A Sociolinguistic Investigation of Social Stratification and Linguistic Variation among the Kashmiri Speech Community

Abstract

Abstract-This paper is restricted to the investigation of linguistic variation among the Kashmiri speakers at the level of phonology and lexicon of their language in accordance with certain social variables, viz-a-viz. religion, education, region / socioeconomic status, age and occupation. In the present paper, an effort has been devoted to examine as to how the structure of the Kashmiri language varies at the level of phonology and lexicon, in accordance with above mentioned social variables. It also takes into account the possible reasons behind this variation. The present paper explores as to how the social heterogeneity of the Kashmiri speech community is reflected in the linguistic behavior of its speakers, and gives rise to variations in the use of their language at the level of phonology and lexicon. The paper begins with giving a brief introduction about language variation, social variables, and linguistic variables. It also discusses the historical perspective of language variation, and throws light on the related literature by discussing some important studies of variation carried out by different scholars of linguistics from time to time. In this study an attempt has been made to picturize the social structure of the Kashmiri speech community in terms of its social stratification/ and social heterogeneity. The paper also discusses the research methodology adopted in carrying out this study.

The Use of Loanwords in Emirati Arabic According to Speakers’ Gender, Educational Level, and Age

“…As noted by Koka (2014), the speech of the literate and illiterate people exhibits remarkable variations in terms of the lexical items they use and the pronunciation of many words. In his study on phonological and lexical variation among the Kashmiri speakers, taking into account certain social variables such as religion, education, region/socioeconomic status, age and occupation, he found that literate people tend to use Standard-Kashmiri.…”

“…On the other hand, illiterate people use the non-standard Kashmiri because they do not have much contact with speakers of standard Kashmiri. Moreover, Koka (2014) states that the literate group tends to remain up to date with the latest advances in modern inventions. Hence, they borrow many lexical items from other languages like English.…”

Loanwords in the Urban Meccan Hijazi Dialect: An Analysis of Lexical Variation according to Speakers’ Sex, Age and Education

“…Thus, they are more likely to stay in contact with the speakers of standard Kashmiri. Conversely, Koka (2014Koka ( , p. 1076 observed that the illiterate group use the non-standard variety of Kashmiri in their daily conversation. Additionally, it has been noted that the speech of the literate and illiterate groups exhibit remarkable variations in terms of the lexical items they use (Koka, 2014(Koka, , p. 1081.…”

“…Conversely, Koka (2014Koka ( , p. 1076 observed that the illiterate group use the non-standard variety of Kashmiri in their daily conversation. Additionally, it has been noted that the speech of the literate and illiterate groups exhibit remarkable variations in terms of the lexical items they use (Koka, 2014(Koka, , p. 1081. Similar to the age group A1 whose ages ranged between 15-50 years, the speech of the literate group is characterised by scientific, modern and technical terminologies as opposed to that of the illiterate group.…”

“…Phonological and lexical variations among the Kashmiri speakers were investigated by Koka (2014Koka ( , p. 1071 in terms of particular social variables, namely, education, religion, age, region/socioeconomic status and occupation. The results revealed that the participants who were classified as literate pronounce many words quite differently from those classified as illiterate.…”