Linguistic insecurity
Encyclopedia
Linguistic insecurity refers to feelings of anxiety
, self-consciousness
, or lack of confidence
in the mind of a speaker surrounding the use of their own language
. Often, this anxiety comes from a speaker’s belief
that his/her use of language does not conform to the perceived standard
and/or the style of language expected by the speaker’s interlocutor(s). Linguistic insecurity is situationally induced and is often a matter of the feeling of inadequacy regarding personal performance
in certain contexts, rather than a fixed attribute of an individual. This insecurity can lead to stylistic, and phonetic shifts away from an affected speaker's default speech variety; these shifts may be performed consciously
on the part of the speaker, or may be reflective of an unconscious effort to conform to a more prestigious or context-appropriate style of speech. Linguistic insecurity is linked to the perception
of speech styles in any community
, and so may vary based on socioeconomic class and gender
. It is also especially pertinent in multilingual societies.
or language as a whole, especially in the perceived difference between phonetic and syntactic characteristics of one’s own speech and those characteristics of what is perceived to be the “correct” form of the spoken language. It is important to note that linguistic insecurity arises based on the perception
of a lack of correctness regarding one’s own speech, rather than any objective deficiencies in a particular speech variety.
In one of its earliest usages, the term linguistic insecurity was employed by linguist William Labov
in his 1972 paper on the social stratification
of the pronunciation of /r/ to describe the attitude that employees, at three different retail stores in New York
, have towards their own speech patterns, in comparison to the Standard English
form. Labov theorized that those employees who had the most extreme shift in style from their own speech variety (a casual style) to the standard form (a more emphatic style) were more insecure in a linguistic sense. The term has since been used to describe any situation in which a speaker is lead to hypercorrect
, or shift their patterns of speech, due to a negative attitude
or lack of confidence
regarding one’s normal speech. This lack of confidence need not be consciously acknowledged by a speaker in order for him/her to be affected by linguistic insecurity, and the changes in pronunciation and stylistic shifts indicative of linguistic insecurity can emerge absent of speaker intent. Linguistic insecurity may also be a characteristic of an entire speech community
, especially in how it relates to other speech communities of the same language that employ a more standardized form.
of a language is regarded as the codified
form of language used in public discourse, while the prestige form describes the amount of respect
accorded to a variety of language. Variables that differentiate standard and prestige forms include phonetic realization
, vocabulary
, syntax
, among other features of speech. The status of these forms is related to the concept of language ideology
, which explains how varieties of language are correlated with certain moral, social or political values. Many societies value the belief that language homogeneity is beneficial to society; in fact, the existence of a “common language” is an intrinsic part of an imagined community
, which defines a nation
.
However, the concept of a language norm is highly flexible. Nations often codify a standard language
that may be different from regional norms. For example, Standard English in the United Kingdom
is based on the south-eastern dialect and accent centered around London. In other parts of the UK, various dialects are spoken, such as Scots
and Geordie; even in London, there exist Cockney and Estuary
accents. Studies of young people in Glasgow
show that they self-report linguistic insecurity, describing their own speech as ‘slang
’ in comparison to the ‘standard form
’ and attempting to incline their own speech to the standard.
Prestige forms may also demonstrate linguistic insecurity. Again, in the UK, Received Pronunciation (RP)
, a prestige accent, has been affected by other varieties of speech. Though the standard form historically aimed towards RP
, it is not a perfect imitation. The result is that RP
speakers now demonstrate changes in phonetic realization in the direction of the standard.
Despite these shifts, a person using an RP accent would tend to give the impression that he or she is well-educated and part of a higher socioeconomic class. This is because these traits are often associated with RP speakers; they index
specific concepts that are presupposed by the community. Similarly, in general, forms of speech gain their status by their association with certain class characteristics. This indexicality
does not need to be passive: in Beijing
, yuppies actively adopt usages considered typical of prestigious Hong Kong
and Taiwan
speech in an effort to index themselves as cosmopolitan. It also does not need to be positive: speech forms may also index negative characteristics. In his study of attitudes towards varieties of United States
English, Preston demonstrates that people often associate the Southern accent
with a lack of sophistication, indexing speakers with such an accent as being backwards
and conservative; and that Southern speakers themselves perceive their language to be inferior, exhibiting linguistic insecurity.
. Hypercorrection is the over-application of a perceived rule of grammar in order to appear more formal or to appear to belong to a more prestigious speech community. A common instance of hypercorrection in English is the use of the personal pronouns “you and I” as a correction of “me and you” in situations in which the accusative personal pronoun “me” is more appropriate. Because the use of “you and I” is internalized as the more grammatically sound form in the mind of many English speakers, that rule becomes over-applied in a situation when a speaker wants to compensate for perceived linguistic deficiencies. A speaker may try to avoid feelings of linguistic insecurity and perceived stigmatization
by projecting a more educated or formal identity and emulating what is perceived as a more prestigious speech variety. Inadvertently, hypercorrection may index
a speaker as belonging to the very social class or societal group that led to the linguistic insecurity. For example, linguist Donald Winford found after studying Trinidadian English that there was a knowledge that there was a stigmatization associated with less prestigious phonological
variants, creating a situation in which individuals belonging to a “lower” social class would attempt to replicate phonological aspects of the more prestigious forms of English, but did not do so successfully, thus engaging in hypercorrection.
refers to a variety of speech in a given language that corresponds to a specific situational purpose or social setting. An example of the phonological
impact of register in English
is when speaking in a formal setting, it is customary to pronounce words ending in “-ing” with a velar nasal
rather than substituting it for the [n] sound that is typical of “-ing” endings in informal
speech. A register shift cannot always be accounted for by documenting the individual phonological differences in speech from one’s default speech variety to the newly registered speech variety, but instead may include a difference in the overall “tenor” of speech and in the way a speaker gives deference to his/her interlocutors who are more experienced in interacting in that register. Having to navigate in a linguistic register markedly different from one’s own speech variety can be a catalyst for hypercorrection
and other behavioral effects of linguistic insecurity that can further contribute to a sense of communicative inadequacy if the speaker feels he is not convincingly interacting in that linguistic register.
have the greatest tendency toward linguistic insecurity. Labov
notes that evidence of their insecurity can be found in their wide range of stylistic variation, fluctuation in given stylistic contexts, conscious striving for correctness, and negative attitude towards their native speech pattern.
After conducting a linguistic survey in 1960s New York City, Labov found evidence that the usage of /r/ by speakers was predictable except in a specific case involving the lower middle class. At the time, the pronunciation of /r/ – at the end of words and before consonants – grew to be a prestige marker and the degree to which it was realized in casual speech correlated with the socioeconomic status
of the respondents. However, members of the lower middle class showed a dramatic increase of r-pronunciation when a more formal style of speech was elicited, even surpassing the usage by the classes above. Labov interpreted this tendency to hypercorrect by adopting the prestigious form of the high ranking class as a sign of the linguistic insecurity of the lower middle class.
Explanations for why the lower middle class exhibits this tendency have yet to be fully explored. A study conducted by Owens and Baker (1984) shows that the lower middle class of Winnipeg
, Canada had highest scores for the CILI (Canadian Index of Linguistic Insecurity), which was adopted from Labov’s original test – the ILI (Index of Linguistic Insecurity). In their paper, they hypothesize that this effect can be explained by an interaction between behavior and attitudes about social status
. Members the lower middle class are caught between the linguistic behavior of the classes below them and the attitudes of the upper class. Members of the lower middle class accept the idea of correct speech from those above them, but changes in their usage lags behind the change in attitude. They identify the upper class
usage as correct and admit that their behavior is different, leading to a disparity that manifests itself as linguistic insecurity. Though Owens and Baker admit that a measure of the mobility aspirations of the respondents is needed to test their explanation, others agree that the effect can be best interpreted as a function of upward social mobility
rather than of social class distinctions themselves. In his later work, Labov highlights that it is often the second highest status groups that display the steepest slope of style shifting, most hypercorrection
, highest levels on linguistic insecurity tests, and the strongest tendency to stigmatize the speech of others in subjective evaluation tests for that variable. In many cases of socioeconomic stratification, this group is equated with the lower middle class.
. Insecure speakers suffer from a negative attitude toward the speech of their dialect group and often feel pressured to mask their dialectal versatility since the norm of communication is to use the standard form. Bidialectal speakers, who speak both the standard and their own dialect, are most vulnerable to this problem because they are more aware of linguistic norms and the contexts to which they must adapt their speech to these norms. For monodialectal speakers, conversations can be difficult or stressful because they are locked into their nonstandard dialect and have a harder time explaining themselves in the standard dialect.
African American Vernacular English (AAVE) is a dialect of American English
that is associated with the African American
ethnic group
. Speakers of AAVE (as well as speakers of other dialects found in the United States
) have encountered a variety of sociolinguistic problems in many important institutions since Standard American English (SAE)
is the predominant form of English used.
One of these important institutions is school
. Concerns about the academic achievement of African American children have motivated researchers to study the role AAVE plays, though there are various explanations for how it might affect achievement. Dialectal differences could lead to inappropriate testing procedures or prejudice
of educators (having lowered expectations and assuming the child is inarticulate and hesitant). In this environment, AAVE-speaking students may develop linguistic insecurity, leading to a rejection of the standards as “posh” or reluctance to speak at all to hide their “inability” to use language. AAVE-speaking students have also been shown to hypercorrect in attempts to speak or write in Standard English. Insecurity about what “sounds right” may result in the avoidance of the invariant be by deleting it from an instance in which it would be proper to use it (e.g. “They said they were told if they didn’t follow orders they would courtmarshled or shot as deserters.”)
Speakers of AAVE may also encounter problems in seeking treatment for mental health problems, where professionals predominantly use Standard American English. Linguistic insecurity can be a cause of miscommunication for AAVE patients. For example, mental health care providers may attribute speaker’s behavior to cognitive or emotional deficits, even to a psychopathological extent. In a study of a psychiatric ward, Bucci and Baxter collected data on the impact of linguistic problems of the patients, which included several monodileactal speakers and bidialectal speakers of AAVE. In the case of “Jimmy,” his background led his therapist to believe that his “muteness” resulted from emotional or neurophysiological problems. However, Bucci and Baxter found evidence indicating his position as a monodialectal AAVE speaker made him unwilling to speak. His linguistic insecurity in the clinical setting with a norm of SAE made him reluctant to speak, but he was fluent and expressive in his own speech community and with his descriptions of his experiences outside the ward. Moreover, standard therapeutic techniques may have a negative and opposite effect for linguistically insecure patient. In the case of the bidialectal “Arlene,” the patient thought that her speech was an obstacle to communication because her therapist often asked her what she meant. This intervention of eliciting answers was meant to encourage Arlene to speak more freely, but her linguistic insecurity led her to focus her attention on the perceived inadequacy of her language style and she responded by saying less rather than more.
One example of linguistic insecurity arising from dialectal differences can be found in work done by Canut and Keita (1994). They conducted a study of an area in the Mandingo zone of Mali
that exhibited a linguistic continuum between two different forms – Bambara
and Malinke
. The study included two villages (Bendugu and Sagabari
), a middle-sized town (Kita
), and the capital of Mali (Bamako
). Bamako is on the Bambara extreme of the continuum, Sagabari on the Malinke extreme, and Bendugu and Kita in between. The linguistic features important for understanding the differences between the dialects are mainly phonological.
The area encompassing these four places has relatively high social mobility
and those who gain status often move towards Bamako, the capital. The dialects follow this pattern, as those closer to the capital are perceived as more prestigious; the most peripheral form in Sagabari can even prompt mockery of the individual using it. Thus, those speaking a dialect different from Bambara are likely to be affected by linguistic insecurity, particularly those closer to the Malinke end of the continuum.
Since migration
is common, there are many examples of young migrants to the area who display linguistic insecurity. Most migrants who speak Malinke try to hide their origins and assimilate to the higher status society by changing the way that they speak. In their attempts to escape their geo-social status, however, they tend to hypercorrect to the point where they create non-existent terms in Bambara. One example of this is replacing every /h/ in Malinke with the /f/ used in Bamako, leading one to say ‘young boy’ /foron/ (which does not exist in Bamako) for ‘noble’ /horon/.
has to do with the underlying assumption and classification of these languages as inferior forms of the parent languages from which they are derived. Typical of most non-official languages, creoles are regarded as mere degenerate variants and rudimentary dialects that are subsumed under the main "standard” languages
for that particular community. With this popular view, creoles are thought to be impoverished, primitive outputs that are far from their European target languages. The negative nonlinguistic implications lead to claims of creole use as being a “handicap” for their speakers. This has caused speakers of these creole languages to experience insecurity and lack of confidence in the use of their form of language - which has undermined the prevalence of creoles spoken in societies. One explanation concerning the different attitudes of speakers is that some populations are more insistent of the use of their particular form of language, as it is commonly claimed to be more "pure." This assumption places this form as a more prestigious standard, creating a tense environment that promotes feelings of insecurity to those who do not follow this standard (and speak "impure" variations).
An instance of linguistic insecurity can be found in relation to Haitian Creole, which developed from a combination of French
and other languages. Although the vast majority in this country grows up hearing and speaking exclusively this creole, it continues to be seen as an inferior, primitive tongue and a malformed version of French. This disfavor against the creole, which exists throughout the society, is present even among those who can only speak in that variation. The cause of the view has been attributed to the association of French with prestige, as most of the island’s land-owning, well-educated elite speaks this language. These judgments contribute to the widespread belief that success is linked to French – believing that one must speak the language to become part of the middle class with a financially stable job - a notion that places Haitian Creole on a lower status. Though it is the majority of people who cannot participate in the French-driven areas of society, the “ideology of disrespect and degradation” surrounding creoles leads to great linguistic insecurity. As Arthur Spears put it, an “internalized oppression” is present in these members who relate important figures in society (and their success) to speaking French, de-valuing their own language of Haitian Creole.
An example of mother tongue based linguistic insecurity in a multilingual environment is Quebecois French. Due to a general perception of Quebecois French as lacking in quality and diverging from the norm, French speaking Quebecers have suffered from a sense of linguistic insecurity. Though French is widely spoken in Quebec
, the French of France is considered by many to be the standard and prestigious form. This comparison and the fact that Quebec French diverges from the “standard” form of France, has caused linguistic insecurity among Quebec speakers.
Due to the separation from France after the Treaty of Paris
in 1763 and the multilingual environment, Quebec French become more anglicized through English pronunciations and borrowings. Though French Canadian speakers were aware of the differences between Quebec French and French
, the foreign perception of Quebec French as “non-standard” was not an issue until the mid 19th century. The opinions of the French elite that Quebec French was “far removed from the prestigious variety spoken in Paris” had spread through the general public by the end of the 19th century causing a deep sense of linguistic insecurity in French speaking Quebec. The insecurity was two fold given that Quebecers spoke neither the dominant English language nor, as they were being told, did they speak French.
Anxiety
Anxiety is a psychological and physiological state characterized by somatic, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral components. The root meaning of the word anxiety is 'to vex or trouble'; in either presence or absence of psychological stress, anxiety can create feelings of fear, worry, uneasiness,...
, self-consciousness
Self-consciousness
Self-consciousness is an acute sense of self-awareness. It is a preoccupation with oneself, as opposed to the philosophical state of self-awareness, which is the awareness that one exists as an individual being; although some writers use both terms interchangeably or synonymously...
, or lack of confidence
Confidence
Confidence is generally described as a state of being certain either that a hypothesis or prediction is correct or that a chosen course of action is the best or most effective. Self-confidence is having confidence in oneself. Arrogance or hubris in this comparison, is having unmerited...
in the mind of a speaker surrounding the use of their own language
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
. Often, this anxiety comes from a speaker’s belief
Belief
Belief is the psychological state in which an individual holds a proposition or premise to be true.-Belief, knowledge and epistemology:The terms belief and knowledge are used differently in philosophy....
that his/her use of language does not conform to the perceived standard
Standard language
A standard language is a language variety used by a group of people in their public discourse. Alternatively, varieties become standard by undergoing a process of standardization, during which it is organized for description in grammars and dictionaries and encoded in such reference works...
and/or the style of language expected by the speaker’s interlocutor(s). Linguistic insecurity is situationally induced and is often a matter of the feeling of inadequacy regarding personal performance
Linguistic performance
In linguistics, performance has two senses:It is also one of the two elements in Chomsky's performance-competence distinction, which relates to Language production , with an emphasis upon how this is different from Competence, or the mental knowledge of language itself...
in certain contexts, rather than a fixed attribute of an individual. This insecurity can lead to stylistic, and phonetic shifts away from an affected speaker's default speech variety; these shifts may be performed consciously
Consciousness
Consciousness is a term that refers to the relationship between the mind and the world with which it interacts. It has been defined as: subjectivity, awareness, the ability to experience or to feel, wakefulness, having a sense of selfhood, and the executive control system of the mind...
on the part of the speaker, or may be reflective of an unconscious effort to conform to a more prestigious or context-appropriate style of speech. Linguistic insecurity is linked to the perception
Perception
Perception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of the environment by organizing and interpreting sensory information. All perception involves signals in the nervous system, which in turn result from physical stimulation of the sense organs...
of speech styles in any community
Community
The term community has two distinct meanings:*a group of interacting people, possibly living in close proximity, and often refers to a group that shares some common values, and is attributed with social cohesion within a shared geographical location, generally in social units larger than a household...
, and so may vary based on socioeconomic class and gender
Gender
Gender is a range of characteristics used to distinguish between males and females, particularly in the cases of men and women and the masculine and feminine attributes assigned to them. Depending on the context, the discriminating characteristics vary from sex to social role to gender identity...
. It is also especially pertinent in multilingual societies.
Description
Linguistic insecurity refers to the negative self-image a speaker has regarding his/her own speech varietyVariety (linguistics)
In sociolinguistics a variety, also called a lect, is a specific form of a language or language cluster. This may include languages, dialects, accents, registers, styles or other sociolinguistic variation, as well as the standard variety itself...
or language as a whole, especially in the perceived difference between phonetic and syntactic characteristics of one’s own speech and those characteristics of what is perceived to be the “correct” form of the spoken language. It is important to note that linguistic insecurity arises based on the perception
Perception
Perception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of the environment by organizing and interpreting sensory information. All perception involves signals in the nervous system, which in turn result from physical stimulation of the sense organs...
of a lack of correctness regarding one’s own speech, rather than any objective deficiencies in a particular speech variety.
In one of its earliest usages, the term linguistic insecurity was employed by linguist William Labov
William Labov
William Labov born December 4, 1927) is an American linguist, widely regarded as the founder of the discipline of variationist sociolinguistics. He has been described as "an enormously original and influential figure who has created much of the methodology" of sociolinguistics...
in his 1972 paper on the social stratification
Social stratification
In sociology the social stratification is a concept of class, involving the "classification of persons into groups based on shared socio-economic conditions ... a relational set of inequalities with economic, social, political and ideological dimensions."...
of the pronunciation of /r/ to describe the attitude that employees, at three different retail stores in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, have towards their own speech patterns, in comparison to the Standard English
Standard English
Standard English refers to whatever form of the English language is accepted as a national norm in an Anglophone country...
form. Labov theorized that those employees who had the most extreme shift in style from their own speech variety (a casual style) to the standard form (a more emphatic style) were more insecure in a linguistic sense. The term has since been used to describe any situation in which a speaker is lead to hypercorrect
Hypercorrection
In linguistics or usage, hypercorrection is a non-standard usage that results from the over-application of a perceived rule of grammar or a usage prescription...
, or shift their patterns of speech, due to a negative attitude
Attitude (psychology)
An attitude is a hypothetical construct that represents an individual's degree of like or dislike for something. Attitudes are generally positive or negative views of a person, place, thing, or event— this is often referred to as the attitude object...
or lack of confidence
Confidence
Confidence is generally described as a state of being certain either that a hypothesis or prediction is correct or that a chosen course of action is the best or most effective. Self-confidence is having confidence in oneself. Arrogance or hubris in this comparison, is having unmerited...
regarding one’s normal speech. This lack of confidence need not be consciously acknowledged by a speaker in order for him/her to be affected by linguistic insecurity, and the changes in pronunciation and stylistic shifts indicative of linguistic insecurity can emerge absent of speaker intent. Linguistic insecurity may also be a characteristic of an entire speech community
Speech community
Speech community is a group of people who share a set of norms and expectations regarding the use of language. Speech communities can be members of a profession with a specialized jargon, distinct social groups like high school students or hip hop fans , or even tight-knit groups like families and...
, especially in how it relates to other speech communities of the same language that employ a more standardized form.
Standard and prestige forms
As linguistic insecurity is related to the perception of how one speaks in comparison to a certain form, the notion of standard and prestige forms of languages is important. The standard formStandard language
A standard language is a language variety used by a group of people in their public discourse. Alternatively, varieties become standard by undergoing a process of standardization, during which it is organized for description in grammars and dictionaries and encoded in such reference works...
of a language is regarded as the codified
Codification (linguistics)
In linguistics, codification is the process of standardizing and developing a norm for a language.Codifying a language can vary from case to case and depends on the stage of standardization that already exists...
form of language used in public discourse, while the prestige form describes the amount of respect
Respect
Respect denotes both a positive feeling of esteem for a person or other entity , and also specific actions and conduct representative of that esteem. Respect can be a specific feeling of regard for the actual qualities of the one respected...
accorded to a variety of language. Variables that differentiate standard and prestige forms include phonetic realization
Phonetics
Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that comprises the study of the sounds of human speech, or—in the case of sign languages—the equivalent aspects of sign. It is concerned with the physical properties of speech sounds or signs : their physiological production, acoustic properties, auditory...
, vocabulary
Vocabulary
A person's vocabulary is the set of words within a language that are familiar to that person. A vocabulary usually develops with age, and serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge...
, syntax
Syntax
In linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing phrases and sentences in natural languages....
, among other features of speech. The status of these forms is related to the concept of language ideology
Language ideology
In sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology, a language or linguistic ideology is a systematic construct about how particular ways of using languages carry or are invested with certain moral, religious, social, and political values, giving rise to implicit assumptions that people have about a...
, which explains how varieties of language are correlated with certain moral, social or political values. Many societies value the belief that language homogeneity is beneficial to society; in fact, the existence of a “common language” is an intrinsic part of an imagined community
Imagined communities
Imagined communities are a concept coined by Benedict Anderson. He believes that a nation is a community socially constructed, imagined by the people who perceive themselves as part of that group...
, which defines a nation
Nation
A nation may refer to a community of people who share a common language, culture, ethnicity, descent, and/or history. In this definition, a nation has no physical borders. However, it can also refer to people who share a common territory and government irrespective of their ethnic make-up...
.
Standard language
A standard language is a language variety used by a group of people in their public discourse. Alternatively, varieties become standard by undergoing a process of standardization, during which it is organized for description in grammars and dictionaries and encoded in such reference works...
that may be different from regional norms. For example, Standard English in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
is based on the south-eastern dialect and accent centered around London. In other parts of the UK, various dialects are spoken, such as Scots
Scots language
Scots is the Germanic language variety spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster . It is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language variety spoken in most of the western Highlands and in the Hebrides.Since there are no universally accepted...
and Geordie; even in London, there exist Cockney and Estuary
Estuary English
Estuary English is a dialect of English widely spoken in South East England, especially along the River Thames and its estuary. Phonetician John C. Wells defines Estuary English as "Standard English spoken with the accent of the southeast of England"...
accents. Studies of young people in Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
show that they self-report linguistic insecurity, describing their own speech as ‘slang
Slang
Slang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's language or dialect but are considered more acceptable when used socially. Slang is often to be found in areas of the lexicon that refer to things considered taboo...
’ in comparison to the ‘standard form
Standard language
A standard language is a language variety used by a group of people in their public discourse. Alternatively, varieties become standard by undergoing a process of standardization, during which it is organized for description in grammars and dictionaries and encoded in such reference works...
’ and attempting to incline their own speech to the standard.
Prestige forms may also demonstrate linguistic insecurity. Again, in the UK, Received Pronunciation (RP)
Received Pronunciation
Received Pronunciation , also called the Queen's English, Oxford English or BBC English, is the accent of Standard English in England, with a relationship to regional accents similar to the relationship in other European languages between their standard varieties and their regional forms...
, a prestige accent, has been affected by other varieties of speech. Though the standard form historically aimed towards RP
Received Pronunciation
Received Pronunciation , also called the Queen's English, Oxford English or BBC English, is the accent of Standard English in England, with a relationship to regional accents similar to the relationship in other European languages between their standard varieties and their regional forms...
, it is not a perfect imitation. The result is that RP
Received Pronunciation
Received Pronunciation , also called the Queen's English, Oxford English or BBC English, is the accent of Standard English in England, with a relationship to regional accents similar to the relationship in other European languages between their standard varieties and their regional forms...
speakers now demonstrate changes in phonetic realization in the direction of the standard.
Despite these shifts, a person using an RP accent would tend to give the impression that he or she is well-educated and part of a higher socioeconomic class. This is because these traits are often associated with RP speakers; they index
Indexicality
In linguistics and in philosophy of language, an indexical behavior or utterance points to some state of affairs. For example, I refers to whoever is speaking; now refers to the time at which that word is uttered; and here refers to the place of utterance...
specific concepts that are presupposed by the community. Similarly, in general, forms of speech gain their status by their association with certain class characteristics. This indexicality
Indexicality
In linguistics and in philosophy of language, an indexical behavior or utterance points to some state of affairs. For example, I refers to whoever is speaking; now refers to the time at which that word is uttered; and here refers to the place of utterance...
does not need to be passive: in Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
, yuppies actively adopt usages considered typical of prestigious Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
and Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
speech in an effort to index themselves as cosmopolitan. It also does not need to be positive: speech forms may also index negative characteristics. In his study of attitudes towards varieties of United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
English, Preston demonstrates that people often associate the Southern accent
Southern American English
Southern American English is a group of dialects of the English language spoken throughout the Southern region of the United States, from Southern and Eastern Maryland, West Virginia and Kentucky to the Gulf Coast, and from the Atlantic coast to most of Texas and Oklahoma.The Southern dialects make...
with a lack of sophistication, indexing speakers with such an accent as being backwards
Cultural backwardness
Cultural backwardness was a term used by Soviet politicians and ethnographers. There were at one point officially 97 "culturally backward" nationalities in the Soviet Union. Members of a "culturally backward" nationality were eligible for preferential treatment in university admissions...
and conservative; and that Southern speakers themselves perceive their language to be inferior, exhibiting linguistic insecurity.
Effects
Speakers experiencing linguistic insecurity exhibit alterations of their normal speech which are reflective of their insecurity, and often are a result of the speaker attempting to compensate for the perceived deficiencies in their own speech variety. These effects of linguistic insecurity can come in the form of changes in pronunciation, as in the case of the retail store employees in William Labov’s example, or even syntactic deviations from the speaker’s normal speech variant.Hypercorrection
One documented linguistic effect of linguistic insecurity is hypercorrectionHypercorrection
In linguistics or usage, hypercorrection is a non-standard usage that results from the over-application of a perceived rule of grammar or a usage prescription...
. Hypercorrection is the over-application of a perceived rule of grammar in order to appear more formal or to appear to belong to a more prestigious speech community. A common instance of hypercorrection in English is the use of the personal pronouns “you and I” as a correction of “me and you” in situations in which the accusative personal pronoun “me” is more appropriate. Because the use of “you and I” is internalized as the more grammatically sound form in the mind of many English speakers, that rule becomes over-applied in a situation when a speaker wants to compensate for perceived linguistic deficiencies. A speaker may try to avoid feelings of linguistic insecurity and perceived stigmatization
Social stigma
Social stigma is the severe disapproval of or discontent with a person on the grounds of characteristics that distinguish them from other members of a society.Almost all stigma is based on a person differing from social or cultural norms...
by projecting a more educated or formal identity and emulating what is perceived as a more prestigious speech variety. Inadvertently, hypercorrection may index
Indexicality
In linguistics and in philosophy of language, an indexical behavior or utterance points to some state of affairs. For example, I refers to whoever is speaking; now refers to the time at which that word is uttered; and here refers to the place of utterance...
a speaker as belonging to the very social class or societal group that led to the linguistic insecurity. For example, linguist Donald Winford found after studying Trinidadian English that there was a knowledge that there was a stigmatization associated with less prestigious phonological
Phonology
Phonology is, broadly speaking, the subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the sounds of language. That is, it is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use...
variants, creating a situation in which individuals belonging to a “lower” social class would attempt to replicate phonological aspects of the more prestigious forms of English, but did not do so successfully, thus engaging in hypercorrection.
Shifting registers
Speakers experiencing linguistic insecurity may also undergo, either consciously or unconsciously, a change in register from their default language variety. Linguistic registerRegister (sociolinguistics)
In linguistics, a register is a variety of a language used for a particular purpose or in a particular social setting. For example, when speaking in a formal setting an English speaker may be more likely to adhere more closely to prescribed grammar, pronounce words ending in -ing with a velar nasal...
refers to a variety of speech in a given language that corresponds to a specific situational purpose or social setting. An example of the phonological
Phonology
Phonology is, broadly speaking, the subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the sounds of language. That is, it is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use...
impact of register in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
is when speaking in a formal setting, it is customary to pronounce words ending in “-ing” with a velar nasal
Velar nasal
The velar nasal is the sound of ng in English sing. It is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is N....
rather than substituting it for the [n] sound that is typical of “-ing” endings in informal
Formal language
A formal language is a set of words—that is, finite strings of letters, symbols, or tokens that are defined in the language. The set from which these letters are taken is the alphabet over which the language is defined. A formal language is often defined by means of a formal grammar...
speech. A register shift cannot always be accounted for by documenting the individual phonological differences in speech from one’s default speech variety to the newly registered speech variety, but instead may include a difference in the overall “tenor” of speech and in the way a speaker gives deference to his/her interlocutors who are more experienced in interacting in that register. Having to navigate in a linguistic register markedly different from one’s own speech variety can be a catalyst for hypercorrection
Hypercorrection
In linguistics or usage, hypercorrection is a non-standard usage that results from the over-application of a perceived rule of grammar or a usage prescription...
and other behavioral effects of linguistic insecurity that can further contribute to a sense of communicative inadequacy if the speaker feels he is not convincingly interacting in that linguistic register.
Socioeconomic class
Findings show that the members of the lower middle classLower middle class
In developed nations across the world, the lower middle class is a sub-division of the greater middle class. Universally the term refers to the group of middle class households or individuals who have not attained the status of the upper middle class associated with the higher realms of the middle...
have the greatest tendency toward linguistic insecurity. Labov
William Labov
William Labov born December 4, 1927) is an American linguist, widely regarded as the founder of the discipline of variationist sociolinguistics. He has been described as "an enormously original and influential figure who has created much of the methodology" of sociolinguistics...
notes that evidence of their insecurity can be found in their wide range of stylistic variation, fluctuation in given stylistic contexts, conscious striving for correctness, and negative attitude towards their native speech pattern.
After conducting a linguistic survey in 1960s New York City, Labov found evidence that the usage of /r/ by speakers was predictable except in a specific case involving the lower middle class. At the time, the pronunciation of /r/ – at the end of words and before consonants – grew to be a prestige marker and the degree to which it was realized in casual speech correlated with the socioeconomic status
Socioeconomic status
Socioeconomic status is an economic and sociological combined total measure of a person's work experience and of an individual's or family’s economic and social position in relation to others, based on income, education, and occupation...
of the respondents. However, members of the lower middle class showed a dramatic increase of r-pronunciation when a more formal style of speech was elicited, even surpassing the usage by the classes above. Labov interpreted this tendency to hypercorrect by adopting the prestigious form of the high ranking class as a sign of the linguistic insecurity of the lower middle class.
Explanations for why the lower middle class exhibits this tendency have yet to be fully explored. A study conducted by Owens and Baker (1984) shows that the lower middle class of Winnipeg
Winnipeg
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...
, Canada had highest scores for the CILI (Canadian Index of Linguistic Insecurity), which was adopted from Labov’s original test – the ILI (Index of Linguistic Insecurity). In their paper, they hypothesize that this effect can be explained by an interaction between behavior and attitudes about social status
Social status
In sociology or anthropology, social status is the honor or prestige attached to one's position in society . It may also refer to a rank or position that one holds in a group, for example son or daughter, playmate, pupil, etc....
. Members the lower middle class are caught between the linguistic behavior of the classes below them and the attitudes of the upper class. Members of the lower middle class accept the idea of correct speech from those above them, but changes in their usage lags behind the change in attitude. They identify the upper class
Upper class
In social science, the "upper class" is the group of people at the top of a social hierarchy. Members of an upper class may have great power over the allocation of resources and governmental policy in their area.- Historical meaning :...
usage as correct and admit that their behavior is different, leading to a disparity that manifests itself as linguistic insecurity. Though Owens and Baker admit that a measure of the mobility aspirations of the respondents is needed to test their explanation, others agree that the effect can be best interpreted as a function of upward social mobility
Social mobility
Social mobility refers to the movement of people in a population from one social class or economic level to another. It typically refers to vertical mobility -- movement of individuals or groups up from one socio-economic level to another, often by changing jobs or marrying; but can also refer to...
rather than of social class distinctions themselves. In his later work, Labov highlights that it is often the second highest status groups that display the steepest slope of style shifting, most hypercorrection
Hypercorrection
In linguistics or usage, hypercorrection is a non-standard usage that results from the over-application of a perceived rule of grammar or a usage prescription...
, highest levels on linguistic insecurity tests, and the strongest tendency to stigmatize the speech of others in subjective evaluation tests for that variable. In many cases of socioeconomic stratification, this group is equated with the lower middle class.
Gender
In the Owens and Baker study mentioned above, the authors used the CILI and ILI test to conclude that women are more linguistically insecure than men. Out of a sampling data of 80 participants, 42 of which were female, women scored higher on the the ILI and the CILI, which indicates high manifest linguistic insecurity. On the CILI, the mean score was 3.23 for females and 2.10 for males. On the ILI, the means scores were 2.23 for females and 1.40 for males. Though the t-tests for the differences were only significant at .07 and .06 levels, the authors feel that this was due to a small sample size and that the uniformity of the results was enough to confirm their hypothesis. Additionally, these findings are consistent with Labov's original New York study and lead to the conclusion by Owens and Baker that women display more linguistic insecurity than men.Dialect
Linguistic insecurity can be heightened in speech communities in which multiple dialects exist beyond the standard languageStandard language
A standard language is a language variety used by a group of people in their public discourse. Alternatively, varieties become standard by undergoing a process of standardization, during which it is organized for description in grammars and dictionaries and encoded in such reference works...
. Insecure speakers suffer from a negative attitude toward the speech of their dialect group and often feel pressured to mask their dialectal versatility since the norm of communication is to use the standard form. Bidialectal speakers, who speak both the standard and their own dialect, are most vulnerable to this problem because they are more aware of linguistic norms and the contexts to which they must adapt their speech to these norms. For monodialectal speakers, conversations can be difficult or stressful because they are locked into their nonstandard dialect and have a harder time explaining themselves in the standard dialect.
African American Vernacular English
African American Vernacular English (AAVE) is a dialect of American English
American English
American English is a set of dialects of the English language used mostly in the United States. Approximately two-thirds of the world's native speakers of English live in the United States....
that is associated with the African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
ethnic group
Ethnic group
An ethnic group is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy...
. Speakers of AAVE (as well as speakers of other dialects found in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
) have encountered a variety of sociolinguistic problems in many important institutions since Standard American English (SAE)
General American
General American , also known as Standard American English , is a major accent of American English. The accent is not restricted to the United States...
is the predominant form of English used.
One of these important institutions is school
School
A school is an institution designed for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is commonly compulsory. In these systems, students progress through a series of schools...
. Concerns about the academic achievement of African American children have motivated researchers to study the role AAVE plays, though there are various explanations for how it might affect achievement. Dialectal differences could lead to inappropriate testing procedures or prejudice
Prejudice
Prejudice is making a judgment or assumption about someone or something before having enough knowledge to be able to do so with guaranteed accuracy, or "judging a book by its cover"...
of educators (having lowered expectations and assuming the child is inarticulate and hesitant). In this environment, AAVE-speaking students may develop linguistic insecurity, leading to a rejection of the standards as “posh” or reluctance to speak at all to hide their “inability” to use language. AAVE-speaking students have also been shown to hypercorrect in attempts to speak or write in Standard English. Insecurity about what “sounds right” may result in the avoidance of the invariant be by deleting it from an instance in which it would be proper to use it (e.g. “They said they were told if they didn’t follow orders they would courtmarshled or shot as deserters.”)
Speakers of AAVE may also encounter problems in seeking treatment for mental health problems, where professionals predominantly use Standard American English. Linguistic insecurity can be a cause of miscommunication for AAVE patients. For example, mental health care providers may attribute speaker’s behavior to cognitive or emotional deficits, even to a psychopathological extent. In a study of a psychiatric ward, Bucci and Baxter collected data on the impact of linguistic problems of the patients, which included several monodileactal speakers and bidialectal speakers of AAVE. In the case of “Jimmy,” his background led his therapist to believe that his “muteness” resulted from emotional or neurophysiological problems. However, Bucci and Baxter found evidence indicating his position as a monodialectal AAVE speaker made him unwilling to speak. His linguistic insecurity in the clinical setting with a norm of SAE made him reluctant to speak, but he was fluent and expressive in his own speech community and with his descriptions of his experiences outside the ward. Moreover, standard therapeutic techniques may have a negative and opposite effect for linguistically insecure patient. In the case of the bidialectal “Arlene,” the patient thought that her speech was an obstacle to communication because her therapist often asked her what she meant. This intervention of eliciting answers was meant to encourage Arlene to speak more freely, but her linguistic insecurity led her to focus her attention on the perceived inadequacy of her language style and she responded by saying less rather than more.
Malinke-Bambara
One example of linguistic insecurity arising from dialectal differences can be found in work done by Canut and Keita (1994). They conducted a study of an area in the Mandingo zone of Mali
Mali
Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...
that exhibited a linguistic continuum between two different forms – Bambara
Bambara language
Bambara, more correctly known as Bamanankan , its designation in the language itself , is a language spoken in Mali by as many as six million people...
and Malinke
Maninka language
Maninka, or more precisely Eastern Maninka, is the name of several closely related languages and dialects of the southeastern Manding subgroup of the Mande branch of the Niger–Congo languages...
. The study included two villages (Bendugu and Sagabari
Sagabari
Sagabari is a small town and principal settlement of the commune of Gadougou I in the Cercle of Bafoulabé in the Kayes Region of south-western Mali....
), a middle-sized town (Kita
Kita
-People:* Ikki Kita, Japanese philosopher* Hideki Kita , Japanese long-distance runner.* Michal Kita, Polish mixed martial artist* Kita, the stage name of Sampsa Astala, a member of the Finnish band Lordi...
), and the capital of Mali (Bamako
Bamako
Bamako is the capital of Mali and its largest city with a population of 1.8 million . Currently, it is estimated to be the fastest growing city in Africa and sixth fastest in the world...
). Bamako is on the Bambara extreme of the continuum, Sagabari on the Malinke extreme, and Bendugu and Kita in between. The linguistic features important for understanding the differences between the dialects are mainly phonological.
| | /c/ | | /f/ | | /r/ (intervocalic) | | /k/ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bamako | [c] | [f] | [r] | [k] |
| Kita | [k] | [f] | [r] | [k] and [x] |
| Bendugu | [k] | [h] | [d] | [x] |
| Sagabari | [k] | [h] | [t] | [x] |
The area encompassing these four places has relatively high social mobility
Social mobility
Social mobility refers to the movement of people in a population from one social class or economic level to another. It typically refers to vertical mobility -- movement of individuals or groups up from one socio-economic level to another, often by changing jobs or marrying; but can also refer to...
and those who gain status often move towards Bamako, the capital. The dialects follow this pattern, as those closer to the capital are perceived as more prestigious; the most peripheral form in Sagabari can even prompt mockery of the individual using it. Thus, those speaking a dialect different from Bambara are likely to be affected by linguistic insecurity, particularly those closer to the Malinke end of the continuum.
Since migration
Human migration
Human migration is physical movement by humans from one area to another, sometimes over long distances or in large groups. Historically this movement was nomadic, often causing significant conflict with the indigenous population and their displacement or cultural assimilation. Only a few nomadic...
is common, there are many examples of young migrants to the area who display linguistic insecurity. Most migrants who speak Malinke try to hide their origins and assimilate to the higher status society by changing the way that they speak. In their attempts to escape their geo-social status, however, they tend to hypercorrect to the point where they create non-existent terms in Bambara. One example of this is replacing every /h/ in Malinke with the /f/ used in Bamako, leading one to say ‘young boy’ /foron/ (which does not exist in Bamako) for ‘noble’ /horon/.
Creole Languages
Linguistic insecurity in relation to creolesCreole language
A creole language, or simply a creole, is a stable natural language developed from the mixing of parent languages; creoles differ from pidgins in that they have been nativized by children as their primary language, making them have features of natural languages that are normally missing from...
has to do with the underlying assumption and classification of these languages as inferior forms of the parent languages from which they are derived. Typical of most non-official languages, creoles are regarded as mere degenerate variants and rudimentary dialects that are subsumed under the main "standard” languages
Standard language
A standard language is a language variety used by a group of people in their public discourse. Alternatively, varieties become standard by undergoing a process of standardization, during which it is organized for description in grammars and dictionaries and encoded in such reference works...
for that particular community. With this popular view, creoles are thought to be impoverished, primitive outputs that are far from their European target languages. The negative nonlinguistic implications lead to claims of creole use as being a “handicap” for their speakers. This has caused speakers of these creole languages to experience insecurity and lack of confidence in the use of their form of language - which has undermined the prevalence of creoles spoken in societies. One explanation concerning the different attitudes of speakers is that some populations are more insistent of the use of their particular form of language, as it is commonly claimed to be more "pure." This assumption places this form as a more prestigious standard, creating a tense environment that promotes feelings of insecurity to those who do not follow this standard (and speak "impure" variations).
An instance of linguistic insecurity can be found in relation to Haitian Creole, which developed from a combination of French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and other languages. Although the vast majority in this country grows up hearing and speaking exclusively this creole, it continues to be seen as an inferior, primitive tongue and a malformed version of French. This disfavor against the creole, which exists throughout the society, is present even among those who can only speak in that variation. The cause of the view has been attributed to the association of French with prestige, as most of the island’s land-owning, well-educated elite speaks this language. These judgments contribute to the widespread belief that success is linked to French – believing that one must speak the language to become part of the middle class with a financially stable job - a notion that places Haitian Creole on a lower status. Though it is the majority of people who cannot participate in the French-driven areas of society, the “ideology of disrespect and degradation” surrounding creoles leads to great linguistic insecurity. As Arthur Spears put it, an “internalized oppression” is present in these members who relate important figures in society (and their success) to speaking French, de-valuing their own language of Haitian Creole.
Multilingual societies
Linguistic insecurity can arise in multilingual environments in speakers of the non-dominant language or of a non-standard dialect. Issues caused by the linguistic variation range from “total communication breakdowns involving foreign language speakers to subtle difficulties involving bilingual and bidialectal speakers”. Divergence from the standard variety by minority languages causes “a range of attitudinal issues surrounding the status of minority languages as a standard linguistic variety”.An example of mother tongue based linguistic insecurity in a multilingual environment is Quebecois French. Due to a general perception of Quebecois French as lacking in quality and diverging from the norm, French speaking Quebecers have suffered from a sense of linguistic insecurity. Though French is widely spoken in Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, the French of France is considered by many to be the standard and prestigious form. This comparison and the fact that Quebec French diverges from the “standard” form of France, has caused linguistic insecurity among Quebec speakers.
Due to the separation from France after the Treaty of Paris
Treaty of Paris (1763)
The Treaty of Paris, often called the Peace of Paris, or the Treaty of 1763, was signed on 10 February 1763, by the kingdoms of Great Britain, France and Spain, with Portugal in agreement. It ended the French and Indian War/Seven Years' War...
in 1763 and the multilingual environment, Quebec French become more anglicized through English pronunciations and borrowings. Though French Canadian speakers were aware of the differences between Quebec French and French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, the foreign perception of Quebec French as “non-standard” was not an issue until the mid 19th century. The opinions of the French elite that Quebec French was “far removed from the prestigious variety spoken in Paris” had spread through the general public by the end of the 19th century causing a deep sense of linguistic insecurity in French speaking Quebec. The insecurity was two fold given that Quebecers spoke neither the dominant English language nor, as they were being told, did they speak French.
See also
- Language changeLanguage changeLanguage change is the phenomenon whereby phonetic, morphological, semantic, syntactic, and other features of language vary over time. The effect on language over time is known as diachronic change. Two linguistic disciplines in particular concern themselves with studying language change:...
- Language contactLanguage contactLanguage contact occurs when two or more languages or varieties interact. The study of language contact is called contact linguistics.Multilingualism has likely been common throughout much of human history, and today most people in the world are multilingual...
- Lingua francaLingua francaA lingua franca is a language systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both mother tongues.-Characteristics:"Lingua franca" is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic...
- DiglossiaDiglossiaIn linguistics, diglossia refers to a situation in which two dialects or languages are used by a single language community. In addition to the community's everyday or vernacular language variety , a second, highly codified variety is used in certain situations such as literature, formal...
- Prestige (sociolinguistics)
- Language varietyVariety (linguistics)In sociolinguistics a variety, also called a lect, is a specific form of a language or language cluster. This may include languages, dialects, accents, registers, styles or other sociolinguistic variation, as well as the standard variety itself...