Sociolinguistic Patterns

Abstract IT has been known for some time that differences in language are tied to social class. In the 1950s, for example, it was suggested that certain lexical and phonological differences in English could be classified as U (upper class) or non-U (lower class), e.g. serviette (non-U) v. table-napkin (U), to take what was then one of the best known of all linguistic class-indicators of England. Notable pairs are have one’s bath (U) v. take a bath (non-U), writing paper v. note paper (non-U), pudding (U) v. sweet (non-U), or what would be called ‘dessert’ in the USA. Previously, most studies of variability were concerned with regional variation or dialectology.