Overview of Language Change

http://nfgsa2englishlanguage.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/language-change-guide.html

William Labov study (Martha’s vineyard) – A small group of fishermen exaggerated an existing tendency in their language subconsciously to established a sociolect. This became the respected Island speak and bore connotation of their old virtues and desirable values. The pronounciation was an innovation and became the way of the Island. Labov was interested in phonological variation & investigated the /au/ and /ai/ vowel sounds at Martha’s Vineyard in 1963. He found that Fishermen centralised au/ai more than other occupational groups, people aged 30 – 60 tend to centralise diphthongs more frequently; Up-Islanders used the centralised diphthongs more than Down-Islanders.

Urban accents (Estuary English) - Estuary English is an English dialect or accent associated with South East England, especially the area along the River Thames and its estuary, centring around London.
Prestige (BBC English, RP) - the standard form of British English pronunciation, based on educated speech in southern England, widely accepted as a standard elsewhere.

15th Century – The Great Vowel Shift - The long vowels shifted upwards; that is, a vowel that used to be pronounced in one place in the mouth would be pronounced in a different place, higher up in the mouth;

Tochter – dochter – daughter

Nacht – night – nite?

Leisure – ‘zh’ pronunciation, also applies to measure, pleasure and treasure

Swan and man; obey and tea (word that used to rhyme and few centuries ago but not today.

Interest, every, factory, nursery, cursory, desultory – ‘uh’ sound (ə = schwa)

ATTITUDES TO LANGUAGE CHANGE

Standard English – right and wrong (National Curriculum, for example). Should it remain constant or should it change? People start making judgements about language change.
Prescriptive – laying down rules which are very exact, for example, compu’er (the ‘t’ must be added). In other words, what English language SHOULD be like.
Descriptive – language change is inevitable, for example, Sainsbury’s (some add the apostrophe, others do not). In other words, what English language IS like.
Golden Age - when did people, speak the same, write in the same handwriting and spell coherently?
It is almost impossible to stop language changing (evolution)
What is proper English? Issues of race, class, gender and location.

Issue	‘Good’ English	‘Bad’ English
Race	White people’s language	Other ethnic backgrounds
Class	Middle and upper classes	Working class
Gender	Male language is dominant	Female language is deviant
Location	South East England – RP, BBC English	Any other accent/dialect

THE BEGINNINGS OF GLOBAL ENGLISH

Significant period in English: Middle English – Early Modern English (15th, 16 and 17th centuries).

There should not have been any reason for language change because people never travelled far (within three miles) and only talked about predictable things (weather, money, work, family, food etc).

Over the past thousand years, language change was very slow, until invaders visited the country.

The Renaissance – rediscovery of learning occurred during the 15th century. More people were educated and breaking away form the repressive authority from the church, which controlled learning. People were travelling frequently, more medical discoveries and freedom of thought.

Many borrowings from Latin, Greek (languages of education and thought), French (language of luxury and style) and Italian (language of the arts – growth of theatre encouraged new words). Words became naturalised in English language. This is still very consistent in the 21st century.