Linguistic Variation: Speech Communities

The totality of messages we exchange with one another while speaking a

given language constitutes a speech community…(Rossi-Landi 1973: 83)

Overview• Language variety

• Speech community

• Social stratification: Class and Caste

• Limitations of Labov’s concept of speech community

• Video: Chronique Urbaine (Urban Chronicle)

Two working definitions

• Language variety: refers to a set of communicative forms and norms for their use that are restricted to a particular group, community or activities

• Speech community: a group of people who share something about the way in which they use language

Social Factors:

• Gender

• Age

• Class: social stratification

• Race

• Ethnicity

• Etc.

Speech and Social Stratification

• Access to economic power and language

• Marker of individual and social identities

• Absolute ( Caste system) ---Flexible (Class system)

Caste and Language Use

• Based on birth, Determines: residence, occupation, marriage choice and language

• Castes: Khalapur, India,( Brahmins, Ragouts and Untouchables) variation in pronunciation according to cast

Class and Language• Determines economic and social relations: fluid,

mobility, class based on occupation, income, etc

• Language use: reflects and reinforces class differences

• Labov’s New York Study (1966) ( postvocalic r ) ---marker of standard English, absence stigmatized---Department stores: Saks, Macy’s and S.Klein

• Lindenfeld (1969) France: syntactic complexity related to class position

We learn that:

1. there is a link between structures of economic, social and political power and the use of language

2.That variation of the use of language is linked to other social systems of organization

Racial Differences and Language

• Their own phonological, grammatical rules, Selectivity of use of dialects

• AAVE = social solidarity

• AAVE; phonological variation: multiple negation and deletion of suffixes

Stigma and AAVE

• Perception:

wrong, not important, etc

• Power

who controls the media,

schools, education, etc

Limitations of present def of Speech Community

• participation in a set of shared norms for the use of language and for interpretation of linguistic behaviour

Critique of Labov’s conceptualization of Speech

Community

• Sutherland (Scotland), Semi-speakers

• Nancy Dorian (1981), Lack of linguistic norm does not exclude people

“A speech community is made up of people who regard themselves as speaking the same language; it

need have no other defining attribute” (Corder, 1973: 53).

The case of Vaupes (Colombia)

• Language criteria for exogamy

• Multilingualism in the community

• Lingua Franca also utilized: Tukano

• They do not share norm of a single language

Chronique Urbaine (Urban Chronicle)

• By Yanick Letourneau

• Hip hop artist (Urban Franco Hip Hop)

• Artist: Kamenga Mbikay (Pressureless

Themes to consider

Race and language

Ethnicity and language

Class and language

Language and power

Discussion

• Can Urban Franco Hip Hop music be considered part of a linguistic network? Is this type of music, in the context of Montreal, articulated in terms of race, ethnicity or age?

Discussion Questions (Video)

• Do you think Hip Hop music can be considered a marker of personal or/and group identity? How? Why?

• Are power relations evident in the story? How is power related to language in this case?

• Can Urban Franco Hip Hop music be considered part of a linguistic network? Is this type of music, in the context of Montreal, articulated in terms of race, ethnicity or age?

Summary

• connection between social stratification and language use

• Anthrop critique the notion of speech community that is bounded by norms

• More open conceptualization of speech community: emphasis on social communicative interaction