native to England and much of Scotland, from where it was passed on to the other native English speaking areas, both in the British Isles and around the globe.

This is reason enough to examine English in the British Isles more closely and to try to find out more about its nature.

The British Isles comprises numerous, often greatly different variants. Furthermore, in England, Scotland and Ireland there exist what are called traditional dialects. These grew up over centuries of geographic isolation and exhibit lexical, morphological, syntactic and phonological differences from each other and from Standard English.

WALES

With regards to Wales, the vast majority of the inhabitants speak English and around 20% of the population speak Welsh. Wales is the only area in the British Isles where one of the original Celtic languages has been able to survive as a daily language for many people.

Welsh is an Indo-European language, so is presumably descended like most languages in modern Western Europe from something first spoken on the steppes of central Asia. Its immediate decent is from the Brythonic language. Conventionally one speaks of Early Welsh as being the development of that Brythonic precursor a round the time when Britain fell to the Scandinavians, and Old Welsh as being the language of Wales between the ninth and eleventh centuries. Mediaeval Welsh covers the period from the twelfth to the fourteenth centuries. As far as Early Modern Welsh is concerned, it covers the development over a period from about the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries. The publication of the Bible in 1588 established a standard of language, which governs the subsequent development of Late Modern Welsh, essentially unchanged as far as the present century.

But it was the industrialisation of Wales that finally dealt the blow on the Welsh language. The influx of English workers, especially in south Wales, spread the English language once more.

Although the future of Welsh i s by no means assured, attempts to keep it alive are made through cultural activities such as Welsh-language schools and a fair amount of broadcasting is carried out in Welsh as well.

Welsh English shares many of the linguistic features of southern English. What distinguishes Welsh English from Standard English is the effect of the Celtic substratum. One of the commonly noted characteristics of Welsh English is its sing-song intonation,

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presumably influenced by Welsh. In grammar it is largely the same as Standard English. However, Welsh English has distinctions such as the practice of reporting indirect question in the same word order as direct question (I’m not sure is it true or not). Furthermore possession can be expressed by using a prepositional construction. For example, instead of saying “the rich have no luck” they would say “there’s no luck with the rich”.

ENGLAND

As far as England is concerned, as one move from area to area, an impressive variety of dialects can be found. The differing dialects, however, tend not to act as a language barrier very often, because 90% of the population today live in cities and towns. The speech form of urban population is less noticeably different from those of traditional rural communities.

The major division within E ngland is between the North and the Midlands on the one hand and the South, on the other. The main differences can be found in the several features of pronunciation. For example, in southern England the vowels in such words as “luck, butter” / / are pronounced differently to those in words such as “pull, look or push” / /. In the North the two groups of words have an identical vowel / /, so that “luck” and “look” are homophone.

Regarding vocabulary, however, regional variation is rare outside the traditional dialects. Where it does exist, it is often limited to the domestic, the local or the juvenile. Grammatical variation within General English is more dependent on educational rather than regional differences. Those who are less well educated are more likely to use non- standard English or slang.

These features include:

Ø Third person singular don’t (She don’t have) Ø Non-standard past (You done a good job) Ø Multiple negation (She don’t have none) Ø Some unmarked plurals after numbers (She is five foot) Ø The ending s for all person (I likes it) Although there is an abundance of different dialects within England, they do not really follow any sharp boundaries or coincide with any country lines. In fact dialects form a continuum. It is common in Britain for people who display particularly broad accents to be labelled by terms such as “Geordie”, “Cockney”, “Jock” or “Scouse”. All of these

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identify a specific regional accent, most of which are recognizable to many of the people

in the country.

Of all the urban varieties of English particular attention must be paid to Cockney. Cockney rhyming slang has uncertain roots. It is said that it was once spoken by the

thieves of London. It would certainly have been a very effective code, being incomprehensible to the authorities or any eavesdroppers who were not familiar with the

slang. There is a little evidence, however, to suggest that it was particularly widespread. The problem in researching its origins is that it was largely a spoken language with very few written records. What is more, if it was a secret code used by traders, entertainers,

and thieves, then the secret has been well kept. We will never be certain how widespread its usage once may have been. The Cockneys were - and are – working class Londoners.

The word comes from cockeneyes (14 th century), which means eggs that are misshapen, as if laid by a cock. The word went through a series of usages over the centuries, and it came to be used to refer to city folk. Nowadays the definition of Cockney is often one,

which originated during the 17 th century. It refers to anyone born within the sound of Bow-bells. These are the bells of St. Mary-le-Bow church in the city of London.

“Cockneys are known for their eloquent wit. Their gift for phrase making and

nicknaming has enriched the English tongue with new forms of speech, clichés and catchwords that have not only been diffused through the housing estates of East London

but have proliferated around the English speaking world.” 3

The grammar of Cockney is basically of the non-standard type. It is well known for its

rhyming slang and it contributes to the colourful image of Cockney. In rhyming slang a word is replaced by a pairs of words, the second of which rhymes with the one that has been replaced. For example instead of saying “my wife” they would say “my trouble and

strife” or “my fork and knife”. Some slang has become part of everyday speech and many Londoners wouldn’t realise they are using it. Some slang is shortened to use only the first

part of the rhyme, as in “butchers hook” means “look” as used in the sentence “Let’s have a butchers” meaning “Let’s have a look”. Modern phrases in everyday usage include “leave it out” means “don’t be silly”; “give us a bell” means “phone me”; “what’s the

damage?” means “how much?”; “you’re not on!” means “the answer is definitely no!”.

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