06 Language Variation
06 Language Variation
06 Language Variation
Language
6: Language variation
o
Tday’s topics are therefore
● geographical variation
● social variation Social
● contextual variation
V
ariation has political implications, so we
also discuss language policy
● Two examples
– Cameroon and Korea
The Three Dimensions of
These topics are the domain of Variation
sosiolinguistics
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()
A B C D E F G H
17 > Institutt for kulturstudier og orientalske språk (IKOS) Steve Pepper
“The Rhenish Fan”
Isoglosses
Dialects can be mapped using isoglosses
● Lines on a map mark the boundary between different
linguistic items
● Usually no clear boundary between dialects
The Rhenish Fan in Germany
● V
arieties: Low, Middle and High German
● Linguistic items: ‘ik~ich’, ‘Dorp~Dorf ’, ‘dat~das’
German
ik maken dorp dat appel pund
Low
ich maken dorp dat appel pund
Cameroon Korea
●Languages: 280 ●Languages: 1
1. German
Nizaa Germanic
Mambiloid Indo-European
Niger-Congo 4. English
Fula Germanic
Atlantic Indo-European
Niger-Congo
2. Finnish
Hausa Finno-Ugric
Chadic Uralic
Afro-Asiatic 5. Japanese
French Japanese
Romance Indo-European
3. Russian
Chamba Slavic
Adamawa Indo-European
Niger-Congo 6. Italian
Ewondo Romance
Bantu Indo-European
Niger-Congo
1. German
Nizaa Germanic
Mambiloid Indo-European
Niger-Congo 4. English
Fula Germanic
Atlantic Indo-European
Niger-Congo
2. Finnish
Hausa Finno-Ugric
Chadic Uralic
Afro-Asiatic 5. Japanese
French Japanese
Romance Indo-European
3. Russian
Chamba Slavic
Adamawa Indo-European
Niger-Congo 6. Italian
Ewondo Romance
Bantu Indo-European
Niger-Congo