Lecture (9)

Language Change
 Variation and change
 Why do changes spread?
 How do we study language change?
 Reasons for language change
◦ Social status and language change
◦ Gender and language variation
◦ Interaction and language variation
Language changes over time in:
 Pronunciation

o Knight

o knit

 Meaning

o nice meant ‘precise’, ‘fastidious’, ‘ignorant’.

o In Shakespeare, hie (‘hurry’), stilly (‘softly’) and arrant

(‘thorough’), which have disappeared or, more
treacherously, changed their meaning.
o Entertain , for instance, meant ‘keep occupied’
Language varies in :-
o Time

o Physical space / setting

o Social context

Speaker innovation : changes of language are done by the

speakers.
 Speakers innovate, sometimes spontaneously, but more often
by imitating speakers from other communities.
 If their innovations are adopted by others and diffuse through
their local community and beyond into other communities,
then linguistic change is the result.
 Language varies in three ways
◦ in physical space (regional variation)
◦ socially (social variation)
◦ over time (language change)
 Language variation Language change
Stable variation Language change in progress

Bell-shaped pattern Steady increase or steady

decline

All language change has its origins in variation. The possibility

of a linguistic change exists as soon as a new form develops
and begins to be used alongside an existing form. If the new
form spreads, the change is in progress. If it eventually
displaces the old form, the change has become a ‘fait accompli’
’- it has gone to completion..
New form of slang words used by young people
o e.g.: really good : super , spiffing , bonzer , groovy , neat ,
fantastic , magic , excellent , wicked , hot , rad , awesome ,
cool , sick , boss
sound change occurs when one sound is replaced in people’s
speech by another over a period of time, or when a sound
disappears
o e.g.: in New Zealand : new [nu:] , nuclear [nu:kliə).
 The sorts of questions sociolinguists ask about such changes
are ‘why do particular changes spread?’, and ‘how do
linguistic changes spread through a community?’

 Sociolinguists try to identify the particular social factors which

favour the spread of specific linguistic changes, and they try to
explain how these factors influence the spread of the change.
 Standard English has lost the pronunciation of [r] following
vowels in words like star and start.
 It does not occur in RP nor in London Cockney dialect.
 The loss is still in progress, as there are areas such as south-
west England where [r] is still pronounced.
 A survey in the 1960s found that rhoticism was increasing in
New York, where it was regarded as prestigious.
 More recent research confirms that rhoticism is now well-
established as a feature of New York speech, and there is a
suggestion that it may be spreading to other cities such as
Boston.
 It has also been identified as a feature which is spreading in
some varieties of New Zealand English.
 While [r]-less speech is the prestigious form which is still
spreading in England, in some parts of the USA it is the rhotic
variety which is increasing.
 Such changes are usually proposed by people in higher social
class
 Changes from above :
o Changes which people are aware of have been described as
‘changes from above’. These are changes where people are
conscious of their social significance as desirable or
prestige features of speech.
o A second meaning refers to the source of the change. In this
sense, ‘above’ refers to the fact that a feature is generally
spreading downwards through the social groups in a speech
community.
 In Martha’s Vineyard, the people resented the fact that the
island has been invaded by immigrants and tourists.
 They pronounced the words light and house like [ləit] and
[həus], in which the vowel is more centralised.
 This pronunciation was associated with the area in the past.
 The fishermen used these forms to express solidarity.
 Diphthong centralization, which seemed to be unconscious,
was a change to a more conservative pronunciation which
used to be associated with the area in the past.
 It had been dying out, but it was revitalised to express
solidarity between those who identified with the island and
felt loyalty to its rural values and peaceful lifestyle.
 The centralisation of the vowel in light was particularly
significant for signalling Islander identity.
 Other groups on the island with similar attitudes imitated the
fishermen, and so the use of centralised vowels spread.
 A group of Portuguese Americans, for instance, who had
been on the island for several generations and who identified
strongly with it, used centralized vowels too.
 And, not surprisingly, the American Indians – the indigenous
inhabitants of the island – also asserted their status as
permanent residents of the island through their speech.
 So not all linguistic changes involve adopting new forms
from outside the speech community. Nor do they always
involve forms which people are conscious of as prestigious
forms.
 Vowel centralisation is not an overtly prestigious sound in
US speech. On Martha’s Vineyard, however, it was clear that
people unconsciously valued this speech feature.
 The spread of centralised vowels illustrates how a vernacular
feature can acquire social significance and spread through a
community. It acquired covert prestige as a marker of a
person’s status as a Vineyarder.
 Changes from below:
o changes in language that people are not
aware of (in that they are changes below
people’s level of conscious awareness.).
o another meaning refers to a change
which spreads from lower social groups
upwards through to higher social
groups.

 Here, the spread of the vernacular forms is

considered a signal of covert prestige to
express solidarity
 Spread of vernacular forms may or may not be above the
level of conscious awareness.
 People may adopt new speech features, and especially slang,
from lower social groups relatively consciously.
 It seems likely that the spread of (th)-fronting in British
English (i.e. the substitution of [f] for [ɵ] and [v] for [ð]) is
an example of a vernacular change which is spreading
upwards through different social groups, and which is above
the level of conscious awareness for most speakers,
 while the spread of the glottal stop as a substitute for [t] in
final position seems to be below the level of consciousness
for most speakers.
 Koineization is a process of mixing two speech varieties that
belong to the same language.
 The term “koine” is borrowed from the Greek word Κοινή
which means “a common tongue” .
 It is first used in Greece to describe a common language that
is created for communication among speakers of different
Greek dialects.
 As a result, koineization can be understood as a mixing of
two dialects that generate a common speech style that is
characteristic of a speech community.
 Koineization is not the same as creolization; despite that
both of these processes examines specifically the mixing of
speech varieties, they differ in their process.
Creolization Koineization
The speech varieties The varieties are not The varieties are
involved exclusive to one limited to the same
language. language.
Degree of mixing High degree: Moderate degree:
May not be able to Able to trace back most
point out from the of the speech varieties
creole which varieties it that contribute to that
involves. koine.
 Trudgill and Britain has summarized four steps for
koineization.
 Levelling results in the koine adopting fewer forms than the
range of forms in the source dialects.
 For example, if people who speak dialects with post-vocalic
[r] come into contact with people who do not, levelling
generally leads to the disappearance of post-vocalic [r] in
the koine.
 Social factors are relevant too. So if the people who speak
the dialect with post-vocalic [r] have more prestige for some
reason (as they did in New York), then the [r] is more likely
to survive and be adopted into the koine.
 The [r] may be associated with belonging as a local in a
particular area, for instance, in which case it will survive as
an identity marker, a symbol of local identity.
 Simplification of different features or categories
occurs where two groups of speakers from
different dialect areas come together, the
simpler forms will usually win out.
 So when dialect speakers who makes the
distinction between he was swimming and they
were swimming meet dialect speakers who
don’t make this distinction (e.g. they say both
he was swimming and they was swimming ),
then the process of simplification suggests that
the simpler form will survive.
 Using only was is simpler than changing from
was to were with different pronouns.
 an immigrant koine which results from the
mixing of linguistic features among multi-
ethnic groups in big cities.
 The speech of young migrants or the
children of migrants provides the crucible
for varieties that have been labelled multi-
ethnolects.
 In these varieties, the majority language
may serve initially as a lingua franca, but
the new multi-ethnolect soon develops very
distinctive features as a result of the many
different languages and dialects which
different speakers bring to its construction.
 In multi-ethnic areas of London, for instance, a variety
which has been labelled Multicultural London English can
be heard.
 This new dialect has features such as the use of ‘a’ rather
than ‘an’ before a noun beginning with a vowel: e.g. a
orange , a apple , and a new quotative form this is + speaker.
 So rather than saying I said what a stupid idea , or even I’m
like what a stupid idea , children who speak Multicultural
London English say instead this is me what a stupid idea .
 From group to group
 From style to style
 From word to word
 From group to group
 From group to group

 The metaphor of waves to explain how linguistic changes

spread through a community.
 Any particular change typically spreads simultaneously in
different directions, though not necessarily at the same rate
in all directions.
 A change may spread along any of these dimensions and
into another group.
 Linguistic changes infiltrate groups from the speech of
people on the margins between social or regional groups –
via the ‘middle’ people who have contacts in more than
one group.
 From style to style

 the change spreads from one style to another (say from

more formal speech to more casual speech), while at the
same time it spreads from one individual to another within
a social group, and subsequently from one social group to
another.
 From style to style

 When a change is a prestigious one, it usually starts at the

top of the speech community – in the most formal style of
the highest status group and spreads downwards. (a change
from above.)
 A vernacular change, such as centralisation in Martha’s
Vineyard, or the spread of glottal stop for [t] in the middle
and at the end of words, tends to begin in people’s more
casual styles.
 From word to word

 Sound changes typically spread through different words

one by one.
 This is called lexical diffusion . When a sound change
begins, all the words with a particular vowel don’t change
at once in the speech of a community.
 People don’t go to bed one night using the sound [u:] and
wake up using [au] in house , pouch , how and out.
 Instead, the sound change occurs first in one word, and
then later in another, and so on.
 From word to word

 In Belfast, for instance, a vowel change

affected the vowel in the word pull before
put , and put before should .
 And in East Anglia, the vowel in must
changed before the vowel in come , which
changed before the vowel in uncle ,
although they all started off with the same
vowel, and they all ended up with the
identical different vowel at a later point.
 From word to word

 In English, trough and tough got left behind with final [f]
compared to though and bough which lost their final
fricative consonants as a result of a widespread sound
change.
 Apparent-time studies Real-time studies
The linguist compares the The linguist follows the same
speech of people from group of people and
different age groups. documents their change over
an extensive period (e.g. 20-30
years).
 Apparent-time studies of language change
◦ Compare the speech of people from different age groups.
◦ Differences between the speech of older people and
younger people are interpreted as indications of changes
in progress,
◦ e.g. an increase in the use of prestigious forms indicate
language change.
 Apparent-time studies of language
change
◦ The problem is with the
vernacular forms, as young
people use more vernacular
forms anyway. Therefore the use
of vernacular forms by young
people might be simply stable
variation.
◦ Researchers need to ensure that
teenagers will continue to use the
vernacular form even when they
reach adulthood.
 Real time studies of language change
 Real time studies of language change
◦ Researchers look at language changes in the same place and
over a long period of time (20-30 years)
◦ Trudgill’s Norwich compared the data in1968 and 1983,
and found that the vowels of beer and bear had completely
merged.
 Social status and language change
◦ Members of the group with most social status tend to
introduce changes into a speech community from
neighbouring communities which have greater status and
prestige.
◦ Lower-class speakers are more influential in spreading
less conscious linguistic changes.
 Gender and language change
◦ Women lead changes towards both prestige and vernacular
forms.
e.g. Women in Ucieda, Spain led changes towards the
standard form to show their social aspirations.
 Spanish dialect of Ucieda has posttonic [u] where Spanish has
[o]
◦ Ucieda trabaju : Castilian (= Std) trabajo ‘work’
 This vowel has been lowering in Ucieda as an accommodation
to the Castilian form.
 The height of this vowel distinguishes:
◦ those engaged in agriculture vs industrial sector
◦ those engaged in traditional mountain agriculture vs the more
modern dairy farming
 Women (most noticeably in agriculture/farming) lead this
change.
 Women (most noticeably in agriculture/farming) lead this
change.
◦ agricultural life is unattractive to women, who share in the
farm work and do the housework too.
◦ For this reason women are quicker than men to leave the
farm, and quicker to signal their distance from their current
way of life in their speech.
 Women in Clonard, Belfast introduce vernacular forms from
Ballymacarrett, because the both Clonard and Ballymacarrett
are working-class communities, and Ballymacarett is more
prestigious.
Also, women in Clonard have a close-knit multiplex network.
They are employed in poor city stores in shopping areas.
They develop and leisure patterns that resemble those of male
groups.
 Gender and language change;
 Men lead changes towards vernacular forms only.
o Men in Martha’s Vineyard led a change to a more
vernacular form to show their loyalty to an older set of
values.
o Upper-working-class men in Norwich are leading a
sound change away from RP towards vernacular forms
to show the solidarity of working men.
 Interaction and language change
◦ Linguistic changes progress most slowly in tightly knit
communities which have little contact with the outside
world.
◦ Gaelic in Scotland
◦ Maori in New Zealand
◦ Iceland
 Interaction and language
change
◦ Linguistic changes progress
most slowly in tightly knit
communities which have
little contact with the
outside world.
◦ Gaelic in in the western isles
of Scotland
 Interaction and language change
◦ Linguistic changes progress
most slowly in tightly knit
communities which have little
contact with the outside
world.
◦ Iceland
 Interaction and language change
  Interaction and language change
 Linguists are not yet sure about the extent to which the media
can influence people’s speech habits.
 Some believe that frequent exposure to a pronunciation on
television can bring about change. Others argue that face-to-
face interaction is necessary before change occurs.
 A popular compromise is the view that the media can soften
listeners up by exposing them to new forms in the speech of
admired pop stars or TV personalities.
 When people are subsequently exposed to a particular form in
the speech of a real person, they are then more likely to adopt
it.
 Interaction and language change
  Interaction and language change
 people like Sam act as a kind of linguistic entrepreneur
moving between groups.
 Sam serves an important linking function between two
distinct but closely knit social networks.
 As a link-person, he also acts as a kind of bridge or channel
for the spread of new linguistic forms from one group to the
other.
 People like Sam act as linguistic innovators within social
groups. Innovators are often marginal rather than core
members of the groups adopting an innovation.
 Interaction and language change
  Interaction and language change

 New forms can gain prestige from the media. TV may have
played a part in explaining at least the speed with which
pronunciations like [bova] have spread.
 The use of such forms by admired individuals on TV may
have made Norwich people more prepared to adopt these
forms which are well established in Cockney speech.
  Interaction and language change

 The fact that a form is used in the vernacular speech of the

capital city is probably another factor contributing to its
prestige or attractiveness to the ears of young people in other
places.
 Vernacular London speech is generally seen as more desirable
than the speech of other cities.
 Interaction and language change
  Interaction and language change

 in Kupwar, a small Indian village on the border between these

two language families, regular and long interaction has
resulted in the merging of the structure of the three languages
which is illustrated above.
 the villagers regularly use all three languages in their daily
activities. Over time, with constant switching between at least
two languages in any interaction, the languages have become
more and more alike. The word order is now identical, and
there are extensive similarities in the structure of words and
use of inflections too.
  Interaction and language change

 This last example illustrates a general point: language change

often operates within clear limits.
 Language serves two very basic functions, as mentioned in
chapter 1 : a referential or informative function and a social or
affective function.
 in Kupwar, language change does not proceed at a rate which
results in unintelligibility between groups in contact – the
referential requirements are always present.
  Interaction and language change

 Though parents often complain they cannot understand their

children’s slang, there is never any real danger that members
of groups who interact regularly will lose linguistic contact.