SOCIOLINGUISTICS

Languages Versus Dialects

The number of languages spoken around the world is somewhat difficult to pin down, but we
usually see a figure between 6,000 and 7,000. Why are they so hard to count? The
term language is commonly used to refer to the idealized “standard” of a variety of speech
with a name, such as English, Turkish, Swedish, Swahili, or Urdu. One language is usually
considered to be incomprehensible to speakers of another one. The word dialect is often
applied to a subordinate variety of a language and the common assumption is that we can
understand someone who speaks another dialect of our own language.

Language: An idealized form of speech, usually referred to as the standard variety.

Dialect: A variety of speech. The term is often applied to a subordinate variety of a language.
Speakers of two dialects of the same language do not necessarily always understand each
other.

These terms are not really very useful to describe actual language variation. For example,
many of the hundreds of “dialects” spoken in China are very different from each other and are
not mutually comprehensible to speakers of other Chinese “dialects.” The Chinese
government promotes the idea that all of them are simply variants of the “Chinese language”
because it helps to promote national solidarity and loyalty among Chinese people to their
country and reduce regional factionalism. In contrast, the languages of Sweden, Denmark, and
Norway are considered separate languages, but actually if a Swede, a Dane, and a Norwegian
were to have a conversation together, each could use their own language and understand
most of what the others say. Does this make them dialects or languages? The Serbian and
Croatian languages are considered by their speakers to be separate languages due to distinct
political and religious cultural identities. They even employ different writing systems to
emphasize difference, but they are essentially the same and easily understandable to each
other.

So in the words of linguist John McWhorter, actually “dialects is all there is.” What he means
by this is that a continuum of language variation is geographically distributed across
populations in much the same way that human physical variation is, with the degree of
difference between any two varieties increasing across increasing distances. This is the case
even across national boundaries. Catalan, the language of northeastern Spain, is closer to the
languages of southern France, Provençal and Occitan than any one is to its associated national
language, Spanish or French. One language variety blends with the next geographically like the
colors of the rainbow. However, the historical influence of colonizing states has affected that
natural distribution. Thus, there is no natural “language” with variations called “dialects.”
Usually one variety of a language is considered the “standard,” but this choice is based on the
social and political prestige of the group that speaks that variety; it has no inherent superiority
over the other variants called its “dialects.” The way people speak is an indicator of who they
are, where they come from, and what social groups they identify with, as well as what
particular situation they find themselves in, and what they want to accomplish with a specific
interaction.

How Does Language Variation Develop?

Why do people from different regions in the United States speak so differently? Why do they
speak differently from the people of England? A number of factors have influenced the
development of English dialects, and they are typical causes of dialect variation in other
languages as well.

Settlement patterns: The first English settlers to North America brought their own
dialects with them. Settlers from different parts of the British Isles spoke different
dialects (they still do), and they tended to cluster together in their new homeland. The
present-day dialects typical of people in various areas of the United States, such as New
England, Virginia, New Jersey, and Delaware, still reflect these original settlement sites,
although they certainly have changed from their original forms.

Migration routes: After they first settled in the United States, some people migrated
further west, establishing dialect boundaries as they traveled and settled in new places.

Geographical factors: Rivers, mountains, lakes and islands affected migration routes and
settlement locations, as well as the relative isolation of the settlements. People in the
Appalachian mountains and on certain islands off the Atlantic coast were relatively
isolated from other speakers for many years and still speak dialects that sound very
archaic compared with the mainstream.

Language contact: Interactions with other language groups, such as Native Americans,
French, Spanish, Germans, and African-Americans, along paths of migration and
settlement resulted in mutual borrowing of vocabulary, pronunciation, and some syntax.

Have you ever heard of “Spanglish”? It is a form of Spanish spoken near the borders of the
United States that is characterized by a number of words adopted from English and
incorporated into the phonological, morphological and syntactic systems of Spanish. For
example, the Spanish sentence Voy a estationar mi camioneta, or “I’m going to park my truck”
becomes in Spanglish Voy a parquear mi troca. Many other languages have such English-
flavored versions, including Franglais and Chinglish. Some countries, especially France, actively
try to prevent the incursion of other languages (especially English) into their language, but the
effort is always futile. People will use whatever words serve their purposes, even when the
“language police” disapprove. Some Franglais words that have invaded in spite of the
authorities protestations include the recently acquired binge-drinking, beach, e-book,
and drop-out, while older ones include le weekend and stop.
 Region and occupation: Rural farming people may continue to use archaic expressions
compared with urban people, who have much more contact with contemporary life
styles and diverse speech communities.

Social class: Social status differences cut across all regional variations of English. These
differences reflect the education and income level of speakers.

Group reference: Other categories of group identity, including ethnicity, national origin
of ancestors, age, and gender can be symbolized by the way we speak, indicating in-
group versus out-group identity. We talk like other members of our groups, however we
define that group, as a means of maintaining social solidarity with other group members.
This can include occupational or interest-group jargon, such as medical or computer
terms, or surfer talk, as well as pronunciation and syntactic variations. Failure to make
linguistic accommodation to those we are speaking to may be interpreted as a kind of
symbolic group rejection even if that dialect might be relatively stigmatized as a marker
of a disrespected minority group. Most people are able to use more than one style of
speech, also called register, so that they can adjust depending on who they are
interacting with: their family and friends, their boss, a teacher, or other members of the
community.

Linguistic processes: New developments that promote the simplification of

pronunciation or syntactic changes to clarify meaning can also contribute to language
change.

Register: A style of speech that varies depending on who is speaking to whom and in
what context.

These factors do not work in isolation. Any language variation is the result of a number of
social, historical, and linguistic factors that might affect individual performances collectively
and therefore dialect change in a particular speech community is a process that is continual.

What Is a “Standard” Variety of a Language?

The standard language is simply one of many variants that has been given special prestige in
the community because it is spoken by the people who have the greatest amount of prestige,
power, and (usually) wealth. In the case of English its development has been in part the result
of the invention of the printing press in the sixteenth-century and the subsequent increase in
printed versions of the language. This then stimulated more than a hundred years of
deliberate efforts by grammarians to standardize spelling and grammatical rules. Their
decisions invariably favored the dialect spoken by the aristocracy. Some of their other
decisions were rather arbitrarily determined by standards more appropriate to Latin, or even
mathematics. For example, as it is in many other languages, it was typical among the common
people of the time (and it still is among the present-day working classes and in casual speech),
to use multiple negative particles in a sentence, like “I don’t have no money.” Those
eighteenth-century grammarians said we must use either don’t or no, but not both, that is, “I
don’t have any money” or “I have no money.” They based this on a mathematical rule that
says that two negatives make a positive. (When multiplying two signed negative numbers,
such as -5 times -2, the result is 10.) These grammarians claimed that if we used the double
negative, we would really be saying the positive, or “I have money.” Obviously, anyone who
utters that double-negative sentence is not trying to say that they have money, but the rule
still applies for standard English to this day.

Standard language:

The varient of any language that has been given special prestige in the community.

Non-standard varieties of English, also known as vernaculars, are usually distinguished from
the standard by their inclusion of such stigmatized forms as multiple negatives, the use of the
verb form ain’t (which was originally the normal contraction of am not, as in “I ain’t,”
comparable to “you aren’t,” or “she isn’t”); pronunciation of words
like this and that as dis and dat; pronunciation of final “–ing” as “–in;” and any other feature
that grammarians have decreed as “improper” English.

Definition: vernaculars

Non-standard varieties of a language, which are usually distinguished from the standard by
their inclusion of stigmatized forms.

The standard of any language is a rather artificial, idealized form of language, the language of
education. One must learn its rules in school because it is not anyone’s true first language.
Everyone speaks a dialect, although some dialects are closer to the standard than others.
Those that are regarded with the least prestige and respect in society are associated with the
groups of people who have the least amount of social prestige. People with the highest levels
of education have greater access to the standard, but even they usually revert to their first
dialect as the appropriate register in the context of an informal situation with friends and
family. In other words, no language variety is inherently better or worse than any other one. It
is due to social attitudes that people label some varieties as “better” or “proper,” and others
as “incorrect” or “bad.” Recall Language Universal 3: “All languages are systematic, rule-
driven, and equally complex overall, and equally capable of expressing any idea that the
speaker wishes to convey.”

In 1972 sociolinguist William Labov did an interesting study in which he looked at the
pronunciation of the sound /r/ in the speech of New Yorkers in two different department
stores. Many people from that area drop the /r/ sound in words like fourth and floor (fawth,
floah), but this pronunciation is primarily associated with lower social classes and is not a
feature of the approved standard for English, even in New York City. In two different contexts,
an upscale store and a discount store, Labov asked customers what floor a certain item could
be found on, already knowing it was the fourth floor. He then asked them to repeat their
answer, as though he hadn’t heard it correctly. He compared the first with the second answers
by the same person, and he compared the answers in the expensive store versus the cheaper
store. He found 1) that the responders in the two stores differed overall in their pronunciation
of this sound, and 2) that the same person may differ between situations of less and more self-
consciousness (first versus second answer). That is, people in the upscale store tended to
pronounce the /r/, and responders in both stores tended to produce the standard
pronunciation more in their second answers in an effort to sound “higher class.” These results
showed that the pronunciation or deletion of /r/ in New York correlates with both social status
and context.[4]

There is nothing inherently better or worse in either pronunciation; it depends entirely on the
social norms of the community. The same /r/ deletion that is stigmatized in New York City is
the prestigious, standard form in England, used by the upper class and announcers for the
BBC. The pronunciation of the /r/ sound in England is stigmatized because it is used by lower-
status people in some industrial cities.

It is important to note that almost everyone has access to a number of different language
variations and registers. They know that one variety is appropriate to use with some people in
some situations, and others should be used with other people or in other situations. The use of
several language varieties in a particular interaction is known as code-switching.

Definition: code-switching

Using two or more language varieties in a particular interaction.

Language Variation

Between the speakers of any language there is variation in the way that they use their
language. This variation is demonstrated by linguistic differences in terms of sound (phonetics)
and structure (grammar). There might be only slight variations between forms of a language –
such as minor pronunciations of words or a slight changes of grammatical structure that do
not inhibit intergroup communication. Sometimes there are differences between the speech
of men and women, different social classes, and differences between age groups. People will
identify some of these features as marking the "best" or most "beautiful" form of the
language, other features will be considered nonstandard or undesireable. Some of these
differences may impede intelligibility and intergroup communication.
The study of language variation guides language development activities. For example, when
developing a writing system it is desireable for it to be useful and acceptable to the largest
number of speakers of the language. Therefore, it is important to identify the most unifying
features of the language.

SIL assessment specialists use quantitative and qualitative research methods for studying
language variation. Two important quantitative methods for studying language variation are
lexicostatistics and intelligibility tests. The lexicostatistical method involves eliciting commonly
used words from people in two or more different locations. The words are compared to
identify phonetic similarities and a percentage of similarity is computed. Intelligibility (how
well a speech variety is understood) is of two types: inherent and acquired. Inherent
intelligibility is an understanding that is unlearned and that is attributed to the (inherent)
linguistic similarities (such as sound systems and grammatical structures) that are shared by
the two speech varieties. The greater the inherent similarities shared between two varieties,
the more likely that the speakers of each will be able to understand the same
literature. Acquired intelligibility, on the other hand, is a level of comprehension of a speech
variety achieved through learning.

To measure intelligibility SIL assessment specialists use the recorded text test (RTT). The RTT
method involves recording a short autobiographical story. Comprehension questions are
dubbed into the recording. The new recording is played for people in another community. The
number of correct answers to the comprehension questions gives a measure of
comprehension of the speech of the other community.

SIL assessment specialists highly value participatory methods of working with members of the
language communities. Qualitative methods of data collection, in a participatory context,
include observations, questionnaire, and interviews. Working collaboratively with the
community gains quality information and builds capacity and awareness in the local
community.

The term linguistic variation (or simply variation) refers to regional, social, or contextual
differences in the ways that people use a particular language.
Variation between languages, dialects, and speakers is known as interspeaker variation.
Variation within the language of a single speaker is called intraspeaker variation.
Since the rise of sociolinguistics in the 1960s, interest in linguistic variation (also
called linguistic variability) has developed rapidly. R.L. Trask notes that "variation, far from
being peripheral and inconsequential, is a vital part of ordinary linguistic behavior" (Key
Concepts in Language and Linguistics, 2007). The formal study of variation is known
as variationist (socio)linguistics.
All aspects of language (including phonemes, morphemes, syntactic structures, and meanings)
are subject to variation.
Examples and Observations

 "Linguistic variation is central to the study of language use. In fact it is impossible to

study the language forms used in natural texts without being confronted with the issue
of linguistic variability. Variability is inherent in human language: a single speaker will
use different linguistic forms on different occasions, and different speakers of a
language will express the same meanings using different forms. Most of this variation is
highly systematic: speakers of a language make choices
in pronunciation, morphology, word choice, and grammar depending on a number of
non-linguistic factors. These factors include the speaker's purpose in communication,
the relationship between speaker and hearer, the production circumstances, and
various demographic affiliations that a speaker can have."
(Randi Reppen et al., Using Corpora to Explore Linguistic Variation. John Benjamins,
2002)
 Linguistic Variation and Sociolinguistic Variation
"There are two types of language variation: linguistic and sociolinguistic. With linguistic
variation, the alternation between elements is categorically constrained by the linguistic
context in which they occur. With sociolinguistic variation, speakers can choose
between elements in the same linguistic context and, hence the alternation is
probabilistic. Furthermore, the probability of one form being chosen over another is
also affected in a probabilistic way by a range of extra-linguistic factors [e.g. the degree
of (in)formality of the topic under discussion, the social status of the speaker and of the
interlocutor, the setting in which communication takes place, etc.]"
(Raymond Mougeon et al., The Sociolinguistic Competence of Immersion Students.
Multilingual Matters, 2010)
 Dialectal Variation
"A dialect is variation in grammar and vocabulary in addition to sound variations. For
example, if one person utters the sentence 'John is a farmer' and another says the same
thing except pronounces the word farmer as 'fahmuh,' then the difference is one
of accent. But if one person says something like 'You should not do that' and another
says 'Ya hadn't oughta do that,' then this is a dialect difference because the variation is
greater. The extent of dialect differences is a continuum. Some dialects are extremely
different and others less so."
(Donald G. Ellis, From Language to Communication. Routledge, 1999)
 Types of Variation
"[R]egional variation is only one of many possible types of differences among speakers
of the same language. For example, there are occupational dialects (the
word bugs means something quite different to a computer programmer and an
 exterminator), sexual dialects (women are far more likely than men to call a new
house adorable), and educational dialects (the more education people have, the less
likely they are to use double negatives). There are dialects of age (teenagers have their
own slang, and even the phonology of older speakers is likely to differ from that of
young speakers in the same geographical region) and dialects of social context (we do
not talk the same way to our intimate friends as we do to new acquaintances, to the
paperboy, or to our employer). . . . [R]egional dialects are only one of many types
of linguistic variation."
(C. M. Millward and Mary Hayes, A Biography of the English Language, 3rd ed.
Wadsworth, 2012)
 Linguistic Variables
- "[T]he introduction of the quantitative approach to language description has revealed
important patterns of linguistic behaviour which were previously invisible. The concept
of a sociolinguistic variable has become central to the description of speech. A variable
is some point of usage for which two or more competing forms are available in
a community, with speakers showing interesting and significant differences in the
frequency with which they use one or another of these competing forms.
"Furthermore, it has been discovered that variation is typically the vehicle of language
change."
(R.L. Trask, Key Concepts in Language and Linguistics. Routledge, 1999/2005)
- "Lexical variables are fairly straightforward, as long as we can show that the two
variants--such as the choice between soda and pop for a carbonated beverage
in American English--refer to the same entity. Thus, in the case of soda and pop, we
need to take into account that for many U.S. southerners, Coke (when used to refer to a
beverage and not the steel-making fuel or the illicit narcotic) has the
same referent as soda, whereas in other parts of the U.S., Coke refers to a single
brand/flavour of the beverage . . .."
(Scott F. Kiesling, Linguistic Variation and Change. Edinburgh University Press, 2011)