Language shift and linguistic insecurity

Variation in language is constant and inevitable. In a vital speech community some variation disappears as speakers age, and some results in long-term change, but all change will be preceded by a period of variation. Speakers of endangered languages may perceive variation in an especially negative light when it is thought to be due to contact with the dominant language. This contributes to negative evaluations of young people’s speech by older speakers, and in turn contributes to the linguistic insecurity of young speakers, which may result in even further shift toward the dominant language. In this paper we discuss language variation in the context of shift with respect to the notion of linguistic insecurity and what we identify as three distinct types of linguistic insecurity, particularly in cases of indigenous language loss in the Americas. We conclude with some observations on the positive results of directly addressing linguistic insecurity in language maintenance/revitalization programs.National Foreign Language Resource Cente

A World of Difference: Divergent Word Interpretations among People

Divergent word usages reflect differences among people. In this paper, we present a novel angle for studying word usage divergence -- word interpretations. We propose an approach that quantifies semantic differences in interpretations among different groups of people. The effectiveness of our approach is validated by quantitative evaluations. Experiment results indicate that divergences in word interpretations exist. We further apply the approach to two well studied types of differences between people -- gender and region. The detected words with divergent interpretations reveal the unique features of specific groups of people. For gender, we discover that certain different interests, social attitudes, and characters between males and females are reflected in their divergent interpretations of many words. For region, we find that specific interpretations of certain words reveal the geographical and cultural features of different regions.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, published at ICWSM'1

Methods for Modeling Social Factors in Language Shift

In this paper we expand our understanding of language endangerment by shifting the focus from small language communities to minority language communities with speaker populations in the millions. We argue for a methodological shift toward examining language shift scenarios more broadly and quantitatively for two main reasons: 1) it is becoming increasingly clear that a large speaker population does not protect against language shift (Anderbeck 2013); 2) we need to make a distinction between the symptoms and the causes of language shift, where factors such as a dwindling number of child speakers should be seen as symptoms of language shift that are caused by other factors (Himmelmann 2010). In this paper we use Indonesia as a case study and analyze a sample of the 2010 census. We treat language choice as a sociolinguistic variable and analyze the correlation between six social factors and language choice (local languages vs. the national language, Indonesian). These results provide a starting point for creating more comprehensive models of the sociolinguistics of language shift

Styles, standards and meaning

Abstract Style, in the study of variation and change, is intimately linked with broader questions about linguistic innovation and change, standards, social norms, and individual speakers’ stances. This article examines style when applied to lesser-studied languages. Style is both (i) the product of speakers’ choices among variants, and (ii) something reflexively produced through the association of variants and the social position of the users of those variants. In the context of the languages considered here, we ask “What questions do we have about variation in this language and what notion(s) of style will answer them?” We highlight methodological, conceptual and analytical challenges for the notion of style as it is usually operationalised in variationist sociolinguistics. We demonstrate that style is a useful research heuristic which – when marshalled alongside locally-oriented accounts of, or proxies for “standard” and “prestige”, in apparent time – allows us to describe language and explore change. It is also a means for exploring social meaning, which speakers may have more or less conscious control over

Snowy days and nasal A’s: examining the Rochester accent of English through oral histories

Senior thesis (B.A. Honors)--University of Rochester. Department of Linguistics, 2019Answering a growing call for social science research that benefits the community of study, this thesis presents the results of a community-engaged project in which I collected a set of oral histories with members of a neighborhood in Rochester, New York. I analyze the resulting recordings for the status of the Northern Cities Shift (NCS), the TRAP/TRAMP split, and the COT/CAUGHT merger, in relation with various social factors. I find evidence for the retreat of the NCS as a change from above in apparent time, indicating a reorientation away from the Inland North dialect. I also find evidence for the advance of the TRAP/TRAMP split and the COT/CAUGHT merger, indicating a reorientation toward supralocal norms. However, I find little support for a movement toward the Elsewhere Shift; rather, Rochester speakers are moving toward something more uniquely Rochesterian. I also find a high impact of connection to higher education on speakers’ NCS participation, TRAP/TRAMP, and COT/CAUGHT patterning, indicating that higher education is a key influencer of speech patterns

Patterns of Variation in Jakarta Indonesian: Linguistic and Social Dimensions

Colloquial varieties of Indonesian are increasingly becoming the native languages of a significant portion of the Indonesian population. Notable in this regard is Jakarta Indonesian (JI). We seek to examine the nature of variation in this increasingly widely spoken variety based on the Betawi-Jakarta Indonesian corpus (Gil & Tadmor 2014). We investigate variation within a subset of speakers comparing the phonological variables Kurniawan (2018) examined (word-final [a] ~ [e], word-final [h] ~ [ʔ] ~ Ø, and active prefix N- ~ [ŋə]) with the additional variables word-initial [s] ~ Ø and [h] ~ Ø (Cohn & Vogel 2019) and first person singular (1SG) pronouns (Abtahian, Cohn, Djenar & Vogel 2021). Investigation of this new emerging variety demonstrates both inter- and intra-speaker variation for the variables analyzed, but shows that the variables are not all conditioned by the same linguistic and social factors

Styles, standards and meaning

Style, in the study of variation and change, is intimately linked with broader questions about linguistic innovation and change, standards, social norms, and individual speakers’ stances. This article examines style when applied to lesser-studied languages. Style is both (i) the product of speakers’ choices among variants, and (ii) something reflexively produced through the association of variants and the social position of the users of those variants. In the context of the languages considered here, we ask “What questions do we have about variation in this language and what notion(s) of style will answer them?” We highlight methodological, conceptual and analytical challenges for the notion of style as it is usually operationalised in variationist sociolinguistics. We demonstrate that style is a useful research heuristic which – when marshalled alongside locally-oriented accounts of, or proxies for “standard” and “prestige”, in apparent time – allows us to describe language and explore change. It is also a means for exploring social meaning, which speakers may have more or less conscious control over

Styles, standards and meaning:Issues in the globalisation of sociolinguistics

Style, in the study of variation and change, is intimately linked with broaderquestions about linguistic innovation and change, standards, social norms,and individual speakers’ stances. This article examines style when applied tolesser-studied languages. Style is both (i) the product of speakers’ choicesamong variants, and (ii) something reflexively produced through the associationof variants and the social position of the users of those variants. In thecontext of the languages considered here, we ask “What questions do wehave about variation in this language and what notion(s) of style will answerthem?” We highlight methodological, conceptual and analytical challengesfor the notion of style as it is usually operationalised in variationist sociolinguistics.We demonstrate that style is a useful research heuristic which –when marshalled alongside locally-oriented accounts of, or proxies for“standard” and “prestige”, in apparent time – allows us to describe languageand explore change. It is also a means for exploring social meaning, whichspeakers may have more or less conscious control over

Styles, standards and meaning:Issues in the globalisation of sociolinguistics

Style, in the study of variation and change, is intimately linked with broaderquestions about linguistic innovation and change, standards, social norms,and individual speakers’ stances. This article examines style when applied tolesser-studied languages. Style is both (i) the product of speakers’ choicesamong variants, and (ii) something reflexively produced through the associationof variants and the social position of the users of those variants. In thecontext of the languages considered here, we ask “What questions do wehave about variation in this language and what notion(s) of style will answerthem?” We highlight methodological, conceptual and analytical challengesfor the notion of style as it is usually operationalised in variationist sociolinguistics.We demonstrate that style is a useful research heuristic which –when marshalled alongside locally-oriented accounts of, or proxies for“standard” and “prestige”, in apparent time – allows us to describe languageand explore change. It is also a means for exploring social meaning, whichspeakers may have more or less conscious control over