Reason for language change

Social status and language change

There is still a great deal of research and discussion about which social groups introduce linguistic
changes. One answer seems to be that a linguistic change may enter a speech community through any
social group, but that different types of change are associated with different groups. This group has
introduce into Norwich speech, for instance, a change in the pronunciation of the vowel sound in words
like hell and tell which is used by people from the surrounding countryside.

Members of the group with most social status, for example, tend to introduce changes into a speech
community from neighbouring communities which have greater status and prestige in their eyes.
Whether this change will spread upwards depends on whether it infiltrates the speech of the upper
middle class in Norwich before they are aware of its low status compared to the RP pronunciation of this
vowel.

One answer seems to be that a linguistic change may enter a speech community through any social
group, but that different types of change are associated with different groups

Gender and language change

So the introduction of vernacular forms into their community by these young women was an indicator of
who they interacted with through their daily networks and broader range of contacts through their work
(and another example of speech accommodation, which is discussed in chapter 10 ).

First, women may also introduce vernacular changes into a community, and, secondly, there are
communities where women are not leading linguistic change in any direction. Contrary to what one
might expect, young Clonard women are introducing into the Clonard speech community vernacular
pronunciations such as [ba:d] for bad, which are associated with the Ballymacarrett community. Women
in Ucieda are leading change towards Castilian Spanish and introducing prestige variants into Ucieda
speech. Finally, the generalization about women leading change towards the standard dialect applies
only where women play some role in public social life.

A second relevant factor accounting for the role of Clonard women in relation to these vernacular forms
is their social networks, a factor discussed in chapter 8. Upper-working-class men are leading a sound
change away from the RP standard pronunciation of words like hell towards the vernacular norms of the
surrounding rural area ([h0l]). So when women develop social networks which are close-knit and
multiplex, it seems that they too may introduce changes in the direction of vernacular norms. Women
are leading changes towards the standard, while men are introducing new vernacular variants.

Interaction and language change

Is face-to-face interaction crucial for linguistic change? Or is exposure to new forms on the media
sufficient? Linguists are not yet sure about the extent to which the media can influence people’s speech
habits.
Has this change spread from London through the influence of young people who spend a lot of time in
London? It is a vernacular form which has covert prestige – it expresses solidarity with a particular sub-
culture represented by pop music, for example, and negative attitudes to the ‘establishment’ – older
socially more statusful groups.

interaction and contact between people is crucial in providing the channels for linguistic change, as
previous examples have implied.

Cockney TV heroes may help promote positive attitudes to the form in advance of its adoption – but
most sociolinguists still think that actual changes in people’s speech require face-to-face contact with
real people.

In this last example, the requirement that language convey referential meaning as well as expressing
social or affective functions, such as group identity, imposes another constraint on the linguistic
developments in Kupwar.

A change which introduces a vernacular variant into a community (such as glottal stop for final [t] in
Britain) will infiltrate people’s more casual speech styles first.