A literature review of English Language Variation on Sociolinguistics

This paper discusses the sense of Accent. This article offers a summary of the various recognizable shifts in the pronunciation of local dialects and the general variations in the standard English of different primary speaking populations. Accent is the component of the local pronunciation dialect. Grammar and vocabulary are otherwise mentioned. Secondary speakers of English prefer to use their mother tongue's intonation and phonetics in English speaking. The English primary speakers exhibit great regional diversity. Some of them are easily recognized by key features, such as Pennsylvania Dutch English; others are darker or more ambiguous. Broad regions may have sub-forms, as shown below. For example, cities less than 10 miles (16 km) away from Manchester city, such as Bolton, Rochedale, Oldham, and Salford have distinct accents that all together form part of the larger accents of the province of Lancashire. Australia has a "General accent" emphasis on the other side of the continuum, which is basically consistent in tens of miles. The accents of English can differ enough to give room for misunderstanding. In certain varieties of Scottish English, for example, the pronunciation of pearl can sound like petal to an American ear.

Plain Talk About Health: Linguistic Aspects of Mediation between Amish and Mennonites and Health Care Professionals

As the population of Amish and Old Order Mennonites grows exponentially, so are the contacts between Plain people and medical professionals increasing. All Plain adults are bilingual; however, the fact that the primary everyday language for most is Pennsylvania Dutch is important for understanding how they navigate the health care system. In this article I give an overview of language-related questions involved in communication between Plain people and health care providers with a focus on three areas: translation, interpretation, and patterns of language use. Much of the information I present in this article is drawn from my experience as an interpreter and cultural mediator for Plain people in a number of different public spheres, mainly health care.

Civil War writings of the Pennsylvania Dutch

For eighteenth and nineteenth century Pennsylvania Dutch speakers, a variety of German was the language of their books, their newspapers, and their schools. Being far from the European homeland created a hegemonic shift in the linguistic lives of these early German Americans; they were adopting an American regional identity. Along with their shift in identities and in linguistic hegemony, structural aspects of the languages they used also changed: their written German was in contact with English and with their spoken Pennsylvania Dutch. In addition, the limitations of formal education in German at rural schools meant that the emphasis among most Pennsylvania Dutch was on the receptive knowledge of German and not on productive control of the language. In time, a variety of German called Pennsylvania High German emerged in the publications, writings, and schools of Pennsylvania. This article shares recent findings of a large corpus of written attempts at Pennsylvania High German by Civil War soldiers. It discusses both the structural aspects of their written language as well as the negotiation of their American regional identities through a multilingual lens at the first major moment of increased contact with outsiders.