Variants of English language

 Fair dinkum can mean “are you telling me the truth?”, “this is the truth!”, or “this is ridiculous!” depending on context - the disputed origin dates back to the gold rush in the 1850s, “dinkum” being derived from the Chinese word for “gold” or “real gold”: fair dinkum is the genuine article. G'day is well known as a stereotypical Australian greeting - it is worth noting that G'day is not synonymous with the expression “Good Day”, and is never used as an expression for "farewell". Many of these terms have been adopted into British English via popular culture and family links [20].

Some elements of Aboriginal languages have been adopted by Australian English – mainly as names for places, flora and fauna (for example dingo). Beyond that, little has been adopted into the wider language, except for some localised terms and slang. Some examples are cooee and Hard yakka. The former is used as a high-pitched call, for attracting attention, (pronounced /kʉː.iI/) which travels long distances. Cooee is also a notional distance: if he's within cooee, we'll spot him. Hard yakka means hard work and is derived from yakka, from the Yagara/Jagara language once spoken in the Brisbane region. Also from there is the word bung, meaning broken or pretending to be hurt. A failed piece of equipment may be described as having bunged up or as "on the bung" or "gone bung". A person pretending to be hurt is said to be "bunging it on". A hurt person could say, "I've got a bung knee".

Many towns or suburbs of Australia are also have been influenced or named after Aboriginal words. The most well known example is the capital, Canberra named after a local language word meaning "meeting place" [22].

There are also a number of dialectical words and phrases used in New Zealand English. These are mostly informal terms most common in casual speech.

New Zealand adopted decimal currency in the 1960s and the metric system in the 1970s. While the older measures are understood by those born before 1960, younger New Zealanders have lived most or all of their lives in a metric environment and may not be familiar with pounds, ounces, stones, degrees fahrenheit, acres, yards, and miles, or pounds sterling, shillings, and pence - unless they have spent some time and effort studying foreign countries, such as the United Kingdom and the United States. However, that can be questionable [27].

The existence of a common lexical word-stock between Australia and New Zealand should not be underestimated. Hundreds of Australianisms are known and used in New Zealand [6; 354]. However, New Zealand English also has two particular set of words that contribute to a distinctive New Zealand English vocabulary.

One set comprises words borrowed from native Maori dialects. These words relate to geographical features, flora and fauna; e.g. kowhai and totara (trees), kumara (sweet potato), takahe (bird). Others relate to Maori culture, such as ariki (chief), haka (war dance), pa (village), wahine (woman or wife). Others are more general words, taken over from Maoti, such as pakeha (white person), kuri (dog, unpleasant person).

The other set of distinctive New Zealand words comes from adaptation and extension of British English words to the culture of New Zealand as it has developed over the years. The New Zealand word for a holiday or beach cottage is bach, which is a clipped form of bachelor. What in British English is a council house is a state house in New Zealand English. A university graduation is a capping ceremony [10; 126].

 Thus, there are a large number of differences in pronunciation and vocabulary of English language variants. These differences appeared because in different countries language developed in different ways. One of the reasons of these differences is that the language was spread in territories of North America, Australia and New Zealand by settlements who spoke different dialects of England. The next reason is the influence of aboriginal languages on English language. Differences in vocabulary may be also appeared because of cultural, historical, political differs.

 

Conclusion

In this research we have considered the distinctions between American, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand and British variants of English language. Then we have made the analysis of the studied literature, which allows to see development of all these variants of the English language.

Thus, the language began to spread because of the colonial expansion of Great Britain and after a consequence of the political, cultural and economic dominance of the USA English was spread more widely. The varieties of English were appeared because of mixing English language with other languages, which have influenced on phonetic, spelling and vocabulary of English language. And now each of the varieties has its own peculiarities. The status of the varieties  are also different. For instance, American English variant has an official status, its own pronunciation standard (General American) and it is used by educated people of the whole country. While dialects have no pronunciation standard and literary norm and they are  used by group of people who live at local territory. There are a large number of differences in pronunciation and vocabulary of English language variants. These differences appeared because in different countries language developed in different ways. One of the reasons of these differences is that the language was spread in territories of North America, Australia and New Zealand by settlements who spoke different dialects of England. The next reason is the influence of aboriginal languages on English language. Differences in vocabulary may be also appeared because culture, history, policy of Australia, North America and New Zealand differ from those of England. .

However, the varieties have much in common and due to this fact, we are speaking about one and the same language – the English language. In the given work we reached the objective of the research.

The tasks of the research have been solved:

• The ways of spreading of the English language all over the world have been studied.
• The characteristic features of English language varieties are showed.
• The phonetic differences between variants of the English language and Standard English have been studied;
• The peculiarities in vocabulary of the English language variants have been analyzed.

 

List of Literature

1. Arends, Jacques; Muysken, Pieter; Smith, Norval. Pidgins and creoles: An introduction, Amsterdam: Benjamins. 1995.
2. Barber, Katherine, editor. Canadian Oxford Dictionary, second edition. Toronto: Oxford University Press. 2004.
3. Baugh, Albert;Cable Thomas. A History of the English Language. The Taylor and Francis. 2005.
4. Benson M., Benson E., Ilson R. Lexicographie Description of English. Amstedram. 1986.
5. Crystal David. English as a Global Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2003.
6. Crystal David. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English language. 1994.
7. Finegan, Edward. English in North America. In R. Hogg & D. Denison (Eds.), A history of the English language. 2006.
8. Graddol David. The Future of English. The British Council. 2000.
9. Ginzburg R.S., Khidekel S.S., Knyazeva G.Y., Sankin A.A. A Course in Modern English Lexicology. 1979.
10. Jackson, Howard Z' Amvela, Etienne. Words, Meaning and Vocabulary: An Introduction to Modern English Lexicology. Continuum. 2002.
11. Kortmann, Bernd; Schneider, Edgar W.; Burridge, Kate; Mesthrie, Rajend; & Upton, Clive (Eds.). A handbook of varieties of English. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 2004.
12. Peters, Pam . The Cambridge Guide to English Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2004.
13. Trudgill, Peter and Jean Hannah.  International English: A Guide to the Varieties of Standard English, 4th ed. London: Arnold. 2002.
14. Turner G.W. The English Language in Australia and New Zealand. London. 1966.
15. Simpson, John (ed.). Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1989.
16. АРНОЛЬД И.В. “Лексикология современного английского языка” Москва «Высшая школа» 1986.
17. Ильиш Б.А. История английского языка. Москва «Высшая школа» 1968.
18. Орлов Г.А. Современный английский язык в Австралии. -Москва, 
    «Высшая школа», 1978.
19. Расторгуева Т.А. История английского языка. «Издательство Астрель», 2003.
20. http://australianenglish1.narod.ru/
21. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_English
22. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_English.htm
23. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_dialects
24. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language
25. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_english
26. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_English
27. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_English
28. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_English_English
29. http://www.studyenglishtoday.net/english-phonetics.html

 

 

Appendix

A. The three circles of English according to Kachru (1985) with estimates of speaker number in millions according to Crystal (1997).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

B.  Differences between General American and British Received Pronunciation standards. 

 

	General American Pronunciation standard	British Received Pronunciation standard
Negro	['nigrə]	['ni:grou]
fellow	['fεłə]	['felou]
to-morrow	[tə'marə]	[t̃ə'morou]
pocket	['pakət]	['pokit]
Missouri	[mi'zu:rə]	[mi'zuə]
nephew	['nefju]	['nevju:]
either	['iðər]	['aiðə]
neither	['niðər]	['naiðə]
lieutenant	[łu'tεnənt]	[łef'tenənt]
depot	['dipo]	['depou]
leisure	['liʒər]	['leəʒr]
suggest	[səg'dʒest]	[sə'dʒest]
tomato	[tə'meitou]	[tə'ma:tou]

 

 

C.  Differences between British Received and General Australian Pronunciation

 

Received Pronunciation	General Australian	Example
/i:/	/əɪ/	see /səɪ/
/ɑ:/	/a:/	heart /ha:t/
/u:/	/əʊ/	school /skəʊl/
/æ/	/e/	bad /bed/
/ʌ/	/a/	cut /kat/
/eɪ/	/æɪ/	say /sæɪ/
/aɪ/	/ɑɪ/	high /hɑɪ/
/aʊ/	/æʊ/	now /næʊ/
/əʊ/	/ʌʊ/	no /nʌʊ/
/ɪə/	/i:/	near /ni:/
/eə/	/e:/	hair /he:/

 

 

D.  Australian, American and British English Lexical differences

 

Australian English	American English	British English
bathers, swimmers, togs	bathing-suit	swimming-costume
bloke	guy	chap
crook	sick	ill
daks(dacks)	pants	trousers
duchess	buffet	sidebroad
durry	cigaret (te)	fag
fairy floss	cotton candy	candyfloss
fisho	fish seller	fishmonger
garbo, garbologist	garbage man	dustman
grog	liquor	spirit
ice block (pole)	popsicle	ice lolly
jocks	underpants	pants
lolly	candy	sweet
mate	buddy (bud)	fellow (feller, fella)
port	baggage	luggage
postie	mailman	postman
Proprietary(Pty)	Incorporated(Inc.)	Limited(Ltd)
servo	gas station	petrol station
station	ranch	farm
tuckshop	cafeteria	canteen
unit	appartment	flat
ute	utility truck	utility vehicle
wag	play hookey	play truant

 

 

E.  The best-known Australianisms in the English-speaking world.

 

Australian English	World Standard English
amber	beer
arvo	afternoon
barbie	barbecue
barrack	cheer
beaut	great
chook	chicken
clobber	clothes
dinkum	genuine, true
evo	evening
G’day	hello
nana	banana
oil	information
Oz	Australia
Pom(my)	English
sheila	woman
snag	sausage