83
CHAPTER 11
Language Variation
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
The book separates general issues of language variation (Chapter 11) and
American dialects (Chapter 12) to give each fuller attention. This chapter
addresses accents and dialects generally, as well as the major factors in
language variation such as region, age, gender, socioeconomic class, race
and ethnicity, and social network. The chapter covers speakers’ attitudes
towards language variation in order to challenge students to think both
about the beliefs they bring to this material and about how they might talk
about this material with friends, family, future students, etc. Finally, the
chapter discusses the results of language mixing, including instances when
speakers of different languages come into contact and when bilingual
speakers mix two or more languages in their own speech. Given the extent
of language contact and code-switching both in the United States and
around the world, these topics seem particularly relevant for all students.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
By the end of this chapter, students should be able to:
• Define what linguists mean by “language variation” and explain why
sociolinguists argue that language variation, far from being random,
correlates with aspects of speakers’ identities.
• Distinguish between a dialect and an accent and between a dialect and
a language; and provide specific examples of accents, dialects, and
languages—as well as language varieties that blur those boundaries.
• Justify, with specific examples, the assertion that nonstandard varieties
of English are linguistically equal to standard varieties at the structural
and communicative level.
84
• Describe some of the ways dialectologists gather dialect data and how
they draw isoglosses.
• Distinguish between a speech community and a community of practice.
• Distinguish change from below from change from above and provide
an example of each.
• Explain specifically how, according to sociolinguistic studies, age,
gender, socioeconomic class, race and ethnicity, and social networks
can affect a speaker’s language use.
• Outline some of the possible outcomes of dialect and language contact.
• Explain the relationship between pidgin and creole languages.
• Define code-switching and explain how it is different from incomplete
language competence.
NEW VOCABULARY TERMS
accent
acrolect
alternation
basilect
change from above
change from below
code-switching (code-mixing)
community of practice
congruent lexicalization
covert prestige
creole
dialect
dialectology
insertion
isogloss
lexifier language
linguistic market
mesolect
observer’s paradox
overt prestige
perceptual dialectology
social network (density,
multiplexity)
sociolinguistics
speech community
variationist sociolinguistics
WHERE STUDENTS ARE
• Most students will have noticed language variation, but are not used to
thinking about it in a systematic, technical way.
85
• Many students need the instructor to review the charts and graphs (e.g.,
the effects of class and gender on speakers’ use of particular variables).
• Students are usually quite interested in the (often political) distinction
between a dialect and a language, as well as the question of when a
dialect is “declared” a language.
• Students may have prior understandings about pidgin and creole
languages that should be addressed as they encounter this chapter’s
information about such languages.
• If you are reading this chapter fairly late in the term, many students
will be primed to engage in the question of attitudes about dialects and
the role of linguists in this conversation.
• If there are students in the class who code-switch between two
languages, this can be a particularly engaging section for them.
IN-CLASS ACTIVITIES
Dialect vs. Accent
You can pose this question to the class (for discussion or a short writing
assignment followed by discussion): Is Southern American English, given
what the students know and have read in the book, best considered a
dialect or an accent?
Dialect vs. Language
The box “Is American English a Dialect or a Language?” should provide
good material for discussion about this issue. You can also ask students
for additional examples of dialects that are not mutually intelligible and
languages that are mutually intelligible.
Dialectology
You can ask students to pick a word that they grew up with and think is
distinctive to their region (or a word that they have noticed in the town
86
where the college or university is located), look it up in The Dictionary of
American Regional English, and report back to the class about the results.
Major Factors in Language Variation
In order to give students more practice in applying these concepts about
sociolinguistic variables and in reading charts that summarize a
sociolinguistic study’s results, we recommend providing a few more
excerpted charts and asking students to summarize the underlying study’s
findings and to explain how they relate to the general trends described in
the chapter.
Speaker Attitudes and Language Variation
As mentioned above, if you are teaching this chapter relatively late in the
term, students are usually primed to discuss speaker attitudes toward
nonstandard dialects and the role linguists should play in this conversation.
Many students are interested in thinking through what “language arts
education” includes in the K-12 curriculum and what it could include. We
encourage you to open a discussion of these issues or ask students to write
about them.
Students also often find it interesting to follow up on Preston’s perceptual
dialectology studies. Exercise 11.3, #1 and #2, which require students to
ask speakers to locate dialect areas in the U.S. and in the particular state
where your school is located, will give students lots of material to discuss
in small groups and in a full-class format.
Linguistic Equality
The box “What Does ‘Linguistic Equality’ Mean?” raises an important
question that students may already have brought up. If we agree with
William Labov that there cannot be a successful linguistic theory or
practice that is not social, then can dialects be “linguistically equal,” given
social biases against particular varieties? We encourage you to facilitate
87
discussion of this question, and please let us know if your students come
up with a better way to phrase this! (Exercise 11.3, #4 provides a slightly
different prompt that asks students to explain what they think linguistic
equality of dialects means.)
Code-switching
If there are students in the class who code-switch between two languages
or come from homes where speakers code-switch, you can ask them if
they would be willing to tape-record themselves with their friends or
family (with permission) and share this data with the class. The class can
then work with these tapes to analyze the types of code-switching that
occur. (If you choose to assign Exercise 8.7, some students may already
have recorded conversations with code-switching.) Of course, you can
also tape a conversation with code-switching and provide transcripts to the
class for analysis.
INTEGRATING THE HOMEWORK
Homework Progression
The homework exercises can be assigned in any order and in any
combination.
In-Class Activities Based on Homework
Exercise 11.1 asks students to reflect on their own participation in
communities of practice, and it can work well to ask students to share with
each other how they think they speak differently in different communities.
This exercise can also usefully highlight the fuzziness of community
boundaries. Exercise 11.3, #1 and #2 work very well with a follow-up in-
class activity. For example, put students into small groups with a
transparency of a blank map of the United States or Canada or a map of
your state or province. Ask them to collate their results and label the map.
Each group can then share their results with the full class. Exercise 11.3,
88
#5 should generate critical discussion about how the students, and the
speakers they talked to, think about class as a social factor in language
variation.
EXTRA RESOURCES
The Modern Language Association Language Map displays the numbers
and locations of speakers of thirty languages in the United States, based on
the 2000 United States census: http://www.mla.org/resources/census_main.
The Dialect Survey, a project initiated by Professor Bert Vaux at the
University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, provides dialect maps for the
regional American pronunciations and word forms for more than 120
items: http://www4.uwm.edu/FLL/linguistics/dialect/.
American Accent Training provides an amusing animated clip on
American colloquialisms, which can supplement a discussion of attitudes
about American English: http://www.americanaccent.com/.