Essay Example on Language of a community is usually United

Language of a community is usually united yet including in itself the diversity feature The differences can be witnessed from the way vocabulary is employed grammar is used and words are pronounced In 2017 it is estimated that there are more than 7 000 living languages in the world and along with that number above ten thousands of dialects are already being spoken Simons Fennig 2017 In this essay the question of how language dialect alization happens will be answered Furthermore this essay also digs deep to see if regional dialects have positive or negative impact on one's national standard language skills What is dialect According to the Oxford Dictionary dialect is explained as A particular form of a language which is peculiar to a specific region or social group n d Strictly speaking the term dialect refers to differences between kinds of language which are differences of lexis vocabulary grammar structure and phonology pronunciation or accent Petyt 1980 Variations in English and For example in South America when people want to buy a carbonated drink they would use the generic term coke while people from the North and Northwest would order a pop interestingly in California and the Northeast area people would prefer the term soda Dialects are the various different forms of the same language In other words a language is a group of dialects The English language itself has over one hundred variants across the world such as Yorkshire Bermudian English or Maori English which can often be difficult to interpret by speakers of other English dialects 

The act of using a language involves using one of its dialects therefore everyone speaks at least one dialect So how dialects narrow down into regional scope To explain for this let us consider the Wave Theory introduced by Johannes Schmidt in 1872 When pebbles are tossed into a water pond they will create waves on the surface Waves may start at various locations depends on where pebbles are thrown with different strength depends on sizes of pebbles the farther the waves spread the weaker they are The result is that different areas of the pond are affected by different combination of waves The process of spreading linguistic changes is similar to how waves expand Language inventions and modifications do not happen at the same pace in the same way at different geographic areas A community therefore ends up being affected by dialects with varying degrees of similarity Linguistically dialectalization is a part of the very natural process language change According to Petyt time and distance are the two most basic factors influencing dialectalization 1980 To clarify the impact of factor time he stated that language is transmitted from one generation to the next and in the course of time various innovations creep in The possibility is that young inheritors might inexactly comprehend the original language system and eliminate old fashioned patterns At the same time language changes such as new words ease of articulation are invented here and there though some are quickly rejected for several reasons some will be adopted and gradually extend their impact on the whole region 

A secondary component contributing to dialectalization process is distance some linguistic changes could not spread over the whole community because of geographic boundaries When people move away from each other new experience is made old ones might fade resulting in languages diverging In the past people were geographically divided into areas by mountain ranges rivers oceans long distance communication at this distance of time mainly depended on rudimentar means such as handwriting letters which took a lot of efforts and time to dispatch and receive As a consequence those language diversities are not easily spread and updated Differences in phonetics and grammar and vocabulary among provinces thus progressively take on shape and are unavoidable Viewing from social perspective dialect alization is affected by two opposing forces simultaneously parochialism and the pressure of communication Saussure 1916 cited in Petyt 1980 On the one hand parochialism synonym of localism keeps members of a group faithful to its own tradition narrowly restricts them in outlook Parochialism happens the same way with language Our speech habits are largely acquired in childhood when our circle of acquaintance is limited we naturally adopted language features such as grammar vocabulary and pronunciation of the local area in which we lived Language then can be considered as a distinct feature a sort of badge of membership On the other hand pressure of communication or intercourse forces people to interact and adapt It eliminates new local language innovations and promotes unity by adopting and spreading others Pressure of communication therefore reduces the impacts of parochialism prevents original language from separating into languages with their own dialects which caused by parochialism and enables neighbouring groups to understand each other