This study uses an archive of publicly broadcast speech to investigate whether speakers are linguistically stable throughout adulthood. A sample of twelve speakers with recorded speech spanning at least thirty years were analyzed with regard to the variable production of syllable-initial (wh). Each speaker’s production at single points in time was contrasted with their production at other times; the analysis shows that the speakers generally show stability in their production of the variable. However, a majority of the speakers have at least one point in time in which their production deviates significantly, and often to a large degree, leading to the conclusion that we cannot simply assume that individuals are linguistically stable throughout their adult lives.
Almond, P. & Apted, M. 1964–2012. Up series. ITV/BBC One.
Bailey, G. 2005. Real and apparent time. In The Handbook of Language Variation and Change, 2nd edn, J.K. Chambers, P. Trudgill & N. Schilling-Estes (eds), 312–332. Malden MA: Blackwell.
Bailey, G. & Tillery J. 1999. The Rutledge effect: The impact of interviewers on survey results in linguistics. American Speech 74: 389–402.
Bailey, G., Wikle, T., Tillery J. & Sand, L. 1991. The apparent time construct. Language Variation and Change 3: 241–264.
Baker, W. & Bowie, D. 2009. Religious affiliation as a correlate of linguistic behavior. In Selected Papers from NWAV 37, K. Gorman & L. Mackenzie (eds), Vol. 15(2), Article 2. Philadelphia PA: University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics. <[URL]> (25 August 2014).
Bowie, D. 2003. Early development of the card-cord merger in Utah. American Speech 78: 31–51.
Bowie, D. 2005. Language change over the lifespan: a test of the apparent time construct. In Selected Papers from NWAV 33, S.E. Wagner (ed.), Vol. 11(2), 45–58. Philadelphia (PA): University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics, [URL] (25 August 2014).
Bowie, D. 2008. Acoustic characteristics of Utah’s card-cord merger. American speech 83: 35–61.
Bowie, D. 2010. The ageing voice: changing identity over time. In Language and Identities, C. Llamas & D. Watt (eds), 55–66. Edinburgh: EUP.
Bowie, D. 2011. Aging and sociolinguistic variation. In Language, Culture, and the Dynamics of Age, A. Duszak & U. Okulska (eds), 29–51. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
Bowie, D. & Yaeger-Dror, M. 2015. Forthcoming. Phonological change in real time. In The Oxford Handbook of Historical Phonology, P. Honeybone & J. Salmons (eds), Oxford: OUP.
Cukor-Avila, P. 2002. She say, she go, she be like: verbs of quotation over time in African-American Vernacular English. American Speech 77: 3–31.
Cukor-Avila, P. & Bailey, G. 2001. The effects of the race of the interviewer on sociolinguistic fieldwork. Journal of Sociolinguistics 5: 254–270.
Di Paolo, M. 1992. Hypercorrection in response to the apparent merger of (ɔ) and (ɑ) in Utah English. Language and Communication 12: 267–292.
Di Paolo, M & Faber, A. 1990. Phonation differences and the phonetic content of the tense-lax contrast in Utah English. Language Variation and Change 2: 155–204.
Eckert, P. 1988. Adolescent social structure and the spread of linguistic change. Language in Society 17: 183–207.
Eckert, P. 1989. Jocks and Burnouts: Social Categories and Identity in the High School. New York NY: Teachers College Press.
Faber, A. & Di Paolo, M. 1995. The discriminability of nearly merged sounds. Language Variation and Change 7: 35–78.
Haddock, C.K., Rindskopf, D. & Shadish, W.R. 1998. Using odds ratios as effect sizes for meta-analysis of dichotomous data: a primer on methods and issues. Psychological Methods 3: 339–353.
Hindle, D.M. 1979. The Social and Situational Conditioning of Phonetic Variation. PhD dissertation, University of Pennsylvania.
Labov, W. 1963. The social motivation of a sound change. Word 19: 273–309.
Labov, W. 1972. Sociolinguistic Patterns. Philadelphia PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Labov, W. 1984. Field methods of the project in linguistic change and variation. In Language in Use: Readings in Sociolinguistics, J. Baugh & J. Sherzer (eds), 28–53. Englewood Cliffs NJ: Prentice Hall.
Lenneberg, E.H. 1967. Biological Foundations of Language. New York NY: Wiley.
Lillie, D. DeFord. 1998. The Utah Dialect Survey. MA thesis, Brigham Young University.
Mendoza-Denton, N. 1997. Chicana/Mexicana Identity and Linguistic Variation: An Ethnographic and Sociolinguistic Study of Gang Affiliation in an Urban High School. PhD dissertation, Stanford University.
Moncrief, Z. 2006. Barely legal. 1.33:1. Family Guy. Fox Network. 17December.
Nahkola, K. & Saanilahti, M. 2004. Mapping language changes in real time: A panel study on Finnish. Language Variation and Change 16: 75–92.
Nikolov, M. & Mihaljevic Djigunovic, J. 2006. Recent research on age, second language acquisition, and early foreign language learning. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 26: 234–260.
Podesva, R. 2006. Phonetic Detail in Sociolinguistic Variation: Its Linguistic Significance and Role in the Construction of Social Meaning. PhD dissertation, Stanford University.
Sankoff, G. 2004. Adolescents, young adults, and the critical period: Two case studies from “Seven Up”. In Sociolinguistic Variation: Critical Reflections, C. Fought (ed.), 121–139. Oxford: OUP.
Sankoff, G. & Blondeau, H. 2007. Language change across the lifespan: /r/ in Montreal French. Language 83: 560–588.
Sankoff, G., Blondeau, H. & Charity, A. 2001. Individual roles in a real-time change: Montreal (r > R) 1947–1995. Etudes & Travaux 4: 141–157.
Scovel, Thomas. 2000. A critical review of the critical period research. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 20: 213–223.
Singleton, D. 2001. Age and second language acquisition. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 21: 77–89.
Tagliamonte, S.A. & D’Arcy, A. 2009. Peaks beyond phonology: Adolescence, incrementation, and language change. Language 85: 58–108.
Tillery, J. & Bailey, G. 2003. Approaches to real time in dialectology and sociolinguistics. World Englishes 22: 351–365.
Wagner, S.E. 2012. Real-time evidence for age grad(ing) in late adolescence. Language Variation and Change 24: 179–202.
Cited by (10)
Cited by ten other publications
Cheng, Andrew
2023. Second Dialect Acquisition “in Real Time”: Two Longitudinal Case Studies from YouTube. American Speech: A Quarterly of Linguistic Usage 98:2 ► pp. 194 ff.
Pichler, Heike
2023. In support of researching later-life language variation and change. Journal of Language and Aging Research 1:1 ► pp. 17 ff.
Riverin-Coutlée, Josiane, Johanna-Pascale Roy & Michele Gubian
2023. Using Mahalanobis Distances to Investigate Second Dialect Acquisition: A Study on Quebec French. Language and Speech 66:2 ► pp. 291 ff.
Riverin-Coutlée, Josiane & Jonathan Harrington
2022. Phonetic change over the career: a case study. Linguistics Vanguard 8:1 ► pp. 41 ff.
2018. Old‐age language variation and change: Confronting variationist ageism. Language and Linguistics Compass 12:6
Bowie, David
2017. Early Development of the Western Vowel System in Utah. The Publication of the American Dialect Society 102:1 ► pp. 83 ff.
Bowie, David
2019. Individual variation in the development of the Western Vowel System of Utah. Linguistics Vanguard 5:s2
Bowie, David
2020. 7. English in the North: The Vowels of Southcentral Alaska. The Publication of the American Dialect Society 105:1 ► pp. 123 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 24 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.