Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T21:32:33.942Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Diffusion and focusing: Phonological variation and social networks In Ile-Ife, Nigeria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

L. Oladipo Salami
L. Oladipo Salami
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics, Obafemi Awolowo University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article reports on the application of the concept of social network to the process of language usage among Yoruba-speaking city dwellers in Ile-Ife, Southwestern Nigeria. The study, modeled on L. Milroy (1980), focuses mainly on phonetic/phonological variation within Common Spoken Yoruba (CmSpY). The analysis of the data gathered mainly within face-to-face interviews shows that, whereas we can claim that there is stratification within CmSpY on the basis of sociodemographic factors, the variable of social network manifests a powerful influence on variation in Yoruba language usage and potential change within CmSpY in Ile-Ife. (Linguistic variation, social networks, linguistic focusing)

Type
Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 20 , Issue 2 , June 1991 , pp. 217 - 245
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

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.)

References

REFERENCES

Adetugbo, A. (1967). The Yoruba language in Western Nigeria: Its dialect areas. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Columbia.Google Scholar
Adetugbo, A. (1973). The development of Yoruba vocalic system. In Kotey, P. F. A. & Her-Houssikian, H. (eds.), Language and linguistic problems in Africa. Columbia, SC: Hornbeam Press, 374–88.Google Scholar
Adetugbo, A.. (1982). Towards a Yoruba dialectology. In Afolayjan, A. (ed.), Yoruba language and literature. 207–24. Ife and Ibadan: University Press.Google Scholar
Ajayi, J. F. A., & Smith, R. (1964). Yoruba warfare in the nineteenth century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bamgbose, A. (1969). Yoruba. In Dunstan, E. (ed.), Twelve Nigerian languages. 163–71. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Blom, J. P., & Gumperz, J. J. (1972). Social meaning in linguistic structure: Code switching in Norway. In Gumperz, J. J. & Hymes, D. H. (eds.), Directions in sociolinguistics. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. 407–34.Google Scholar
Butler, C. (1985). Statistics in linguistics. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Cheshire, J. (1982). Variation in an English dialect. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Crowther, M. (1976). The story of Nigeria. London: Faber and Faber.Google Scholar
Edwards, V. (1986). Language in a Black community. Avon: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Gal, S. (1979). Language shift: Social determinants of linguistic change in bilingual Austria. New York: Academic.Google Scholar
Giles, H., & Smith, P. (1979). Accommodation theory: Optimal levels of convergence. In Giles, H. & Clair, R. St. (eds.), Language and social psychology. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. 45–65.Google Scholar
Greenberg, J. H. (1963). The languages of Africa. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Gumperz, J. J. (1974). Linguistic interaction in two communities. In Blount, B. G. (ed.), Language, culture and society. Cambridge, MA: Winthrop. 250–66.Google Scholar
Gumperz, J. J. (1982). Discourse strategies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hudson, R. A. (1980). Sociolinguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Jahangiri, N., & Hudson, R. A. (1982). Patterns of variation in Tehrani Persian. In Romaine, S. (ed.), Sociolinguistic variation in speech communities. London: Edward Arnold. 49–63.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1966). The social stratification of English in New York City. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1972). Sociolinguistic patterns. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1977). Language in the inner city: Studies in the Black English Vernacular. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1982). Building on empirical foundations. In Lehman, W. P. (ed.), Perspectives in historical linguistics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 17–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Le Page, R. B. (1980). Projection, focusing, and diffusion or steps towards a sociolinguistic theory. York Papers in Linguistics 9–33.Google Scholar
Le Page, R. B. (in press). The need for a multidimensional model. In Gilbert, G. (ed.), Essays in memory of John E. Reinecke. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.Google Scholar
Le Page, R. B., & Tabouret-Keller, A. (1985). Acts of identity: Creole-based approaches to language and ethnicity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Milroy, J. (1981). Regional accents of English: Belfast. Belfast: Blackstaff.Google Scholar
Milroy, J., & Milroy, L. (1978). Belfast: Change and variation in an urban vernacular. In Trudgill, P. (ed.), Sociolinguistic patterns in British English. London: Edward Arnold. 18–36.Google Scholar
Milroy, J., & Milroy, L. (1985). Authority in language. London: Routledge Kegan & Paul.Google Scholar
Milroy, L. (1980). Language and social networks. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Milroy, L. (1982). Social network and linguistic focusing. In Romaine, S. (ed.), Sociolinguistic variation in speech communities. London: Edward Arnold. 141–52.Google Scholar
Mitchell, J. C. (ed.) (1969). Social networks in urban situations. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Modaressi, Y. (1978). A sociolinguistic analysis of modern Persian. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Kansas, Lawrence.Google Scholar
Peace, A. (1979). Choice, class, and conflict: A study of southern Nigerian factory workers. Brighton: Harvester.Google Scholar
Peil, M. (1981). Cities and suburbs: Urban life in West Africa. New York: Africana.Google Scholar
Romaine, S. (1978). Postvocalic /r/ in Scottish English: Sound change in progress? In Trudgill, P. (ed.), Sociolinguistic patterns in British English. London: Edward Arnold. 144–57.Google Scholar
Romaine, S. (ed.) (1982). Sociolinguistic variation in speech communities. London: Edward Arnold.Google Scholar
Russell, J. (1981). Communicative competence in a minority group. Leiden: E. J. Brill.Google Scholar
Salami, L. O. (1986a). Social structures in Yoruba phonology: A sociolinguistic analysis of the variable use of the Yoruba shibboleth (SH) in Ile-Ife, Nigeria. University of East Anglia Papers in Linguistics 24:22–48.Google Scholar
Salami, L. O. (1986b). Prospects and problems of urban sociolinguistic survey in Africa: Notes from Ile-Ife, Nigeria. Anthropological Linguistics. 28:473–83.Google Scholar
Salami, L. O.. (1986c, September). Social variation within Spoken Yoruba in Ile-Ife, Nigeria. Paper delivered at the Linguistic Association of Great Britain Conference,University of Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Salami, L. O.. (1987). The social patterning of variation in spoken Yoruba in Ile-Ife, Nigeria. Unpublished D.Phil. Thesis, University of Sussex, England.Google Scholar
Trudgill, P. (1974). The social differentiation of English in Norwich. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar