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Contents

Language and Social Class...........................................................................................................................2

Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
What is language.....................................................................................................................................2
What is social Class..................................................................................................................................2
Sociolect..................................................................................................................................................3
kinds of Socialect.................................................................................................................................3
Language and Social class........................................................................................................................4
Social Class..................................................................................................................................................4
Education.................................................................................................................................................4
Age..........................................................................................................................................................4
Gender.....................................................................................................................................................5
Profession................................................................................................................................................5
Economic.................................................................................................................................................5
Upper Class..........................................................................................................................................5
Middle Class.........................................................................................................................................6
Lower Class..........................................................................................................................................6
Language Difference due to Economic........................................................................................................6
Vocabulary...............................................................................................................................................6
Pronunciation..........................................................................................................................................7
Grammar.................................................................................................................................................8
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................9
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Language and Social Class

Introduction

What is language

The way by which people communicate with one another, build relationships, and create a sense

of community. Systematically, a system of communication which consists of a set of sounds

and written symbols which are used by the people of a particular country or region for talking or

writing.

What is social Class

Social Class refers to divisions in society based on economic and social status. People in

the same social class typically share a similar level of wealth, educational achievement, type of

job and income.

Social class based on Education, age, gender, profession, economic.

Mostly social class refers as economic class which also divided in to 3 categories upper,

middle , lower while in Europe to divided in to 5 classes as working, peasants, underclass

 Upper class (the wealthy, employers, and industrialists, plus top

executives)

 Middle clas Middle class (which includes most white-collar workers and

professionals)

 Working-class (those in blue-collar or manual jobs)

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 Peasants (people engaged in traditional types of agricultural production)

 Underclass, which is composed of ethnic majority and underprivileged

minorities. Members of the underclass have worse working conditions

and living standards than the majority of the population

Sociolect

a variety of a language that is used by a particular social group , a sociolect is a form of

language or a set of lexical items used by a socioeconomic class, a profession, an age group or

other social group

kinds of Socialect

Arcolect

The high standard language which also called high prestige language

Bacilect

The low standard language which also called low prestige language

Vulgar

That have feature of a language that used by less educated and even un-educated people

Slang

Nonstandard words that are used by a certain group

colloquial

The daily conversation that we speak not write

Language and Social class

Language of every group is differ from other depending on many factors like age, gender, economic,

profession, educated by variation of pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary

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Social Class

As social class is the class which divided our society into many groups. These groups have different

language also. This socio class decided that what type of language that we should use.

Education

Language decided by education. The more we have education the enhanced language we have. The

language of educated people are formal, appropriate, less grammatical mistakes, talk like book while

uneducated people language are more casual, ungrammatical, infrequent wording We can simply

compare a car mechanic and professor we can obviously see a huge difference in their language

Age

Age is also a factor that decided the language. The smaller age we have low level of language and its

fined with growing age. The language of a 18 year boy is more enhanced than a language of 7 year kid

Gender

Language of men and women are different from each other. We study this phenomenon in Gender

and Sex field of linguistic. Language of women is Rapport (show support, build community,

relationship) Supportive (listen and respond to spoken and unspoken conversational clues about

other people’s feelings.), Tentative (create an impression of less authority and less self-

assuredness), Conversational initiation ( ask questions to get the conversation going). While

language of Men is Report talk (focus less on feelings and more on information, facts,

knowledge and competence). Instrumental (report to get things done, solve problems), Advice
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( when dealing with personal problems they try to offer a solution while empathizing to show

solidarity does not seem helpful or appropriate),Dominance ( always try to dominate others)

Profession

Language differ by professions. Different professions have different language. Their daily talks influenced

with the vocabulary of their profession like doctors used their medical terms in daily life etc

Economic

The main focus of social class is economic. Grouping people Economically, affects the language different

with them the three main classes are

Upper Class

Upper class language is refined, enhanced, less grammatical, spelling, pronunciation mistakes. Because

they got education from superior institutes and their gathering are also with people of upper class so

speaking and listening high standard language daily, they got refined language.

Middle Class

Middle class language is normal not too much high and not much low. They can speak good language

but with some grammatically, spelling and vocabulary mistakes. Their gathering with people of upper

and lower both classes so these 2 groups influenced their language as average language

Lower Class

Lower class contains 3 more classes Working class, peasants, and underclass. They also far from

education or they got only basic education till matric or FA, FSc The language of lower class is some far

fair but not perfect and good as upper and middle class. They have many mistakes regarding grammar,

pronunciation and spellings. Their exposure is not too much so their language is limited and they are

also unable to understand many terms of language

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Language Difference due to Economic

Vocabulary

Vocabulary refers to the words we must understand to communicate effectively. Educators often

consider four types of vocabulary: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

Different social classes use different words. Such as:

Upper class Speaker Non-Upper class speaker

House Home

Spectacles Glasses

Sitting Room Lounge

Lavatory Toilet

Sofa Seat

Pronunciation

It Is the way in which a word or a language is spoken or the, way we articulate the words .

In different social classes there is different pronunciation. Here is example of England

1) Words that initiate with h

Two types of pronunciation for h such as ‘house’ [h} / Ø

The rate of h omission on start increases as we go in lower class

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Comparison between social class and the rate of ‘h’ omission

Social Class Rate of h omission

1 17

2 21

3 43

4 64

5 96

2) r that behind the vowel

Two types of pronunciation for r such as ‘car’ or ‘card’ [r] / Ø

People of higher class have the tendency to omit the r sound behind vowel

The realization of [r] in words

Social class Reading

1 0

2 28

3 44

4 49

3) Suffix ‘ing’

Two types of pronunciation in ‘-ing’ in words such as ‘swimming’ and ‘sleeping’ – [in]

or [iŋ]

Higher social classes use more [in] compared to [iŋ]

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Use of pronunciation [iŋ] for suffix ‘-ing’

Social class Norwich West Yorkshire

1 31 5

2 41 34

3 91 61

4 1oo 83

Grammar

The study of the classes, their inflections and their functions and relations in the sentence.

It’s seem that people of high class have good grammar compare to people of lower class. In English

speaking communities it was found that children from lower families used more vernacular verb form

than upper and middle class families.

For Example

Form Higher class Lower class

Present tense He walks to college everyday He walk to college everyday

Past tense I finished that book yesterday I finish that book yesterday

Negative form Nobody wants any chips Nobody don't want no chips.\

Conclusion

From all the above discussion we can conclude that social class affects the language. Difference

in social classes led to difference in language by many aspects such as vocabulary, grammar,

pronunciation.