Social and Ethnic Dialects

1. Social and Ethnic Dialects Wolfram & Schilling-Estes Chapter 6

2. Emergence of “Social Dialectology” • Attitudes toward regional differences • Attitudes toward linguistic variation associated with social status (“sociolects”) and ethnic identity (“ethnolects”)

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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., African-American 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. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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.

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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??)

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. “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)

18. 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

19. 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

20. 6.8 Latino English • “Latino English” or “Hispanic English” (see link for terms earlier on syllabus) • Historical • Current • New Mexico as officially bilingual

21. 6.8.1 Chicano English • Southwestern border states • Myths (p. 197) • Linguistic features: • Phonological • Rhythm and intonation (prosody) • Grammatical • Lexical

22. 6.8.2 The Range of Latino English • Different geographical locations • Influences from contacts with other dialects of English • Urban and rural contexts

23. 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

24. 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.”