Language Ideology and the Transmission of Phonological Change Changing Indexicality in Two Situations of Language Contact

Abstract

The authors consider the changing indexicality of phonological variants in two different contact situations—Corby, United Kingdom, and Kingston, Jamaica. While quite different sites of contact, they suggest that similar sociolinguistic phenomena may be observed in both places. Using a language ideology framework, acoustic and auditory phonetic data are interpreted through respondents’own metalinguistic comments about their dialect. This socially embedded interpretation of the data reveals that in both Corby and Kingston, one phonological variant may in fact index distinct and different identities for speakers in the respective communities. In particular, in both Corby and Kingston, features associated with historically stigmatized varieties have apparently been adopted by the younger generations as a means of marking local identity and pride. This method of interpretation offers an alternative method of analyzing variationist data and follows earlier work conducted in language ideology.