Language Change

In reality, it is not so much that language itself changes as that speakers and writers change the
way they use the language. Speaker innovation is a more accurate description than language
change. Speakers innovate, sometimes spontaneously, but more often by imitating speakers from
other communities. If their innovations are adopted by others and diffuse through their local
community and beyond into other communities, then linguistic change is the result.

1. Variation and change

All language change has its origins in variation. The possibility of a linguistic change exists
as soon as a new form develops and begins to be used alongside an existing form. If the new
form spreads, the change is in progress. If it eventually displaces the old form, the change
has become completed.

Similarly, a sound change occurs when one sound is replaced in people’s speech by another over
a period of time, or when a sound disappears. The process is the same. In New Zealand, for
example, words like new and nuclear were once pronounced nyew [nju:] and nyuklear [nju:klia].
Right now, there is variation in the community. A new norm has been introduced. Young people
are increasingly using an American pronunciation without the [j]: i.e. [nu:] and [nu:klia]. Over
time, it seems likely that the pronunciation without [j] will displace the [j] pronunciation in most
people’s speech.

2. Post-vocalic [r] – its spread and its status

In many parts of England and Wales, the Standard English has lost the pronunciation of /r/
after vowels in words like “star” or “card”. The loss of post vocalic /r/ has begun in the
17th century in the south-east of England, but areas at the south-west of England are
pronouncing the post vocalic /r/. The change, however, is moving slowly towards the West.
The accents of post-vocalic /r/ are called “rhotic”. In England, rhotic accents are described
as rural and uneducated. However, in USA, it is extensively used. Many US accents are rhotic.
A research made in 1960 found out that rhoticism is regarded as prestigious in New York. It was
used by the young people of the upper middle class in their formal and casual speech, which
indicated that it is spreading. However, Eastern England is generally non-rhotic.
3. The spread of vernacular forms

Vernacular pronunciations also spread in speech communities. A linguistic survey made in

1950 in Martha’s Vineyard, showed that the community use the vernacular forms of the
earlier generations to mark itself from the tourists or visitors to the island. Speakers
changed their pronunciation to seem more conservative that is associated with the area in
the past. Even if this pronunciation has died out, it was used to express solidarity and loyalty to
the rural values of the place. Therefore, they pronounced words like “light” as close to “layeet”
and “house” as close to “heyoose”. The people of vineyard unconsciously valued the feature of
“vowel centralization” in their speech.

4. Koines and koineisation

In sociolinguistics, koineisation is the process by which a new variety of a language emerges

from the mixing, leveling, and simplifying of different dialects. Also known as dialect
mixing and structural nativization. And the new variety of a language that develops as a
result of koineization is called a koiné.

In chapter 4 we've learned that the process of creolisation is how a new language emerges as a
result of contact between people who speak different languages. Something similar often
happens when people who speak different dialects come into contact in monolingual
communities – a new dialect or variety emerges. This language change process is called
koineisation , and the result is a koine , a variety which is the result of dialect contact. The koine
will typically have some features from each of the contributing dialects, with most features
typically coming from the dialect of the largest group of speakers.

5. How do changes spread?

• From group to group

Many linguists have used the metaphor of waves to explain how linguistic changes spread
through a community. Any particular change typically spreads simultaneously in different
directions, though not necessarily at the same rate in all directions. Social factors such as age,
status, gender and region affect the rates of change and the directions in which the waves roll
most swiftly.

A change may spread along any of these dimensions and into another group. Linguistic
changes infiltrate groups from the speech of people on the margins between social or
regional groups – via the ‘middle’ people who have contacts in more than one group. These
people seem to act as linguistic stockbrokers or entrepreneurs.

• From style to style

The change is from one style to another. Example for more formal to more casual style. In
the same time, it spreads from one individual to another within a social group, and
subsequently from one social group to another.

When a change is a prestigious one it usually starts at the top of the speech community, in the
most formal style of the highest social group of the community. For example, if we want to trace
the spread of the post vocalic /r/ in New York, we will find it first happening in the most formal
style of the highest social group in the community. it then moves to the less formal style of the
group, and simultaneously it also spreads to the most formal styles of other groups, until it
reaches the speech of the people of the lower social groups. The change gradually spreads from
style to style and from group to group till it reaches completion.

On the other hand, a vernacular change, such as the vowel centralization in Martha vineyard’s
case, happens in people’s casual styles. It spreads slowly, and may never be accepted by the
highest social group in the community. New vernacular forms spread in the middle of the social
class range (this includes the upper working class). Also younger people adopt new forms more
quickly than old people. Therefore in London, we hear the vernacular pronunciation of the glottal
stop for /t/ sounds in the formal styles of young people.

• From word to word - lexical diffusion

Sound change can also spread from one word to another. It spreads through different
words one by one. This is called lexical diffusion. When a sound change begins, all words
with the same sound change one by one, not in the same time.
For example, in Belfast, a vowel change affected the vowel in the word “pull” before “put”, and
“put” changed before “should”. In New Zealand, a vowel change, which is currently in progress,
merged vowels of words “beer” and “bear” which were distinct. The distinction between “rarely”
and “really” has already disappeared.