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Article published In:
What’s so standard about standards? Variationist principles and debates
Edited by Jonathan R. Kasstan
[Asia-Pacific Language Variation 8:2] 2022
► pp. 206–239

The role of older men in a phonological change

(ɣ) in Raga, Vanuatu

| Australian National University

Contrary to classic predictions associated with the gender pattern in variationism, the results of this study on the effect of age and gender on a phonological innovation suggests that older speakers drive innovation in this small Oceanic speech community of Vanuatu. Young and old men are prone to deleting the phonemic consonant, while women and middle-aged men tend to retain it. The v-shaped distribution of the variant requires considering the interactions and social status of individuals in this community where older men occupy the highest-ranking positions. The deletion does not appear to be stylistic, and multivariate analyses reveal the effect of surrounding vowels, sex and age, on the frequency of consonant deletion. The variation is interpreted as a change in progress towards the deletion of the velar fricative and its high incidence in younger men is explained by their frequent interactions with the older men.

Keywords: Oceanic language, phonetic variation, language change, apparent-time study, gender variation, v-shaped pattern, velar fricative, consonant deletion, diachronic change
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Vanuatu and Pentecost
  • 3.The velar fricative in Raga
    • 3.1Hypothesis: pncv *k > ɣ > 0
  • 4.Dataset and methodology
    • 4.1Conditioning factors of deletion
      • 4.1.1Structural factors
      • 4.1.2Social and stylistic factors
    • 4.2Analysis
  • 5.Results
    • 5.1Statistical models
      • 5.1.1Structural model
      • 5.1.2Social and stylistic model
      • 5.1.3Combined model
    • 5.2Individual speakers
  • 6.Discussion
    • 6.1Interpreting the v-shaped pattern
    • 6.2The role of older speakers
    • 6.3A societal innovation: Making a living from kava
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 1 December 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/aplv.21002.duh
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