Premium
Contrast and convergence in Standard Jamaican English: the phonological architecture of the standard in an ideologically bidialectal community
Author(s) -
IRVINE ALISON
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
world englishes
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.6
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1467-971X
pISSN - 0883-2919
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-971x.2008.00533.x
Subject(s) - standard english , linguistics , speech community , variation (astronomy) , creole language , variety (cybernetics) , ideology , construct (python library) , context (archaeology) , sociolinguistics , phonology , sociology , computer science , history , artificial intelligence , political science , philosophy , physics , archaeology , politics , astrophysics , law , programming language
ABSTRACT: The acrolect, in territories like Jamaica, is described in the literature in a number of ways – as “the local standard English” or as the theoretical upper end of the construct referred to as “the continuum”. Data was collected from a sample of Jamaican speakers whose work prospects require use of Standard Jamaican English. The analysis reveals that phonological variation in Jamaican English is structured in such a way as to reflect the coexistence of Creole and English, in a speech community that values the speaker who can use both varieties. In a linguistic context that is characterized by continuous variation, use of some variables is crucial in defining the boundaries between Creole and English, thus establishing the variety the speaker is using. These I call “load‐bearing phonological variables”. I show that it is not the use of English variants per se that defines someone as speaking the acrolect; rather it is use of variants of these load‐bearing variables.