The role of marriage in linguistic contact and variation: Two Hmong dialects in Texas

The role of marriage in linguistic contact and variation has been under-represented in sociolinguistic research. In any practice-based analysis, individual interactions and relationships are crucial. Therefore, marriage relationships – small but intense communities of practice – deserve variationist attention for their role in dialect construction and identity. This investigation of cross-dialectal marriages explores how dialect practices and choices are negotiated between partners. The results show the importance of viewing this linguistic behavior in terms of community ideology, culture, and individual choice, rather than primarily as a matter of the amount and intensity of contact. Likewise, the study shows how less commonly studied minority communities can bring new insights to the study of dialect acquisition and linguistic contact. Specifically, this investigation focuses on marriages between speakers of two different dialects of Hmong, a Hmong-Mien language of Southeast Asia. On the basis of home visits to ten Hmong immigrant households in Texas, the study analyzes lexical and phonetic contrasts and ethnographic interviews. Results suggest that macro-level shifts in Hmong social organization and gender roles are being reflected and constructed by gendered, marriage-level dialect practices. The linguistic behavior in these marriages is best viewed as a matter of community ideology in tension with individual choice: individual wives are choosing to challenge the traditional Hmong ideology regarding language behavior in cross-dialect marriages

from Journal of Sociolinguistics

Child dialect acquisition: New perspectives on parent/peer influence

Regardless of the variability and complexity in the linguistic environment around them, children begin constructing stable linguistic identities at a young age. Prior research has effectively modeled child dialect acquisition in terms of parent influence versus peer influence, and peer influence has often been shown to be the key determiner. The present study takes the next step by showing that the parent/peer group contrast in prior studies should be viewed as a special case of a more general pattern: children learn and construct dialect identity as a process of group distinction. Using data the author collected among exogamous Sui clans in rural southwest China, the present study shows how diverse cultures can lend new perspectives to the issue of parent/peer influence; Sui children’s linguistic worlds are not divided along parent/peer lines but rather along clan lines, yet a similar process of group distinction occurs.

from Journal of Sociolinguistics