Jessica “Annabelle” Horton

Professor Mantero

UH 155 - 008

31 March 2020

Language and Society

How does a society shape it’s language? Or does a language shape its society? In order to

fully understand the questions I presented, I decided to get the true definition of both a language

and a society. According to Merriam-Webster, a society is a community, nation, or broad

grouping of people having common traditions, institutions, and collective activities and interests.

The same dictionary defines language as the words, their pronunciation, and the methods of

combining them used and understood by a community. Something I immediately note from these

two definitions is their mutual use of the word community. Clearly these two ideas, language and

society, have common themes to interconnect them.

After being fully aware of the definitions of the words, I can move to answer the

question, does language impact a society or does the society impact its language? However, other

than a random guess with a fifty-fifty chance, how does one begin to tackle this question? I

decided to look within my own community and identities to answer this. I have grown up in

Savannah, Georgia, a city in the Southern region of the United States of America. My mother

was raised in Sylvania, Georgia, a much smaller town in the deep South. A third important

region of the state is the Appalachian community in the far north region of Georgia.

In comparing the three different societies, there are as many similarities as there are

differences. First and foremost, all three are Southern, Georgians, and Americans. We enjoy

peaches and boiled peanuts, we have the same governor, and the same capital. However, our
lifestyles vary greatly. Our Appalachian residents generally live a slower paced life, work for a

longer period of their lives, and are more self-sustaining (living off the land, with as little

“middle-men” as possible). Our Sylvania residents are rural, but less rural than the Appalachian

residents. They live a little faster than the Appalachians and enjoy more modern conveniences,

such as three chain restaurants and only a forty-five minute drive to a nearby larger city. At the

other end of the spectrum are the Savannah residents. Life is much faster paced than the

counterparts, and there is very little living off of the land. It is not often to find a family that can

be self sustaining, most produce even comes from chain grocery stores.

Another interesting difference to note between the three different societies is their

geographical location and features. As their name would indicate, the Appalachian people are

located in and around the Appalachians mountains, specifically the Appalachian trail. This

makes them further from the ocean, high in the northern part of Georgia, and secluded from a

vast majority of the world around them. People in the Appalachian have said that they identify

with their fellow mountaineers than any state line.This leads to their language and society being

mostly untouched by the world around them.

Sylvanians are in the eastern region of Georgia. They also lead a medially secluded life.

They are a good distance from major cities, they are far from the ocean and the mountains, and

they are surrounded by a great deal of farmland. They do not remain untouched though, as they

have large amounts of technology at their disposal.

Residents of Savannah reside right on the Atlantic Ocean, extremely far from any

mountains. Savannah is not secluded as there is an airport and several colleges in Savannah

alone. Savannah is constantly evolving in terms of language and members of the society.
 Now that we have seen similarities and differences between the societies, what about the

language? For starters, all three groups speak English with a Southern dialect. However, each

group has their own words that have evolved from the jobs done and land around them. When

Appalachians say “yander”, Sylvanians say “yonder”, and Savannah residents say “I am so sorry,

repeat that?”. Another example is when a resident of Savannah says “crooked”, a Sylvanian says

“cattywampus”, and the Appalachian says “si-gogglin’”. I am fortunate that I have family in all

three regions, so I would say I am “fluent” in some sense or another with different dialects of

Georgia natives.

All of these similarities and differences surely must mean something, but what is it? Does

the language impact how each of these societies have functioned and evolved? Could the

society’s function have impacted how the language has changed with time, adapting new words

and removing outdated ones? Words have been added to account for changes in environment and

the outside world. They have also been taken away because of these same reasons. This could

indicate society shaping the language, as they make the necessary changes to develop as a

community.

As I am familiar with each society, one thing that I have learned quickly is how the

language can make someone a welcomed presence or an outsider. The vocabulary chosen, how

thick the accent is, the intonation, and the speed of one's speech can either make them a friend or

a “peckerwood” quicker than the weather becomes “airish” on an autumn day. This could point

to language shaping the society, as it brings in new people or keeps them out.

After pondering over all of my personal experience and documented experiences of those

within the community, I’ve decided the two are mutually exclusive. A similar question is: what
came first the chicken or the egg? What an egregious idea, that they cannot be a cycle, impacting

one another. Neither came first, and neither language nor society is the sole impactor of the two.