4. How do language changes spread through communities?
Language changes spread through communities through the social interaction of different dialects and accents. This essay will discuss the effects of Dialect Leveling – the process where dialect differences are reduced – ,social prestige – the level of social value given to a language or dialect – and the differences between language changes in various sections of society. As well as this it will discuss the impact of different factors such as age and gender have on language change.
One way language changes can spread through a community is dialect leveling. Dialect leveling is the process whereby the dialect differences are reduced. Throughout the 20th century English dialects were transformed as an effect of urbanization. Dialects that were mutually understood were now communicating with each other and so they adopted features of the other for use in their own dialect. Changes quickly spread thanks to commuting but this also broke down local networks (e.g. neighbours) and these were then replaced with larger networks of colleagues and new friends from different parts of the country. These changes ultimately led to dialect leveling. The marked variants – which made the dialect distinctive – started to disappear and many people were adopting new features from other dialects and brand new dialects started to emerge over a wide area. Dialects that were once very area specific were now being replaced with generalized and non-standard ones.
An example of this change is Estuary English. Estuary English soon emerged in and around London as well as throughout the south of England, along the river Thames and its estuary (hence the name). Estuary English was a blend of regionally leveled accents from the London area – it combined both RP (received pronunciation) English and Cockney, which are drastically different. Cockney was a predominantly working class language but was also used all over London. “Visitors to Britain find this accent [cockney] very hard to understand, because some letters are not pronounced, especially T and H, and some vowel sounds are different. … For example, a cockney speaker would say, ‘Can I have a glass of water, please?’ The letter T is pronounced as /ʔ/ – a ‘glottal stop’ [a voiceless stop sound made in the throat]. … Another feature of the cockney accent is that /θ/ is pronounced as /f/. So a cockney speaker says ‘free’ instead of ‘three’. Compared to Cockney RP is an accent that is described as “typically British” and is actually considered an accent rather than a dialect as all speakers use Standard English. Estuary English is used by many people, the working class have adopted features of estuary English in order to expand their social networks – they may use this in a workplace environment to sound more professional – and the middle class who are usually stereotypically described as posh use it to sound more ‘ordinary’. Being used by many people coming from different areas and walks of life Estuary English has spread rapidly to allow it to be used as widely it is today. Many people see Estuary English as a good thing; "Your accent is a badge you wear, which tells people what sort of person you are. If you can be flexible, then you can fit in with many groups." and see it how it is: modern and inclusive. There are those who have an opposing view though, and completely disagree with it and its use in todays society; "Somebody who went to a good university has no excuse for speaking in that ghastly estuary sludge," …"Verbal imprecision often reveals mental laziness. Be a good chap, skipper, use the letter T. It's not there just to keep S and U company." (Talking about the new England cricket captain Nasser Hussain). Estuary English is just one example of how changes can spread quickly due to dialect leveling.
Another way language changes are spread is through media. Linguists are currently investigating language change caused by the regular immersion to certain language features on television. Many people argue that this is not the case although a common ground between the opposing views is that people may adopt speech used by their idols such as TV personalities or musicians. It is believed this is the case because we are more likely to adopt the speech of another real person. It is believed that this would not have the same effect if it were a character rather than a real person. Researchers have investigated this though and found different results. For example (Stuart-Smith et al., 2013) investigated Glaswegian teenagers and regular and consistent viewing of the popular soap Eastenders. They found that the influence of Eastenders was causing the Glaswegian dialect to adopt linguistic features dominant in the Cockney dialect.
Age is another factor that can affect the spread of language change in communities. The study of this is called an apparent-time study; research into this has interpreted the contrast between the speech of young people and their elders as indicators of language change. Stereotypically the younger generation will use new forms of language whereas the older generations will stick to the language features they have traditionally used. It is difficult to identify when this change is happening unless it is the spread of a prestige dialect because it is easier to see this happening. The normal pattern is that young people will use a non – standard dialect and older people will use a more standard dialect. The detection of these features is made even more difficult by the typical language patterns for each age group for example; “someone looking at a normal pattern for a stable vernacular feature like consonant cluster simplification may think this was spreading because young people simplify clusters more than older people. In fact, the high use of these forms by young people is just typical for their age group (an age – grading pattern) and the amount of consonant cluster simplification in their speech is likely to reduce as they get older.”
A person’s social status can also cause a shift in language throughout communities, especially in smaller groups. The person in the group who is considered to have the greatest social status is usually the instigator for language change within the group. They may introduce changes into their community from neighbouring communities, which have a greater prestige. For example: “upper-class London speech has prestige in eyes of many people from outside London. Middle Class people in Norwich who visit London regularly are therefore likely to introduce prestigious new London pronunciations or ‘in’ words from London to Norwich”. Language change within friendship groups for example is extremely common; if one person in the group adopts a new ‘slang’ word then chances are the other group members will adopt the same slang subconsciously.
A person’s gender can also contribute to language change. It has been found that usually women contribute to changes in prestige and vernacular norms whilst men usually introduce vernacular changes. An example of how each gender can contribute to language change differently is Ucieda, a small Spanish village. The woman within the village do not want to be stuck in the village as their own mothers were raising the children and being a farmers wife. The dialect, with which they speak, shows their rejection and indicates their ambitions. The women’s speech in Ucieda is closer to the standard version of Spanish than the men’s is. The women are exposed to different settings where they would have to adjust their language such as at university or during a job for an upper-class family. The dialect they use when talking to people they interact with outside of the village is closer to standard Spanish and therefore due to the frequency of using this many features would naturally find their way into her normal speech. Through the women in the village gaining these features the local dialect would be affected, as many people would then adopt similar features.
In conclusion, language changes spread through communities through the social interaction of different dialects and accents. Dialect leveling has a major role to play in this and it contributes heavily to language change on wide scale, with people now favoring generalized and non-standard dialects in an aid to raise their social status and be perceived differently. Today’s media also has an effect on the way language change is spread due to people idolizing celebrities and being regular viewers of certain TV shows. This is still a relatively new theory but it is one that although small, does make a contribution to language change in communities. Age can also cause a big effect, the language used by the older generation and younger generation will be drastically different. Younger people will tend to catch on to ‘trends’ whereas older people will tend to stick to what they know. Social status can cause major language change specifically in smaller groups, people may borrow from other more prestige dialects in an effort to raise their own social status as well as the groups they frequent. Gender is another factor which effects spread of language features, both men and women have typical features which they may spread and this can majorly influence dialects especially when speakers are predominantly one gender for example. There are many other ways to explain how language changes spread through communities; these are but a few small examples, which contribute to a much larger process.
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References
• Arthur, C. (1998). Language: Estuary English engulfs a nation. [online] The Independent. Available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/language-estuary-english-engulfs-a-nation-1197104.html
• Bl.uk. (n.d.). Received Pronunciation. [online] Available at: http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/find-out-more/received-pronunciation/
• Holmes, J. (2013). An introduction to sociolinguistics. 4th ed. Harlow: Pearson, p.206-235.
• Lawson, J. (n.d.). London accents: Estuary, Cockney and RP | DailyStep English. [online] Dailystep.com. Available at: https://www.dailystep.com/en/blog/london-accents-estuary-cockney-and-rp