language versions, in this case English, is already proving to be started as independent languages (others will inevitably follow suit), which never happens with the dialectal speech.

The study of dialects gives an inexhaustible material not only to penetrate into the deepest roots of language, its historical past, but allows sensibly, without bias and one-sidedness, evaluate and understand the characteristics of the formation and development of literary standards, different social and professional dialects and linguistic variants. Only keeping dialectal data makes it possible to understand not only the so-called "deviations" from the rules of pronunciation and grammar, but also the rules themselves, and can serve as a solid foundation for the study of the formation and the meanings of words.

There is a view that the dialect is a "vulgar language" used bythe"uneducated" sectors of society. However, such a judgment is unhistorical and untrue in fact, because, firstly, the literary norm, as a rule, is formed on the basis of one or several local dialects; secondly, the linguistic features of any local dialect are caused not by "negligence" of its speechcarrier but strict historical laws.

It would be primitive and it is wrong to think of a dialectcarrier asa completely uniform which entirely consists of dialects on all linguistic levels (phonetics, grammar, vocabulary) and all speech situations. Language is a complex social phenomenon; it exists in human society, in the actual practice of everyday speech of people belonging to different social, professional, territorial formations. Widespread literary standard throughout the UK, the interdialectic contacts, the influence of the professional and social linguistic patterns,inheriting in certain segments of speaking, the impact of radio and television, all these defines the ultimate speech of individual carriers of dialect. Even the speech of individual carriers of dialect within a village or community has its specific features.

The purpose of this research is to study the development and characteristics of the existing dialects of England.

The scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that this issue, in spite of its extensive study is interesting and informative for the future linguists, due to the fact that the issue involves a lot of things likelinguistic, geographical and historical material. And getting to write this work, I had to learn many scientific publications on the history and geography of England. And combining the history of England with geographical features, I tried to consider, analyze and describe the different dialects.

The objects of study of this work are linguistic variations and dialectal speech at a certain period in the history of England and of the English language.

The subject of research is the research the development of the English dialects.

Working hypothesis: If they entersome lessons into the school curriculum for English language to review the history of the origin of language and the origin of a particular dialect of England with the historical events connected with the origin and existence of this dialect, I think it will be clearer and more interesting for student to learn the country which language they are studying. They’ll want to read more literature on the history ofEngland, and as a result to know better the daily life, morals,culture and to love this country.

Academic work consists of an introduction, 2 chapters, conclusion, sources and links, appendix.

The development of dialects and accents of English language.

Chapter 1.The origins of English.

English began as a dialect of Germanic, the language of the ancient Germans. The origins of English go back to the middle of the fifth century when the Germanic tribes (the Angles, the Saxons, the Jutes) began to settle in Britain. English received its name from the name of the Angles. The languages of the Celtic tribes (the Britons, the Scots, thePicts) who settled in Britain before that were the basis on which Welsh, Scottish and Irish developed.

The history of English is divided into three main periods: Old English (before 1100); Middle English (from 1100 till 1500); Modern English (after 1500). (The dates are approximate.) The changes that the English language underwent in each historical period did not start or end simultaneously throughout the country.( Appendix,pic.1)

1.1 BEFORE ENGLISH (Prehistory - c. 500AD)

1.Indo-European.

The English language, and indeed most European languages, traces its original roots back to a Neolithic (late Stone Age) people known as the Indo-Europeans or Proto-Indo-Europeans, who lived in Eastern Europe and Central Asia from some time after 5000 BC (different hypotheses suggest various different dates anywhere between the 7th and the 3rd millennium BC).

We do not know exactly what the original Indo-European language was like, as no writings exist from that time (the very earliest examples of writing can be traced to Sumeria in around 3000 BC), so our knowledge of it is necessarily based on conjecture, hypothesis and reconstruction. Using the “comparative method”, though, modern linguists have been able to partially reconstruct the original language from common elements in its daughter languages. It is thought by many scholars that modern Lithuanian may be the closest to (i.e. the least changed from) the ancient Indo-European language and it is thought to retain many features of Proto-Indo-European now lost in other Indo-European languages. (Appendix, pic.2)

2. Spread of Indo-European Languages.

Sometime between 3500 BC and 2500 BC, the Indo-Europeans began to fan out across Europe and Asia, in search of new pastures and hunting grounds, and their languages developed - and diverged - in isolation. By around 1000 BC, the original Indo-European language had split into a dozen or more major language groups or families, the main groups being:

• Hellenic

• Italic

• Indo-Iranian

• Celtic

• Germanic

• Armenian

• Balto-Slavic

• Albanian

These broad language groups in turn divided over time into scores of new languages, from Swedish to Portuguese to Hindi to Latin to Frisian. So, it is astounding but true that languages as diverse as Gaelic, Greek, Farsi and Sinhalese all ultimately derive from the same origin. The common ancestry of these diverse languages can sometimes be seen quite clearly in the existence of cognates (similar words in different languages), and the recognition of this common ancestry of Indo-European languages is usually attributed to the amateur linguist Sir William Jones in 1786. (Appendix, pic.3.)

3. Germanic.

The branch of Indo-European we are most interested in is Germanic (although the Hellenic-Greek branch and Italic-Latin branch, which gave rise to the Romance languages, also became important later). The Germanic, or Proto-Germanic, language group can be traced back to the region between the Elbe river in modern Germany and southern Sweden some 3,000 years ago.(Appendix, pic.4.)

Jacob Grimm (of fairy tales fame, but also a well-respected early philologist) pointed out that, over time, certain consonants in the Germanic family of languages have shifted somewhat from the Indo-European base. Thus, Germanic words like the English foot, West Frisian foet, Danish fod, Swedish fot, etc, are in fact related to the Latin ped, Lithuanian peda, Sanskrit pada, etc, due to the shifting of the “p” to “f” and the “d” to “t”. Several other consonants have also shifted (“d” to “t”, “k” to “h”, “t” to “th”, etc), disguising to some extent the common ancestry of many of the daughter languages of Indo-European. This process explains many apparent root differences in English words of Germanic and Latinate origin (e.g. father and paternal, ten anddecimal, horn and cornucopia, three and triple, etc).

The early Germanic languages themselves borrowed some words from the aboriginal (non-Indo-European) tribes which preceded them, particularly words for the natural environment (e.g. sea, land, strand, seal, herring); for technologies connected with sea travel (e.g. ship, keel, sail, oar); for new social practices (e.g. wife, bride, groom); and for farming or animal husbandry practices (e.g. oats, mare, ram, lamb, sheep, kid,bitch, hound, dung).

The Germanic group itself also split over time as the people migrated into other parts of continental Europe:

• North Germanic, which evolved into Old Norse and then into the various Scandinavian languages, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and Icelandic (but not Finnish or Estonian, which are Uralic and not Indo-European languages);

• East Germanic, spoken by peoples who migrated back to eastern and southeastern Europe, and whose three component language branches, Burgundian, Vandalic and Gothic (a language spoken throughout much of eastern, central and western Europe early in the first millennium AD), all died out over time;

• West Germanic, the ancestor of Old High German, Old Saxon, Old Frisian, Old Low Franconian and others which in turn gave rise to modern German, Dutch, Flemish, Low German, Frisian, Yiddish and, ultimately, English.

Thus, we can say that English belongs to the West Germanic branch of the Indo-European family of languages.

4.The Celts .

The earliest inhabitants of Britain about which anything is known are the Celts (the name from the Greek keltoi meaning "barbarian"), also known as Britons, who probably started to move into the area sometime after 800 BC. By around 300 BC, the Celts had become the most widespread branch of Indo-Europeans in Iron Age Europe, inhabiting much of modern-day Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Austria, the Balkans, Eastern Europe and also Britain.

Parts of Scotland were also inhabited from an early time by the Picts, whose Pictish language was completely separate from Celtic and probably not an Indo-European language at all. The Pictish language and culture was completely wiped out during the Viking raids of the 9th Century AD, and the remaining Picts merged with the Scots. Further waves of Celtic immigration into Britain, particularly between 500 BC and 400 BC but continuing at least until the Roman occupation, greatly increased the Celtic population in Britain, and established a vibrant Celtic culture throughout the land.(Appendix, pic.5.)

The Celts have actually had very little impact on the English language. Having said that, many British place names have Celtic origins, including Kent,York, London, Dover, Thames, Avon, Trent, Severn, Cornwall and many more. The Celtic language survives today only in the Gaelic languages of Scotland and Ireland, the Welsh of Wales, and the Breton language of Brittany.

5. The Romans.

The Romans first entered Britain in 55 BC under Julius Caesar, although they did not begin a permanent occupation until 43 AD, when Emperor Claudius sent a much better prepared force to subjugate the fierce British Celts. Despite a series of uprisings by the natives (including that of Queen Boudicca, or Boadicea in 61AD), Britain remained part of the Roman Empire for almost 400 years, and there was a substantial amount of interbreeding between the two peoples, although the Romans never succeeded in penetrating into the mountainous regions of Wales and Scotland.

Although this first invasion had a profound effect on the culture, religion, geography, architecture and social behaviour of Britain, the linguistic legacy of the Romans’ time in Britain was, like that of the Celts, surprisingly limited. This legacy takes the form of less than 200 “loanwords” coined by Roman merchants and soldiers, such as win (wine), butere (butter), caese (cheese),piper (pepper), candel (candle), cetel (kettle), disc (dish), cycene(kitchen), ancor (anchor), belt (belt), sacc (sack), catte (cat),plante (plant), rosa (rose), cest (chest), pund (pound), munt(mountain), straet (street), wic (village), mil (mile), port (harbour),weall (wall), etc. However, Latin would, at a later time come to have a substantial influence on the language.

Latin did not replace the Celtic language in Britain as it had done in Gaul, and the use of Latin by native Britons during the period of Roman rule was probably confined to members of the upper classes and the inhabitants of the cities and towns. The Romans, under attack at home from Visigoths, Ostrogoths and Vandals, abandoned Britain to the Celts in 410 AD, completing their withdrawal by 436 AD. Within a remarkably short time after this withdrawal, the Roman influence on Britain, in language as in many other walks of life, was all but lost, as Britain settled in to the so-called Dark Ages.

1.2.OLD ENGLISH (c. 500 - c. 1100)

1. Invasions of Germanic Tribes

More important than the Celts and the Romans for the development of the English language, though, was the succession of invasions from continental Europe after the Roman withdrawal. No longer protected by the Roman military against the constant threat from the Picts and Scots of the North, the Celts felt themselves increasingly vulnerable to attack. Around 430AD, the ambitious Celtic warlord Vortigern invited the Jutish brothers Hengest and Horsa (from Jutland in modern-day Denmark), to settle on the east coast of Britain to form a bulwark against sea raids by the Picts, in return for which they were "allowed" to settle in the southern areas of Kent, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

But the Jutes were not the only newcomers to Britain during this period. Other Germanic tribes soon began to make the short journey across the North Sea. The Angles (from a region called Angeln, the spur of land which connects modern Denmark with Germany) gradually began to settle in increasing numbers on the east coast of Britain, particularly in the north and East Anglia. The Frisian people, from the marshes and islands of northern Holland and western Germany, also began to encroach on the British mainland from about 450 AD onwards. Still later, from the 470s, the war-like Saxons (from the Lower Saxony area of north-western Germany) made an increasing number of incursions into the southern part of the British mainland. Over time, these Germanic tribes began to establish permanent bases and to gradually displace the native Celts.

(Appendix, pic.6.)

All these peoples all spoke variations of a West Germanic tongue, similar to modern Frisian, variations that were different but probably close enough to be mutually intelligible.

The Germanic tribes settled in seven smaller kingdoms, known as the Heptarchy: the Saxons in Essex, Wessex and Sussex; the Angles in East Anglia, Mercia and Northumbria; and the Jutes in Kent.(Appendix, pic.7.)

Although the various different kingdoms waxed and waned in their power and influence over time, it was the war-like and pagan Saxons that gradually became the dominant group. The new Anglo-Saxon nation, once known in antiquity as Albion and then Britannia under the Romans, nevertheless became known asAnglaland or Englaland (the Land of the Angles), later shortened to England, and its emerging language asEnglisc (now referred to as Old English or Anglo-Saxon, or sometimes Anglo-Frisian). It is impossible to say just when English became a separate language, rather than just a German dialect, although it seems that the language began to develop its own distinctive features in isolation from the continental Germanic languages, by around 600AD. Over time, four major dialects of Old English gradually emerged: Northumbrian in the north of England, Mercian in the midlands, West Saxon in the south and west, and Kentish in the southeast.

2. The Vikings

By the late 8th Century, the Vikings (or Norsemen) began to make sporadic raids on the east cost of Britain. They came from Denmark, Norway and Sweden, although it was the Danes who came with the greatest force. (Appendix, pic.8.)

Viking expansion was finally checked by Alfred the Great and, in 878, a treaty between the Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings established the Danelaw, splitting the country along a line roughly from London to Chester, giving the Norsemen control over the north and east and the Anglo-Saxons the south and west. Although the Danelaw lasted less than a century, its influence can be seen today in the number of place names of Norse origin in northern England (over 1,500), including many place names ending in “-by”, “-gate”, “-stoke”, “-kirk”, “-thorpe”, “-thwaite”, “-toft” and other suffixes (e.g. Whitby, Grimsby, Ormskirk, Scunthorpe,Stoke Newington, Huthwaite, Lowestoft, etc), as well as the “-son” ending on family names (e.g. Johnson, Harrison, Gibson, Stevenson, etc) as opposed to the Anglo-Saxon equivalent “-ing” (e.g. Manning, Harding, etc).

The Vikings spoke Old Norse, an early North Germanic language not that dissimilar to Anglo-Saxon and roughly similar to modern Icelandic (the word viking actually means “a pirate raid” in Old Norse). Accents and pronunciations in northern England even today are heavily influenced by Old Norse, to the extent that they are largely intelligible in Iceland.

1.3 MIDDLE ENGLISH (c. 1100 - c. 1500)

1. Norman Conquest

The event that began the transition from Old English to Middle English was the Norman Conquest of 1066, when William the Conqueror (Duke of Normandy and, later, William I of England) invaded the island of Britain from his home base in northern France, and settled in his new acquisition along with his nobles and court.

The conquering Normans were themselves descended from Vikings who had settled in northern France about 200 years before (the very word Norman comes originally fromNorseman). However, they had completely abandoned their Old Norse language and wholeheartedly adopted French (which is a so-called Romance language, derived originally from the Latin, not Germanic, branch of Indo-European), to the extent that not a single Norse word survived in Normandy.(Appendix, pic.9.)

However, the Normans spoke a rural dialect of French with considerable Germanic influences, usually called Anglo-Norman or Norman French, which was quite different from the standard French of Paris of the period, which is known as Francien. The differences between these dialects became even more marked after the Norman invasion of Britain, particularly after King John and England lost the French part of Normandy to the King of France in 1204 and England became even more isolated from continental Europe.

Anglo-Norman French became the language of the kings and nobility of England for more than 300 years. However, the peasantry and lower classes (the vast majority of the population, an estimated 95%) continued to speak English - considered by the Normans a low-class, vulgar tongue - and the two languages developed in parallel, only gradually merging as Normans and Anglo-Saxons began to intermarry. It is this mixture of Old English and Anglo-Norman that is usually referred to as Middle English.

2. French (Anglo-Norman) Influence.

The Normans bequeathed over 10,000 words to English (about three-quarters of which are still in use today), including a huge number of abstract nouns ending in the suffixes “-age”, “-ance/-ence”, “-ant/-ent”, “-ment”, “-ity” and “-tion”, or starting with the prefixes “con-”, “de-”, “ex-”, “trans-” and “pre-”.

Sometimes French and Old English components combined to form a new word, such as the French gentle and the Germanic mancombined to formed gentleman. Sometimes, both English and French words survived, but with significantly different senses (e.g. the Old English doom and French judgement, hearty and cordial,house and mansion, etc).

But, often, different words with roughly the same meaning survived, and a whole host of new, French-based synonyms entered the English language (e.g. the French maternity in addition to the Old Englishmotherhood, infant to child, amity to friendship, battle to fight, liberty to freedom, labour to work, desire towish, commence to start, conceal to hide, divide to cleave, close to shut, demand to ask, chamber toroom, forest to wood, power to might, annual to yearly, odour to smell, pardon to forgive, aid to help, etc). Over time, many near synonyms acquired subtle differences in meaning (with the French alternative often suggesting a higher level of refinement than the Old English), adding to the precision and flexibility of the English language. Even today, phrases combining Anglo-Saxon and Norman French doublets are still in common use (e.g. lawand order, lord and master, love and cherish, ways and means, etc). Bilingual word lists were being compiled as early as the 13th Century.

3. Middle English after the Normans.

During these Norman-ruled centuries in which English as a language had no official status and no regulation, English had become the third language in its own country. Within these, though, a myriad distinct regional usages and dialects grew up, and indeed the proliferation of regional dialects during this time was so extreme that people in one part of England could not even understand people from another part just 50 miles away.

The universities of Oxford and Cambridge were founded in 1167 and 1209 respectively, and general literacy continued to increase over the succeeding centuries, although books were still copied by hand and therefore very expensive. Over time, the commercial and political influence of the East Midlands and London ensured that these dialects prevailed (London had been the largest city for some time, and became the Norman capital at the beginning of the 12th Century), and the other regional varieties came to be stigmatized as lacking social prestige and indicating a lack of education. The 14th Century London dialect of Chaucer, although admittedly difficult, is at least recognizable to us moderns as a form of English, whereas text in the Kentish dialect from the same period looks like a completely foreign language.

It was also during this period when English was the language mainly of the uneducated peasantry that many of the grammatical complexities and inflections of Old English gradually disappeared. By the 14th Century, noun genders had almost completely died out, and adjectives, which once had up to 11 different inflections, were reduced to just two (for singular and plural) and often in practice just one, as in modern English. The pronounced stress, which in Old English was usually on the lexical root of a word, generally shifted towards the beginning of words, which further encouraged the gradual loss of suffixes that had begun after the Viking invasions, and many vowels developed into the common English unstressed “schwa” (like the “e” in taken, or the “i” inpencil). As inflectons disappeared, word order became more important and, by the time of Chaucer, the modern English subject-verb-object word order had gradually become the norm, and as had the use of prepositions instead of verb inflections.

4. Resurgence of English.

It is estimated that up to 85% of Anglo-Saxon words were lost as a result of the Viking and particularly the Norman invasions, and at one point the very existence of the English language looked to be in dire peril. In 1154, even the venerable “Anglo-Saxon Chronicle”, which for centuries had recorded the history of the English people, recorded its last entry. But, despite the shake-up the Normans had given English, it showed its resilience once again, and, two hundred years after the Norman Conquest, it was English not French that emerged as the language of England.

There were a number of contributing factors. The English, of necessity, had become “Normanized”, but, over time, the Normans also became “Anglicized”, particularly after 1204 when King John’s ineptness lost the French part of Normandy to the King of France and the Norman nobles were forced to look more to their English properties. Increasingly out of touch with their properties in France and with the French court and culture in general, they soon began to look on themselves as English.

1.4. EARLY MODERN ENGLISH (c. 1500 - c. 1800)

1. The English Renaissance.

The next wave of innovation in English vocabulary came with the revival of classical scholarship known as the Renaissance. The English Renaissance roughly covers the 16th and early 17th Century (the European Renaissance had begun in Italy as early as the 14th Century), and is often referred to as the “Elizabethan Era” or the “Age of Shakespeare” after the most important monarch and most famous writer of the period.

Latin (and to a lesser extent Greek and French) was still very much considered the language of education and scholarship at this time, and the great enthusiasm for the classical languages during the English Renaissance brought thousands of new words into the language, peaking around 1600. A huge number of classical works were being translated into English during the 16th Century, and many new terms were introduced where a satisfactory English equivalent did not exist.

By the end of the 16th Century, English had finally become widely accepted as a language of learning, equal if not superior to the classical languages.

2. Printing Press and Standardization.

The final major factor in the development of Modern English was the advent of the printing press, one of the world’s great technological innovations, introduced into England by William Caxton in 1476 .

At the time of the introduction of printing, there were five major dialect divisions within England - Northern, West Midlands, East Midlands (a region which extended down to include London), Southern and Kentish - and even within these demarcations, there was a huge variety of different spellings. The Chancery of Westminster made some efforts from the 1430s onwards to set standard spellings for official documents. Chancery Standard contributed significantly to the development of a Standard English, and the political, commercial and cultural dominance of the "East Midlands triangle" (London-Oxford-Cambridge) was well established long before the 15th Century, but it was the printing press that was really responsible for carrying through the standardization process. With the advent of mass printing, the dialect and spelling of the East Midlands (and, more specifically, that of the national capital, London, where most publishing houses were located) became the de facto standard and, over time, spelling and grammar gradually became more and more fixed.

3. International Trade.

While all these important developments were underway, British naval superiority was also growing. In the 16th and 17th Century, international trade expanded immensely, and loanwords were absorbed from the languages of many other countries throughout the world, including those of other trading and imperial nations such as Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands.(Appendix,pic.10)Amongthesewere:

• French(e.g. bizarre, ballet, sachet, crew, progress,chocolate, salon, duel, brigade, infantry, comrade,volunteer, detail, passport, explorer, ticket, machine,cuisine, prestige, garage, shock, moustache, vogue);

• Italian(e.g. carnival, fiasco, arsenal, casino, miniature,design, bankrupt, grotto, studio, umbrella, rocket, ballot,balcony, macaroni, piano, opera, violin);

• Spanish (e.g. armada, bravado, cork, barricade, cannibal);

• Portuguese (e.g. breeze, tank, marmalade, molasses);

• German(e.g. kindergarten, noodle, bum, dumb, dollar,muffin, hex, wanderlust, gimmick, waltz, seminar, ouch!);

• Dutch/Flemish(e.g. bale, spool, stripe, holster, skipper,dam, booze, fucking, crap, bugger, poll, scrap, curl, scum,knapsack, sketch, landscape, easel, smuggle, caboose,yacht, cruise, dock, buoy, keelhaul, reef, bluff, freight, leak,snoop, spook, sleigh, brick, pump, boss, lottery);

• Basque (e.g. bizarre, anchovy);

• Norwegian (e.g. maelstrom, iceberg, ski, slalom, troll);

• Icelandic (e.g. mumps, saga, geyser);

• Finnish (e.g. sauna);

• Persian (e.g. shawl, lemon, caravan, bazaar, tambourine);

• Arabic(e.g. harem, jar, magazine, algebra, algorithm, almanac, alchemy, zenith, admiral, sherbet, saffron, coffee, alcohol, mattress, syrup,hazard, lute);

• Turkish (e.g. coffee, yoghurt, caviar, horde, chess, kiosk, tulip, turban);

• Russian (e.g. sable);

• Japanese (e.g. tycoon, geisha, karate, samurai);

• Malay (e.g. bamboo, amok, caddy, gong, ketchup);

• Chinese (e.g. tea, typhoon, kowtow).

• Polynesian (e.g. taboo).

1.5. LATE MODERN ENGLISH (c. 1800 - Present)

1. The Industrial and Scientific Revolution.

Most of the innovations of the Industrial Revolution of the late 18th and early 19th Century were of British origin, including the harnessing of steam to drive heavy machinery, the development of new materials, techniques and equipment in a range of manufacturing industries, and the emergence of new means of transportation (e.g. steamships, railways). At least half of the influential scientific and technological output between 1750 and 1900 was written in English. Another English speaking country, the USA, continued the English language dominance of new technology and innovation with inventions like electricity, the telegraph, the telephone, the phonograph, the sewing machine, the computer, etc.

The industrial and scientific advances of the Industrial Revolution created a need for neologisms to describe the new creations and discoveries. Many more new words were coined for the new products, machines and processes that were developed at this time (e.g. train, engine, reservoir,pulley, combustion, piston, hydraulic, condenser, electricity, telephone, telegraph, lithograph, camera, etc). In some cases, old words were given entirely new meanings and connotation (e.g. vacuum, cylinder, apparatus, pump, syphon, locomotive, factory, etc), and new words created by amalgamating and fusing existing English words into a descriptive combination were particularly popular (e.g. railway, horsepower, typewriter,cityscape, airplane, etc).

2. Colonialism and the British Empire

British colonialism had begun as early as the 16th Century, but gathered speed and momentum between the 18th and 20th Century. At the height of the British Empire (in the late 19th and early 20th Century), Britain ruled almost one quarter of the earth’s surface, from Canada to Australia to India to the Caribbean to Egypt to South Africa to Singapore.(Appendix, pic.11)

But colonialism was a two-way phenomenon, and Britain’s dealings with these exotic countries, as well as the increase in world trade in general during this time, led to the introduction of many foreign loanwords into English. For instance, Australia gave us a set of words (not particularly useful outside the context of Australia itself) like boomerang, kangaroo, budgerigar, etc. But India gave us such everyday words as pyjamas, thug, bungalow, cot,jungle, loot, bangle, shampoo, candy, tank and many others.

The rise of so-called “New Englishes” (modern variants or dialects of the language, such as Australian English, South African English, Caribbean English, South Asian English, etc) raised.

3. Present Day.

The language continues to change. Neologisms are being added all the time, including recent inclusions such as metrosexual, McJob, McMansion, wussy, bling, nerd, pear-shaped,unplugged, fracking, truthiness, locavore, parkour, sexting, crowdsourcing,regift, meme, selfie, earworm, meh, diss, suss, emo, twerk, schmeat, chav,ladette, punked,vaping, etc, etc.

In recent years, there has been an increasing trend towards using an existing words as a different part of speech, especially the “verbification” of nouns (e.g. the word verbify is itself a prime example; others include to thumb, to parrot, toemail, to text, to google, to medal, to critique, to leverage, to sequence, tointerface, to tase, to speechify, to incentivize, etc), although some modern-sounding verbs have surprisingly been in the language for centuries (e.g. toauthor, to impact, to message, to parent, to channel, to monetize, to mentor, etc). "Nounification" also occurs, particularly in business contexts (e.g. an ask, a build, a solve, a fail, etc).

In our faddy, disposable, Internet-informed, digital age, there are even word trends that appear to be custom-designed to be short-lived and ephemeral, words and phrases that are considered no longer trendy once they reach anything close to mainstream usage. Examples might be bae,onfleek, YOLO (you only live once), fanute, etc. Resources like the Urban Dictionary exist for the rest of us to keep track of such fleeting phenomena.

1.6.ENGLISH TODAY

Today, English is the second or third most popular mother tongue in the world.

If the “inner circle” of a language is native first-language speakers and the “outer circle” is second-language speakers and official language countries, there is a third, “expanding circle” of countries which recognize the importance of English as an international language and teach it in schools as their foreign language of choice. English is the most widely taught foreign language in schools across the globe, with over 100 countries - from China to Russia to Israel, Germany, Spain, Egypt, Brazil, etc, etc - teaching it to at least a working level. Over 1 billion people throughout the world are currently learning English, and there are estimated to be more students of English in China alone than there are inhabitants of the USA. A 2006 report by the British Council suggests that the number of people learning English is likely to continue to increase over the next 10-15 years, peaking at around 2 billion, after which a decline is predicted.

(Appendix, pic.12)

Chapter2.Dialects and accents of English.

2.1. WHAT IS DIALECT?

A language is a particular system of words and sentences used as a means of oral and written communication and common to a particular nation living in some geographical area.

A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος) is a variant, or variety, of a language spoken in a certain geographical area. A dialect is a complete system of verbal communication (oral but not necessarily written), with its own vocabulary, grammar, and syntax.

A standard dialect or standardized dialect (or "standard language") is a dialect that is supported by institutions. Such institutional support may include government recognition or designation; presentation as being the "correct" form of a language in schools; published grammars, dictionaries, and textbooks that set forth a "correct" spoken and written form; and an extensive formal literature that employs that dialect (prose, poetry, non-fiction, etc.). A non-standard dialect, like a standard dialect, has a complete vocabulary, grammar, and syntax, but is not the beneficiary of institutional support.

Standard English is considered to be the model for educated people but what is it exactly nobody knows. There are many approaches to the understanding of what the Standard English is:

1. Some lexicologists consider Standard English as the official language of Great Britain taught at schools and universities, used by the press, the radio and the television and spoken by educated people. It may be defined as that form of English which is current and literary, substantially uniform and recognized as acceptable wherever English is spoken or understood.

2. According to P. Trudgill Standard English is not "a language" in any meaningful sense of this term. He says that SE is less than a language because it’s only one variety of English among many.

3. There is also another point of view that SE has nothing to do with pronunciation also. It is widely agreed that while all RP speakers also speak Standard English, the reverse is not the case. But RP is standardized accent of English and not SE itself.

2.2. BRITISH DIALECTS.

In spite of the fact that Great Britain is not such a big country there is a great variety of different dialects on its territory. During the centuries, English language has changed enormously in different ways in every part of Great Britain. Nowadays it is almost impossible to find out how many dialects exist in England and classify them because they change gradually from one part of the country to another creating a kind of "continuum". Significant changes in dialect (pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary) may occur within one region.

The four major divisions are normally classified as:

• Southern English dialects

• Midlands English dialects

• Northern English dialects

• Scottish English and the closely related dialects of Scots and Ulster Scots (varieties of Scots spoken in Ulster).

There is also Hiberno-English (English as spoken in Ireland) and the form of English used in Wales. The various English dialects differ in the words they have borrowed from other languages. The Scottish and Northern dialects include many words originally borrowed from Old Norse; the Scottish dialects include words borrowed from Scots and Scottish Gaelic. Hiberno-English includes words derived from Irish.

There are many differences between the various British dialects. These can be a major obstacle to understanding between people from different areas. However, modern communications and mass media have reduced these differences significantly. In addition, speakers of very different dialects may modify their pronunciation and vocabulary, towards Standard English.

The classification of modern British dialects presents serious difficulties as their boundaries are instable.(Scheme 1.)

On the map below we can discern dialects and languages on the territory of British Isles. (Appendix, pic.13)

This map shows only some dialects; let’s say "the most popular". As to the languages we can say with confidence that the United Kingdom has no official language. English is the main language and the de facto official language, spoken monolingually by an estimated 95% of the UK population.

2.3 THE CLASSIFICATION OF BRITISH DIALECTS ACCORDING TO THEIR LOCATION. 

The dialects of England differ sharply from all other dialects. Why is it that people in different parts of the country speak differently? Trudgill (1994:5-7) thinks that English is constantly changing, and that different changes take place in different parts of the country, or the spread of changes will be halted by barriers to communication such as countryside which is difficult to cross.

1. England

Northern English

As England is a big country, the dialects there seize 3 territories: Northern, Midlands and South. In these territories the dialects are spoken differently because of the influence of different languages and cultures.

Geordieisthe dialect of the North East and namely of the Newcastle area.

Geordie has a large amount of vocabulary not seen in other English dialects. Words still in common use today include canny for 'pleasant' – приятный ("an embodiment of all that is kindly, good, and gentle. The highest compliment that can be paid to any person is to say that he or she is canny"), hyem, yearm for 'home' - дом (I’m ganninhyem - 'I’m going home'), divn't (divvent) for 'don't', hacky for 'dirty' – грязный(Hacky-dorty - 'very dirty' – оченьгрязный), and howay meaning something like 'Come on!' – Живей! or 'Well done' – Хорошо!

The following words can be considered truly Geordie words: pet 'term of address for females' (e.g. "thanks, pet"), bullets 'sweets' – конфеты (so called from the shape of a bullet. The best known are black bullets. A black bullet consists of a dark brown peppermint flavoured spherical boiled sweet. They contain only 3 ingredient's: sugar, glucose and peppermint oil), marra 'friend, mate' – друг/товарищ, bait 'food' – еда (bait-poke or bait-can - 'a metal container to carry food to work'), lowp 'to jump' - прыгать, ten o'clock 'morning snack' – лёгкийутреннийзавтрак/закуска (He' ye had yor ten o'clock yit?), get 'stupid person' – глупыйчеловек, netty 'toilet/lavatory' – туалет/уборная, cree '(bird) cage' – птичьяклетка, hoy 'throw' – бросать/кидать (to hoy a stone - 'to throw a stone'), deek 'see, look at' – видеть/смотретьна, dunsh 'push, bump'–сталкиваться/врезаться/толкать, toon 'Newcastle' Ньюкасл, gannin 'going', weees 'who is' - кто, ooot 'out' – вне/снаружи/запределами ч-л, the neet 'tonight' – сегоднявечером, morrer 'tomorow' – завтра (see yer the morrer- 'see you tomorrow') .

Yorkshire is still England's biggest county. Once it was the heart of the Danelaw, the Viking kingdom in Britain. To this day, the lexicon of dialect speakers in the North and East Ridings of Yorkshire retains many words that derive from Old Norse. Scandinavian influence on the language does not stop with the end of the Danelaw. The Norwegian influence is stronger here.

The examples below are from the lexicon of Yorkshire dialect speakers.

Attercop: spider – паук (Old English "poisonous spider"),Backend: autumn –осень. Bairn: child - ребёнок (Also used in Scotland and Northumberland). Blaeberry: bilberry –черника. Goodies/spice: sweets – конфеты, сладости. Gowk: cuckoo –кукушка. Yam: home -дом (Compare modern Norwegian hjem, sounded as "yem".)Addle: to earn - зарабатывать (From Old English via Old Norse). Rick, reek: smoke, to smoke –дым, курение/курить.

Yorkshire dialect is rich in idiomatic expressions. The following examples are taken from Kellett:

Allus at t’ last push up - always at the last moment – Всегдавпоследниймомент

Nobbut a mention - just a small amount – Всеголишьмалоеколичество.

’ewor ’ard on - he was fast asleep – Онспалкрепкимсном.

Ah wor fair starved - I really was cold – Ядействительнозамёрз

Scouse is the dialect of English found in the northern English city of Liverpool and adjoining urban areas of Lancashire and the Wirral region of Cheshire. "The Beatles" made this dialect famous.

The word Scouse was originally a variation of lobscouse -the name of a traditional dish of mutton stew mixed with hardtack eaten by sailors.

The influence of immigrants from Ireland, Wales, the Isle of Man, Scotland, other parts of northern England, and the Caribbean in the XVIII and XIX centuries was very strong.

The characteristic features of Scouse are:

• A fast, highly inflected manner of speech, with a range of rising and falling tones not typical of most of northern England.

• The final letters of many words are often lost in a glottal stop: 'get' becomes gerr.

• The tongue tends to be swallowed, cutting off nasal passages and making it sound as if the speaker has a cold.

The pronunciation of 'th' as 'd' ('there' becomes dere). The letter 'r' is rolled, similar to Scots.Expressions include 'la' that is equal to lad – друг, приятель, товарищ, e.g. "Yerarright den, la'?" ("You all right then, lad?").

There are a few features of southern dialects, e.g. using a "f" or "v" sound instead of "th", as in "bruvver" – brother and "baf" - "bath".

The vocabulary of this dialect is quite numerous and differs from others.

Midlands English includes dialects of: Derbyshire, Nottingham, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Black Country, Birmingham, Norfolk, etc.

East Midlands.

In Lincolnshire, local people are going back to the classroom to reclaim their linguistic roots. Words like "sneck" (a metal hook – металлическийкрючoк), "blather" (mud on clothing – грязьнаодежде), "dowking" (wilting vegetation – увядающаярастительность), "wozzle" (root vegetable - корнеплод), "noggin'" (lump of land – комземли) were dying out, but not now.

The farmers of Derbyshire are proud of retaining their heritage, and are keen to preserve their local dialect. HerearesomefeaturesofDerbyshiredialect:

• the use of words like "thee" and "thou"

• the shortening of words for more economical speech

• the use of very unusual words like "scratin'" (crying - плачущий) deriving from old Norse or Viking

Some words and phrases of Derbyshire dialect: ganzi - pullover or sweater – свитер, пуловер; Gerraht! - Get out! – Убирайся!; gone-aht – surprised – удивлённый; namor - no more – большене, ничегобольше; wang - to throw – кидать, бросать.

Some language experts recently declared Leicester the birthplace of modern Standard English. Anglo Saxons and Vikings lived side by side, sharing their customs and languages. Today Leicester has one of the most culturally diverse populations in the country, with Asian and Afro-Caribbean influences now filtering through. At the City of Leicester School, the pupils of all backgrounds find themselves using Leicester dialect. Traditional words like my yard (my house – мойдом), chuddie (pants – брюки, штаны), gis a gleg – (give me a look at it – дайпосмотреть), - (how are you? – какпоживаете?), worro – (hello - привет), wassup?– (What is going on? – Чтопроисходит?), snitch – (tale teller – сказочник), oakey – (an ice-cream – мороженое) are in common usage.

Nottingham.. During mediaeval times, Nottingham was a huge trading centre and merchants from France, Denmark and the Low Countries set up businesses in Nottingham and foreign communities grew around these businesses and some of their language was absorbed into the local dialect. For example: Gizzaglegg(May I see that – Можно я взгляну?); from the Danish glegg (to look- смотреть), jitteh (an alleyway, cut-through between houses – переулок, проходмеждудомами) There are many other examples of foreign words which have been adapted for local use, but one whose origin is unable to find is 'mazzgi,' a dialect word for a domestic cat – домашнийкот.

West Midlands

There are two dialects in West Midlands: Black Country dialect and Birmingham dialect. These dialects have much in common with Old English, many features peculiar to Old English remain there.

The dialect of the Black Country area remains perhaps one of the last examples of early English still spoken today.One of the most famous features is the 'yam yam' sound when saying certain phrases. 'You are' is pronounced yo'am and 'are you' is pronounced am ya. That’s why this dialect if also called Yam Yam. The Black Country dialect has its own vocabulary as well as grammatical differences, and quite a lot of it has similarities with Old English. It still contains words (Thee – you - тебя, Thy - your and Thou – you – ты) widely used by Shakespeare or Chaucer.Eg.Dishle - cup of tea – чашкачая.Breffus – breakfast – завтрак.Fittle - food, victuals – еда, провиант.Flics – cinema – кино.Ooman – woman – женщина.Coost - could you? – немоглибывы?, also negative "thee coosnt" – you could’t – вынеможете. Day(day) - did not ("I day see 'imcomin" – I did not see him coming – Яневидел,чтобыонпришёл.)

Brummie (or Brummy) refers to things connected with the city of Birmingham in England: particularly its people, known as Brummies, and their accent and dialect of the English language. Some words are simple variations of those used elsewhere, such as mom for instead of Standard English ‘mum’, while others are unique to Birmingham.

A saying that is not often heard anymore is it's lookin a bit black over bills mothers, this referred to the prospect of rain – такговоритсякогданадвигаетсядождь. Keep away from the 'oss road was often said as a warning to children who were thinking of playing on the busy tracks frequented by horses, carts, trams and early cars – такзвучалопредостережениедетям, чтобонинеигралинадороге. Another old phrase that is sometimes used today iso'rite our kid or simply ows it goin kid which is another way of asking how you are – какпоживаете?

East Anglia

East Anglia is a region of eastern England, named after one of the ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. Its boundaries are not rigidly defined, but it includes the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, with part or all of Cambridgeshire and Essex, and a small part of southern Lincolnshire bordering The Wash. East Anglia has its own dialect - Norfolk, perhaps because of the fact that the impact of Scandinavian tribes, Teutonic tribes and other early European cultures, was greater upon East Anglia than upon the rest of England. There are aspects of the dialect that still reflect the influence of early, dominant European languages.

The Norfolk dialect, also known as Broad Norfolk, is a dialect that was once spoken by those living in the county of Norfolk in England. Much of the distinctive vocabulary of Broad Norfolk has now died out and only the older generations use the fullest amount, so the speech of most of Norfolk is now more an accent than a dialect. E.g. Hold yew hard! - Hang on a moment! – Подождитеминутку.Mawther – girl/young woman – девочка/ девушка.Titty - totty - very small – оченьмаленький

Many words beginning with V take a W start in Norfolk - warmint and willage among them. There are also examples of the letter being changed in the middle of the word i.e. aggravating becomes aggraweartin (раздражающий, ухудшающий).

SouthernEnglish.

Such dialects as: Estuary English, Cockney, Somerset, Devon, Cornwall, etc. represent a group of Southern English.

"Estuary English" is a term coined in 1984 by British linguist, David Rosewarne. It is widely spoken in and around London and, more generally, in the southeast of England and along the river Thames and its estuary. Most people consider EE to be a variant (accent) of Standard English that is rapidly spreading in England.

Estuary English, as the advanced speech of the young, has been characterized by the older generation as slovenly and debased.

One of the best known Southern dialects is Cockney, the regional dialect of London. Cockney speakers have a distinctive accent and dialect, and frequently use Cockney rhyming slang.

Cockney is lively and witty and its vocabulary – imaginative and colourful. Its specific feature not occurring anywhere else is the so-called rhyming slang, in which some words are substituted by other words rhyming with them. E.g.Adam and Eve – to believe –верить.Apples and pears - stairs – лестница.Bees and Honey – money –деньги.Dog and bone – phone –телефон. Elephant'strunk – drunk – пьяный.Loaf of bread – head – голова.North and south – mouth – рот. Pig’s ear – beer –пиво.Trouble – wife – жена (from trouble and strife = wife)

Imagine a conversation like:

"Got to my mickey, found me way up the apples, put on me whistle and the bloody dog went. It was me trouble telling me to fetch the teapots."which really means,

"Got to my house (mickey mouse), found my way up the stairs (apples and pears), put on my suit (whistle and flute) when the phone (dog and bone) rang. It was my wife (trouble and strife) telling me to get the kids (teapot lids)." - "Ядобралсядодома, поднялсяполестнице, оделкостюм, когдазазвонилтелефон.Этобыламояжена.Онасказала, чтобязабралдетей".

The dialect of Cornwall is named Cornish. This dialect differs very much from the other British dialects.

The Cornish dialect is usually spoken, not written, and the spellings in the following vocabulary are the pronunciations.

In Cornish there is no indefinite article: Cath means "a cat" (there is, however a definite article: angath means "the cat").

2. Scotland

Scots dialect is the speech of those who live in the northern part of the island of Britain, more-or-less defined as north of Hadrian's Wall. The Scottish has a special linguistic status as compared with dialects because of the literature composed in it. The name of Robert Burns, the great national poet of Scotland, is known all over the world.

3.Wales

Welsh English or Wenglish is the dialect of English spoken in Wales by Welsh people. The dialect is significantly modified by Welsh grammar and contains a number of unique words. E.g. Aim – to throw –бросать. ‘Ambarg – handbag –сумочка.Belfago – loudly –громко.Blacklead – pencil –карандаш.Credit – to believe –верить.Glad and Sorry - on the "never-never" (glad to have it, sorry to have to pay for it)–вкредит.Grizzle - to complain –жаловаться.

4. Ireland.

Hiberno-English is the dialect of the English language used in Ireland. It is also called Anglo-Irish or Irish English. The basis for the type of English spoken in Ireland is said to be a mixture of the language of Shakespeare and the Irish of the Gaelic earls. The standard spelling and grammar are the same as British English, but especially in the spoken language, there are some unique characteristics, due to the influence of Irish on pronunciation.E.g. Delph is still used for ‘crockery’ (глинянаяпосуда), shore for ‘a sewer’ (труба), mitch for ‘playing truant’ (прогуливающий), bring for ‘take’ (брать), galluses for ‘braces’ (фигурныескобки), and so forth, ‘girleen’ (a little girl).

Conclusion.

The most widespread language in the world is English, which is considered to be the international language. During many centuries English was exposed to the influence of different cultures and underwent many changes. That’s why this is not surprising that British English has so many dialects.

Our work embraces the majority of British dialects, i.e. Geordie, Yorkshire, Scouse, Derbyshire, Nottingham, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Black Country, Brummie, Norfolk, Estuary English, Cockney, Cornwall, Scottish, Wenglish and Hiberno-English. The information about all of them was taken from magazines, newspapers, books, scientific works and websites. The main source of information was Internet because of the lack of information in libraries.

According to the studied materials we can make such conclusions:

• The concept dialect should be distinguished from accent. The term dialect refers to a specific variety of a language, which differs systematically from other varieties in terms of pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary, but which is still generally comprehensible to speakers of other dialects within that language. Varieties of dialects can be distinguished not only by their vocabulary and grammar, but also by differences in phonology.

• There are two types of dialects: geographical and social. Geographical are used by people of some particular territory. Social are used in one and the same social class or educational group.

• There is a great difference between Standard English and dialect speech. Thus two people from different counties of one and the same country can’t understand each other in spite of the fact that their native language is English.

• The phonetics also plays a very important role. The way individuals pronounce certain words is often a good clue to their background.

• Grammar refers to the structure of a language or dialect. A grammar describes the way individual words change their appearance.There is a great deal of difference between written and spoken language, both in terms of purpose and audience and this is reflected in their different grammars.

Language by its very nature is dynamic and constantly evolving, new words and expressions are almost daily being absorbed and some older words are falling into disuse. In the course of time dialects are mixing and their number reduces progressively. But this doesn’t mean that dialects will die out someday. They will continue to exist and develop with people’s help. That’s why it’s very important to study British dialects.

Sources and links.

1. Britain, David 2003b Dialectology.

2. Crystal, David 1995. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of The English Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

3. Dictionary of contemporary English, Longman.

4. Frank Graham (1998) The New Geordie Dictionary.

5. Hughes, A. and Trudgill, P. (1996) English Accents and Dialects: An Introduction to Social and Regional Varieties of British English, Third Edition, London: Arnold.

6. Kellett, A. (1992) Basic Broad Yorkshire, Revised Edition, Otley: Smith Settle.

7. Trudgill, P. (1990) The dialects of England, Oxford: Blackwell.

Books and TV programs

•“The Adventure of English” by Melvin Bragg (Sceptre, 2003)

•“Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language” by David Crystal (Cambridge University Press, 1995)

•“English as a Global Language” by David Crystal (Cambridge University Press, 1997)

•“The Adventure of English" (ITV, 2003)

•“The Story of English” (PBS/BBC, 1986)

Websites - Basic

• A Brief History of the English Language (Anglik.net): http://www.anglik.net/englishlanguagehistory.htm

• A Brief History of the English Language (Study English Today): http://www.studyenglishtoday.net/english-language-history.html

• A History of the English Language (Random History): http://www.randomhistory.com/1-50/023english.html

• A (Very) Brief History of the English Language (Word Origins):http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/site/comments/a_very_brief_history_of_the_english_language3/

• Borrowed Words In English (Dan Short): http://www.danshort.com/ie/borrowedwords.htm

• Brief History of English (Jeremy Smith): http://members.peak.org/~jeremy/dictionaryclassic/chapters/history.php

• English Language History (English Language Guide): http://www.englishlanguageguide.com/english/facts/history/

APPENDIX.

Picture 2.

Picture 1.

Picture 3.

Picture 4.

Picture 7.

Picture 5.

Picture 8

Picture 6.

Picture 9

Picture 10

Picture 11

Picture 12.

Picture 13

Scheme 1

D

Questionnaire.

We asked the only question to the pupils of our school (the 8^th-11^th forms) “Can you learn English properly if you don’t learn it in the native speaking environment?”The answers were FOR or AGAINST. 50 students took part in that questionnaire.

Look at the results.

• FOR 7 pupils 14%

• AGAINST 43 pupils 86%

The most common arguments: AGAINST (43 pupils)

• You should practice with English-speaking people, learn how they communicate in their everyday life. 43 pupils

• Full immersion into language environment removes the language barrier. 39 pupils

• It’s the best way to get desirable accent. 43 pupils

• It is easier to develop the conversational skills in the native environment. 35 pupils

The most common arguments: FOR (7 pupils)

• To improve pronunciation we can watch films and listen to the music in English.

6 pupils

• We can practice speaking skills with native speakers in the Internet. 2 pupils

• We can learn new words and phrases while reading books in English. 4 pupils

• Everything depends on the person. If you are purposeful and determined, you will achieve the goal. 3 pupils