VARIATION AND CHANGE

Language change over time has its origins in spatial (or regional ) and social variation Within a Monolingual community. The litttle thought will soon identify areas of variation, most obviously in vocabulary and pronuntiation.

POST VOCALIC ITS SPREAD AND ITS STATUS.

Standard english.England and wales Pronuntiation ( r ) Following vowels in words Star and start post- vocalic ( r ) Does not occur in RP In London cockney dialect The loss of post vocalic ( r )

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

South- east of england and it is still in progress. Such as the south west of england Where ( r) is still regularly pronounced.

RHOTIC
Accents with post-vocalic ( r ) are called rhotic. In large areas of England rhotic English accents are regarded as rural and uneducated. A survey in the 1960s found that rhoticism was increasing in NY where it was as prestigious.

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Post-vocalic ( r ) was used by almost all New yorkers in their most formal and careful speech

Young people from the upper middle class pronounced it even in their most casual speech.

THE SPREAD OF VERNACULAR FORMS

It is easy to understandthat pronunciation which is considered prestigious will be imitated, and will spread through a community It is possible for changes to proceed from a variety of starting points in a variety of directions.

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Example Marthas vineyard is a little island abou three miles off the coast of massachusetts and within reach of peolple from Boston and NY as a holidday retreat. There are about 6000 permament residents on the island .every summer the island is flooded with visitors who outnumber the residents about seven to one. Not surpinsingly these visitors are resented by the locals, despite the fact they have become increasingly dependent on tourists for thier income. The attitudes of the locals towards the visitors is reflected in the vineyarders speech.

On Marthas vineyard those who have lived on the island for generations, and specially those men who fish for their livehood, resent the fact that the island ha invaded by more recent imigrants , and especially by summer tourists.

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1950s linguistic survey revealed that these attitudes were reflected in the way thye pronounced words like

Light and house Light ( lit ) House ( hus ).

HOW DO WE STUDY LANGUAGE CHANGE?

APPARENT TIME STUDIES OF LANGUAGE CHANGE. EXAMPLE. DAVID, did not know what the word wireless meant Neither did his friends His grandmother knew what a radio was

She considered the term new flangled His mother used both both wireless and radio to refer to the same object

This illustrates the way in which information on the language use of different age of groups may seveal the direction of linguistic change in a community. Comparing the soeech of people from different age of groups can be useful clue then to language change. This has been called apparent-time.

Differences between the speech of older and younger people. Younger speakers tend to use more of the newer or innovative forms Old speakers use more conservative forms

It is more difficult to ident

It is more difficult to identify a changew when it involves the intorduction and spread of a less prestigious form a vernacular form. The spread of a swear word Example. Slang word the spread of vernacular pronunciation.

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Glottal stop ( t ) The use of the same vowel in words

Beer and bear.

In linguistic change is very difficult to spot acurately at an early stage.