Dialect words

Dialect is a variety of a language which prevails in a district, with local peculiarities of vocabulary, pronun­ciation and phrase.

Dialects are regional forms of English. Standard Englishis de­fined as the English language as it is written and spoken by literate people in both formal and informal usage and that is universally current while incorporating regional differences.

Car, trolley, tram began as dialectal words.

In the following extract from The Good Companions by J. B. Priestley, the outstanding English writer ingeniously and humorously reproduces his native Yorkshire dialect. The speakers are discussing a football match they have just watched. The author makes use of a num­ber of dialectal words and grammatical structures and, also, uses spell­ing to convey certain phonetic features of "broad Yorkshire".

" 'Na Jess! said the acquaintance, taking an imitation calabash pipe out of his mouth and then winking mysteriously.

"Na Jim!' returned Mr. Oakroyd. This 'Na' which must once have been 'Now', is the recognized salutation in Bruddersford, and the fact that it sounds more like a word of caution than a word of greeting is by no means surprising. You have to be careful in Bruddersford.

 

The formal layer of the English vocabulary.

We have already pointed out that formal style is restricted to for­mal situations. In general, formal words fall into two main groups: words associated with professional communication and a less exclusive group of the so-called learned words.