Paper Linguistics Variation

Linguistic Variation

The following data is examples of language variation occur to some languages in term of linguistic level:

1.      Phonetic/ Phonological level

In this level, we present some examples of Canadian English words. The pronunciation of certain words in Canadian English has both American and British influence, but some are more distinctively Canadian.

These are the examples of how some Canadian English words pronounced.

Word	Canadian	British	American
adult	/’ædɅlt/	/’ædɅlt/	/əˈdʌlt/	The stress occur in the first syllable, just like British
either	/ˈaɪðər/	/ˈaɪðər/	/ˈi·ðər/	The phoneme /ei/ is pronounced /aI/, the same with British
again	/əˈɡeIn/	/ə’gen/	/əˈgeIn/	This word is pronounced like American
vase	/veɪz/	/vƆ:s/	/veɪs/	It is similar to American
fertile	/ˈfɜrtl/	/’fɜ:taIl/	/’fƏ:rtl/	It is different from British and American, because it is combined both.

2.      Morpho-lexical Level

German, just like English, has many variations and dialects, depends on each region the people use it. The variety of Standard German also occurs in Switzerland. For instance, some words that are used by people in Switzerland have different variations in their morpho-lexical level with how people in Germany use them. These are some examples:

Swiss German	Standard German	Morpho-lexical Difference	Meaning
der Auslandgast	Aulandgast	no -s- infix	Foreign guest
die Sonntagausgabe	Sonntagsausgabe	no -s- infix	Sunday edition
die Landsgemeinde	Landgemeinde	-s- infix	Municipality
die Zugsverbindung	Zugverbindung	-s- infix	Train connection
die Maienfahrt	Maifahrt	-en- infix	May journey
der Farbenfilm	Farbfilm	-en- infix	Color film

Another example is from Banjarese “Alay” language. The term alay (slang) explains that this kind of language is only temporally used by young people in that period. In 1990s, young people in Pahuluan, used to use this kind of language when they are gathering.

For example:

General Banjarese (GB):

Napang tih nang buhan kam gawi? (What are you doing)

Alay Banjarese (AB):

Napapapang tipih bupuhapan kapam gapawipi?

GB:

Umai bungasnya ikam! (What beautiful you are)

AB:

Upumapai bupungapasnyapa ipikapam!

The pattern: Umai becomes u-pu-ma-pa-i

We add infix (p)+ its vocal after each syllable, except the last syllable.

3.      Syntactic Level

Variation also takes place in the syntactical level of English. This kind of variation can be defined in terms of the application of a general process, such as the use of a particular type of contraction or concord. The following data describes the examples:

1. Contraction

1)      She has not finished her housework yet.

The sentence can be written or spoken as:

She hasn’t finished her housework yet.

She’s not finished her housework yet.

2)      If I knew before, I would not love him this much

The sentence can be written or spoken as:

If I knew before, I wouldn’t love him this much

If I knew before, I’d not love him this much

2. Concord

e.g. negative concord in English as in:

He didn’t do anything about any problem

He didn’t do nothing about no problem

4.      Semantic level

In this level, we try to differentiate some words in Madurese language. The first column is filled with some words used by Madurese in Madura island, while the second column contains some words used by Madurese in Situbondo. All the words here are in the same level of Madurese language that is Enje’ Iye which is the lower level of the language.

Madura	Situbondo	Meaning
atekok	abiluk	turn
gencang	Sekat	fast
abentha	acaca	speak
abecce’	mateppa’	repair
alabur	ngorap	paint the wall
tang	tembe	bucket
mangkat	ajelen	depart/leave
talebbu	tasellem	sink

            Another example can be found in Banjarese. It is generally divided into two variations of language, i.e. Banjar Kuala and Banjar Hulu. Banjar Kuala is used by people who live in Banjarmasin, Martapura, and Pelaihari. Meanwhile, Banjar Hulu is used by people who live in Pahuluan such as Tapin, Hulu Sungai Tengah, Hulu Sungai Utara, Hulu Sungai Selatan, and Tanjung. The differences between these two dialects commonly found in different vocabulary used by each speaker.

Banjar Kuala	Banjar Hulu	Meaning
Lihat	Tiring	See
Dapur	Padu	Kitchen
Kayi	Nini Laki	Grandfather
Hanyar	Puga	New
Ampih	Tajua	Finish

References

Kamus Bahasa Banjar. Retrieved February 3 from http://tabalongkab.go.id/kbb/kamus.htm

Thuleen, Nancy. 1991. An Examination of Swiss German in and around Zurich. Retrieved  on February 3, from http://www.nthuleen.com/papers/130paper2print.html

Wikipedia. nd. Canadian English. Available in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_English. Retrieved on February 3, 2013.

Wolfram, Walt. nd. Variation and Language, an Overview  in  Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics 2nd Edition. Retrieved on February 3, 2013,

 from www.ncsu.edu/linguistics/docs/pdfs/walt/Language_variation-sgl.pdf.