Language

Change
Elvara Isfandyari
2113042074
Introduction
It is very easy to demonstrate to English speakers that
Languages change over time. At the point where English
spelling became relatively fixed by printing, the printers
recorded the pronunciations corrent at the time. 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.

VARIATION AND CHANGE
Language varies in three major
ways which are interestingly
interrelated - over time, in
physical space, and socially.
Language change-variation
over time - has its origins in
spatial (or regional) and
social variation. The source of
change over time is always
corrent variation. So the
regional and social variants
described in the previous
three chapters provide the
basis for language change
over time.
POST-VOCALICITS
SPREAD AND ITS STATUS
So the pronunciation of in
English speaking communities
provides a wealth of examples
of the complexity of linguistic
variation and language
change, as well as the
arbitrariness of the forms
which happen to be standard
in any community. While "-less
speech is the prestigious form
which is still spreading in
England, in some parts of
America it is the rhotic variety
which is interesting
The spread of vernacular forms
It is easy to understand that a pronunciation which is
considered prestigious will be imitated, and will spread
through a community. But there are also many examples
of vernacular pronunciations which have spread
throughout speech communities. Not all linguistic changes
involve adopting new forms from outside the speech
community. Nor do they always involve forms which
people are conscious of as prestigious forms.
 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. Social factors
such as age, status, gender and region affect
the rates of change and the directions in
which the waves roll most swiftly. The wave
metaphor is one useful way of visualizing the
spread of a change from one group to
another.
From style to
style
In the speech of a particular individual it
suggests the change spreads from one
style to another (Jay from more formal
speech to more casual speech), white at the
same time it spreads from one individual to
another within a social group, and
subsequently from one social group to
another.
From word to word
It seems to be the case that sound changes not only
spread from one person to another and from one style to
another style, they also spread from one word to another.
Sound changes spread through different words one by
one. This is called lexical diffusion. When a sound change
begins, all the words with a particular vowel don't
change at once in the speech of a community
 How do we
study language
Apparent time studies
change? Language
change in real
of language change
time
A great deal of linguistic variation is
stable but some is an indication of Sometimes, however, it is possible
linguistic change in progress. A steady to build on the work of earlier
increase or steady decline in the
linguists when studying change.
frequency of a form by age group
suggests to a sociolingust that a
Dictionaries which provide a date
change may be in progress in the when a form was first noted can
speech community. Whereas a bell- assist in tracing changes in
shaped patternd more typical of stable vocabulary over time,
variation.
 Reasons for
language
Social status and
change Gender and
language
language change
change
Differences in women's and men's speech
There is still a great deal of research
are another source of variation which can
and discussion about which social
result in linguistic change. Sometimes
groups introduce linguistic changes.
women are the innovators, leading a
One answer seems to be that a
linguistic change, and sometimes men.
linguistic change may enter a speech
Women tend to be associated with
community through social group, but
that different types of change are changes towards both prestige and
associated with different groups. vernacular norms, whereas men more
often introduce vernacular changes.