The Effects of Urbanization and Social Orientation: Locally Salient Variables as Indicators of Linguistic Change

• Main Authors: Becky Childs, Gerard Van Herk, Jennifer Thorburn
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Boberg; Petty; Petty Harbour; Newfoundland
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.576.5576; http://www.ling.upenn.edu/nwav/abstracts/nwav36_childs_vanherk_thorburn.pdf

The influence of urbanization on language change is made clear by studies showing that both historic and innovative forms are affected by linguistic and social factors associated with urban development. Traditional rural/urban differences are levelled, and innovative features and norms emerge in the dialects of young speakers (Thomas 1997, Tillery & Bailey 2003, Durian 2006). Such changes are particularly amenable to study in Newfoundland, whose highly traditional and distinct rural economy and culture are rapidly urbanizing and interacting with mainstream norms. Sociolinguistic consequences of these changes are already evident in St. John's, the province's only major urban area (Clarke 1991, D’Arcy 2005, Boberg 2005). In the present paper, we investigate the linguistic effects of urbanization in Petty Harbour, a community near St. John's that has undergone even more drastic social and economic change, moving from an isolated and traditional fishing village to a bedroom community in a single generation. Our cross-generational study demonstrates how speakers orient themselves within a newly situated urban landscape through their use of highly salient, locally-affiliated features from two different linguistic domains.