Book Title: Multidisciplinary Research in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
Chief Editors: Dr. Jagdish Kumar Sahu, and Dr. Byram Anand
Associate Editors: Dr. J. Jayamani, and Albeen Josebh Ahmed
Co-Editors: Dr. Sunakshi Verma, and Mr. Pankaj Bharat Devre
ISBN: 978-93-7183-018-8
Chapter: 3
DOI: https://doi.org/10.59646/781/3
Author: Dr BSS Bhagvan
Abstract
Phonological variation is an integral part of sociolinguistics which shows the effects of social and geographical conditions on language utilization. This research paper explores a correlation between the phonological variation and social identity by comparing the phonological variation of urban and rural English speakers. The study examines the pronunciation patterns, regional accent differences, and social factors affecting pronunciation which include education, age and community. The research design used was mixed method, involving both quantitative and qualitative data, which were collected by using structured linguistic survey and phonological assessment as quantitative data and interview and speech recordings as qualitative data. The results show significant differences between the pronunciation of the urban and rural speakers. The speech patterns of the urban participants are closer to the standard English patterns, with more contact with education, media and other social contacts, while the speech patterns of the rural participants have more regional phonological characteristics, which are related to their cultural identity and local traditions. The urban speakers are more likely to adopt pronunciation characteristics of linguistic prestige and professional communication while the rural speakers show more tendency to retain traditional dialectal characteristics. The paper also considers implications of these findings in relation to the sociolinguistic studies, language education and preservation of the dialects and states that it is important to consider linguistic diversity in contrast to dialectal differences as a language barrier. The present comparative study joins the many other recent studies in the field of language variation and social identity, and to the extent that it reflects the dynamics of pronunciation and geography in relation to society over time, it offers empirical evidence to help inform the debate.
Keywords: Phonological variation, Social identity, Sociolinguistics, Urban English, Rural English, Accent variation, Regional dialects, Language variation, English pronunciation, Speech communities