Sociolinguistics

language variation

language change in progress, such as the Northern Cities Vowel Shift

sociolinguistics

study of how language varies over space (by region, ethnicity, social class, etc.)

• study of language in society

• study of linguistic indicators of culture and power

• study of language variation and change

  • age

  • race

  • gender

  • concerned with similarities and differences

speech community

group of people who share a set of norms

idiolect

the way one person speaks

• voice quality

• physical state

• social factors

sociolect

group dependent similarities in language use

Labov’s experiment

• NY, 1966

• studied post-vocalic /r/ by shop assistants at 3 different shops (studying classes)

• “Fourth floor”

• Outcome: the higher the socio-economic status, the more /r/ sound pronounced

Trudgill’s experiment

• Reading, England, 1974

• Middle-class speakers dropped post-vocalic /r/

social markers

cues conveyed through verbal and nonverbal means that serve to identify individuals to the groups to which they belong.

dialect

a regional variety of a language differing from the standard language

language standarization

brings to a language a uniformity and consistent norm and form of writing and speaking, and the promotion of uniformity and consistency usually entails the reduction or elimination of variation

• standardized language has highest prestige

• non-standard is often stigmatized

codification

how a language is standardized

• Dictionaries, grammars, and printing conventions

• Sanctioning vocab, spelling, grammar

language loyalty

using a language variety that is looked down upon

language vs. dialect

Designating a language as a “dialect” is based on philosophical, social, and political reasons; not on linguistics

lexical variation

local areas have specific words

• American vs. British English

social barriers

• discrimination and segregation

• AAVE = stigmatized. has covert prestige in young speakers in other social groups (music)

vernacular

the language or dialect spoken by the ordinary people in a particular country or region.

• has negative connotation

features of AAVE

• consonant cluster simplification

• absence of plural marker for /s/

• double negative

• absence of be in current situation

• use of be for habitual actions

mutually intelligible

language varieties than can be understood by speakers of the two (or more) varieties

post-vocalic [r]

distinctive feature of many dialects of English (which pronounce [r])

accent

purely about pronunciation

dialect

accent, grammar, lexical varieties

dialectologist

sociolinguist who focuses on cataloguing and mapping dialects

British English

• British English originated from the Anglo-Frisian dialects brought to Britain by Germanic settlers from what is now considered Northwest Germany. This became standardized with the usage of the printing press.  specific dialect influenced the North America/American accent with the settlements- most coming from England. However, although these settlers may have been from England, they brought with different dialects and variations of English; this lead to overall variations in what is recognized as the United States.

• One variation is the way the phoneme /r/ is pronounced. Some dialects don’t pronounce /r/ it if it occurs after a vowel and before a consonant, such as in /park/-> /pahk/. This pronunciation is typical in Eastern New England and parts of the Southern coast. (Boston, Massachusetts and Tidewater, Virginia.) This variation spread to the agricultural system, and the r-less became adapted by slaves brought to America, and became a part of African American English.

• Another influence is the usage of the phoneme /ae/, /dance/ and was brought to the United States and is still used there today.

• Finally, the usage of the word “gotten” for the past participle was a common practice that was brought over with the settlers, but was later abandoned in England (in favor of “got”).

Words

• Cheeky

• Knackered

• Chuffed

• Mate

Phrases

• Lost the plot

• Takes the biscuit

• Knickers in a twist

• A bit of a Kerfuffle

• American English typically uses emphasis on vowels while British English places the emphasis on constants. This is easily seen with the word “mother.” British English will pronounce it as /mʌðʌ/ while American English will say /mʌðɹ/.

• Also seen with the example of mother, standard British English is non-rhotic. This is where the “r” sound is dropped if it follows the final vowel of a word. 

• Examples: Car /ka/ Father /faðʌ/   better /bɛtʌ/

Appalachian English

• Appalachian English originates from the Scots-Irish (came from Scotland, stopped in Ireland, and settled in America) during the late 1700s and early 1800s. 

• Expressions 

  • I done it already 

  • I seen 

  • Three bricks shy of a load 

    • Not the brightest 

  • Spitting image of 

    • Someone that looks similar 

  • That dog won’t hunt  

    • The idea won’t work 

• Words

  • Snickerdoodle 

  • Varmint 

  • Tacky

  • Ain’t 

  • Holler 

  • Winder 

  • Tater 

  • “Went” instead of “gone” 

• phonetic/phonological or syntactic features

  • Deletion of /l/ in wolf, shelf, help

  • Past tense form of be with the second personal singular you is you was, not you were

  • Use of ain’t

  • Positive anymore: used to mean something like ‘nowadays’, and it can appear without another negative

    • “Things are getting worse anymore”

    • “She’s so rude anymore”

New England English

• In the 1600s people from East Anglia settled in New England. They were the first people to start “r-dropping”. Most New England idioms also came from these settlers and are associated with sailing due to these settlers mainly being sailors.

• Some examples of phonetic/phonological and syntactic features of this variety of english are “mid back vowel /ɔ/”, “r-dropping”, and “low fronted /a/” in words such as caught, fighter, car, walk (respectively)

African American English

• This dialect of English developed in the Southern United States when European slavers forced millions of speakers of various West African languages to come to America and learn English. The enslaved people were often not allowed to speak their native languages, but over time aspects of different West African languages had an influence on the English spoken by southerners. Over the next two centuries, a new dialect, called African American English, or AAE, came into use among millions of speakers throughout all regions of the United States.

• A main feature used from West African languages, that was brought over to AAVE, is the use of aspect instead of tense

  • Example; He sleepin’ means ‘right now’ versus He be sleepin’ which means ‘regularly, all the time’

  • Example; Use of done as a verbal aspect marker: He done gone 

• Aspectual markings

  • Take the place of tenses in a sentence to denote time

    • Example: “He sleepin” means right now, whereas “He be sleepin” means all the time

    • Example: The word “Done” in the sentence “He done gone”

    • Zero copula

  • Likely influenced by West African languages, such as Wolof, which use similar verbal markings

    • Example: “doon” (Wolof) ---->  “done” (AAE)

• Voiced Interdental /ð/ becomes /d/ in first position 

  • Example: “this” becomes “dis”
    

Native American English

• “Native American English” is an umbrella term that includes many distinct varieties and is better described as an ethnic dialect as opposed to a regional one. 

• The eclectic styles of Native American English draw upon the cultural and linguistic idiosyncrasies from whence they originated, and as there are (as of Jan. 12, 2023) 574 federally recognized tribes according to the Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, there are characteristics from the many different languages spoken that have carried over to English.

• There have been speakers of English in Indian country since the founding of the Jamestown colony (southeastern Virginia) in 1607.

• Shared feature across NAE

  • Discrepancy in Prosodic Rhythm: A common feature of the varieties of NAE is the change in prosody. Many NA languages are syllable-timed, whereas “standard” English is stress-timed.

  • Deletion of Certain Irregular Verbs: Irregular verbs such as be, get, or have are often deleted from speech.

  • Addition of Plural Markers to Mass Nouns: Pluralizing mass nouns like “furniture” and “homework.”

  Deletion of Plural Markers to Countable Nouns: The deletion of “-s” in words like “dogs.”

• English words derived from NAE

  • Avocado

  • Squash”

  • Canoe

  • Kayak

  • Coyote

  • Raccoon

  • Skunk

  • Woodchuck

Chicano English

• Spoken throughout the American Southwest in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas

• Though Chicano English exhibits Spanish it is a fully developed variety of English. 

• Chicano English developed when Spanish immigrants moved to the US and carried some of the grammatical constructions from Spanish with them.

• Chicano English speakers in Southern California have adopted habitual be (The news be showing it too much.) from American English. 

• Speakers have also adopted “quotative” be like and be all

  • Example: (She’s like, “You don’t leave the house.” and He’s all, “I’m working for you.”),(Wolfram & Schilling-Estes 2006:199)

• Linguistic features

  • Vowels are sometimes reduced to spanish phonemes - (a, e, i, o, u), Beet vs. bit

  • Θ is pronounced by touching the back of the teeth instead of being interdental

  • Consonant cluster deletion at the end of words - Test- tes. Dad- da, end- en

  • Habitual be 

  • Quotative “be like” and “be all”

  • syllable timed 

  • Different Prepositions - She’s on the fifth grade

  • Double Negation

  • Irregular past tense - Yesterday he come to visit

  • Switched use of was and were - We was there

• Words and phrases

  • Águila - “be alert” (literally translate to ‘eagle’)

  • Homeboy - a good friend/someone who lives in your area

  • jefe/a or jefito/ita - mom/dad (literally translates to ‘boss’)

  • Laneta que…/la neta verdad/es laneta - the truth is/the pure truth/it’s the truth

  • Ponte las pilas - get your act together/get moving

  • B/Varrio - neighborhood

Caribbean English

In the late 1600s, thousands of West African people  were enslaved and brought to the Caribbean by the British. As they were from different regions and spoke different languages, they communicated using a pidgin language, a simplified method of communication between people without a shared language. The pidgin language contained aspects of ethnic languages brought from West Africa along with English, which was imposed by slave owners. 

Creole: a pidgin that has a more complex structure and vocabulary and serves the purpose of a full language. 

Pidgins cannot be considered a language because it has no mother tongue and has no native speakers. Therefore, a creole has been adapted in Caribbean since generations have continued to use this pidgin language. 

Caribbean English developed from a combination of Creole with English from settlers, indentured servants, and missionaries from Britain. 

pickney, meaning ‘young child’...It is thought to originate from the Portuguese word pequeno, meaning ‘small’,

Wagwan, Informal greeting from “what’s going on”, used in Jamaica 

Tabanca, “love sickness”, or longing for a lost love, can be used to describe the melancholy brought on after Carnaval celebration in Trinidad

Eat parrot head, used to describe a very talkative person, used in Trinidad

Upful, Happy, cheerful, uplifting, often used to describe music, used in  Jamaica 

Creole

a pidgin that has a more complex structure and vocabulary and serves the purpose of a full language

• develops from the first generation of native speakers of a pidgin language

pidgin

a simplified method of communication between people without a shared language

• cannot be considered a language because it has no mother tongue and has no native speakers

social factors of sociolinguistics

• economic status

• education

• relationships

• social background (education, social class, ethnicity)

• context of interaction