Discussion Questions

1.    What are regional dialects?

It is when in a certain geographical region various linguistic differences accumulate, the spoken language has its own character. Each version of the language refers as a regional dialect. In the United States, most dialect differences are based on geographic region.

2.    What is standard dialect?

Is a dialect of English that many Americans nearly speak; divergences from this “norm” are labeled Philadelphia dialect, Chicago dialect, African American English, and so on.

 A standard dialect of a particular language may have social functions. Its use in a group may bind people together or provide a common written form for multidialectal speakers.

3.    What is a dialect continuum?

Is movement toward greater uniformity and less variation among dialects, though one might expect dialect leveling to occur as a result of the ease of travel and mass media.

4.    Explain what an accent is? provide an example

Accent refers to the characteristics of speech that convey information about the speaker’s dialect, which may reveal in what country or in what part of the country the speaker grew up, or to which sociolinguistic group the speaker belongs.

For example: People in the United States often refer to someone as having a British accent or an Australian accent; in Britain they refer to an American accent.

5.    What is the difference between idiolect and dialect?

A dialect is a version of a language spoken by a group of people, and an idiolect is much smaller, it’s the way a particular person speaks, at a specific time, as distinct from others.

6.     Why are languages banned?

Those who ban a language usually have control over the people in that culture. Whether it was caused by an invasion of a country, winning a war, or if political parties take over, it all goes back to gaining power. Languages and dialects have also been banned as a means of political control.

 Example: Russian was the only legal language permitted by the Russian tsars, who banned the use of Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Georgian, Armenian, Azeri, and all the other languages spoken by national groups under the rule of Russia.

7.    List Phonological differences between African American English and SAE:

·         r-Deletion

·         Neutralization of [ɪ] and [ɛ] before Nasal Consonants

·         Diphthong Reduction

·         Loss of Interdental Fricatives.

 

8.    Explain the concept of bilingual education.

It is something fundamental for the development of a person in his life since a bilingual education can be very useful in life, the best way for the person to become more familiar with the language is if he begins to learn it at a very early age, since that the retention capacity at young ages is much better.

9.    What is relationship between language and sexism?

Times change and people have different thoughts, currently there has been a lot of discussion about vocabulary, including adopting new ways of speaking so that words do not have a gender and are not "sexist" and maybe some do, but as I said before people have different thoughts.

10. How can bilingualism benefit us?

Today it is very important and necessary to know how to speak more than one language because in various aspects of life, whether socially or professionally, knowing how to communicate in certain ways can open many doors for us, that is why the implementation of language teaching in educational centers it is of the utmost importance, since at an early age it is easier to learn a language.