PAPER

SOCIOLINGUISTIC

THE MAIN PROBLEM IN LANGUAGE

FITRI RAMADHANI

(2088203001)

ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION

MAROS MUSLIM UNIVERSITY

2023
 PREFACE

Praise be to God Almighty for the blessings of his grace, and that we were given the opportunity
to be able to compile a working paper entitled ‘’ The Main Problem in Language" is properly and
correctly, and on time.

This paper is structured so that readers can know how important application of English language
in daily life. This paper was compiled with help from various parties. Both parties come from outside
as well as from parties concerned itself. And because the aid and help of God Almighty, these papers
can be finally resolved.

This is a paper about " The Main Problem in Language" and deliberately chosen because in this
day and age the use of English need to have the support of all those who care about the world of
education.

The compilers also thanked to Mrs.novita as the teachers/tutors in English subject, who have
many professors help compilers in order to complete this paper.

Hopefully this paper can give a broader insight to the reader. Although this paper has advantages
and disadvantages. Untuksaran and please his constituents. Thank you.

Maros, Oktober 18th, 2023

Author

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 TABLE OF CONTENT

Isi
PREFACE ............................................................................................................................................... i
TABLE OF CONTENT ........................................................................................................................ ii
BAB I INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 1
1. 1. Background of the Paper ......................................................................................................... 1
1. 2. Problem Formulation .............................................................................................................. 2
1. 3. Purpose of the Paper ............................................................................................................... 2
BAB II THEORY AND DISCUSSION ............................................................................................... 3
2. 1. Language Change.................................................................................................................... 3
2.2 Language Shift ........................................................................................................................ 9
2.3 Language Revival ................................................................................................................. 11
2.4 Language Death And Language Loss ................................................................................... 11
BAB III CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................... 13
3. 1. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 13
BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................................... 14

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 BAB I INTRODUCTION

1. 1. Background of the Paper

The study of language shift and maintenance constitutes a central focus of contemporary linguistic
anthropology and sociolinguistics. Even though someof its central aspects have a rather long history in
the field of study known as language, culture, and society, in the most recent research agenda interest
in linguistic shift and maintenance has touched on almost all crucial areas of the study of dynamic
language phenomena. It engages a focus on both linguistic structure and linguistic praxis, including
language ideologies,discourse and interaction, micro-as well as macro-sociological parameters, issues
relating the self and society to global concerns, and a feedback between what communities understand
as their sociolinguistic condition and what scholars, academics, and various institutional sources of
authority perceive as shift and maintenance.

In general, we consider the language or languages of a communityas undergoing shift when the codes
under scrutiny are being either progressively or more suddenly replaced by other languages in
speakers’repertoires, with structural consequences for the receding codes, and sociocultural
repercussions for the communities involved. Conscious efforts centered around various attempts to
reverse the shift and retain or regain the structural and functional integrity of a threatened language fall
within the social dynamic that is called language maintenance. Shift and maintenance are two poles in
a complex dialectic since any social or intellectual movement voicing an advocacy for maintenance
would be meaningless without the existence of historical contingencies that threaten to push languages
in the direction of shift.

To view language shift and maintenance as unilinear phenomena obeying rules of a mechanistic nature
where by the language of a politically dominant community pushes, so to speak, out of use the
expressive means of a subordinate community and later forces come upon the scene to save the minority
language, even though true to some extent, would constitute an oversimplified perspective on a rather
complex process. Crucial questions are: what specific conditions determine the shifting of a language,
which kinds of agency are involved, and which particular aspects of language structure and use are
affected.

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1. 2. Problem Formulation

This paper aims to answer several basic questions regarding student learning motivation, including:

1. What is Language Change?

2. What is Language Shift
3. What is Language Revival
4. What is Language Loss and Death

1. 3. Purpose of the Paper

This paper was prepared with concrete and specific objectives, namely:

1. To Know what is Language Change

2. To Know What is Language Shift
3. To Know What is Language Revival
4. To Know What is Language Loss and Death

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 BAB II THEORY AND DISCUSSION

2. 1. Language Change
Language change happens over time, and is also governed by social and physical circumstances.
Sociolinguists study why particular changes spread, and how they spread.

2.1.1 Variaton and Change

Two phenomena of change are discussed in this chapter: post vocalic /r/ and the spread of vernacular
forms:

a. Post vocalic /r/

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.

**This linguistic variation proves the fact that complexity of variation and language change, as well
as the arbitrariness of the forms that are regarded as prestigious to some communities, and bad to
others.

b. 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.

**This linguistic variation proves the fact that how a vernacular feature can acquire social
significance and covert prestige.

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2.1.2 Changes spread

a. from group to group:

The wave metaphor is suitable to visualize or understand the spread of language change from one group
to another.

1- Any particular change spreads simultaneously to different directions, but not with the same rate.
Social factors such as gender, age and status affect the rate.

2- In any speech community the waves intersect. A speaker simultaneously belongs to different
groups like social, age and region groups. A change may spread to any of these dimensions and into
other groups.

3- 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.

b. from style to style:

The change is from one style to another. Ex: 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.

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c. From Word to Word (lexuical 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.

2.1.3 Study language change (apparent-time study, real-time study)

a. Real-Time Study:

A very reliable method of studying language change is real-time study. This is done by tracing change
over time through comparing a sample of people speech in a time with another similar sample years
later.

An interesting real-time study was made by Peter Trudgill, who returned to Norwich after fifteen years
of his study of speech patterns in Norwich. He found out that some of the variation he had noted in his
original study had led to linguistic change as he predicted. The vowels of “Bear” and “beer” which were
distinct have completely merged in the speech of all speakers except those who belong to the highest
social group. There were also other changes that were continuing. In the following years, the Norwich
young people have completely substituted the sound /Ө/ with /f/ in words like “thin”.

So in real – time study, you build on earlier work or earlier information when studying the change.
Therefore, dictionaries that state thee exact time of word use are also important in tracing change over
time.

b. Apparent-time study:

Information on the use of language by age groups can reveal the direction of the linguistic change in a
community.

There are Stable linguistic changes, (meaning that the patterns of language use by the social groups
have not changed for 50 or 60 years ago. A bell-shaped pattern is more typical of stable variation) like:

- The deletion of (-ed) suffix in past tense verbs in English-speaking communities.

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 - h - dropping in Norwich.

- The forms of (in) versus (iŋ) in Norwich.

- The use of /d/ instead of /ð/ in words like “then” or “theses” in New York.

Increasing change is like the substitution of the glottal stop for /t/ sound in Norwich. This means that
there is a linguistic change in progress.

A steady increase or decline in the use of a linguistic form by an age group suggests that a change is in
progress in the speech community.

Comparing the speech of people from different age groups can be useful clues for language change.
This is called apparent-time method of studying change. Differences between the speech of older people
and younger people are taken as indications of change in progress. Young people use more innovative
and new forms, while older speakers use more conservative and old forms.

When the change involves a spread of a prestigious form, we realize the spread easily, as young people
use it more extensively, which means that a new form was introduced. However, new less prestigious
or vernacular forms can hardly be realized because it will only be shared by young people. An age-
grade pattern of the young people is the extensive use of vernacular and less prestigious forms. When
the young people grow old, they will use more formal and more standard forms to respond to the society
pressures. This is why it is difficult to spot the spread of vernacular or less prestigious forms.

A social dialect survey made in Sydney has found that HRTs were used extensively by teenagers rather
than adults. This suggested that it would make a change as the young people will keep using these forms
as they grow old. But the researchers had to ensure that this is not an age-grade pattern, and that it may
be repeated among the teenagers only. In order to resolve such problems we need to know other factors
rather than age that cause language change in communities: social status, gender and interaction.

2.1.4 Reaosons for Language Change

a. Social Status and Language Change

As for social status, a linguistic change may enter a community through any social group. Different
types of changes are related to the different kinds of groups. Members of the most social status tend to
introduce changes into the speech community from a neighboring speech community that has greater
status and prestige. For example:

1. Upper class London speech community has prestige in the eyes of many communities outside
London. Therefore, middle class people of Norwich will introduce prestige forms of London
in to the Norwich speech community. The pronunciation of the vowel in “top” or “dog” has
changed from /ta:p/ and /da:g/ to RP /top/ /dog/.

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 2. French words like sangfroid or savoir fair were introduced by educated middle class people
who learnt French.
3. Younger speakers of upper middle class introduced the post vocalic /r/ from New York.
4. Lower class speakers are more influential in spreading less conscious linguistic changes. Low
class men adopt speech forms from neighboring local workers to express solidarity.
5. The upper working class is a social group whose networks are open and provide exposure to
many linguistic forms. This group has introduced to Norwich the change of the pronunciation
of the vowel sound in words like “hell” and “tell”. The spread of this change depends on
wither the change will infiltrate into the upper middle class people in Norwich before they re
aware of its less prestigious status compared to RP.
6. In Australia, the HRT spreads among lower socio-economic groups. People in low-paid jobs
use them as a solidarity marker. Currently, it is regarded as vulgar by older higher status
speakers. So it may remain in the low social class.
a. Gender and language change:

Women tend to be associated with changes towards prestige or vernacular norms more than men. Men
often introduce vernacular change.

1. In Ucieda, (village in Spain) men are forced tom marry women from outside the village. The
women inside the village refuse to marry local working farmers. Their speech reflects their
social aspirations, and that is why they use more Castilian final /o/ pronunciation rather than
the dialectal /u/ pronunciation. The women speech in this village is leading to a change
towards the prestige standard Castilian Spanish.
2. In Martha’s Vineyard, men speech leads to a change towards vernacular pronunciations. This
is done by reviving the older and conservative pronunciations like centralization of vowels.
This pronunciation expresses the loyalty to older values.
3. In Norwich, men speech leads to a change towards vernacular pronunciations. They change
pronunciation of vowels in words like “hell” towards a vernacular pronunciation /hΛl/. This
pronunciation expresses the loyalty to older values. However, the Norwich women are leading
a change towards RP.
4. There are two types of exception:
a) Women sometimes introduce vernacular forms into a community: In Belfast, women are
introducing more vernacular forms into their speech community. The reason why they do
this is because prestige is a relative concept. Within the working class prestige is associated
with the area that has full employment, which is Ballymacarett in Belfast. This is why
women of Clonard (which does not have employment) take vernacular forms from
Ballymacarett. It is a vernacular form that is admired and regarded as prestigious as that

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 of Clonard. Also this is because Clonard’s women’s social networks are multiplex, which
makes their speech change move towards vernacular forms.
b) There are communities were women do not lead linguistic changes into any direction. In
Iran or India, women are not expected to have any motivation to innovate linguistic forms,
and it will lead them no where if they did. Therefore, they do not lead linguistic changes
into any direction.

b. Interaction and Language Change:

Interaction is important for providing the channels of linguistic change. Interaction, or lack of it, affects
the language change. For example:

1- Isolation affects language change in a speech community. For instance, in a tightly-knit

community, people have less contact with the outside world. That is why we find conservatism in the
speech. We can see this in the following communities:

a) Western Isles of Scotland, where Scottish Gaelic survived.

b) North and East Cape of New Zealand, where Maori survived.

c) Mountain villages in Italy, Spain and Switzerland, where Italian, Spanish and French were
preserved.

d) Sardinia, which is famous for its conservative forms.

e) Iceland, where the geographical situation made people separate and scattered. Although this
situation naturally leads to dialectal differences, the Icelandic linguistic forms were conservative
due to the fact that people from all places in Iceland shared strong cultural and political ties.

2- Face to face interaction affects linguistic change. Some linguists believe that face to face
interaction is crucial before the change happens. For example, in Norwich many young speakers use
cockney forms of London. This change spread from London to Norwich through the people who spent
time in London. The word “brother” is pronounced as “bovver” by many Norwich young speakers.
This is an attempt to signal solidarity with a certain cultural group that is represented by pop music,
and which is against old established linguistic forms. The Norwich people who spent time in London
in this case are regarded as the link or the channel that spreads the linguistic new forms from London
to Norwich. The change must also have a prestige to complete the change transmission. This prestige
can be for expressing solidarity (overt prestige) or for expressing social status (covert prestige). Face
to face interaction also helped in promoting the use of glottal stops in areas close to London faster
than areas which are distant from London.

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 3- Media affects language change. The use of vernacular or cockney forms like “bovver” by admired
people or actors in TV can encourage the people to adopt these vernacular forms. Cockney TV heroes
can promote the spread of vernacular forms. But face to face interaction is needed to complete the
forms transmission. Face to face interaction has a stronger effect than that of the media. The media
could not be able to promote the use of glottal stops in speech in Liverpool or New Castle as quickly
as in oxford.

4- When a form is associated with the capital, it seems more prestigious to speakers of other speech
communities, which makes them adopt the form faster.

5- Referential and affective functions affect language change. In an Indian village called “kupwar”
there are three languages used: Kannada, Urdu and Marathi. The people in the village use the three
languages in their daily activities. Therefore, the three languages became identical in grammar and
word order and inflection. In the same time, each language wants to be distinguished from the other,
so the differences were at vocabulary level. In the case of Kupwar, language change does not make
the language unintelligible to different social groups. This is because language has to fulfill its
referential function. (Providing information).

2.2 Language Shift

Language shift Language shift is language transfer or language replacement where by a speech
community of a language shifts to speaking another language. It’s happens when the language of the
wider society (majority) displaces the minority mother tongue language over time in migrant
communities or in communities under military occupation. Therefore when language shift occurs, it
shifts most of the time towards the language of the dominant group, and the result could be the
eradication of the local language.

2.2.1 Language shift in different communities.

a. Migrant minorities. People usually switch rapidly from phrase to phrase for instance.
Reactions to code-switching styles are negative in many communities, despite the fact that
proficiency in intra sentential code-switching requires good control of both codes. This may
reflect the attitudes of the majority the monolingual group in places like in North America and
Britain. In places such as New Guinea and East Africa where multilingualism is the norm,
attitudes to proficient code-switching are much more positive. The order of domains in which
language shift occurs may differ for different individuals and different groups, but gradually
over time the language of the wider society displaces the minority language mother tongue.

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 This may take three or four generations but sometimes language shift can be complemented
in just two generations. Typically, migrants are virtually monolingual in their mother tongue,
their children are bilingual, and their grandchildren are often monolingual in the language of
the ‘host’ country.
b. Non migrant communities. Language shift is not always the result of migration. For this
community the home is the one most under any family’s control, language may be maintained
in more domains than just the home.
c. Migrant Majorities .When language shifts occur, there is always a shift towards the language
of the ruling group. Domain groups have no incentive to adopt minority languages. Domain
language is associated with status, prestige, and social success. When a language gradually
becomes extinct, it is not as if all its speakers disappear due to massacres or epidemics, and
the function of the language is taken over by another domain.
d. Attitudes and values. Positive attitudes support efforts to use the minority language in a variety
of domains, and this helps people resist the pressure from the majority group to switch their
language. There are certain social factors which seem to retard wholesale language shift for a
minority language group, at least for a time. First, where language is considered an important
symbol of a minority group’s identity. Second, if families a minority group live near each
other frequently. Another factor which may contribute to language maintenance for those who
emigrate is the degree and frequency of contact with the homeland. Factors contributing to
language shift, those are economic, social, and political factors. The most obvious factor is
that the community sees an important reason for learning the second language. The second
important factor is their ethnic language. Demographic factor are also relevant in accounting
for the speed of language shift. Resistance to language shift tends to last longer in rural than
in urban areas. Shift tends to occur faster in some groups than in other. The size of the group
is sometimes a critical factor. Although the pressures to shift are strong, members of a minority
community can take active steps to protect its language. Where a language is rated as high in
status by its users, and yet also regarded as a language of solidarity to be used between
minority group members. Different factors combine in different ways in each social context,
and the result are rarely predictable. Monolingualism is regarded as normal, bilingualism is
considered unusual. Bilingualism and multilingulism which is normal.

2.2.2 Factors contributing to language shift:

a. Economic, social and political factor

1-The dominant language is associated with social status and prestige

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 2-Obtaining work is the obvious economic reason for learning another language

3-The pressure of institutional domains such as schools and the media

b. Demographic factors

1-Language shift is faster in urban areas than rural

2-The size of the group is some times a critical factor

3-Intermarriage between groups can accelerate language shift

c. Attitudes and values

Language shift is slower among communities where the minority language is highly valued, therefore
when the language is seen as an important symbol of ethnic identity its generally maintained longer,
and visa versa.

2.3 Language Revival

Some times a community becomes aware that its language is in danger of disappearing and takes steps
to revitalises it.

Example:

In 1840, two thirds of the Welsh people spoke Welsh, but by 1980, only 20% of the population spoke
Welsh, therefore the Welsh people began a revival process of Welsh language by using a Welsh-language
TV channel and bilingual education programs that used Welsh as medium of instruction at schools.

2.4 Language Death And Language Loss

When all the people who speak a language die, the language dies with them. Sometimes this fact is
crystal clear. When a language dies gradually, as opposed to all its speakers being wiped out by a
massacre or epidemic, the process is similar to that of language shift. The functions of the language are
taken over in one domain after another by another language. As the domains in which speakers use the
language shrink, the speakers of the dying language become gradually less proficient in it. With the
spread of a majority group language into more and more domains, the number of contexts in which
individuals use the ethnic language diminishes. The stylistic range that people acquire when they use a
language in a wider range of domains disappeared.

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With the spread of a majority group language into more and more domains, the number of contexts in
which individuals use the ethnic language diminishes. The language usually retreats till it is used only
in the home, and finally it is restricted to such personal activities as counting, praying and dreaming.

Example of language loss:

Annie at 20 is a young speaker of Dyirbal, an Australian Aboriginal language. He also speaks English
which she learned at school. There is no written Dyirbal material for her to read, and there are fewer
and fewer contexts in which she can appropriately hear and speak the language. So she is steadily
becoming less proficient in it. She can understand the Dyirbal she hears used by older people in her
community, and she uses it to speak to her grandmother. But her grandmother is scathing about her
ability in Dyirbal, saying Annie doesn’t speak the language properly.

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 BAB III CONCLUSION

3. 1. Conclusion

Language change happens over time, and is also governed by social and physical circumstances.
Sociolinguists study why particular changes spread, and how they spread. In conclusion, there is no
magic formula that can guarantee language preservation or predict language shift or death. There are
three factors that contribute to the lagage shift. The first are economic, social and political factors, the
second are demographic factors, and the last are attitudes and values. Language shift generally refers to
the process by which one language replaces another in the linguistic repertoire of a community.
Language death occurs when a language is no longer spoken naturally anywhere in the world.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Holmes, Janet. 1992. AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLINGUISTICS. Edinburgh: Person Education

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