29/03/2026

Language Variation

The language we use in everyday living is remarkably varied.

There is variation across speakers, that is, reflections of different ways

ELS 1103 – LANGUAGE AND SOCIETY
that people speak in different regions or social groups, but also variation
within the speech of a single speaker. No one speaks the same way all
MODULE 2
the time, and people constantly exploit variation within the languages
Language Variation
they speak for a wide variety of purposes.

On the one hand, any language would be considered as a homogeneous

entity; on the other hand, it is appreciated that language exhibits a
great deal of internal variation

Spoken forms of a language are not uniform entities, but may vary
according to the area people come from, or the social group they belong
to or according to context, time and the individual.

Make a list of all the names you are called by people who know you. For b) Are there different verbal exchanges as well as different embodied
each name note who uses it to you and when or where.
practices (e.g., air kisses, shaking hands, fist bump)?
Do some people call you by more than one name?

What are the reasons why people choose one name rather than another c) Does the situation matter – that is, do you greet your family

for you? differently if you have not seen them for a long time, or friends in
different ways depending on whether you run into each other by accident
a) How do you greet the following:
on campus or if you are meeting for dinner?
 your family,
 your colleagues, d) Are there ways of greeting, either that you use or that you do not use,
 your professors that index membership in particular groups?
 your acquaintances?
e) Are there ways of greeting that you find inappropriate – in general, or
for particular addressees or in particular situations?

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Language varies according to: Idiolects

Region e.g., regional dialects describe the speech characteristics of a An idiolect is an individual’s way of speaking, including sounds,
region words, grammar, and style.
Occupation/social class e.g., social dialect describes speech The uniqueness of individuals, arising out of differences in their
characteristics of a social or occupation group. memory, personality, intelligence, social background, and personal
Individual: Idiolect describes the speech characteristics of an individual experience makes distinctiveness of style inevitable in everyone’s
speech (Crystal 1995: 3).

It is the speech characteristics and linguistic behaviour of

individuals.

While there is considerable variation in the speech of any one

individual, there are also definite bounds to that variation:

No individual is free to do just exactly what he or she pleases so far

as language is concerned.

You cannot pronounce words any way you please, inflect or not Guiding Questions
inflect words such as nouns and verbs arbitrarily, or make drastic With examples explain the following: Language, Dialect, Variety and
alterations in word order in sentences as the mood suits you. Code

If you do any or all of these things, the results will be unacceptable, With examples, explain the concept of mutual intelligibility
even gibberish. With relatable examples explain why the difference between a language
and a dialect is not an exact science
The variation you are permitted has limits, and these limits can be
described with considerable accuracy. Why is the distinction between language and dialect considered to be
political rather than linguistic. Give examples.
For instance, we can say, ‘It is the fence that the cow jumped over,’
Are all dialects equal? Explain
which is comprehensible but most speakers would agree that ‘the
fence jumped the cow over’ does not follow English word order rules Differentiate between regional and social dialects
and is largely incomprehensible.

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Very often, small differences in language can serve large symbolic The second excerpt is from Frank McCourt’s book, ’Tis, dealing with
purposes, in marking off one group from another and sustaining social an Irish immigrant’s experience of US English.
difference.
If I had the money I could buy a torch and read till dawn. In America
This can be seen in the first excerpt from p. 102 of Chinua Achebe’s a torch is called a flashlight. A biscuit is called a cookie, a bun is a roll.
novel Things Fall Apart, set in nineteenth-century Nigeria. Confectionery is pastry and minced meat is ground. Men wear pants
When they had all gathered, the white man began to speak to them. He instead of trousers and they’ll even say this pant leg is shorter than
spoke through an interpreter who was an Ibo man, though his dialect the other which is silly. When I hear them say pant leg I feel like
was different and harsh to the ears of Mbanta. Many people laughed at breathing faster. The lift is an elevator and if you want a WC or a
his dialect and the way he used words strangely. Instead of saying lavatory you have to say bathroom even if there isn’t a sign of a bath
‘myself ’ he always said ‘my buttocks’. But he was a man of there. And no one dies in America, they pass away or they’re deceased
commanding presence and the clansmen listened to him. He said he was and when they die the body, which is called the remains, is taken to a
one of them, as they could see from his colour and his language . . . funeral home where people just stand around and look at it and no one
‘Your buttocks understand our language,’ said someone light-heartedly sings or tells a story or takes a drink and then it’s taken away in a
and the crowd laughed.’ casket to be interred. They don’t like saying coffin and they don’t like
saying buried. They never say graveyard. Cemetery sounds nicer.

What exactly is a standard variety of a language? Variation according to social class

To standardise a language, stakeholders (the government, speakers of Social class refers to a measure of status which is often based on
occupation, income and wealth, but also can be measured in terms
the different dialects of the language, teachers, linguists, scholars etc)
of aspirations and mobility, socioeconomic classes.
will agree on certain common norms that govern the language.
Within social class is the aspect of identity. How does language
Such norms would mostly include the grammar but also to an extent
construct speaker identity?
the vocabulary, usage etc.
Although we do look at identities of individuals, what we are
 Once this agreement is in place, resource material in the standard
primarily concerned with is social identity:
variety will be produced and used in schools, media etc.
‘Identity is defined as the linguistic construction of membership
This therefore becomes the standard forms of the language. in one or more social groups or categories’ (Kroskrity 2000, 111).

Practically however, the standard form of the language is best

expressed in the formal written mode since the spoken mode is heavily
subject to variation.

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Guiding Questions on variation according social class How is all this information on language variation in terms of social
class relevant to you as a teacher of English?
It is possible that two groups (high class and low class) would speak
Think of social class in terms of mobility. Would it be possible for one
different dialectical varieties. But why? to work up the ladder and move from the ghetto to the higher social
strata? Were this to happen, what would happen to the ghetto language,
Does being born poor expose you to a different type of English than does it change or is it maintained.
those born in well off families?
How about the generation that comes after, do they maintain their
Is it that as a way of group identity these groups decide to vary certain parents and grand parents linguistic orientation or they conform to this
newness.
aspects of the language to exclude the so called outsiders?
So yes people may change the way they speak to embrace a certain
Think of Kabale. Do the Bakiga of Makanga use Rukiga the same way as the
newness but there are aspects of their speech which will always give
Bakiga of Bugongi or Kigongi?
them away. This is partly because of the Critical Period hypothesis.
Think of the ghetto’s in Kampala and the High end areas in the City
Some may be attached to their former way of speaking that even a new
In Kenya, the Kiswahili of the informal settlements is dotted with a slot of privileged status may not make them change
slang/sheng as opposed to some of the other estates such as Kilimani etc.

Do the above apply if it is downward mobility? Think of the caste system as in the traditional Indian Society.
How about downward mobility.. what is likely to happen,
languagewise? In the caste system, the society is structured into levels that are not
breakable.
You may be a doctor in Kampala’s posh estates speaking impeccable
English, but because of war, you become an immigrant in the US, no
These levels are binding no matter how much one struggles, they will
papers, nothing.
never cross over to a higher caste.
You will not be a doctor there but a sweeper, gas station attendant etc.

You will end up living in the ghetto because this is what you can afford.  It becomes part of your identity and there are certain things members
of a particular caste are not privileged to access.
What happens to your impeccable English language?

Will you be proud of it and stick to it or you will change and conform  Highest to lowest - Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaisya and Sudra
to the language standards of your fellow ghetto dwellers?
How would language vary in such a system?

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Variation according to age Variation in terms of Gender

Could you think of the possible ways in which language is likely to vary Do women and men speak differently?

in terms of age?
Could you explain why, how. Examples in RR, English etc

Children (0-5); children (5-12); teenagers; youth adults ( 20-25); young

The linguistic forms used by women and men contrast – to different degrees –
adults (25-40); Adults (40-60); older people (above 60)
in all speech communities.

Variation can be in terms of the use of polite language, the use of There are other ways too in which the linguistic behaviour of women and men
direct language; use of swear words; the need to euphemize; differ.
grammatical mistakes; dirty talk ; use of slang, use of the standard vs
Variation can be in terms of the use of polite language, the use of direct
the non-standard language etc
language; use of swear words; the need to euphemize; grammatical mistakes;
dirty talk ; use of slang, use of the standard vs the non-standard language etc

Word-shapes in other languages contrast because women and men use  The reverse is true for some languages such as Japanese where the
women’s forms are longer than the men’s
different affixes.
Japanese
In Yana, a (now extinct) North American Indian language, and
Women’s form Men’s form
Chiquitano, a South American Indian language, some of the words used
between men are longer than the equivalent words used by women, otoosan oyaji ‘father’

because the men’s forms sometimes add a suffix e.g., taberu kuu ‘eat’

Yana, a (now extinct) North American Indian language onaka hara ‘stomach’
Women Men
ba ba-na ‘deer’
yaa yaa-na ‘person’
t’et t’en’-na ‘grizzly bear’
cau cau-na ‘fire’
nisaaklu nisaaklu-ci ‘he might go away

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Consider the following sentences. Which ones were said by men or women or either Lakoff suggested that women’s speech was characterised by linguistic features such as the
following.
(a) Close the door.
(a) Lexical hedges or fillers, e.g. you know , sort of , well , you see.
(b) That’s an adorable dog.
(b) Tag questions, e.g. she’s very nice, isn’t she?
(c) Oh dear, the TV set’s broken.

(d) I’ll be damned there’s a friend of mine! (c) Rising intonation on declaratives, e.g. it’s really good

(e) I was very tired. (d) ‘Empty’ adjectives, e.g. divine , charming , cute .

(f) Won’t you please get me that pencil?

(e) Precise colour terms, e.g. magenta , aquamarine .
(g) They did the right thing didn’t they?
(f) Intensifiers such as just and so , e.g. I like him so much .
(h) You’re damn right!
(g) ‘Hypercorrect’ grammar, e.g. consistent use of standard verb forms.
(i) I was just exhausted.
(h) ‘Super-polite’ forms, e.g. indirect requests, euphemisms.
(j) My goodness, there’s the Prime Minister!
(i) Avoidance of strong swear words, e.g. fudge , my goodness.
(k) I was so mad.
(j) Emphatic stress, e.g. it was a BRILLIANT performance.
(l) Damn it, I’ve lost my keys!

 Do English Pronouns encode the gender of the speaker? Variation vs Ethnicity

Ethnicity alludes to tribal differences. One of the markers of tribal identity is

How about Rukiga, Runyankore, Lunganda, lukhonjo, Ateso, etc?
language. So compared across ethnic lines, languages vary.
How do wives refer to their husbands?
It is however difficult to think of a single language as varying across ethnic
How about husbands, how do they refer their wives? groupings unless it has a lot to do with the influence of the first (ethnic language)
on speaking the second language which would be more of a lingua Franca.
Who interrupts more in conversations?
This way, there would be variation in speaking the Lingua Franca across ethnicities
Who offers feedback more during interactions?
There will be members of an ethnic group that would for instance not say Sh but S
Who offers explanations more in interactions? in words beginning with the former.

Other communities will have trouble differentiating between l and r; others will
How about gossips, who is known for gossip?
drop the initial h as in air instead of hair.

 All these variations may stem from the different first languages