Language Varieties in World Englishes

World Englishes is the different forms and varieties of English language that is used in various sociolinguistic contexts in different parts of the world. “The term ‘Englishes’ represents variation in form and function, use in linguistically and culturally distinct contexts, and a range of variety in literary creativity,” (Kachru, 1996). English itself, as we know, is an international language and spoken language in many countries. Because it is spoken in many countries, there are varieties in world Englishes. At first glance, the concept of "varieties" in this context seems sensible and seamless, as "variety" in the singular is typically defined as a neutral term for many different types of language usage. According to Bauer (2002), “the term “variety” is an academic term to cover a language, a dialect, an idiolect, or an accent.” The term variety covers all of these kinds of language production. Thus, the varieties in world Englishes are such as dialect, idiolect, and accent.

“A dialect is a regional or social variety of a language distinguished by grammar, vocabulary, and/or pronunciation. The study of dialects is known as dialectology or sociolinguistics. The term dialect is often used to characterize any way of speaking that differs from the standard variety of a language which is largely considered to be dialect-free,” (Nordquist, 2019). The term dialect is generally interpreted geographically (nearby dialect), however it additionally has a few software with regards to a person's social background (elegance dialect) or occupation (occupational dialect). By that, dialect is used to describe features of grammar and vocabulary as well as aspects of pronunciation. Therefore, most languages represent a dialect. The first example of dialect is different vocabularies in the same language but different parts of some regional areas. For example in the English language, people who live in the northern part of Upper Midwest will refer to a bag made of paper as, “paper bag,” and those who live in midland parts of Upper Midwest will call it, “paper sack”. Another example of different vocabularies in dialect is that a Northern American might say, “hello,” and a Southern American might say, “howdy,” to greet another person. The second example of dialect is grammatical variation—variations inside the structure of words, phrases or sentences. We can take a look at grammatical variation by comparing the way people speak English in different places and among different social groups. There is no wrong or right about grammatical constructions. According to Robinson (2019), an example of this grammatical variation is the use of simple past come. In an utterance, “I had to rush off to meetings when I come home from work and everything,” spoken by some social groups in the UK, we can see the use of non-standard  English. The English past tense is unmarked in that sentence. Come in that sentence is a present verb version, while in Standard English, the form came is used because it is based on a grammatical standard in English nowadays. The speakers speak a much older English form than modern Standard English that is spoken extremely commonly across the whole of the UK. While the third example of dialect is pronunciation. Pronunciation is what we know as an accent.

“An idiolect is the distinctive speech of an individual, a linguistic pattern regarded as unique among speakers of a person's language or dialect. But it is even more granular, more narrow than just all the speakers of a particular dialect. In linguistics, idiolects fall under the study of linguistic variation, such as dialects and accents.” (Nordquist, 2019). A person's idiolect additionally consists of the stages of diction or language that she or he makes use of in different social situations. Almost all speakers employ numerous idiolects, relying on the situations of communication. Cited from ThoughtCo, “the concept of idiolect refers to a very specific phenomenon—the speech variety, or linguistic system, used by a particular individual. All those idiolects that have enough in common to appear at least superficially alike belong to a dialect. The term dialect, then, is an abstraction,” (Westview, 2003). Become an abstraction, then, makes it hard to quantify and outline clearly. To put it in a simple way, the difference of a dialect and idiolect is that 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.

Accents can be considered as contrastive from dialect, which covers regional vocabulary. Accent is technically how speakers pronounce one same language with different pronunciations. It is also a part or branch of dialect and dialect covers accent. “An accent is an identifiable style of pronunciation, often varying regionally or even socioeconomically,” (Nordquist, 2019). Cited from ThoughtCo, "Standard English has nothing to do with pronunciation," wrote Peter Trudgill ("Dialects." Routledge, 2004). "In fact, most people who speak Standard English do so with some sort of regional pronunciation, so that you can tell where they come from much more by their accent than by their grammar or vocabulary." Some speakers have very clear or easily recognized types of accent while others may have less visible accents. Sometimes, people usually do not realize that they have an accent. Nevertheless, it is obvious that every language speaker always has an accent because they come from different areas, backgrounds and social groups. An example of accent is how a word, “hello,” is pronounced in two different countries. An American might pronounce the word, “hello,” by speaking the “h” sound clearly. A British person might pronounce the word, “hello,” without speaking the “h” sound. This is the same language with two different accents.

The English language is spoken in many countries around the world. Because it is spoken in many countries, there are varieties in world English. The concept of "varieties" is typically defined as a neutral term for many different types of language usage such as dialect, idiolect and accent. A dialect covers the use of grammar, vocabulary, and/or pronunciation. An idiolect covers the use of diction or language that she or he makes use of in different social situations. While an accent—pronunciation—is a part of dialect and technically how speakers pronounce one same language with different pronunciations.

References:

Bauer, L. (2002). An introduction to internal varieties of english. Great Britain:  MPG Books Ltd.

Kachru, B. B. (1996). World Englishes: Agony and Ecstasy. Journal of Aesthetic Education, 30(2) 135–155. https://doi.org/10.2307/3333196

Nordquist, R. (2019). Definition and examples of dialect in linguistics. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/dialect-language-term-1690446

Nordquist, R. (2019). Idiolect (Language). Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/idiolect-language-term-1691143

Robinson, J. (2019). Grammatical variation across the UK. Retrieved from https://www.bl.uk/british-accents-and-dialects/articles/grammatical-variation-across-the-uk