Language variety – how to understand it

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Language variety – definition

The term language variety is used to describe the many manifestations of the English language.

These varieties are derived according to functional principles.

That is, they stem from an observation of how English is used in a variety of contexts.

Examples

Speech and writing are the two main varieties of English.

These can then be broken down into sub-varieties as follows:

SPEECH
Occupational	medical, nautical, political, legal
Informal	chat with friends or family
Formal	job interview, dialogue with doctor
Dialects	Standard English, American English, regional dialect
Accents	Received Pronunciation, Lancashire accent, American accent

WRITING
Occupational	academic, commerce, legal
Informal	note to friends or family
Formal	job application, letter to doctor
Dialects	Standard English, American English
Literature	novel, poetry, drama, story

Use

Many varieties of English are used by everyone in the course of a normal day.

‘Style-switching’ is the term applied to the competent use of these linguistic varieties.

That is, we might use a casual, informal style when speaking to someone at home, and a formal style when writing to the bank manager.

The concept of language varieties is useful mainly as a tool for stylistic analysis.

It should be regarded as one of many possible aspects of language study.

In the context of language study, all varieties of English have potentially equal value or status.

Analysis of style demands an appreciation of the linguistic features which make up a given variety.

Written legal language, for example will have some or all of the following features:

• minimal punctuation
• use of archaic vocabulary or idioms
• deviant use of capital letters
• archaic script style and (sometimes) illuminated initial letters

These can be seen as the critical stylistic features of the legal variety of written English.

Identification or definition of a variety is not always a straightforward matter.

Journalism is considered by some as a variety of English. Others would argue that the term is not usefully applied in this case because of the diverse forms [reports, letters, jokes, pictures, announcements] which go into a journalistic product such as a newspaper.

This diversity of form and styles negates the usefulness of the application of variety to this particular function.

Legal language, by contrast, has far fewer possible diversities and therefore is a more clearly defined as a variety.

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© Roy Johnson 2004