Hostname: page-component-89b8bd64d-x2lbr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-05-08T02:46:49.813Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Dialect Acquisition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 March 2026

J. K. Chambers
J. K. Chambers*
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
*
Department of Linguistics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada M5S 1A1
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Immigrants from one dialect region to another acquire features of the new dialect with varying degrees of proficiency. In modern societies regional mobility is commonplace, and for modern dialectology, involved as it is with variability, mechanisms of change, and adaptation, it is a rich source of hypotheses. This article postulates eight general principles by which immigrants adapt dialectologically to their new surroundings, based mainly on results of a developmental study of six Canadian youngsters in two families who moved to southern England in 1983 and 1984, with supporting evidence from several other studies. The principles provide a set of empirically testable hypotheses about the determinants of dialect acquisition.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 68 , Issue 4 , December 1992 , pp. 673 - 705
Copyright
Copyright © 1992 by Linguistic Society of America

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

*

This article is the result of a long association with the Department of Linguistic Science at the University of Reading, with the research for it occupying many hours of two different sabbatical years and an intervening summer. I am very grateful to the heads, Frank Palmer and his successor David Wilkins, for countless professional and personal courtesies, and to all the departmental staff. The research on Canadian youngsters in England was partly supported by grants from the Humanities and Social Sciences Research Council of Canada, and the University of Toronto. Some of the results were presented in seminars at Reading University, Stockholm University, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Debrecen University, and Queen’s University of Belfast. Numerous people made helpful comments, especially Ellen Cowie-Douglas, Paul Fletcher, Mike Garman, Arthur Hughes, John Kirk, Paul Kerswill, Miklos Kontra, Caroline Mac Afee, Gunnel Melchers, Jim Milroy, Lesley Milroy, Bengt Nordberg, Tope Omoniyi, Andrea Remenyi, and Mats Thelander. (Also see n. 1.)

References

Bailey, Charles-James N. 1973. Variation and linguistic theory. Arlington, VA: Center for Applied Linguistics.Google Scholar
Bickerton, Derek. 1975. Dynamics of a creole system. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Blom, Jan-Petter, and Gumperz, John J. 1972. Social meaning in linguistic structure: Code-switching in Norway. Directions in sociolinguistics: The ethnography of communication, ed. by Gumperz, John J. and Hymes, Dell, 407–34. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.Google Scholar
Campbell, Lyle. 1974. Quichean palatalized velars. International Journal of American Linguistics 40. 132–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cavalli-Sforza, L. L., and Wang, William S-Y. 1986. Spatial distance and lexical replacement. Lg. 62.38–55.Google Scholar
Chambers, J. K. 1984. Group and individual participation in a sound change in progress. Papers from the Fifth International Conference on Methods in Dialectology, ed. by Warkentyne, Henry J., 119–36. Victoria, BC: University of Victoria Department of Linguistics.Google Scholar
Chambers, J. K. 1988. Acquisition of phonological variants. Methods in dialectology, ed. by Thomas, Alan R., 650–65. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Chambers, J. K. 1989. Canadian Raising: Fronting, blocking, etc. American Speech 64. 75–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chambers, J. K. 1990. Acquisition of lexical and pronunciation variants. Presented at the International Congress of Dialectologists, Bamberg, Germany. [To appear in the Proceedings volume, ed. by Wolfgang Viereck.]Google Scholar
Chambers, J. K., and Trudgill, Peter. 1980. Dialectology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Chen, Matthew, and Wang, William S-Y. 1975. Sound change: Actuation and implementation. Lg. 51.255–81.Google Scholar
Darwin, Charles. 1871. The descent of man. Modern Library edn. New York, NY: Random House.Google Scholar
David, Shanta, and Montgomery, Michael. 1988. The acquisition of American English as a second dialect. Paper presented at the American Dialect Society annual meeting, New Orleans.Google Scholar
Davis, Alva L., and McDavid, Raven I. Jr., 1950. Northwestern Ohio: A transition area. Lg. 26.186–89.Google Scholar
Ellis, Stanley. 1953. Fieldwork for a dialect atlas of England. Transactions of the Yorkshire Dialect Society liii.9-21.Google Scholar
Ferguson, Charles A. 1972. Short a in Philadelphia English. Studies in linguistics in honor of George L. Trager, ed. by Smith, Estellie M., 259–74. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Giles, Howard, and Smith, Philip. 1979. Accommodation theory: Optimal levels of convergence. Language and social psychology, ed. by Giles, Howard and Clair, Robert St., 45–65. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Goebl, Hans. 1982. Dialektometrie: Prinzipien und Methoden des Einsatzes der Numerischen Taxonomie im Bereich der Dialektgeographie. Wien: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.Google Scholar
Hughes, Arthur, and Trudgill, Peter. 1987. English accents and dialects. 2nd edn. London: Edward Arnold.Google Scholar
Kerswill, Paul Edward. 1985. A sociolinguistic study of rural immigrants in Bergen, Norway. Cambridge: University of Cambridge dissertation.Google Scholar
Kirk, John M., Munroe, George; and Damian O’Kane, M. J. 1992. Electronic word maps. Research in humanities computing, ed. by Hockey, Susan and Ide, Nancy. London: Oxford University Press, to appear.Google Scholar
Krashen, Stephen, Long, Michael H.; and Scarcella, Robin C. 1979. Age, rate, and eventual attainment in second language acquisition. TESOL Quarterly 13. 573–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kretzschmar, William A. Jr., ; Schneider, Edgar; and Johnson, Ellen (eds.) 1989. Computer methods in dialectology. Journal of English Linguistics 22, special edn.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kroch, Anthony, and Small, Cathy. 1978. Grammatical ideology and its effect on speech. Linguistic variation: Models and methods, ed. by Sankoff, David, 45–69. New York, NY: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Kurath, Hans. 1972. Studies in area linguistics. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Labov, William. 1972. Sociolinguistic patterns. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Labov, William. 1979. Locating the frontier between social and psychological factors in linguistic variation. Individual differences in language ability and language behavior, ed. by Fillmore, Charles, Kempler, Daniel, and Wang, William S-Y., 327–40. New York, NY: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Long, Michael H. 1990. Maturational constraints on language development. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 12. 251–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milroy, Lesley. 1987. Observing and analysing natural language: A critical account of sociolinguistic method. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Odlin, Terence. 1989. Language transfer: Cross-linguistic influence in language learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ogura, Mieko. 1990. Dynamic dialectology: A study of language in time and space. Tokyo: Kenkyusha.Google Scholar
Payne, Arvilla C. 1975. The re-organization of linguistic rules: A preliminary report. Pennsylvania Working Papers on Linguistic Change and Variation I-6. Philadelphia: U.S. Regional Survey.Google Scholar
Payne, Arvilla C. 1980. Factors controlling the acquisition of the Philadelphia dialect by out-of-state children. Locating language in time and space, ed. by Labov, William, 143–78. New York, NY: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Phillips, Betty S. 1984. Word frequency and the actuation of sound change. Lg. 60.320–42.Google Scholar
Reed, David, and Spicer, John L. 1952. Correlation methods of comparing dialects in a transition area. Lg. 28.348–59.Google Scholar
Sibata, Takesi. 1958. Conditions controlling standardization. Excerpt from Nihoñ no hōgēn [The dialects of Japan]. Tokyo: Iwanami Shotēn. Translated by Motoei Sa- waki, 1990, ms.Google Scholar
Taeldeman, Johan. 1989. A typology of dialect transitions in Flanders. New methods in dialectology, ed. by Schouten, M. E. H. and Reenen, Pieter van, 155–63. Dordrecht: Foris.Google Scholar
Terrell, Tracy D. 1976. Some theoretical considerations on the merger of the low vowel phonemes in American English. Berkeley Linguistics Society 2. 350–59.Google Scholar
Thelander, Mats. 1982. A qualitative approach to the quantitative data of speech variation. Sociolinguistic variation in speech communities, ed. by Romaine, Suzanne, 65–83. London: Edward Arnold.Google Scholar
Thelander, Mats. 1983. Från blåknut till brakknut: Om provinsiella drag i flyttares språk. Uppsala: Nysvenska Studier.Google Scholar
Thomason, Sarah Grey, and Kaufman, Terrence. 1988. Language contact, creolization, and genetic linguistics. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trudgill, Peter. 1981. Linguistic accommodation: Sociolinguistic observations on a sociopsychological theory. Parasession on Language and Behavior, Chicago Linguistic Society 17. 218–37.Google Scholar
Trudgill, Peter. 1986. Dialects in contact. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Trudgill, Peter, and Chambers, J. K. 1991. Dialects of English: Studies in grammatical variation. London & New York: Longman.Google Scholar
Chambers, J. K., and Foxcroft, Tina. 1978. On the sociolinguistics of vocalic mergers: Transfer and approximation in East Anglia. Sociolinguistic patterns in British English, ed. by Trudgill, Peter, 69–79. London: Edward Arnold.Google Scholar
Vousten, Rob, and Bongaerts, Theo. 1990. Acquiring a dialect as L2: The case of the dialect of Venray in the Dutch province of Limburg. Presented at the International Congress of Dialectologists, Bamberg, Germany. [To appear in the Proceedings volume, ed. by Wolfgang Viereck.]Google Scholar
Walker, Douglas C. 1975. Another Edmonton idiolect: Comments on an article by Professor Avis. Canadian English: Origins and structures, ed. by Chambers, J. K., 129–32. Toronto: Methuen.Google Scholar
Wang, William S-Y., and Cheng, Chin-Chuan. 1970. Implementation of phonological change: The Shûang-fêng Chinese case. Chicago Linguistic Society 6. 552–57.Google Scholar
Wells, J. C. 1970. Local accents in England and Wales. Journal of Linguistics 6.23152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wells, J. C. 1973. Jamaican pronunciation in London. (Publications of the Philological Society, 25.) Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Wells, J. C. 1982. The accents of English: An introduction. Vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Zachrisson, R. E. 1913. Pronunciation of English vowels 1400-1700. Göteborg: Wald. Zachrissons Boktryckeri A.-B.Google Scholar