Reconstructing sociolinguistic variation

Jessica Kantarovich,Lenore A Grenoble

doi:10.3765/plsa.v2i0.4080

Jessica Kantarovich, Lenore A Grenoble

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3765/plsa.v2i0.4080

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Abstract

In this paper we illustrate a methodology for reconstructing language ininteraction from literary texts, demonstrating how they can serve as documentation ofspeech when primary linguistic material is unavailable. A careful incorporation offacts from literary dialect not only informs grammatical reconstruction in situationswith little to no documentation, but also allows for the reconstruction of thesociolinguistic use of a language, an oft-overlooked aspect of linguisticreconstruction. Literary dialogue is often one of the only attestations of regionalvarieties of a language with a very salient standard dialect, where no primary sourcesare available. Odessan Russian (OdR), a moribund dialect of Russian, serves as a casestudy. OdR grew out of intensive language contact and differs from most othervarieties of Russian, with substrate inﬂuences from Yiddish, Ukrainian, and Polish,and lexical borrowing from other languages. The only records of "spoken" OdR arefound in ﬁctional narrative. An analysis of works from several prominent Odessanwriters, including Isaak Babel and Ze'ev Jabotinsky, reveals considerable variationamong speakers of OdR; careful tracking of this variation shows how it wasdistributed among different social groups, and suggests how it may have beendeployed to index and acknowledge different social roles.

Highlights

In this paper we illustrate a methodology for reconstructing language in interaction from literary texts, demonstrating how they can serve as documentation of speech when primary linguistic material is unavailable
It is important to understand whose linguistic variety is being reconstructed, especially when we consider the motivation for particular changes. This is a fallacy that is often found in language contact-dependent explanations for change: there is often both a failure to establish who within the community would have had access to the contact language, as well as what their own variety of the recipient language would have been like
In order to illustrate how literature can be incorporated as linguistic representation in a socially-anchored reconstruction, we conduct a case study of Odessan Russian, where literature serves as the best available source for the morphosyntax of the language

Summary

Introduction

In this paper we illustrate a methodology for reconstructing language in interaction from literary texts, demonstrating how they can serve as documentation of speech when primary linguistic material is unavailable. In order to illustrate how literature can be incorporated as linguistic representation in a socially-anchored reconstruction, we conduct a case study of Odessan Russian, where literature serves as the best available source for the morphosyntax of the language.

Results

Conclusion