Sociolinguistic Marker Research Articles

Language change in action - Variation in Scottish English

Several typical Scottish features currently display considerable variability, and may be undergoing change. This article presents empirical findings from Ayrshire, and focuses on two significant features : rhoticity and vowel length. Rhotics are particularly variable, in both pre-vocalic and non-prevocalic positions. While [r] is extremely rare, [ɾ] and [ɹ] are both frequent, and [ɹ] is probably a sociolinguistic marker of (young) female speech. Yet, phonological environment and syllable stress are the principal factors determining the realisation of /r/ ; in addition, for coda /r/ -with a particular large range of variability, comprising full vocalization – age differences may indicate derhoticisation in progress. Vowel length is also variable : while the duration of /i/ and /u/ is correctly predicted by the Scottish Vowel-length Rule (SVLR) and depend on the morpho-phonological environment, this is not the case for the other monophthongs. Our data seem to suggest complex vowel length : short /i u ɪ ʌ/ vs. long /ɛ e o ɔ a/ monophthongs, absence of the voicing effect for short vowels, SVLR-lengthening of /i u/, and moderate voicing effect for long vowels.

Sociolinguistic Remarks on the Indo-Iranian *-ka-Suffix: A Marker of Colloquial Register

AbstractThe widespread Indo-Iranian *-ka suffix (also widely distributed elsewhere in Indo-European) is generally characterized as a diminutive or deprecatory marker, shading into pleonastic meaninglessness. However, it is easier to account for its extremely varied distribution and diverse functions by interpreting it as a sociolinguistic marker of colloquial or informal speech. The explosive growth of the suffix in the "middle" period languages of both Iranian and Indo-Aryan results in part from the greater representation of vernacular speech in those languages, but also from the convenience of the suffix as a means of staving off word-final phonological erosion. The suffix is also associated with speech by and about women from the ancient period (Vedic Sanskrit and Avestan) onwards. is association results from the fact that women are typed as colloquial speakers throughout these texts, lacking access to high-register grammatical forms and styles, and therefore paying attention to women's speech in ancient texts may give us a window on the colloquial register that is otherwise unavailable to us in these elite products.

Intraspeaker variability in vowel production: An investigation of motherese, hyperspeech, and Lombard speech in Jamaican speakers

Examination of five acoustic parameters (F0, F1, F2, segmental duration, and intensity) allowed comparison of Infant-Directed Speech (IDS), Hyperspeech, and the Lombard reflex. These phenomena have typically been investigated separately, each characterized in terms of one or two acoustic features (e.g., intensity for Lombard speech). The present two-part experiment examined intraspeaker and interspeaker variability in speakers of Jamaican Creole and Jamaican English. IDS and Lombard speech showed similar adjustments in two parameters (F0 and intensity), and IDS and Citation speech showed the greatest spectral differences. This result is important because it shows that while one or two acoustic parameters may be crucial characteristics of a type of exaggerated speech, task production involved the systematic adjustment of a complex set of continuous acoustic parameters. Taken together, the acoustic outcomes for the types of perturbations investigated here allow the tasks to be arranged along a continuum. These adjustments resemble patterns associated with the manipulation of sociolinguistic markers reported in sociophonetic studies of “style-shifting.” We argue that the two phenomena may be treated under a unified account of intraspeaker variability that builds upon the sociolinguistic concept of Audience Design.

'gheada' : un phénomène de variation phonétique, géolinguistique et socioculturelle du galicien

«Gheada», a phonetical feature characteristic of certain areas of Galicia, unknown in Castilian and Portuguese, consists of the pronunciation of /g/ ([g], [G]) as [h]. This phonetic innovation, very widespread in western Galicia, has been traditionally stigmatised as a sign of rusticity and lack of culture, thus turning this phenomenon into a sociolinguistic marker. Absent from both formal speech and the media, and restricted to lower and working classes, «gheada» has been frequently used to typify some people (with a ridiculous or even grotesque look) who try to renounce to their mother tongue (Galician) in favour of the prestigious language (Castilian). Seventeen yeers after the passing of the Law of Linguistic Normalization (1983), «gheada» is «in fashion»: a change in representations is taking place little by little , with advances and regressions. This is evident from its non-stigmatised presence in a popular Galician television series as well as from its proud use by many local bands taking part in the «Rock Bravú» movement.

H‐droppin’: Two sociolinguistic variables in New Zealand English1

Abstract The paper reports findings from the first large‐scale sociolinguistic investigation of conversational New Zealand English. We examine two sociolinguistic variables from interviews with 75 mainly working‐class speakers and compare them with other dialects of English. Our findings challenge the view that NZE has little or no dropping of word‐initial /h/. We found a modest mean level of HDROP among our speakers ‐ much less than found in Britain, but slightly more than in Australia. HDROP exceeded 30 percent among some groups, and 70 percent for a few individual speakers. Men used much more HDROP than women. HDROP was favoured particularly by older and middle‐aged Maori speakers, and avoided by older Pakeha [European] women. The variable ING, which realizes the velar nasal in [i?] as the alveolar [n], is as stable a sociolinguistic marker in NZE as elsewhere. Men reduced twice as many ING tokens as women, and there was some differentiation by socioeconomic group. The level of ING is lower than in Bri...

The development of the directional adverb hin in an Alemannic dialect: From sociolinguistic marker to stereotype

ABSTRACTIn a small community of approximately 760 High Alemannic speakers, four reflexes of the MHG directional particle anhin co-occur: (aje), (ae), (ahe) and (ane) in a case of active variation leading to change. The distribution patterns indicate that the most active variants, (aje) and (ane), are evaluated differently by different segments of the community. In the adult population we find speakers for whom the variation is still active and subconscious as well as those for whom the change is complete or otherwise inactive. In contrast, the children and adolescents use the conservative variant as a sociolinguistic stereotype. This pattern suggests that the classical sociolinguistic definition of speech community may be inadequate.