Keywords

catastrophic social events, rapid language change, linguistic shifts

Abstract

Researchers have noticed the linguistic consequences of major social events in a community. Events that cause dramatic changes in demographics or sudden exposure to a new varieties such as World War II (Bailey et al. 1996), the rapid increase of island tourism (Wolfram, Hazen & Schilling-Estes 1999), or the start of daily trips to the mainland (Schilling 2017) often lead to the rapid spread of innovative linguistic variables and the recession of traditional features (cf. Herold 1990; Johnson 2010). The effects of these “catastrophic events” are typical of external factors in language change (Labov 2001). In this paper, I show that a catastrophic event in Longview, Washington led to sudden linguistic changes.

The timber industry was booming in mid 20th century Longview, Washington and provided employment for a significant portion of the local population. But starting in the mid 1970s, many of these jobs were contracted out and the mills began to be more automated, leading to closures and lay-offs. As people were forced to find employment elsewhere, the relatively autonomous community became more integrated with the surrounding region, exposing Cowlitz County residents to new linguistic variants.

Original Publication Citation

Joseph A. Stanley. “Changes in the Timber Industry as a Catalyst for Linguistic Change.” Poster presentation at New Ways of Analyzing Variation 46. Madison, WI. November 2–5, 2017.