LANGUAGE VARIATION || SOCIOLINGUISTICS

 In this model  of language change and dialect differention, it should always be possible to relate any variation found within a language to the factors of time and distance alone. E.g. the  British and American varities, or English are separated by over two centuries of political independence and by the Atlantic ocean, Northumbrian and Cockney English are nearly 300 miles and any centuries apart.

Dialect  geographies have traditionaly attempted to produce their findings onmaps in what they call dialects atlases. They try to show the geographical boundaries of the distribution of a particular linguistics feature by drawing a line on a map. Such line is called an isoglosses. Alternatively, a particular area, a relic area, may show characteristic of being unaffected by changes spreading out from one or more neighboring areas. Very oftn the isoglosses for individual phonological features do not coincide with the one another to give us clearly demarcated dialects areas. Because dialects studies grew out of historical studies of language, it should also come as no surprise that they have focused almost exclusively on rural areas.

     Variation is an inharent characteristic of all language at all times and the pattern exhibited in this variation carry social meanings. The term linguistic variation( or simply variation ) refers to regional, social or contextual differences in the ways that a particular language is used. Variation between language, dialects, and speaker is known as intraspeaker variation. Variation within the language of a single speaker called intraspeaker variation. Since the rise of sociolinguistics in the 1960s. Interest in linguistics variation ( also called linguistics variability) has develop rapidly. All aspect of language. Including phonemes, morphemes, syntactic structure, and meanings are subject to variation.