Cover not available

Article published In: Styles, Standards and Meaning in Lesser-Studied Languages
Edited by Uri Horesh, Jonathan R. Kasstan and Miriam Meyerhoff
[Language Ecology 4:1] 2020
► pp. 73–94

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

Modelling stylistic variation in threatened and under-documented languages

ORCiD logo with link | University of Westminster
Published online: 27 July 2021
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/le.00010.kas
Abstract
The centrality of style is uncontested in sociolinguistics: it is an essential construct in the study of linguistic variation and change in the speech community. This is not the case in the language-obsolescence literature, where stylistic variation among endangered-language speakers is described as an ephemeral, or “marginal” resource, and where speakers exhibiting “stylistic shrinkage” become “monostylistic”. This argument is invoked in variationist theory too, where “monostylism” is presented as support for the tenets of Audience Design (Bell, Allan. 1984. Language style as audience design. Language in Society 13(2):145–204. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). This article reports on a study that adopts variationist methods in a context of severe language endangerment. Evidence from two linguistic variables in Francoprovençal demonstrates the presence of socially meaningful stylistic variation among the last generation of fluent speakers, offering counter-evidence to classic claims. This evidence is used to argue that accounts of stylistic variation in language obsolescence are not sufficiently nuanced and should be reconsidered in light of recent research.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Structure and use in “language obsolescence”
  • 3.Recent variationist research on style shifting in language obsolescence
  • 4.Research design
    • 4.1Language context
    • 4.2Sample population
    • 4.3Linguistic variables
      • 4.3.1(1)-palatalisation
      • 4.3.1(a)-backing and rounding
    • 4.4Procedures
  • 5.Analysis
    • 5.1Prior results: (l)-palatalisation
    • 5.2Results: (a)-backing and rounding
  • 6.Discussion
  • 7.Conclusion and limitations
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (66)
References
Agha, Asif. 2007. Language and Social Relations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y. 2020. Language change in language obsolescence. In Richard D. Janda, Brian D. Joseph and Barbara S. Vance (eds.), The Handbook of Historical Linguistics, Volume II, pp. 447–467. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Armstrong, Nigel. 2013. Hyperstyle variation in French: Yet another exception culturelle? In Mari C. Jones and David Hornsby (eds.), Language and Social Structure in Urban France, pp. 81–92. Oxford: Legenda.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bell, Allan. 1984. Language style as audience design. Language in Society 13(2):145–204. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2001. Back in style. Reworking audience design. In Penelope Eckert and John R. Rickford (eds.), Style and Sociolinguistic Variation, pp. 139–169. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bert, Michel. 2001. Rencontre de langues et francisation : l’exemple du Pilat. Unpublished PhD Dissertation, Université Lumière – Lyon II.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blainey, Darcy. 2017. Sociolinguistic research and endangered varieties: The case of Louisiana French. Canadian Journal of Linguistics, 62(4): 576–595. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bousquette, Joshua and Mike Putnam. 2019. Redefining language death: Evidence from moribund grammars. Language Learning 70(1): 188–225. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Campbell, Lyle and Martha C. Muntzel. 1989. The structural consequences of language death. In Nancy C. Dorian (ed.), Investigating Obsolescence, 181–196. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Carmichael, Katie. 2017. Stylistic variation and dialect contraction: The case of /ʒ/ and /h/ in Louisiana French. Fleur de Ling: Tulane University Working Papers, Sociolinguistics, 3(1): 72–79.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Carmichael, Katie and Aarnes Gudmestad. 2019. Language death and subject expression: First-person-singular subjects in a declining dialect of Louisiana French. Journal of French Language Studies, 29(1): 67–91. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chen, Matthew Y. and William S.-Y. Wang. 1975. Sound change: actuation and implementation. Language 51(2): 255–281. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chirkova, Katia, Stanford, James N. & Dehe Wang. 2018. A long way from New York City: Socially stratified contact-induced phonological convergence in Ganluo Ersu (Sichuan China). Language Variation and Change 30(1):109–145. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Clarke, Sandra. 2009. Sociolinguistic stratification and new dialect formation in a Canadian aboriginal community: Not so different after all? In: James N. Stanford & Dennis Preston (eds.), Variation in Indigenous Minority Languages, 109–128. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cook, Eung-Do. 1989. Is phonology going haywire in dying languages? Phonological variations in Chipewyan and Sarcee. Language in Society 18(2): 235–255. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dal Negro, Silvia. 2004. Language contact and dying languages. Revue française de linguistique appliquée 9(2): 47–58. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dorian, Nancy C. 1973. Grammatical change in a dying dialect. Language 49(2): 413–38. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1989. Introduction. In Nancy C. Dorian (ed.), Investigating Obsolescence, 1–10. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1994a. Stylistic variation in a language restricted to private-sphere use. In Douglas Biber & Edward Finegan (eds.), Sociolinguistic Perspectives on Register, 217–232. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1994b. Varieties and variation in a very small place: social homogeneity, prestige norms, and linguistic variation. Language 70(4):631–696. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2010. Investigating Variation: The Effects of Social Organization and Social Setting. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Drager, Katie, Kaleialohapau‘ole Bethany Chun Comstock and Hina Puamohala Kneubuhl. 2017. He nui nā ala e hiki aku ai: Factors influencing phonetic variation in the Hawaiian word kēia. Language Documentation & Conservation Special Publication, 131: 65–93.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dressler, Wolfgang. 1972. On the phonology of language death. Chicago Linguistic Society Papers 81:448–457.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dressler, Wolfgang and Ruth Wodak-Leodolter. 1977. Language preservation and language death in Brittany. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 121: 33–44.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Duraffour, Antonin. 1932. Phénomènes généraux d’évolution phonétique dans les dialectes francoprovençaux étudie d’après le parler de la commune de Vaux (Ain). Revue de Linguistique Romane 81: 1–280.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Eckert, Penny. 2012. Three waves of variation study: the emergence of social meaning in the study of sociolinguistic variation. Annual Review of Anthropology 411: 87–100. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gal, Susan. 1978. Peasant men can’t get wives: language change and sex roles in a bilingual community. Language in Society 7(1): 1–16. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1984. Phonological style in bilingualism. In Deborah Schiffrin (ed.), Meaning, Form and Use in Context: Linguistic Applications, 290–302. Washington D.C.: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gardette, Pierre. 1941. Géographie phonétique du Forez. Mâcon: Protat.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1950–1956. Atlas linguistique et ethnographique du Lyonnais. Paris: Éditions du C.N.R.S.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1983. Études de géographie linguistique. Paris: Klincksieck.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gilliéron, Jules and Edmond Edmont. 1902–1910. Atlas linguistique de la France. Paris: Champion.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grinevald Craig, Colette. 1997. Language contact and language degeneration. In Florian Coulmas (ed.), The Handbook of Sociolinguistics, 257–270. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Harrison, Michelle and Aurélie Joubert (eds.). 2018. French Language Policies and the Revitalisation of Regional Languages in the 21st Century. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hoenigswald, Henry M. 1989. Language obsolescence and language history: matters of linearity, leveling, loss, and the like. In Nancy C. Dorian (ed.), Investigating Obsolescence, 347–354. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Johnson, Daniel E. 2009. Getting off the Goldvarb standard: Introducing Rbrul for mixed-effects variable rule analysis. Language and Linguistics Compass 3(1): 359–383. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jones, Mari C. and Ishtla Singh. 2005. Exploring Language Change. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kasstan, Jonathan R. 2015. Variation and change in Francoprovençal: A study of an emerging linguistic norm. Unpublished PhD Dissertation, University of Kent.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2019. Emergent sociolinguistic variation in severe language endangerment. Language in Society 48(5): 685–720. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kasstan, Jonathan R. and Daniela Müller. 2018. (l) as a sociolinguistic variable in Francoprovençal. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 2491: 99–118.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Klingler, Thomas and Amanda LaFleur. 2007. L’enquête PFC en Louisiane. In Sylvain Detey and Dominique Nouveau (eds.), Bulletin PFC N. 7, PFC : Enjeux descriptifs, théoriques et didactiques 2007, pp. 331–340. Toulouse: Université de Toulouse II.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Labov, William. 1971. Some principles of linguistic methodology. Language in Society 1(1): 97–120. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1972. Sociolinguistic Patterns. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1984. Field methods of the project on linguistic change and variation. In John Baugh & Joel Sherzer (eds.), Language in Use: Readings in Sociolinguistics, 28–53. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2001. Principles of Linguistic Change. Volume 2: Social Factors. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Meyerhoff, Miriam. 2017. Writing a linguistic symphony: analysing variation while doing language documentation. Canadian Journal of Linguistics 62(4): 525–549. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mougeon, Raymond and Edouard Beniak. 1989. Language contraction and linguistic change: The case of Welland French. In Nancy C. Dorian (ed.), Investigating Obsolescence, 287–312. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Müller, Daniela. 2011. Developments of the lateral in Occitan dialects and their Romance and cross-linguistic context. Unpublished PhD Dissertation, Universitat de Tolosa – Lo Miralh.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Palosaari, Naomi and Lyle Campbell. 2011. Structural aspects of language endangerment. In Peter K. Austin and Julia Sallabank (eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Endangered Languages, pp. 100–119. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pooley, Tim. 2000. Sociolinguistics, regional varieties of French and regional languages in France. Journal of French Language Studies 10(2): 117–157. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pope, Mildred K. 1952. From Latin to Modern French with Especial Consideration of Anglo-Norman. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rickford, John R. and Penelope Eckert. 2001. Introduction. In Penelope Eckert and John R. Rickford (eds.), Style and Sociolinguistic Variation, pp. 1–18. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Roche, Gerald. 2020. Abandoning endangered languages: ethical loneliness, language oppression, and social justice. World Anthropologies 122(1): 164–169. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Romaine, Suzanne. 1989. Pidgins, creoles, immigrant, and dying languages. In Nancy C. Dorian (ed.), Investigating Obsolescence, 369–384. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Satyanath, Shobha. 2015. Language variation and change: the Indian experience. In Dick Smackman and Petrick Heinrich (eds.), Globalising Sociolinguistics: Challenging and Expanding Theory, pp. 107–122. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schilling-Estes, Natalie. 1997. Accommodation vs. concentration: Dialect death in two post-insular communities. American Speech 72(1): 12–32. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1998. Investigating ‘self-concious’ speech: the performance register in Ocracoke English. Language in Society 27(1): 53–83. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schmidt, Annette. 1985. Young People’s Dyirbal: An Example of Language Death from Australia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stanford, James N. and Dennis Preston (eds.). 2009. Variation in Indigenous Minority Languages. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stanford, James N. 2016. A call for more diverse sources of data: Variationist approaches in non-English contexts. Journal of Sociolinguistics 20(4):525–541. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thomason, Sarah G. and Terrence Kaufman. 1988. Language Contact, Creolization, and Genetic Linguistics. California: University of California Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tuaillon, Gaston. 1967. Principes pour distinguer français et francoprovençal. Revue de Linguistique Romane, 311: 292–296.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wolfram, Walt. 2002. Language death and dying. In Jack K. Chambers, Peter Trudgill & Natalie Schilling-Estes (eds.), The Handbook of Language Variation and Change, 764–787. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zulato, Alessia, Kasstan, Jonathan R. and Naomi Nagy. 2018. An overview of Francoprovençal vitality in Europe and North America. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 2491:11–29.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (2)

Cited by two other publications

Mayeux, Oliver
2024. Racial segregation and language variation in Louisiana Creole: Social meaning in language loss. Sociolinguistica 38:1 ► pp. 27 ff. DOI logo
Kasstan, Jonathan R.
2022. A variationist analysis of the subjunctive mood in a sociolinguistic corpus of spoken Francoprovençal. Linx :84 DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 25 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue