Language Variation in a Blue Ridge Community

"Language Variation in a Small Blue Ridge Community"§examines the application of Social Network Theory§(SNT) to a§sociolinguistic study conducted in a small, rural§community located §in the Appalachian dialect region. This study§focuses on data from§thirteen individuals, all members of the same§close-knit social §network. The informants are residents of a small town§('Carrollton'), §located in the mountains of western North Carolina,§an area §experiencing social and economic change as the result§of tourism §and the construction of a golf resort. Grammatical§and phonological §data are presented and analyzed in terms of the§traditional §sociolinguistic variables of age and education level§as well as in §terms of the social network members' network scores.§ Though SNT §carries with it expectations regarding the uniformity§of network §members' speech and the maintenance of marked linguistic §features, the variable of network score could not be§linked §statistically to the use of many Carrollton§linguistic features. Given §this unexpected result, this work provides an§explanation of the §intra-network variation through the use of an§'identity' variable.