Linguistic Insecurity Forty Years Later

Abstract

This article reviews the Index of Linguistic Insecurity (ILI) as carried out for New York City by Labov and for Winnipeg by Owens and Baker and compares both to surveys done in southeastern Michigan in 2005, 2006, and 2007. The Michigan results, in spite of the apparent linguistic security there determined in earlier studies, reveal an even stronger insecurity than that reported for New York City. The article concludes that regional security does not imply personal security and shows a predominance of prescriptivist norms for the items surveyed in the Michigan studies as well as a higher incidence of insecurity for items that have poorly established community norms. The idea of linguistic insecurity as established in earlier studies is challenged by proposing instead a principle based on one’s fear of a personal inability to carry out a linguistic task.