Реферат на тему Современный шотландский английский и его социальный статус

Содержание:

Introduction. 3

1.   Specificity of Scottish
English. 4

2.   The status of Scottish English in
modern life. 9

Conclusion. 16

Введение:

A The Scots or
Scottish dialect has evolved over several centuries. It was originally a
mixture of early Scottish and northern versions of Old English and became
especially popular in the Middle Ages. It is important to immediately clarify:
the Scottish language or the Scottish dialect — linguists have not come to a
consensus regarding its status — belongs to the West Germanic language group
and has nothing to do with Gaelic language, which belongs to the Celtic group.
Scottish accents differ from region to region: Scottish is spoken in Plains of
Scotland, while older Gaelic is carefully preserved by the Highlands and
Hebrides. In this case, the main variant of Scottish English is called
"Scottish Standard English".

Almost all modern Scots speak some form of English,
and most Scots speak it as their first language.

According to the latest 2011 census, there were almost
60,000 Gaelic speakers in Scotland, mostly from the Gaelic Heartland, the
Hebrides and the northwest coast. Although the language is in decline, there
are numerous attempts to keep the Gaelic language and culture alive. Many
schools in the west of Scotland either teach Gaelic or teach Gaelic as a second
language.

However, speaking of the Scottish English invariant,
it should be borne in mind that this type of English has very little in common
with Gaelic.

The purpose of this work is to consider the place of
Scottish English in modern times and to identify the features of its social
status. In accordance with this goal, it is necessary to solve a number of
tasks:

1. Consider the features of Scottish English,

2. Identify the features of the social status of
Scottish English

The subject of the work is Scottish English.

The subject of work is the social status of Scottish
English and its features.

Structure of the work: the work consists of an
introduction, two chapters, a conclusion and a list of references.

Заключение:

Scottish English is a variant of the English language
spoken in Scotland. Most importantly, the formal variety is called Scottish
Standard English or Standard Scottish English (SSE). Scottish Standard English
can be defined as “the characteristic speech of the professional class [in
Scotland] and the accepted norm in schools”.

In addition to excellent pronunciation, grammar and
expressions, Scottish English has a distinctive vocabulary, especially in
relation to Scottish institutions such as the Scottish Church, local government
and educational and legal systems.

Scottish Standard English at one end of a bipolar
linguistic continuum, with broad-centered Scots at the other. Many Scots
speakers distinguish Scots and Scots British as different registers depending
on social circumstances. Some speakers code the switch clearly from one to the
other, while others design the variation in a less predictable and more
fluctuating fashion. There is usually a change to Scottish English in formal
situations or with people of higher social standing.

Nowadays, the most common language is English. There
are over 30 variants (dialects) of English, each of which differs in its
structure, vocabulary, grammar, and phonetics. Everyone has heard that there is
British English, American, Australian, South African, even Indian, and others.
They were formed due to the territorial division of countries, when
communication took place mostly through the exchange of letters.

The most common dialects in the British Isles are
British, Wales, Scottish and Irish. Today we will talk about, in my opinion,
the most specific dialect in terms of its phonetics, grammar, and structure,
Scottish.

The Scots love to remind you that they once spoke a
Scottish dialect of English called "Scots". Many foreigners have the
impression that the Scots speak it to this day. Sir James Murray, a Scotsman
and author of the Oxford English Dictionary, also published a grammar of the
Scottish dialect, since already at the end of the 19th century there were many
differences between English and the dialect spoken by his fellow countrymen.
Not mistakes, but differences, since we are talking about Scotland.

The agreement traces the influence of the English of
England on the Scots to the Reformation of the 16th century and to the
introduction of printing. Printing arrived in London in 1476, but the first
printing press was not introduced to Scotland for another 30 years. Texts such
as the Geneva Bible, printed in English, were widely distributed in Scotland to
spread Protestant doctrine.

King James VI of Scotland became King James I of
England in 1603. Since England was the larger and richer of the two Kingdoms,
James moved his court to London in England. The court poets therefore moved
south and "began to adapt the language and style of their poetry to the
tastes of the English market." To this event McClure attributes "[t]
his sudden and total eclipse of the Scots as a literary language." The
continued lack of a Scots Bible translation meant that the King James English
translation was used in worship in both countries.

The Acts of Union 1707 united the Scottish and English
Parliaments. However, the church, educational and legal structures remained
separate. This leads to important professional differences in the definitions
of certain words and terms. There are, therefore, words with precise
definitions in Scottish English, which have either no place in English or have
a different definition.

Фрагмент текста работы:

1. Specificity of Scottish English Scottish English emerged from the linguistic contacts
between Scots and Standard English after the 17th century. As a result, the
switch to English by native Scottish speakers has led to many phonological
compromises and lexical translations that linguists unfamiliar with the history
of Scottish English often mistake for mergers. [1] In addition, the process was
also influenced by inter-dialectal forms, overcorrection and spelling.

The convention traces the influence of the English in
England on the Scots before the Reformation of the 16th century and before the
advent of printing. [2] Printing arrived in London in 1476, but the first
printing press was not introduced to Scotland for another 30 years. Texts such
as the Geneva Bible, printed in English, were widely circulated in Scotland
with the aim of spreading Protestant doctrine.

Middle class speech in Scotland tends to conform to
the grammatical norms of the written standard, especially in situations that
are considered formal. Highland English differs slightly from the varieties
spoken in Lowlands in that it is more phonologically, grammatically and
lexically influenced by the Gaelic substrate. Likewise, English in northeastern
Scotland tends to follow the phonology and grammar of the Doric language.

Although the pronunciation differs from speaker to
speaker (depending on region and social status), there are a number of
phonological aspects specific to Scottish English:

Anglo-Scottish is considered a dialect of the English
language (it will be discussed in this article). It is mainly spoken in the
lowlands of Scotland. The number of speakers is about 1.5 million. Many Scots
speak mixed forms, that is, their language is a mixture of standard English and
Scottish English (as Ukrainian surzhik is a mixture of Russian and Ukrainian).

Scottish Gaelic is a Celtic language. Currently, the
number of speakers of this language is steadily decreasing. In the early 2000s,
about 50 thousand people knew him. This language has its own grammatical,
phonetic and lexical features and differs markedly from English. For example,
Gaelic has 4 cases, nouns are divided by gender, and adjectives are fully
consistent with nouns (in gender, case, and number).

In this article, we will consider the features of
Scottish English (Scots), which, unlike Gaelic, is more or less common in
Scotland.

Phonetic features of Scottish English

• Scottish English has much fewer diphthongs than
Standard. For example, down is pronounced [dun], coat is pronounced [kot], face
is [fes].

• The presence of a retroflexive (rolling) sound [r],
which sounds like Russian r.

• Lack of long vowels. For example, the vowels in fool
and full have the same length.

• Storing the sound [wh] in the words whale, which,
who, etc.

• Long closed [o:] is replaced with diphthong [ei] in
words like home, ghost.

• Replacing one consonant with another: church in
Scottish will sound like kirk, ridge — rig.

• The vowel y at the end of words is pronounced as [e]
or [i].

Here we have listed only a small part of the phonetic
differences between Scottish and classical English. Many people for whom
English is not native, it will be quite difficult to understand such speech.

Grammatical features of Scottish English

• Formation of the passive voice using the verb get: I
got told = I was told, it got built = it was built.

• The have got clause is used to induce someone to
take action: You have got to do it — You have to do it.

• Reflexive pronouns (myself, herself) lose their
reflexive meaning and become Subject pronounces: Himself isn`t at school = He
is not at school.

• The abbreviation for am not in Scottish English is
amn`t. Amn`t I beautiful?

• Scots rarely use pronouns with –body (everybody,
anybody). They use pronouns with –one (someone, anyone).

• The abbreviation won`t is not used in Future Simple.
Scots use `ll not: I`ll not stay here instead of won`t.

• Feeling verbs are often used in Continuous tenses:
I`m wanting to stay here. I`m feeling bad.

• Other prepositions and postpositions are often used,
such as wait on (rather than wait for). The postposition off is very often
used.

• Lexical features of Scottish English