"Variation is a characteristic of language: there is more than one way of saying the same thing."
Refers to regional, social, or ethnic variations in pronunciation of a language, which can be the basis of dialect studies.
Phonetics: The study of sounds in language, including the differences in how they are produced and perceived.
Phonology: The study of sound patterns and systems within a language or dialect.
Morphology: The study of how words are formed and related to each other.
Syntax: The study of sentence structure and word order.
Semantics: The study of meaning in language.
Sociolinguistics: The study of language in social context, including dialects and accents.
Historical Linguistics: The study of how languages change over time, including dialects and accents.
Psycholinguistics: The study of how language is processed in the brain.
Language acquisition: The study of how people learn language, including dialects and accents.
Cognitive linguistics: The study of how people use language to create and convey meaning.
Applied linguistics: The application of linguistic theory and analysis to real-world problems, such as language education, language planning, and language policy.
Corpus linguistics: The use of electronic databases of language to analyze linguistic patterns and frequency.
Intonation: The study of variations in pitch and tone within speech.
Suprasegmentals: The study of aspects of speech that extend beyond individual sounds, such as stress, rhythm, and intonation.
Prosody: The study of the rhythmic patterns of speech, including intonation, stress, and timing.
British Received Pronunciation (RP): This is considered to be the standard accent of British English, often associated with the upper and middle class. It is characterized by clear enunciation, lack of regional influence, and non-rhoticity (dropping of the 'r' sound).
Cockney: This is an accent associated with working-class neighborhoods in East London. It is characterized by its distinct vowel sounds, 'th' sound replaced by 'f' or 'v', and non-rhoticity.
Scottish: This accent has a number of regional variations, but often is characterized by a distinctive rolled 'r' sound, elongated vowel sounds, and some unusual pronunciations (such as 'wee' for 'small').
Irish: There are many regional variations of the Irish accent, but it is often characterized by a sing-song inflection, an elongated 'a' sound, and certain unusual pronunciations, such as 'tanks' for 'thanks'.
Australian: This accent is characterized by a distinctive rising intonation, vowel sounds that are elongated and diphthongized, and non-rhoticity.
American Southern: The Southern accent is often characterized by elongated vowel sounds, non-rhoticity, and some unusual pronunciations (such as 'y'all' for 'you all').
American New York: This accent is characterized by a distinctive nasality, some unusual vowel sounds, and a slightly different intonation pattern than other American accents.
Canadian: Canadian English has a number of regional variations, but is generally characterized by a more neutral accent than many American counterparts, along with some distinctive vowel sounds and intonation patterns.
Indian: Indian English has a number of regional variations, but is often characterized by a sing-song inflection, some unusual word usage, and certain unique pronunciations.
Singaporean: Singaporean English is characterized by its mixture of English, Malay, and Mandarin influences, making it distinct from other English accents. It is often characterized by its unique intonation patterns and certain unusual pronunciations.
"Speakers may vary in pronunciation (accent), word choice (lexicon), or morphology and syntax (sometimes called 'grammar')."
"But while the diversity of variation is great, there seem to be boundaries on variation – speakers do not generally make drastic alterations in word order or use novel sounds that are completely foreign to the language being spoken."
"Linguistic variation does not equate to language ungrammaticality."
"Speakers are still (often unconsciously) sensitive to what is and is not possible in their native lect."
"Variationists study how a language changes by observing it."
"For example, variation is studied by looking at linguistic and social environments, then the data is analyzed as the change occurs."
"Variation in research programs must be malleable due to the nature of language itself."
"This is because language is also fluid in transition and does not shift from one state to another instantaneously."
"Language variation is a core concept in sociolinguistics."
"Sociolinguists investigate whether this linguistic variation can be attributed to differences in the social characteristics of the speakers using the language."
"Sociolinguists... also investigate whether elements of the surrounding linguistic context promote or inhibit the usage of certain structures."
"Studies of language variation and its correlation with sociological categories led to the foundation of sociolinguistics as a subfield of linguistics."
"Although contemporary sociolinguistics includes other topics..."
"...language variation and change remains an important issue at the heart of the field."
"Variation is a characteristic of language: there is more than one way of saying the same thing."
"Speakers may vary in pronunciation (accent)..."
"...word choice (lexicon), or morphology and syntax (sometimes called 'grammar')."
"Speakers are still (often unconsciously) sensitive to what is and is not possible in their native lect."
"Variationists study how a language changes by observing it."