Linguistic stratification in socialist society :

Abstract

This study investigated the linguistic correlates of social stratification in Poznan, Poland. Although Poland has been officially socialist since the end of World War II the social structure of contemporary urban Poland is characterized by the presence of at least two social classes and a viable system of social mobility. It was hypothesized that the linguistic reflexes of social stratification in this community would be similar to those which have been described for the United States and other non-socialist industrialized countries.

Two sociolinguistic variables were analyzed: the nasal vowel (e) and the vowel (a). Both variables were shown to be sensitive to social and stylistic constraints. (e) showed increasing denasalization with increased informality; age and social class also affected denasalization, with hypercorrection occurring in the formal styles among lower status adults. The variable (a) is in the process of change, with variants ranging from {a} to { }. This fronting is most evident in the speech of young people, women, and the working class, and therefore can be described as a change from below.

This study showed that the linguistic stratification in Poznan is directly comparable to that characteristic of communities in the United States, in spite of the prevailing socialist political and economic orientation of Polish society. This suggests that similar social and linguistic processes occur in all complex societies, regardless of official ideology.