Appendix 1 - Checklist of nonstandard features

Summary

The variation found in varieties of English can be documented for different linguistic levels. Below, an attempt is made to indicate what the chief features of phonology, morphology and syntax are which are more or less removed from contemporary conceptions of standard English in major anglophone countries. Vocabulary is only dealt with briefly (see section 4) as the variation here is not a matter of structural differences. In a way lexical variation represents a relatively simple case: a word in an anglophone variety is either a dialect survival, an indigenous loanword or an independent development, if it has not been inherited through historical continuity with mainstream English. There may be some cases of disagreement, an instance being shanty which could stem from the Canadian French for ‘log cabin’ or be possibly connected with the Irish for ‘old house’. However, the levels of sounds and grammar provide many contentious issues because the sources of their features are not so easily identified. These levels constitute subsystems in language – closed classes – which speakers are not usually aware of and where for virtually every parallel between an extraterritorial variety and a British dialect there is an equally significant difference. Such situations are tantalising for the linguist but also represent a challenge to present a convincing case either for or against dialect influence. Not all the items listed below are necessarily instances of dialect retention or at least may have other possible origins as contact features or independent developments.