Moza: 200908002
Samira: 201017006
Zainb
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Variation and Change
Post-vocal |r| its spread and its status
The spread of vernacular forms
How do language changes spread?
How do we study language change?
Reasons for language change:
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language varies in three major ways
interrelated . All language change has it
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. one area
of vocabulary where this is very easy to see is
in the slang words used by young people to
mean ( really good)
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In many parts of England and Wales, standard
English has lost the pronunciation of ( r )
following vowels in words like star and start.
variation and language change, as well as the
arbitrariness of the forms which happen to be
standard in any community. . these are
changes where people are conscious of their
social significance as desirable or prestige
features of speech.
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so it appears that post - vocalic (r) appeared
first in the speech of upper-middle-class
New York, and then gradually filtered down
through the different social classes until it
reached the speech of the lowest social class
in the community.
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It is easy to understand that a pronunciation
which is considered prestigious will be
imitated and will spread through a
community.
some times a vernacular feature in some
communities as a reflection of ethnic or social
identity such as what happened in Martha's
Vineyard Island.
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Who had lived on Martha's vineyard island for
generation and especially those men who
fished for their livelihood resented the fact
that the island has been invaded by more
recent immigrants and especially by summer
tourists.
Other group on the island with similar
attitude imitated the fisherman and so the
use of Centralised vowels spread
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1- from group to group: changes spread like waves
in different directions, and social factors such as age,
gender, status and social group affect the rates and
directions of change.
2- from style to style: from more formal to more
casual, from one individual to another, from one
social group to another, and from one word to
another.
3- Lexical diffusion : when a sound change begins all
the word with a particular vowel doesn't change at
once in the speech of a community .
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Apparent-time studies of language change: it
is the study of comparing the speech of
people from different age groups, to find out
any differences that could indicate change
(whether increase or decrease).
Studying language change in real time: in this
study, the researcher studies the language in
a community and then comes back to it after
a number of years to study it again, and find
out any changes.
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1- Social status and language change: members of
the group with most social status, for example, tend
to introduce changes into a speech community from
neighboring communities which have greater status
and prestige in their eyes.
2- Gender and change: differences in women's and
men's speech are a source of variation which can
result in linguistic change.
3- Interaction and language change: interaction and
contact between people is crucial in providing the
channels for linguistic change (social networks).
4-The media: some researcher belief that media has
a great influence on people's speech patterns and
new forms.