Dialects

Dialects II

On the Origins of Dialects and Languages: Spread

• If language is varying in small ways all the time, why do only some changes “catch on” and grow? How do changes move between speakers?

• Language is an important marker of group identity or membership. Speakers may or may not be aware of using language in this way.

Martha’s Vineyard, early 1960s

William Labov, a pioneering sociolinguist, studied the use of a ‘raised’ pronunciation of the diphthong sound in right, life, etc.

Age 14-30 31-45 46-60 61-75 75- 37 81 62 35 25 (Numbers indicate phonetic degree of raising)

When grouped by “orientation towards Martha’s Vineyard”:

Positive: 63 Neutral: 32 Negative: 9

Martha’s Vineyard, early 1960s

Age 14-30 31-45 46-60 61-75 75- 37 81 62 35 25

People in the 31-45 age group were hardest hit by a decline in traditional livelihoods like fshing, and the infux of summer residents from the mainland. More than any other group, they faced a choice between leaving Martha’s Vineyard and struggling to make it.

The people with the very highest raising: those who had left for the mainland and decided to come back.

New York: percentage of r-dropping in ‘fourth foor’ in upper, middle, and lower class department stores (Labov)

Upper Class Middle Class Lower Class 38 49 83

New York: pronunciation of ‘bad’ as ‘bay-ad’ or ‘be-ad’. Score of 1.0 means consistent ‘be-ad’; 4.0 is standard pronunciation.

Upper Class Middle Class Lower Class 2.7 2.5 2.3

Detroit: percentage of times double negatives are used:

Upper Middle Lower Middle Upper Working Lower Working 2 11 38 70

Detroit: percentage of ‘s’ deletion in third person verbs, e.g., he know:

Upper Middle Lower Middle Upper Working Lower Working 1 10 57 71

Correlations like this can be found refecting every group division imaginable: besides geography and class: age, sex, ethnicity (refected in some of the above), religion, and on a smaller scale, ‘in-groups’ versus ‘out-groups’ of all kinds.

The connection to language/dialect change and diferentiation: it seems that changes “catch on” and spread for social reasons.

When a linguistic variable becomes a marker of social identity, whether consciously or not, it is liable to spread throughout the relevant group.

Consciously or not, we tend to emulate the language of those with whom we identify.

Summary: Dialect / Language

Dialects vs. Language “Language” as a term conveys prestige

From a linguistic standpoint, a langauge is just another dialect

Also, for this reason, learning a new dialect can be akin to learning a new language (depending on how similar the dialects are)

Summary: Reasons for Dialects

There are cognitive and social reasons we have linguistic variation

Cognitive Analogy, regularization, overgeneralization,

etc.

Social Group affinity, identity, inclusion/exclusion