1. Linguistics for English
Dick Hudson
Godolphin and Latymer
September 2016

2. Main messages
Language is extraordinarily stable from generation to generation
So children learn to speak just like their parents
But it does change in two ways:
slow change
fast change

3. Plan Linguistic stability and change Child language acquisition (CLA)
Language variation
Variable CLA in Buckie, Scotland
The Linguistics Olympiad

4. 1. Linguistic stability and change
Language is extraordinarily stable from generation to generation
but there is some very slow change
But some things cause very fast change
borrowing
innovation e.g. for technology
For example:
From PIE to ME
The Great Vowel Shift

5. From Proto-Indo-European to Modern English
generations
guessed
From Proto-Indo-European to Modern English
PIE
-3,500
*gwe:n
‘woman’
Greek
-500
120
γυνή /gyne:/ ‘woman’
borrowed
English
cwen
‘woman’
+600
160
gynaecologist
misogyny
+2,000
200
queen

6. The Great Vowel Shift 1350-1700 bite after bite before as in kwen
meet
/eː/
meat
/ɛː/
mate
/aː/
/eɪ/
out
/uː/
/aʊ/
boot
/oː/
boat
/ɔː/
/əʊ/
as in queen

7. Vowels in the mouth
bite before
bite after
as in queen
as in kwen

8. So what? Long vowels changed, but short vowels didn’t.
That’s one of the reasons why English spelling isn’t ‘phonetic’.
Sometimes the spelling shows the links between long and short pairs.
/ɛ:/ > /i:/
deep ~ depth (weep ~ wept, clean ~ cleanse)
same vowel-letter because they used to have the same vowel-sound
/i:/ > /ai/
wide ~ width (five ~ fifth, fifty, hide ~ hidden)
Ibiza = /aibiθə/

9. How fast does language change?
Very slowly
The Great Vowel Shift took 350 years = (3.5 x 4 = 14) generations.
The meaning of gwe:n stayed the same (‘woman’) for 4,000 years = 160 generations!
Why? Because we want to conform.
Very fast
Gynaecology – invented 1847
when gynaecology itself was being invented
teen-age slang
e.g. ‘say’ = ?
‘good’ = ?

10. 2. Child Language Acquisition (CLA)
video from
video from

11. CLA: questions for a beginner
What sounds do people make?
When do people make those sounds?
What do people make those sounds for?
How can I make those sounds?
How can I use those sounds to communicate?
What do those sounds mean?
How can I sound just like Mummy?

12. 3. Language variation Within any language, there’s variation:
dialects, used by different people
registers, used in different situations.
Sometimes the variation is qualitative:
each person or group uses just one form
each register allows just one form
E.g. traditional dialects

13. Two isoglosses in southern England
London

14. Why do we vary? For identity We need a social identity
defined in terms of social groups
We need to communicate this identity
by using the signals of our group
But social life is complicated
we all belong to many groups
we belong to any group to some degree.

15. Quantitative variation
Quantitative variation still communicates identity.
But different linguistic variables communicate different identities.
each variable contrasts two or more alternative variants
e.g. come = [ʊ] or [ʌ]: North vs South
farm = [a:] or [a:r]: East vs West
And each variable links different frequencies to different groups
e.g. easterners and westerners both use /fa:m/, but with different frequencies.

16. So most variation is quantitative
Given a choice between two forms, people use both, but in different quantities.
e.g. ou = [a:] or [aʊ]
audio from
Spot the linguistic variables!

17. 4. Variability and CLA in Buckie, Scotland
Research by Jennifer Smith and colleagues.

18. Variability in Buckie [u:] [u:] [ʌʊ]
The HOOSE (house) variable: [ʌʊ] or [u:]
Adults speaking to each other only use [u:]
But mothers often use [ʌʊ] when talking to children.
E.g. mother and child
4:25 minutes into the recording:
[u:]
[ʌʊ]
audio from
audio from audio from

19. CLA in Buckie: measuring the HOOSE variable
All recordings involved one caregiver and one child.
11 pairs
children 2;10 – 3;6.
Scoring the variation: count [u:] as percent of [u:] + [ʌʊ].
Caregivers average: 43%
Children average: %

20. children track their mothers
Results
mothers differ
children track their mothers
mother
three
youngest
children, about 3;0

21. So what? Adults choose their score to match the addressee:
to an adult: only [u:]
to a child: either [u:] or [ʌʊ].
At age three, children learn to match their adult model.
So they are variable too.
And their variable score is close to their adult model’s!
A marvel of social adjustment and precision learning.

22. 5. Linguistics Olympiad: a taste of Old English