Publications

Publication details [#55973]

Lacoste, Véronique. 2012. Phonological Variation in Rural Jamaican Schools. (Creole language library 42). John Benjamins. xiv+293 pp.
Publication type
Book – monograph
Publication language
English
Language as a subject

Annotation

This book investigates variation in the classroom speech of 7-year-old children who are learning Standard Jamaican English as a second language variety in rural Jamaica. For sociolinguists and second language/dialect researchers interested in the acquisition and use of sociolinguistic variables, an important challenge is how to efficiently account for language learning mechanisms and use. To date, this book is the first to offer an interdisciplinary look into phonological and phonetic variation observed in primary school in Jamaica, that is from the perspective of classic variationist and quantitative sociolinguistics and a usage-based model. Both frameworks function as explanatory for the children’s learning of phono-stylistic variation, which they encounter in their immediate linguistic environment, i.e. most often through their teachers’ speech.