The Main Problem

in Language
Fitri Ramadhani (2088203001)
Language Change
Variaton and Change
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/.

a. 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. Therefore, they pronounced
words like “light” as close to “layeet” and “house” as close
to “heyoose”
 How do changes spread?
1- From group to group: changes spread like waves in
different directions, and social factors such as age, gender,
status and social group affect the rates and directions of
change.

2- From style to style : from more formal to more casual, from

one individual to another, from one social group to another,
and from one word to another.

3- Lexical diffusion: the change from one word's vowel to

another, the sound change begins in one word and later on
in another, etc
How do we study language change?
Apparent-time studies of language
change: it is the study of comparing the
speech of people from different age
groups, to find out any differences that
could indicate change (whether increase
or decrease).
Studying language change in real time:
in this study, the researcher studies the
language in a community and then
comes back to it after a number of
years to study it again, and find out
any changes.
Reasons for Language Change
a. Social Status and Language
Change
As for social status 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.
b. Gender and language change:
Women tend to be associated with changes towards prestige or vernacular norms more
than men. Men often introduce vernacular change.

c. 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:
• Isolation affects language change in a speech community.
• Face to face interaction affects linguistic change. Some linguists believe that face to
face interaction is crucial before the change happens.
• Media affects language change.
• 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.
• Referential and affective functions affect language change.
Language Shift Language Shift in
Language shift is language Different Community
transfer or language
replacement where by a a. Migrant minorities.
speech community of a b. Non migrant communities.
language shifts to c. Migrant Majorities
speaking another
language.
 Factors contributing to language shift:
a. Economic, social and political factor

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

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.
—Language Revival —Language Death And
Language Loss
Some times a community A dying language is a language spoken
becomes aware that its by fewer and fewer people from time to
time and a dead language is a language
language is in danger
that has no speakers anymore because the
of disappearing and speakers have totally shifted to another
takes steps to language (language shifting) or because
they live no more.
revitalises it.
Thanks!
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