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The geolinguistics of /l/ vocalization in Australia and New Zealand[Note 1. We would like particularly to thank Janet Holmes and ...]
Author(s) -
Horvath Barbara M.,
Horvath Ronald J.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
journal of sociolinguistics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1467-9841
pISSN - 1360-6441
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9481.00191
Subject(s) - sound change , variation (astronomy) , sociolinguistics , language change , hierarchy , linguistics , identification (biology) , geography , sociology , constraint (computer aided design) , australian english , variable (mathematics) , economic geography , mathematics , political science , mathematical analysis , philosophy , physics , botany , geometry , astrophysics , law , biology
Recent work in comparative sociolinguistics marks a re–engagement of variationists studying language change in progress with geography. In this study of the vocalization of /l/ in nine speech localities in Australian and New Zealand English, the geographical, the linguistic and the social constraints on variation are all included in the quantitative analysis. The usual identification of the starting point of change as the factor that is quantitatively ‘more’ is challenged by variable constraint hierarchies associated with speech localities as well as by the identification of Christchurch as the place of the origin of the sound change. Neither the gravity nor the urban hierarchy models of diffusion explain the geographical pattern of the sound change; a number of place effects are proposed as potential explanations, including the geographical variability of the vigorousness of the change. Variable isoglosses representing discontinuities in the dataset are mapped; they reveal the subtle patterns of sociolinguistic variation that mark the difference between Australian English and New Zealand English.