LANGUAGE IN SOCIETY

OTHER TERM FOR

SOCIOLINGUISTICS
 LANGUAGE
LANGUAGE SHIFT MAINTENANCE

LANGUAGE CHANGE
LANGUAGE PLANNING
LANGUAGE CHANGE
4. Language Change
 Studied by both historical linguists and sociolinguists

 Diachronic Change – Historical

Linguists the change of languages over
time
e.g. Old English  Middle English 
Modern English

 Synchronic Change - Sociolinguists

the origins or the causes of language
changes
how language changes with society or in
particular period
Languages change for a variety of reasons.

—Large-scale shifts - response to social,

economic and political pressures.
—History records - language change fueled by
invasions, colonization and migration.

Language can change dramatically if enough

users alter the way they speak it.
 Language change
•According to Holmes (2001: 195) the cause behind the language change is the variation
of use in the areas of pronunciation and vocabulary.

Post-vocal [r] its spread and its

The spread of vernacular form.
status
• In many part of England and • The example of the spread of
Wales, Standard English has lost vernacular form is like what
the pronunciation post-vocal r. happen in Martha’s Vineyard
• Accents with post-vocal [r] are Island.
called rhotict, and these accents • When the island was invaded by summer
are regarded as rural and tourists, the island community of
fisherman changed their pronunciation of
uneducated. some word vowels from the past as a
• On the other hand, in cities like reaction to the language of the tourists.
New York, pronouncing the letter • Light was pronounced [ləit] (it sounds a bit
like layeet) and house was pronounced
[r] is regarded as prestigious. [həus] (a bit like heyoose)
 How does language change?

Routes to language change.

Changes can take originate in:

• Language learning.
• Language contact.
• Social differentiation.
• Natural processes in usage.
Language learning: Language is transformed as it is transmitted from one
generation to the next. Each individual must re-create a grammar and
lexicon based on input received from parents, older siblings and other
members of the speech community.

Language contact: Migration, conquest and trade bring speakers of one

language into contact with speakers of another language

Social differentiation: Social groups adopt distinctive norms of dress,

adornment, gesture and so forth. Linguistic distinctiveness - vocabulary
(slang or jargon), pronunciation, morphological processes, syntactic
constructions, and so on.

Natural processes in usage: Rapid or casual speech naturally

produces processes such as:
Assimilation, dissimilation, syncope and apocope.
Social Status
 people of higher status introduce changes
 later considered prestigious

Native
 Burger – bun kabab
 Fries - Chips
 pronunciation of ‘career’
 Baba/’Papa– Abu
Interaction / Contact
 Borrowing
 Isolation slows process of change
 Interaction increases influences on other languages

 Sushi – Japan

Native
 Gulluband – Farsi - Necklace
 Bandar gah – Farsi - seaport
 Mayuun – hindi
Dialectal Change
 Difference in vocabulary or pronunciation due to
difference in dialects
 e.g
Autumn – fall
lift – elevator
/r/ sound at the
end and
‘schedule’

Native
 Shaljam –
Thippar
(Hazara) –
Gender
 Difference between speech of men and women
 Women introduce more standard
forms – beautiful, sweet
 Men introduce vernacular forms
– cool, wicked
 Women categorize –
married/teenager/mrs/miss

Native
 Gaari –
Daala/car/totta/mazda/jeep
 Chacha – Uncle
Laziness
 Occurs mainly because of laziness
 Shortening or Combining
 Become widely accepted – Standard

 I am - I’m
 Going to – Gonna

Native
 Assalamoalikum – Salam
 Bismillah
Imperfect Learning
 Children learn adult forms imperfectly
 Majority usage - New strandard

Native
 Mehendi – Minhadi
Culture / Tradition
 New places, situations, objects
 Does not matter where they
go

Native Examples
 Lassi
 Lacha
 Charkha
 Chahti
 Types of language change:
Language is always changing evolving, and
adapting to the needs of its users…

– Space.
– Social group.
– Time.
 Agents of Change
Before a language can change, speakers must adopt
new words, sentence structures and sounds, to spread
them through the community and transmit them to
the next generation.

David Lightfoo
“CHILDREN”

Process of learning the language of previous generations, they

internalize it differently and propagate a different variation of that
language.
Levels of Changes
 Changes occur on the following levels

 Phonological (sounds)
 Syntactic (structure)
 Semantic (meaning)
 Lexical (words)
 Sound Change
– Change in phonological system – harder but
interesting.

– “Great Vowel Shift” - 500 years ago - modified

vowel pronunciation dramatically.

– This shift represents the biggest

difference - Middle and Modern English.
 Example:
 Great Vowel Shift altered the position of all the long vowels

"long i“ /i:/ "long u" /u:/

Nucleus started to drop and the high position was retained only in
the off glide.

Eventually, the original /i:/ became /ai/ - so a "long i" vowel in

Modern English is now pronounced /ai/ as in a word like 'bite'
/bait/.

Similarly, the "long u" found its nucleus dropping all the way to
/au/ the earlier 'house' /hu:s/ became /haus/.
 Pronunciation of Schwa
The words adultery, century, cursory, delivery, desultory, elementary,
every, factory, nursery, slavery.

All words which are spelt with -ary, -ery, -oryor ,-ury are
pronounced somewhat as if they rhymed with furry.

The vowel preceding r is called schwa - a short indeterminate sound -

phonetically as [ə] - er (British English) or uh (American English).

In practice the schwa was not always pronounced.

It was usually omitted in common words such as ev(e)ry, fact(o)ry,
nurs(e)ry - spelt evry, factry, nursry - two syllables only.
 Changes in English Pronunciation

Old Middle Modren

Home Hääm Hôm Hōm

Stones stääˈnäs stôˈnəz stōnz

Name nääˈmä näˈmə nām

Tongue tŏngˈgə tŏngˈgə tŭng

 The changes shown in the table are more radical
than they appear, for Modern English ō and ā are
diphthongs.

 The words stones and name exemplify the fate of

unaccented vowels which became ə, then ə
disappeared.
Lexical Change
 Change in the words and vocabulary used

 Addition of suffixes/prefixes to make new words

breakable, thinkable, touchable, etc

 Addition of ‘s’ and ‘-es’

drink – drinks
box – boxes

Native
 Subh –
Subhu – Subha
 Sabza –
Sabzazar

 Vocabulary Change
The vocabulary people use depend on
Area, age, education level, social status and other factors.

 Teens and young adults use different words and phrases from their
parents.
 Some spread through the population and slowly change
the
language.

New vocabulary is required for the latest inventions:

– transport
– domestic appliances
– industrial equipment
– sporting, entertainment and leisure pursuits.
 Vocabulary can change quickly as new words are borrowed from
other languages - words get combined or shortened.

14th Century – French - legal terms

(such as judge, jury, tort, and assault)

- words denoting social ranks and institutions

(such as duke, baron, peer, countess, and parliament)

Greek - science and technology

(e.g., conifer, cyclotron, intravenous, isotope, polymeric, and
telephone)

English vocabulary - blending of existing words

(e.g., smog from smoke and fog)

back-formations (e.g., burgle from burglar)

Some words are even created by mistake.

pea

400 years ago - pease referred to either a single pea

or many peas.
– mistakenly assumed - pease was the plural
form of pea, and a new word was born

vocabulary can change quickly: sentence

structure—the order of words in a sentence—
changes more slowly.
“Old English,” to “Middle English,” “Early Modern English,” to present
day “Modern
English.”
“Dude,”

– described a man who went slightly overboard with his fashion.

– a way to show excitement.

– another way of communication - to accommodate technology -

people have devised abbreviated versions.
– Textise - “Codex,” - express your emotions through
digital characters as an alternative to conventional
language.
Syntactic Change
 Changes in word order

 Double negation – no longer part of English

Old English - ne aux – not never

 Contracted negatives – Old English

knew not – didn’t know

Comparatives – Old English

most shamefullest, more happier

Native
 Phone karo – Phone lgao
 Film lagi hui he – Film chal rahi he
 Semantic Change

Changes in word meanings - semantic shift.

Four common types of change are broadening, narrowing,
amelioration, and pejoration.

Broadening: (generalization or extension)

Broadening is the process by which a word's meaning
becomes more inclusive than an earlier meaning.

In Old English dog referred to just one particular breed,

and thing meant a public assembly.
In Contemporary English - dog can refer to any hairy,
barking, four-legged creature.
Narrowing (specialization or restriction)
The opposite of broadening is narrowing in which a word's meaning
becomes less inclusive.

For example, in Middle English, deer could refer to any animal, and girl could mean a
young person of either sex.

Amelioration
Amelioration refers to the upgrading or rise in status of a word's meaning.

For example, meticulous once meant "fearful or timid," and sensitive meant simply
"capable of using one's senses.“

Pejoration
More common than amelioration is the downgrading or depreciation of a word's
meaning.

For example, the adjective silly, for instance, once meant "blessed" or
"innocent," officious meant "hard working," and aggravate meant to "increase the
weight" of something
Thank you