Social and Ethnic Dialects
Wolfram & Schilling-Estes
Chapter 6
Emergence of “Social Dialectology”
• Attitudes toward regional differences
• Attitudes toward linguistic variation
associated with social status (“sociolects”)
and ethnic identity (“ethnolects”)
6.1 Defining Class (social status)
• Social class distinctions based upon status and power Guy (1988):
– status = amount of respect or deference accorded to a person
– power = the social and material resources a person can command
• Linguistic Atlas Approach: Types I, II and III (based on level of education
•
and breadth of social contacts)
Socioeconomic Status (SES)
– Traditional approach
• Set of objectified socioeconomic characteristics
• Typically: occupation, level of education, income, type of residential dwelling
– Critiques
• Oriented to particular groups of speakers
• Whose judgment? (insider versus outsider)
• Agreement with regard to norms? (consensus model versus conflict model)
– American attitudes toward class
6.2 Beyond Social Class
• How to combine both objective and subjective
•
measures appropriately?
Complicating factors: region, age, gender….
– The notion of the “linguistic marketplace” (a person’s
economic activity, broadly defined, is associated with
language variation) and a person’s “linguistic market
index” (e.g. teacher, sales rep)
– Local considerations versus macro-level social
categorizations
– Social network, Community of Practice
– Matters of identity and personal presentation
6.3 The Patterning of Social Differences in
Language
• Group exclusive/Group preferential
• Inherent variability ([ɪn]/[ɪŋ]
• Social constraints on variability: Different
linguistic variables may align with given social
status groupings in a variety of ways (e.g., AfricanAmerican community in Detroit, MI): (text, pp. 175-177)
– Sharp stratification
for third person sing. –s/-es absence (typical for
grammatical variables)
– Gradient or fine stratification
for postvocalic R absence
6.4 Linguistic Constraints on Variability
• Sometimes referred to as “independent” (but
•
see chart on p. 181 that shows social influence)
Example: consonant cluster reduction
– The characteristics of the following word
• west coast vs. west end
• cold cuts vs. cold egg
– The characteristics of the cluster
• single morpheme: guest
• suffix: guessed
Constraints on Variability
• Both social and linguistic
• Both qualitative and quantitative
• Interpretation of Table 6.2, p.181,
concerning relative influence:
– SE and AWC show greater difference in % of
reduction in relation to following consonant
– SEAWC and SAAWC show greater difference
in % of reduction in relation to cluster type
6.5 The Social Evaluation of
Linguistic Features
• Linguistic description versus social
valuation
• Socially prestigious variants: associated
with high-status groups
– rare
• Socially stigmatized variants: associated
with low-status groups
– abundant
The importance of the axis of stigmatization
• “Standard English is more adequately characterized by the absence
of negatively- valued, stigmatized items than by the presence of
positively valued, prestige items.” —refer back to categories of
dialect, p. 16
• “It is important to understand that stigmatized and prestigious
variants to not exist on a single axis in which the alternative to a
socially stigmatized variant is a socially prestigious one, or vice
versa. The absence of multiple negation, for example, is not
particularly prestigious; it is simply not stigmatized.” (p. 183)
• The popular notion that speakers who use stigmatized variants
always use these variants and those who use prestige variants
always use these forms is simply not true.
Types of Prestige
• Overt (related to language
standardization)
• Covert (related to solidarity)
• Why do vernaculars persist?
• Differing judgments about social
significance of language forms (r-lessness,
pronunciations of “aunt”)
• Changes over time
The role of grammar versus phonology
• Grammatical variables: major symbolic
role in differentiating standard from
vernacular dialects
• Phonological variables: more apt to show
regionally restricted social significance
Roles of socially diagnostic features:
• As “social stereotypes” (overt comments on use)
• As “social markers” (show social stratification
•
but not same level of conscious awareness;
shifts across styles; NCS)
As “social indicators” (correlate with social
stratification but not used in stylistic variation—
examples for American English??)
6.6 Social Class and Language Change
• Myth: upper classes originate change and
others imitate
• Reality: lower-middle typically originate
change
• Reality: social classes between the
extremes bear responsibility for change;
most connected to local community, but
also sensitive to influences from outside
Change in relation to consciousness
• “changes from below” (the level of
consciousness)
• “changes from above” (the level of
consciousness): example of consciously
imitating an external prestige norm--r-lessness from British prestige norm
Resistance to Change
• “…the social differentiation of language in
•
American society is typified by the resistance to
proposed changes initiated by the lower classes
by a steadfast upper class rather than the
initiation of change by the upper classes and
subsequent emulation of these changes by the
lower classes” (p. 190)
Example: regularization of the grammar
6.7 Ethnicity
• Origins that precede or are external to the state (Native
•
•
•
•
•
American, immigrant groups)
Group membership that is involuntary
Ancestral tradition rooted in a shared sense of
peoplehood
Distinctive value orientations and behavioral patterns
Influence of the group on the lives of its members
Group membership influenced by how members define
themselves and how they are defined by others—
importance of the subjective dimension
“Ethnicity” as expressed through language
in relation to other social factors:
• African American Vernacular English can be part
•
•
•
of the expression of African American ethnicity—
But it is also related to social status
And is also associated with Southern regional
English
And can be used by non-African Americans in
certain situations (e.g. Hip Hop contexts)
Sometimes “ethnicity” is conveyed
mainly by a distinctive variety of
English:
• Wolfram’s work in North Carolina has
shown that a Native American group that
has lost its ancestral language
distinguishes itself from surrounding
groups through a distinctive variety of
English
• The situation in Wales
Relationships between ethnicity and
language variation:
• Transfer of grammatical patterns,
phonological patterns, lexicon from an
ancestral language
• The effects of more generalized strategies
related to the learning of English as a
second language
• Maintenance of patterns of language use
that are distinctive
6.8 Latino English
• “Latino English” or “Hispanic English” (see
link for terms earlier on syllabus)
– Historical
– Current
– New Mexico as officially bilingual
6.8.1 Chicano English
• Southwestern border states
• Myths (p. 197)
• Linguistic features:
– Phonological
– Rhythm and intonation (prosody)
– Grammatical
– Lexical
6.8.2 The Range of Latino English
• Different geographical locations
• Influences from contacts with other
dialects of English
• Urban and rural contexts
6.9 Cajun English
• From Acadians in contact with other French
•
•
speakers in Louisiana, Native Americans, slaves
from Africa and the Caribbean, Spanish-speaking
Islenos from the Canary Islands, and other
European immigrant groups = a French Creole
English as symbol of Cajun identity (as heritage
language as receded)
Cajun Renaissance
6.10 Lumbee English
“The distinctive mix of dialect features in
Lumbee Vernacular English shows how a
cultural group can maintain a distinct
ethnic identity by configuring past and
present dialect features in a way which
symbolically indicates---and helps
constitute---their cultural uniqueness even
though the ancestral language has been
lost.”