Introduction to linguistics: the differences between two major language families

An important link between members is closely related to the development of society and the gathering and dispersion of people. Therefore, in society, the use of language will inevitably be divided due to the influence of people, region, economy, culture, politics and other factors. That is to say, people from all walks of life in the whole human race, a country, even a province, a city, or even a small town, cannot all use a unified language without any difference. From low to high, from simple to complex, society will inevitably be divided into different social groups and regional administrative divisions in the whole development process or at a certain stage. Similarly, language will be divided with the division of society: different social strata will produce different speech groups, and on this basis, different social dialects will be produced; Various regional administrative divisions, such as a province, municipality directly under the central government, a city, a county, a town, a district or even a village, may use dialects with unique language characteristics, and the above two dialects are the result of limited language differentiation, that is, the language differentiation of the same language due to different social classes and regions is a branch of the national language, and this differentiation is limited to one language. However, due to historical, economic, political and other reasons, if several independent languages are differentiated from the same language and have the same origin, then the absolute differentiation of this language produces kinship languages.

3. 1. 1 social dialect

In the process of social development, due to the continuous improvement of productive forces, there has been a social division of labor, and different industries, different classes and strata have emerged in a unified society. In the long-term speech activities, these groups will form speech associations related to their occupations and classes. Not only that, people in the same society, because of gender, age and other factors, will also produce related speech associations in the crowd. In these speech societies, people are closely connected and communicate frequently, and have their own unique vocabulary and language usage methods. Every society produces its own language branch or language variety on the basis of its own national language, which is social dialect. People often say "bureaucratic accent", "cadre accent" and "student accent", or people call their own words "vernacular" and so on. , is a generalization of some common features of a language community in language expression. This "accent" or "dialect" is a social dialect and a popular expression of social dialect.

So how many social dialects are there in a society? It is difficult to calculate the number because it is impossible to count the number of verbal associations. As few as a few people and as many as the whole language society, as long as there are differences in language characteristics, it can be regarded as a language society. Different genders, different ages, different classes and strata can form different speech societies. In Japanese, men and women use two sets of terms. If women use men's terms, they will appear rude, while men use women's terms, they will appear "sissy". This is a social dialect formed by the language community composed of gender, and it is also a place that learners who take Japanese as the target language should pay special attention to. Differences in age will also affect speech characteristics. Taking Shanghai dialect as an example, the pronunciation of the words "smoke", "clothes", "Jane" and "already" is clearly distinguished by the elderly, but not by the young. There are similar examples in Beijing dialect. When the elderly talk about selling by the catty, many people pronounce "Lun" as [lin5 1] and "Ba" as [pai2 14], while most young people pronounce it in standard Mandarin. "I don't have", "I don't have" and "I don't have any" are standard English, which is spoken by "good" people born in prestigious and educated families; And some children born with a slight cold say "I don't have any", which is the so-called nonstandard English, "bad" English. The "aristocratic language" and "civilian language" that we often hear is also an example. In addition, American "African American English" (AAE for short) also has its own characteristics in pronunciation and grammar. For example, blacks don't often make fricative sounds, and their [di: z] is pronounced as [di: z]; The suffix -s of various functions often falls off, for example, the third person singular symbol -s falls off, and "she hates me" is called "she hates me"; Remove the -s representing the plural and say "a dog" as "a dog"; It means that the -s of the grid falls off, for example, "Jack's car" is "Jack's car". Because the social class of blacks is generally low, this kind of "black English" is regarded as a social dialect belonging to the lower class. In ancient China, the upper class called Nongzhang (having a son), playing with tiles (having a daughter), Dong Chuang (having a son-in-law) and other "elegant words", which also reflected the differences in language classes. However, from a linguistic point of view, all these social dialects are neither good nor bad. They are all social functional variants of a specific language, and they are equal in language.

The differences between classes and strata will have an impact on language and also cause language differences. For example, in the United States, the dividing line of social classes divides American languages into standard English and non-standard English. For example "

Jargon is also called jargon. Due to the different social division of labor, different professional groups have appeared in society. These professional groups all have their own professional characteristics, which are reflected in the different jargon languages used by people engaged in this profession: the names of tools and operation methods used in a certain industry, raw materials used in production and their properties and names, finished products and their parts and properties, and other special words from all walks of life, all of which constitute jargon. Such as long planer, short planer, edge planer, slot planer, hand saw, etc. It is a trade term for carpentry; Prescription, shock, thrombosis, atherosclerosis, etc. It is a technical term in the medical field; Dress-up, walk-on, kite flying, tiger jumping, role, appearance and ugliness appreciation are all industry terms in the field of Chinese opera, and so on. Technical terms are a special trade term. Syllables, vowels, consonants, subjects and predicates are all linguistic terms. Organic, inorganic, catalytic, halogen and oxidation are all chemical terms. Due to more and more frequent communication in all aspects of society, the scientific and cultural level of the whole nation is constantly improving, or because a certain industry plays an important role in social life, some words in jargon may be absorbed into the national language, thus becoming a way to enrich the vocabulary of the national language. Such as shock, prescription, role, mortgage, catalysis, etc. They are all absorbed by Mandarin Chinese and become a member of Mandarin vocabulary.

Slang, also known as argot, is a special social dialect and a secret word or sentence created and used by some groups. Other social dialects do not exclude or refuse people from other groups to use the language of this group, and some words in these social dialects are also absorbed by national languages. However, slang has a strong exclusiveness, and all members outside the group are confidential except those inside the group who can understand and use it. Only by mastering the slang of Zuo Shan Diao bandit group in Lin Yuan can he gain the trust of the bandits, break into the bandit cave and capture the bandit leader alive. For another example, in the old business circles, instead of saying "one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten", it is slang to say "Dan Di, Dig Gong, cross the river, raise an eyebrow, lack ugliness, break big, soap Di, male head, unfinished pill and Tian Xin". Generally speaking, slang has a limited existence time and cannot enter national vocabulary.

Social dialects are produced because members of society gather into different speech societies, so if a person is at the intersection of several speech societies, he may master several social dialects at the same time. For example, a female cook in an army may master the social dialects of troops, cooks and women at the same time; A policeman who sneaked into the enemy's interior to be undercover may have to master the social dialects of both the police and bandits. Being able to use a group's social language in language is an important symbol of integration into a group's life.

So, do people in the same language community regularly use the same language form? For example, does a teacher always speak in a "teacher's tone"? No A person living in a certain language group will inevitably show different characteristics in language use because of different communication environments and different communication objects, which is what we call language style variation. At the solemn opening ceremony, at the holiday party with friends, and in daily family life, this teacher can't always talk to family and friends in a teacher's tone, as if he were educating and guiding students; Say different things to children, elders, friends and strangers. For example, the teacher is caring and teaching her students, but for her two or three-year-old children, she will use another tone: "Baby, have a good meal, mom will take the baby to the streets and buy new shoes and socks for the baby!" Here, common suffixes, such as and, disappear and nouns overlap. The existence of language style variants further increases the richness and diversity of social dialects.

As can be seen from the above social dialects, the characteristics of social dialects are manifested in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar, but the obvious difference is vocabulary. Social dialects and their stylistic variants are tributaries of language. Although each social dialect has its own characteristics, the materials and structural rules they use are the same. Compared with the same language, most social dialects do not have a closed feature system. Therefore, for them, members of other language communities basically understand or can understand, and generally do not affect mutual communication and understanding because of differences in language expression. The communication in modern society is more and more extensive, and the terms of various industries are constantly entering the national language. The existence of social dialects makes language more expressive and colorful, which is an important way to enrich language vocabulary and an important aspect of language development.

3. 1.2 regional dialect

In a society that uses the same language, people in different regions may speak differently. For example, both Shanghai dialect and Beijing dialect belong to Chinese:

Shanghai dialect:

Nong really always catches sticks. I'll take care of him! At present, I am in a place with you. I asked the farmer to cut rice!

Beijing dialect:

You are really amazing, I admire you very much! Tonight, at the same time and place, I invite you to dinner!

The characters in the above two dialects are written in Chinese characters, and there is little difference. People in various dialect areas can generally understand it, but if they read it, the pronunciation is very different and even difficult to understand.

A unified society with underdeveloped production and transportation originally used the same language. With the growth and migration of population, people are distributed in all parts of the country, and various changes have taken place in economy, politics and transportation. People in different regions communicate less frequently, which makes the similarity of the same * * * using the same language decrease, and the differences in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar increase, which makes * *. The large-scale collective migration of some residents in a society will also lead to incomplete social differentiation, which will lead to dialect differences within a language. Most southern dialects in China are mainly caused by the large-scale southward migration of northerners in history. For example, Hakka dialect is an example. According to textual research, from the Eastern Jin Dynasty to the early Ming Dynasty, the residents originally living in the Central Plains moved south three times and distributed in the south for a long time, forming a Hakka dialect that not only inherited the characteristics of the original northern dialect, but also integrated the characteristics of the local dialect. Local dialect is usually called "Hua" in Chinese. As mentioned above, Hakka, Cantonese, Jiangsu and Zhejiang dialects and northern dialects usually refer to Hakka, Cantonese, Wu dialect and northern dialects.

Modern Chinese can generally be divided into seven dialects: Northern Dialect, Wu Dialect, Hunan Dialect, Gan Dialect, Hakka Dialect, Min Dialect and Cantonese Dialect. Within each major dialect, there are still dialect differences, which can be divided into "sub-dialects" and "local dialects" according to the characteristics of local dialects. For example, the most widely distributed and branched northern dialect areas in China include the provinces north of the Yangtze River, the areas along the Yangtze River above Zhenjiang and below Jiujiang, and Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou. But Beijingers and Nanjing people speak differently, and Chengdu people and Xi people speak differently ... so the four sub-dialects are divided into North China dialect, Northwest dialect, Southwest dialect and Jianghuai dialect. "Southwest dialect" includes Sichuan dialect, Guizhou dialect and other dialect groups.

What are the differences between dialects?

Generally speaking, the differences between dialects are mainly manifested in pronunciation. Compared with Beijing dialect, the Shanghai dialect mentioned above has rolling tongue sounds zh, ch and sh, while the Wu dialect to which Shanghai dialect belongs has only flat and voiced initials Z, C and S without rolling tongue sounds. Northern dialect has only voiced initials M, N, L and R, while Wu dialect has voiced initials [b][d][g]. There are only four tones without entering tone in Beijing dialect, while there are seven tones in Wu dialect, which keep entering tone. A similar situation exists in other languages. Slightly different, in a country where standard language is well promoted, regional dialects are more manifested as differences in accents. For example, in the United States, vowels in southern dialects become longer and their openings become larger. Five[faiv] is pronounced as [fa:v], the suffix "ing" is nasal, and "fixing to" is pronounced as "fixing to".

There are also some differences in vocabulary and meaning between dialects. First of all, the same thing may have different names in different dialects, such as "Xiaozi" in Beijing, "Xiaogan" in Suzhou, "West Duck" in Changsha and "Brother Xilao" in Guangzhou. The "wife" in Beijing dialect is equivalent to the "small family" in Suzhou, "Tang Ke" in Hunan and Hubei, and "wife" in Yunnan dialect. Beijing says "moon" and Guangzhou says "moonlight"; Beijing says "furniture" and Guangzhou says "furniture". In the United States, that kind of "sweet carbonated drink" has different names, such as "soda water" in the northeast, "soda water" in the north-central part and "Coca-Cola" in the southeast. Paper bags used in supermarkets are called "bags" in most parts of the United States, especially in the northeast, "sacks" in the middle, "pokes" in parts of the south-central part, and "DuDu" in Pennsylvania. In Australian English, "sidewalk" is called footpath, in British English it is called sidewalk and in American English it is called sidewalk. Similarly, the "truck" in Australian and American English is truck, while the "truck" in British English is rocky；; ; In Australian English and British English, the pronunciation of "gasoline" is patrol, but in American English it is said to be gas or gasolene.

Secondly, words in the same form may have different meanings in different dialects. For example, "mosquito" can be used to mean "fly" in Changsha dialect, but it doesn't mean it in Beijing dialect; "Water" can also mean "rain" in Guangzhou dialect, and "rain" is called "falling into the water", but "water" has no such meaning in other dialects.

Generally speaking, the grammatical differences between dialects are not as significant as phonetics and vocabulary. As far as modern Chinese dialects are concerned, there are also some subtle differences in grammar. For example, Beijing said "a knife", Guangzhou said "a knife" and Chaozhou said "a knife"; You should eat first in the northern dialect. Cats are smaller than dogs, so you should buy a few kilograms of vegetables. You should eat first in Cantonese. Cats are thinner than dogs, so you should buy a few kilograms of vegetables (in Wenzhou dialect, you should buy a few kilograms of vegetables). British English and American English are also different in grammar. For example, British English says, "Do you have ...? On the other hand, American English says, "Do you have ...? British English says "get on or get off the train" and American English says "get on or get off the train".

How to distinguish dialects? How much difference does it take to become a different dialect? There is no uniform standard, it depends on the specific situation of dialects. First of all, there is not much difference between dialects, and whether they can understand each other can not be the standard to distinguish dialects. In Chinese, Ningbo dialect and Jinhua dialect are difficult to understand each other, but both belong to Wu dialect. However, people who speak Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Polish, Czech and Serbian can talk to each other, but they use different languages. Therefore, the division of dialects cannot be based on the differences of languages themselves, but also depends on whether the people who use dialects belong to the same nation and whether there are homophones above each dialect as communication tools for people in various regions. Dialect is a geographical branch of the same national language. When determining dialects, two factors should be considered at the same time: the unified society and the differences of language itself. Only social unity has no language differences, let alone dialects; Languages of the same origin but different from each other, if they do not belong to a unified society, are generally not counted as dialects, but as different languages. However, there are also cases where two or more ethnic groups speak the same language. For example, the United States and Britain, Australia, New Zealand and other countries speak English, while other countries in South America speak Spanish except Spain and Brazil. This special situation is often the result of colonization. With the development of society, the same language will be divided in different regions, and the differences will continue to expand. For example, American English is very different from British English. Some people even think that American English is American, not English.

After the formation of dialect, its development prospect mainly depends on the conditions of social development. If a society continues to be in a state of incomplete differentiation, on the one hand, dialects will maintain their own characteristics, on the other hand, they will continue to exist as dialects subject to the development trend of their own languages. If a society develops from a state of incomplete differentiation to an independent society, then the original dialects will continue to expand their differences, embark on their own development path, and finally even become independent relative languages. If a society achieves a high degree of unity, then, in order to meet the needs of social, political and economic development, various dialects will gradually move towards unity and eventually integrate into the national language, and the length of this process depends on the speed of social development.

3. 1.3 Kinship Language