University of San Carlos

School of Arts and Sciences

A Synthesis on the Concepts of Language Variation, Terms of Address and Diglossia in

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Course Ling604

Presented to
Charity Tesco Turano PhD. D. Comm

Presented by
Yva Joy B. Dy

April 2020
 Language has a lot to say about us. Language in social context covers language variation,
terms of address and diglossia, but it is not limited to these. Looking at the different
manifestation of a language or the varieties of a language is a very rich study. Moreover, richness
of a certain language could be viewed using the lens of sociolinguistics.
Cite for instance is the English language. English is one of the richest language, and a
number of speakers use it from all over the world. That being said, such speakers may vary the
way they use English and the variations to the usage of English contribute to its richness. In
Sociolinguistics, these varieties of a language shared by a certain speech community is also
known as speech repertoire. Furthermore speech repertoire maybe divided functionally and
spatially.
Speaking on spatial aspect of variation, Americans tend to think that varieties of English
are more determined by region than by any other factors that shapes usage, such as age,
ethnicity, gender and social class. As cited from [ CITATION Tom18 \l 13321 ], this notion was
theorized as the theory of dialect geography in the 19th century by A.J. Ellis, Jules Gillieron,
Edmon Edmont, and George Wenker. Just like in the US, they have investigated American
English dialects there and geographically considered its division in the North, the Coastal South,
the Midland and the West. It vary in terms of its pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar.
As mentioned, the issue of variation as a result of geographical location had been studied
and several disparities were noted. First in terms of pronunciation, the variation of American
English is noticeable geographically in the US. There are disparities as to whether it is rhotic or
non-rhotic, whether there are shift of internal consonants, or merging vowels and etc. In the
Northern region, its Western portion is rhotic as well as in the Midland yet in the Coastal south
it is non-rhotic. In terms of the vowel mergers, in the North the varieties makes homophones of
the cot and caught as well as in the Midland which includes tot and taught while in the West
they have merger vowels of dawn and down. Coastal Southern have internal consonant cluster
so instead of the use of ‘’s’’ sound in business they have ‘’d’’ sound so it sounds bidness. Same
with case of the word “Baptist” to “babtist”. They also tend to shift diphthongs to monothongs
like the word hide that nearly rhymes with hod and the non rhotic hard. Northerner tend to have
near homophones on matter and madder. Next in terms of vocabulary, the Northerners they call
a couch sofa while for those in the West they call it chesterfield. Uniquely, in the Coastal South
they use the word all-over to refer to a feeling of uneasiness. In terms of grammar, in the North
they tend to add the article ‘the’ to an adjective in comparative degree while in the Coastal
South they tolerate the use of ain’t. Notably for the Midland they add prefix ‘a’ to verbs ending
in -ing while the West is known for its marked syntax. It is also said that Southerners drawl,
New Yorkers are nasal, New Englanders speak with a twang. Those are the differences noted in
various aspects of American English in the US with respect to the geographical location,
however it is said that various researchers suggested that geographical space is not enough to
account for language variation.
Again, language has a lot to say about us not just the location to where we are situated
but also to the social systems we have. Taking that into consideration, we make adjustments on
our language choice base on who we are talking to, what we are talking and why we are talking.
With that sociolinguists take note on the choice of linguistic varieties individuals made as these
language choices conveys a lot about them. Cite for instance is by looking at the terms of address
people use. Logically, there are three possible dyadic patterns which includes the reciprocal
exchange of FN, the reciprocal exchange of TLN, and the reciprocal pattern which one uses FN
and the other one uses TLN. An example of the reciprocal exchange of first name is that when I
call my classmate ‘’Ken’’ with her first name and she calls me back with my first name ‘’Joy’’.
Next example is the reciprocal exchange of TLN is that when people are at the workplace like
that of Dr. Banks called Dr. Donnelly and vise versa. They address each other with their
respective family name with their title attached to it. The common example of the non- reciprocal
is that in the classroom lecture when the teacher calls a student with his/her first name, and that
student would address back his/her teacher with Ma’am/Sir or with the teacher’s title and family
name accompanying it. Non- reciprocal pattern is generated by the difference in any kind of
occupation or with the members of ascending generations who are generally address with kinship
titles. Just like for instance, when your mom call you by your name and you call her back not
with her name but address her by saying mom or ‘’mama’’. Referential and affective scales
could be useful in emphasizing how well we know someone as a relevant factor in linguistic
choice. Consequently, language choices convey information about the social relationships
between people, social status of people, setting of interaction, topic and purpose of discussion.
While speaking on the functional aspect of variation, people tend to choose varieties of a
language depending as to when it’s necessary or depending on their purpose. Instances like that
often happened to those community where there are bilingual speakers. In linguistics, we call this
phenomenon as diglossia. It is modelled on the French diglossie by Charles A. Fergusson.
Diglossia is a situation which a community uses two different languages or varieties for different
situations. These varieties of a language could either be a low variety or a high variety. Two or
more speech varieties of the same language used under different conditions. Low variety is not
formally learn. Its speakers don’t formally learn grammar or writing. And it’s a spoken language.
On the other hand, high variety is learned at school. Its speaker learn how to write, and learn
grammar rules. The high variety is often considered the ‘’standard’’ or the ‘’correct’’ variety and
is presented from changing a lot. While the low variety is more flexible and is more likely to
change over time because it is not restricted by the rules of high variety. Higher variety has
grammatical categories not present in low variety. A very good example of this is that of in small
Israeli Palestinian villages where there are four commonly significant varieties making up the
linguistic repertoire. The classical or Modern Standard Arabic in which fus-Ha was taught in
school and used for writing and public speaking thus merely ise in educational, religious, or
formal public functions. While the village dialect is considered appropriate for most activities.
When it comes to acquisition, adults use lower variety in speaking to children and children use
lower variety in speaking to other children while actual learning of high variety is chiefly
accomplish by the means of formal education. Hebrew is kept for use outside and is learned by
who worked and went to high school. So the high variety could be Arabic Classical or Hebrew
that is al- fusha. On the other hand, the low variety is the vernacular dialect or al-ammyyah that
is ad-darji. Furthermore, diglossia is not just about a speech community having two or more
varieties but it also already refer to having use these varieties depending on the kind of social and
functional distribution.
 Overall, this paper synthesizes data from speech communities regarding the existence of
language variation, terms of address, and diglossia and how these concepts allow us to
understand the underlying reasons of the uniqueness and diverseness of languages making it very
rich.

References:
A. Handouts and PPT
B. Others
Tom McArthur, J. L.-M. (2018). Oxford Companion to the English Language. N.Y.
USA: Oxford University Press.