Religion as a Sociolinguistic Variable

Abstract

When considering variables that are rarely coded for in sociolinguistic studies, we discovered that general demographic studies [e.g., the census, Pew Research studies] have only recently realized that the question sets provided for demographic information rarely permit coding of religion, or when they do, provide only coarse-grained coding; yet recent studies in sociolinguistics and social anthropology have demonstrated that fine-grained distinctions in religious identification are necessary to account for sociolinguistic variation. This paper reviews the information from both sociolinguistic studies and demographic studies which should be considered when developing a protocol for analysis of speech variation. The paper also points out that the variation is often due to network effects from the 'community of practice', but at least some of the variation can be traced to ideological positions or choice of referee, both of which appear to inf luence language use.

Contextualizing reversal: Local dynamics of the Northern Cities Shift in a Chicago community

“…In the earliest generation, an ethnoreligious distinction (Yaeger‐Dror, 2014) among Whites appears to condition use of the NCS. The most extreme productions of Northern Cities‐shifted LOT and TRAP were produced by Irish Catholic speakers, many of whom moved in from less affluent Chicago neighbourhoods.…”

Sociolinguistics of Judeo‐Spanish

“…As Sarhon () reveals, the Judeo‐Spanish of religious scholars remains different from others. Applying Yaeger‐Dror's () framework for religion as a variable could help explore this phenomenon in greater detail.…”