Dynamics of dialect convergence

Abstract

Mobility is the most effective leveller of dialect and accent, and mobility constitutes a powerful linguistic force today. The sociolinguistics of mobility unites several disparate threads in my own research. First, immigration represents extreme mobility, and societies with profuse immigration differ in partly predictable ways linguistically and culturally from those with little or no immigration. Second, dialect acquisition by the children of newcomers provides new perspectives on critical period effects and influences, including the Ethan Experience, in which the nativization of children is abetted by their imperception of foreign‐accent features in their parents’ speech. Third, identification of relatively recently‐arrived people from other dialect regions allows comparisons of their linguistic norms with the communal norms, and a measure of their linguistic influence. From the cumulative results, we are in a position to frame hypotheses about linguistic variables in terms of their susceptibility to change and their resistance to it, and the identities of inhibitors and accelerators. All these threads should ultimately form integral aspects of the dynamics of dialect convergence.

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