Place attachment and linguistic variation: A quantitative analysis of language and local attachment in a rural village and an urban social housing area

Abstract

AbstractThis article presents the results of a quantitative analysis of language variation and place attachment in two different places in Denmark—a rural, mono-ethnic village where traditional dialect is still used in everyday practices, and a multiethnic suburban social housing district where speakers use features associated with regional dialect and multiethnic youth styles. It is argued that variationist sociolinguistics, dialect research, as well as sociolinguistics that foregrounds situated interaction analysis need to develop methodologies that include and combine information about speakers’ individual mobility histories, local practices, and future orientations in relation to language use and place. For this purpose, this study employs a quantified measure, an index of local attachment, of speakers’ attachment to their local area. The index is calculated on the basis of insights from ethnographic fieldwork and interviews, and is compared to the variation of three linguistic variables in each location. Results show differences between the two places, the rural and the urban communities, as well as between individuals that can be explained by differences in place affordances, life histories, and future orientation. (Place, local attachment, mobility, dialect, multiethnic speech style, quantitative analysis)*