English Language Revision Thread

[thushan]

Guys!

Shall we have a quick revision thread here? Let's post up what we know of each area of study in order - so for now, let's focus on U3AOS1.

I'll pose the first question: What are the types of variation in language according to user?

<stonecold whereever you are, come join us - we need our experts! and if thefeminist is around as well...>

[thefeminist]

i'm around. ==;;

There's so many factors with variation in language according to user!
Most (if not all) have to do with the speaker's speech communities - i.e. their heritage, socio-economic status, sex, age, geography, education. However, it goes further than that in the sense that everyone has their unique ideolect due to their specific speech communities, which are not necessarily shared. I guess the best way to think about it is the factors outside the conversation that affect the way you speak (unchangeable??) as opposed to factors inside the discourse, which then becomes 'use'.

alrighty. I'll pose my question (this one is quite fun ).

What phonological features can mark an ethnolect of Australian English?

[thushan]

Too many to name. Question is, which ethnolect?

[thefeminist]

Well, take your pick ;P

Let's go with a fairly standard one - Chinese Australian English.

[jeppikah]

Inability to produce a dental fricative, thus "think" becoming "tink" and "then" becoming "den"
Modification of stops, such as "bigini" for "bikini"
Failure to distinguish between voiced and voiceless consonants such as "raise" and "race" being pronounced as homophones