Estimation of regiolect speech and its speakers depending on social parameters

Abstract

The paper considers estimation of regiolect speech in accordance with metalinguistic characteristics, as well as estimation of the speakers by their speech depending on the place of residence of the speakers and the estimating experts, and on other social parameters. The study includes fragments of interviews with residents of Solikamsk and Kungur (two towns within the same region); the sample of the speakers is balanced by the factors “city of residence”, “gender”, “age”, and “education”. The respondents — residents of Solikamsk, Kungur, Perm and St Petersburg — estimated the speech according to six metalinguistic scales, and the speakers according to six social parameters. The results of the experiment showed that the boundaries of in- and outgroups are drawn differently depending on the scales used (a town vs a city or the same region vs a different region). Identification of social characteristics of the speaker by their speech demonstrates the following patterns: gender is identified accurately and predetermines the use of strong and uniform stereotypes; age is identified by the speech characteristics; education level is not significant according to our material. The connection between stereotypical representations of speech and the speaker under normal conditions is revealed. In regions or towns with a stable regional norm, speech social stereotypes based on this norm are developed. If the speech of a region or a town is a mixture of different language systems and the local norm is unstable, the formation of speech social stereotypes is complicated.