the linguist would make observations. For example, the researcher might
point to statistics to establish that the substitution of variant x for variant y
is being propelled by adolescent males (or resisted by women of child-
bearing age, etc.). The weakness of this approach is the way the focus on
statistics has come to preclude study of less quantifiable aspects of language
use. Thus a statement like this change in progress is being led by middle-
aged women says nothing about the kinds of behavior and ideologies that
underlie these patterns, what kinds of meaning people attach to the
conservative and innovative variant, who does and does not fit the pattern
and why (ibid.: 455).
Such a methodology would require a long period of observation to
pinpoint those social categories which are truly relevant to the community
in question, rather than simply trying to force the data into preconceived
rubrics for class, ethnicity, race, etc. Eckert and Wenger point out that it is
not social groups per se that are relevant to understanding distributions, but
the “stances, activities and qualities” associated with those groups (2005:
584).
Variable postvocalic (r) is very complex and not quite what it seems on
the surface: it’s not that all well-educated or socially ambitious people in
New York (or Boston, etc.) simply give in to rhoticity; there is an ebb and
flow in way (r) is evaluated, adopted or rejected.
The Northern Cities Chain Shift (NCCS)
The Northern Cities Chain Shift (NCCS) involves the phonological system –
specifically six vowels – which are shifting in a kind of domino effect in a
large part of the Midwest (Gordon 2001).
Figure 2.6 is an abstraction of the shape of the human mouth which
indicates the point of articulation for individual vowels. Any vowel can be
described by its place of articulation (although a close transcription requires
additional features be identified). To the right of the International Phonetic
Alphabet’s vowels are examples of each sound as it is realized in my own
variety of English.