SOCIOPHONETICS

Labov, 1966

The Social Stratification of English in New York City “Investigating the

r

pronunciation after vowels.”

Method

1.

2.

Walking around three New York City Department Store (Saks, Macy’s, and S.Klein).

Asking the location of department he knew to be situated on the fourth floor.

Result

1.

r

-pronunciation after vowels was being reintroduced into New York speech from

above.

Result

2.

r

-pronunciation after vowels was a feature of the speech of

younger people

rather than of

older people

Result

3.

r

-pronunciation after vowels was more likely to occur as the

formality level

increased

Result

4.

r

-pronunciation after vowels would be more likely at the

ends of words

than

before consonants

Trudgill, 1974

The Social Differentiation of English in Norwich How the use of variants is related to social class and level of formality Analysis of the variables (ng), (t), and (h)

Result

1. The higher the social class, the more frequent is the use of the [  ], [t], and [h] variants rather than the corresponding [n], [  ], and [  ] variants.

Result

2. The higher the level of formality, the more frequent is the use of the [  ], [t], and [h] variants rather than the corresponding [n], [  ], and [  ] variants.

Result

3. The use of [  ] is not only related to social class, but also to gender.

Females show greater preference for [



] than males.