Linguistic Variation Prepared by Alaa Kamal Othman Acad

Linguistic Variation Prepared by: Alaa Kamal Othman Acad. No. : 220161959 Submitted to: Dr. Walid Amer

TABLE CONTENT: The linguistic variable Types of linguistic variables Variation in New York, Norwich, Detroit Indicators, markers , and stereotypes.

Linguistic variable: A linguistic item which has identifiable variants, which are the different forms which can be used in an environment.

TYPES OF LINGUISTIC VARIABLES: *Consonant variables/ Phonological variables: 1 - (ng)>/ŋ/ or /n/ in “singing, playing, …” 2 - (r)>/r/ or /Ø/ in “farm, far, …” 3 - (h)>/h/ or /Ø/ in “house, hospital, . . ” 4 -(t)>/t/ or /? / in “better, bet, . . ” 5 -(th)>/θ/ or /t/ in “thin, three, . . ” 6 -(dh)>/�/ or /d/ in “there, they, . . ” 7 - The final (t, d) in in told/test

*Vowel variables/ 1 - /e/ > pen, men, … 2 - /o/ > dog, caught, coffee 3 - /a/ > bag, bad, back 4 - /u/ > pull Grammatical Variables/ 1 - 3 rd person sing. “S”. E. g. : he thinks/he think 2 -copula be: he’s happy/he be happy 3 -multiple negation: he don’t mean no harm. 4 -the beginning of English clauses: *She’s the girl who(m) I met. *She’s the girl that I met

3 LANDMARK STUDIES CARRIED IN 3 URBAN AREAS BY PROMINENT SOCIOLINGUISTS IN 1960 S & 1970 S. Variation in New York City by “Labov” Variation in Norwich by “Trudgill” Variation in Detroit by “Shuy”

- New York/ Labov chose 5 phonological variables: 1 - (th) variable, initial consonant in(thin , three) 2 - (dh) variable, initial consonant in (there, then) 3 - /r/ in “farm, far, …” 4 - /a/ in bag, bad 5 - /o/ in dog, caught

Norwich: Trudgill chose 3 consonants and 13 vowels. 1 - (h) > happy, house 2 - (ng) > walking, running 3 - (t) > bet, butter. *(t) has 4 variants : -aspirated -non aspirated -glottalized -glottal stop The first two variants combined are least nonstandard. The 3 rd is more standard. The glottal stop is non standard. +13 vowel variants in (bad, name, path, tell, here, hair, ride, bird, tip, know, boat, boot, tune)

Detroit: Shuy focused on 3 variables. 1 phono. & 2 gram. -phonological variant: *The realization of a vowel followed by a nasal consonant as a nasalized vowel. -Grammatical variant: 1 - Multiple negation “he ain’t got none neither” 2 - pronominal apposition “that guy, he don’t care”

- Wolfram considered other linguistic variables: Phonological variable: * pronunciation of final consonant clusters in words like “test, wasp, left” * (th) in “tooth, nothing” * final stops like in “ good, shed” * pronunciation of (r) in “sister, pair” Grammatical variable: * he talk/he talks * two year/ two years *she’s nice/she nice/ she be nice

The social class to which each speaker belongs or the circumstances he/she goes through are related to the variants.

Indicators: -Linguistic variables where no important social information is attached and only linguistically trained observers can distinguish. e. g. North America distinguish between the vowels in “cot, caught” Marker: Quite noticeable and carries potent social information. e. g. the dropping of g in “singing”. The distribution of markers is related to social groupings and styles.

- - Stereotypes: Popular characterization of the speech of a particular group. E. g. *New York: -boid for bird -toitytoid street for “ 33 rd street” *Northumbrian : (wot- cher ) for “what cheer? ” when greeting.