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FACULTY OF LANGUAGE STUDIES

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This essay will discuss"Standard English is the yard stick

of measuring forms that deviate in phonology and

grammar, from the Standard English of England".

Firstly, it will identify what is meant by Standard English.

Secondly, it will discuss grammar and phonological

variation and their causes. Finally, it will identify three

examples of phonological variation that Arabic speakers

use in producing English sounds, three examples of syntax

variation that Arabic learners use in producing English

sentences, and three examples of morpheme variation in

prefixing or suffixing words in English. At the same time, it

will explain the causes of such variation, that is the errors

in the performance of Arabic learners.

First of and foremost, Standard English is the variety that

is taught in schools, used in formal writing and media. It

is codified in dictionaries and associated with the speech

of well educated persons. There are some standard

English varieties spoken in different parts of the world.

These are Standard English English, Standard Scottish

English, Standard Irish English, Standard Australian

English, Standard Canadian English and Standard US

English. These varieties have few differences. ( Thomas

P222

However, there is much greater regional variation

between nonstandard varieties of English in England. The

causes of these variation, according to Joan Beal, are the

clear contrast between urban and rural communities , as

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in Tyneside and Tyne and Wear in the north of England.

Beal added that social factors also have a great effect in

that people of higher social status tend to use fewer local

forms of language. Moreover, the context of situation is

another main factor that play a part in making people

avoid local features on more formal occasions. ( Thomas

P.224 )

In focusing on the grammatical constructions of Standard

English, we as learners can understanding the differencesbetween Standard English and nonstandard English. In this

respect, we have to examine the structure of the English

sentence. A standard English sentence is made up of

group of words that termed phrases . For example, "the

girls will cook a delicious dinner ". In this sentence, "the"

is a determiner, "girls" is a noun, "will" is an auxiliary verb

"cook" is a lexical verb, "a" is another determiner,

"delicious " adjective, and "dinner" is another noun. In the

above example, "the girls" and "this delicious dinner" are

noun phrases, while "will cock" is a verb phrase.( ( Thomas

P226 )

In terms of verb phrase, there are several differences in

the form verbs that occurs in different varieties of English.

For instance, the speaker from South-west England used

the phrases " I loves, you loves, she/he/it loves, we loves

and they loves'. On the other hand , a speaker belongs to

East Anglia used the phrases " I love, you love she/he/it

loves, we love and they love'. This shows that there is only

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one present- tense form used in these areas. This is ,

according to Chesire and Milory, because non-standard

varieties of English have not been codified. (( Thomas

P227 )

However, Standard English, the codified one as stated

above, distinguishes between the third-person singular

and other verb forms in the present tense(I love, you love,

she/he/it loves, we love and they love). ( Thomas P. 227 )

Moreover, there are also differences in other verb forms.

In examining, for instance, strong verbs, differences

appear in the form of past tense and past participle in

Tyneside comparing with Standard English. For example,

in Standard English ,the past tense of "give" is "gave",

and the past participle is "given", in Tyneside it remains

in the base "give". ( Thomas P.228 )

Differences between Standard varieties of English can be

seen in how verbs are used. In this respect, the verbs

"have" and "do" may function as lexical or auxiliary verbs.

For example, in " you had a good time", "had" functions as

a lexical verb, but in "had you a good time?", which is

used in Scotland, "had" functions as an auxiliary verb.

( Thomas P.230 )

"Do" in " He's doing very well in school" functions as a

lexical verb, while, in the south of England, the form "do"

is found for the auxiliary verb and "does" for the lexical

verb. However, in Australia, a farther distinction between

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negative and positive forms are found. For example, " It

don't look all that good, does it ? " (( Thomas P,231 )

Another difference in grammatical construction is that

Standard English English used the simple past verb form

"went" with time adverbials such as " last year". As in," I

went to the camping last year. On the other hand, Scottish

and Irish English, Us English and Indian English, used a

present perfective form such as "have been" as in "I have

been to the camping last year. ( Thomas P..234 )

Furthermore, in examining the progressive aspect usage

with stative verbs (such as believe, like and know), one

can notice that this is a normal feature of varieties of

English in Irish English, Indian English and Scottish

English,. For example," I was knowing it ". However, this

feature does not occur in Standard English of England.( Thomas P. 235 )

There is also considerable variation in the use of modals

verbs ( can, might, will, should, must etc ) in English. In

this respect, Trudgill and Hannah stated that "could" and"

would" are used in Indian English rather than "can" and "

will" as in " we hope that you could join us". This is

because these two modals seen as more tentative and

therefore show politeness. ( in Standard English, we hope

that you can join us). ( Thomas P.238 )

In Standard English, "must" has the meaning of

obligation as in "you must be at the airport by ten"

,however, Miller argued that " have to" and " need to"

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are preferred for the use of obligation in Scots ( a non-

standard English) ( Thomas .P 238 )

Moreover, there is a rule of Standard English that only one

modal verb can appear in a single verb phrase. Verb

phrase in Scottish English may contain double modal such

as "He will can help us tomorrow ". This can be understood

in Standard English English as He will be able to help us

tomorrow. ( Thomas P. 238 )

In terms of noun phrase, nouns in Standard English either

countable ( like pens, apples and computers), or

uncountable ( like milk, water and money). Uncountable

nouns are themselves differ in different varieties of

English . For example, furniture would normally be a non-

count noun in Standard English, but in the English of India,

furniture appears as a count noun Thus, forms such as" a

furniture" and "furnitures" are found. ( Thomas P.242 )

In terms of the pronoun usage, Tyneside speakers use the

pronoun "us" rather than "me" as a first-person non-

subject pronoun (as in "Give us a kiss" ). Forms such as

Usll do it have also been found in this variety, effectivelyreversing the subject and non subject pronoun forms

found in Standard English. ( Thomas P..244 )

The second-person pronouns, both singular and plural,

also can take place in comparing its use in several

varieties. According to Dick Leith and David Graddol,

English originally had a distinction between singular "thou"

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and plural "you", which has been lost in the standard

variety.

However, some traditional dialects are still used the

singular "thou", but many other varieties are used "yous"

instated of "you " as plural form.

In this respect, Milroy and Milroy quote the following

example: " So I said to our Trish and our Sandra, yous

wash the dishes". This can be seen in north-east and

northwest England, Scotland, Northern and Southern

Irland parts of North America and Australia. This is

because many languages use the plural; forms of

pronouns as a polite form of address when referring to

only one person. ( Thomas P.245 )

On the other hand, Standard English use the form " you"

for the second-person pronoun both singular and plural.

What is striking is that in the south states of America, the

plural made with " y'all " to distinguish it from the singular

"you". ( Thomas P245 )

Variation also exists at clause or sentence level. That is to

say, in the way words, phrases and clauses are but

together. Subject, verbs and objects is the usual

sentence construction in English, however, subject and

verb can be inverted as in, "Was he angry?" ( Thomas P.

247 )

Moreover, " it-clefting " is one construction that may be

used in English to shed light on a particular part of a

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sentence. For example, "Ahmed loves flower", in it-clefting

system it will be: "It is the flower that Ahmed loves", as

the focus of information goes on "flower" rather than

Ahmed. This feature appears more in written English and

less in spoken as speakers made the focus of information

by using stress or intonation on a particular part of the

word. ( Thomas P.249 )

However, the use of intonation, according to Filppula and

Harris, is not possible in Irish. That is to say, this system

of " it-clefting" is very famous in Irish English. So, "it's

looking for more land a lot of them are" can be found in

Standard Irish English, not Standard English English.

( Thomas P.249 )

So far, this essay discuses some aspect of variation in

grammar between Standard English and other non-standard English. Now, it will discus some aspects of

variation in phonology. "Phonology is the study and

identification of significant sound". (English Phonetics and

Linguistics, P. 56)

There is no doubt that speakers of English do not speak

the language identically. Every English-speaking country,

and practically every region within those countries, has a

distinctive accent.

In Britain, the desirable accent held up as a model is

Received Pronunciation (RP). It is considered as social

rather than regional British English accent. It also can be

called "The Queen's English" and BBC English. P. 259

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Therefore , it can be said that RP is the most preferred

and respected accent in the English speaking world.

( Wright P. 259 )

The same phoneme could be pronounced differently in

different accents. For example, some English speakers

may or may not pronounce / r / in cart depending on

where you come from. ( Wright P. 263 )

A distinction is often made between rhotic and non-rhoic

accents. Speakers of both kinds of accents will pronounce

the / r/ in words like "carry". Speakers of rhotic accents

will also pronounce an / r / in words like " car" ; in this

case, the / r/ is not followed by a vowel. This kind of

pronunciation is also called non-prevocalic. This system of

distinction has also been used to distinguish between

accents in US, Canadian, Irish and Scottish accents maybe identified of prevocalic / r / . (Wright P.262, 264 )

There are farther pronunciations of / r / that distinguishes

speakers in terms of age and social class. In this respect,

Peter Trudgill argued that young speakers in Norwish,

England pronounce / r / as / w /. This makes the word

rabbit sound like wabbit.; and this can be noticed in

working class and middle class urban accents in south

and east England. (Wright P. 264

Moreover, a phoneme may be pronounced differently

depending on its position in a word. In RP, there is a

"clear" and "dark" / l / . For example, when / l / occurs at

the beginning of a word as in leaf, or between two vowels

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as in feeling, it is known as a clear / l /. On the other

hand, when it occurs at the end of a word as in feel, it

gives a different dark sound quality. . However, there is

an exception of this contrast between dark and clear / l/ .

For example, speakers of Lancashire, as do most American

, typically use dark / l / regardless its position in a word.

On the other hand, many Irish English speakers use

clear / l / wherever the sound occurs. (Wright P. 266)

There are other ways in which accents of English differ.

They may differ in terms of prosody. This concept includes

features like rhythm, which is the use of stress to highlight

one syllables in an utterance, and intonation, which means

a manner of producing tones, especially with regard to

accuracy of pitch. These make an important contribution

to the overall sound of an accent. (Wright P. 267 )

In this respect, different varieties of English used rhythm

and intonation contrast to highlight the same differences

in meaning. In Jamaican English, for instance, many words

receive stress on their final syllables as in "celebrate". On

the other hand, the same word tend to be stressed initially

in RP " celebrate". (Wright P.267 )

According to Gregory Guy and Julia Vonwiller, the high

rising tone (HRT) occurs at the end of a declarative

sentence in Australian English ; it does not necessary

indicate that the speaker is asking a question, as in the

following examples ; " she didn't relies what was wrong

with it And it fell off and she got the cane for

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breaking it ". (Wright P. 268 ) (Note, the symbol is

used to indicate HRT)

HRT can be noticed in other varieties of English. It occurs

in the varieties of spoken English in Tyneside, Liverpool,

Manchester, and Birmingham. Guy and Vonwiller stated

that spoken texts require the speaker to monitor the

listener. One way in which the speaker can check whether

the listener is following the strand of talk is to use HRT.

Most people tend to associate accents of English with

different English-speaking areas. In examining the regional

variation in accent, one should know that dialect consists

of grammar, words and their meanings, and

pronunciation. That is to say, some speakers may use

formal speech marked by a distinctive pronunciation

features of ,for example, Tyneside English. But in casualtalk ( as in a close family setting ) they may use

vocabulary, word forms and grammatical structure mark

the variety of English as being rooted in Tyneside. (Wright

P. 270 )

The Great Vowel Shift was a major change in the

pronunciation of the English language that took place in

the 15 th century. For example, in the Middle English

period the long vowel that is now pronounced in a word

like food / u: / in RP was the typical pronunciation in a

word like caw . So, a systematic shift that affecting-

becoming closer- the long vowels of English. (Wright P.

272 )

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The Great Vowel Shift had a great impact on the

pronunciation of English in different parts of England. That

is to say, it gave a rise to a division between northern

accents ( that have kept some of the old pronunciation )

and the rest.

Moreover, Chambers and Trudgill have documented the

gradual diffusion of more resent sound changes through

the vocabulary of English ; a process they called "Lexical

diffusion" . In this respect, people in the south eastern

part of England who first began to change the way they

pronounced vowels like those in blind and cow .

This is because the movement of wealthy and influential

people from East Anglia and Kent to London in the 15 th

century helped the speared of the innovative

pronunciation to London accents. Then, these innovationwas carried westwards and northwards as speakers with

new pronunciation moved around the country. (Wright P.

273 )

Furthermore, the mechanism by which new pronunciation

spread from community to community across the country

is called "regional diffusion ". That is to say, the

geographical spread of a linguistic innovation depends on

the movement of people and the continuing contact with

the speech communities they pass through.

In this respect, it is useful to mention the concept " vowel

merger " which has resulted from that mechanism. It

means that two vowels merge to become a single vowel.

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For example, the progressive merger of the vowels in

words like cat and caught or hock and hawk in general

American English. The resulting merger of these two

vowels sounds similar to the vowel in RP father / a: /

Moreover, Chambers and Trudgill have documented the

gradual diffusion of more resent sound changes through

the vocabulary of English ; a process they called "Lexical

diffusion" . In this respect, people in the south eastern

part of England who first began to change the way they

pronounced vowels like those in blind and cow . (Wright P.

273 )

This is because the movement of wealthy and influential

people from East Anglia and Kent to London in the 15 th

century helped the speared of the innovative

pronunciation to London accents. Then, these innovation

was carried westwards and northwards as speakers with

new pronunciation moved around the country. (Wright P.

273 )

What happens when English speakers from a number of

different places end up forming a new community, as in

the case of Australia, is that new combination of accentsgrew up on their own in this new place. (Wright P. 275 )

In the following pages, this easy will give three

examples of phonological variation that Arabic speakers

use in producing English sounds, , then, three examples of

syntax variation that Arabic learners use in producing

English sentences, and finally, three examples of

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morpheme variation in prefixing or suffixing words in

English. At the same time, it will explain the causes of

such variation, that is the errors in the performance of

Arabic learners.

First, three examples of phonological variation that Arabic

speakers use in producing English sounds:

1- In Arabic language the phoneme / fa / stands for the

phoneme / v / and / f / in English . So, in producing

words that contain the sound / v / as vacancy, and

words that contain the sound / f / as fast, Arabic

speakers will pronounce them as / facancy / and /

fast /.

2- Egyptian accent has the phoneme / s / that stands for

the consonant phoneme / / as in words like thank

and think. Thus , an Egyptian speaker may say "I

sink " instead of "I think".

3- Some young Arabic learners may pronounce the

phoneme / k / as in words like catand cycle as / s /.

So, cat is pronounced as / sat / , and cycle is

pronounced as / si sel /. This is because these young

learners have no knowledge in how to pronounce

consonant letters that followed by vowels letters (a,

o, u, e , i ).

Secondly, three examples of syntax variation that Arabic

learners use in producing English sentences:

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1- As stated above, whereas English sentence structure

is SVO, Arabic sentence structure can be either SVO

or VSO. In this respect, Arabic learners may write a

VSO sentence directly into a SVO sentence. Thus, "

Ya'akul Ahmed jazar", which means Ahmed is eating

carrots, will be written in English as something like "

Eating Ahmed carrots ".

2- In terms of writing wisdom in English, Arabic learners

may write the wisdom "A sound mind in a sound

body", as something like " a fine mind in a fine body

". This is because she or he translates a word by

word from Arabic into English.

3- There is also some errors in the use of English

preposition that are frequently made by Arabic

learners. For example, she or he may write " I will bethere at Saturday " instead of on Saturday.

In English, the meaning of the prefixing is that a

morpheme which is placed at the beginning of a root

word. For example, im + possible = impossible. Suffixing,

on the other hand, is a morpheme that is placed at the

end of a root word . For example, free + dom =

freedom. (English Phonetics and Linguistics. P 77)

Finally, some examples of morpheme variation in prefixing

or suffixing words in English.:

1- When an Arabic learner tries to write or say a

sentence like " Al Sayara Allati Eshtaritoha " in

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English, which means " the car that I bought", she or

he may add an Arabic morpheme " ha" at the end

of " bought". So, the sentence will become as " the

car that I bought it " . This is resulted because the

influence of mother tongue.

2- Once again, young Arabic learners, may add the

morpheme " ed " to the irregular past tense forms "

drinked". This is due perhaps to the fact that during

the early stages of learning English, students do not

have good command of grammar rules.

3- In Arabic, the verb could be in the plural form in case

it follows a plural noun. For example, Arabic young

learner may write "the students studies their

lessons." That is to say, she or he add " s " to the

verb study as a plural verb form.

4- Arabic adjective can be either singular or plural. So,

some Arabic students may also write an English

adjective in plural form. For example, " the boys are

smarts ".

To sum up,

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This essay discussed "Standard English is the yard stick

of measuring forms that deviate in phonology and

grammar, from the Standard English of England".

Firstly, it identified what is meant by Standard English.

Secondly, it discussed phonological and grammar

variation and their causes. Thirdly, it identified three

examples of phonological variation that Arabic speakers

use in producing English sounds, three examples of syntax

variation that Arabic learners use in producing English

sentences, and three examples of morpheme variation in

prefixing or suffixing words in English. At the same time, it

will explain the causes of such variation, that is the errors

in the performance of Arabic learners. Finally, I believe

that, in ordering to learn a particular language, students

should not follow their mother tongue rule of grammar or

pronunciation. They should only follow the system and

rules of the language they are learning.

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Words Count: 2116 words

References ;

Graddol,D. Lieth, D, Swann , J. (ed.)

(2005), English history, diversity and

change; A.O.U.

Mukattash, L. Al-Sehabi, N. and Al-

Khatib, H. (ed.) (2008), English Phonitics

and Linguistics ; AOU

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