social correlates of linguistic variation in sheshatshiu

Social Correlates of Linguistic Variation

In Sheshatshiu Montagnais

SANDRA CLARKE

Memorial University of Newfoundland

For the past several years, the Montagnais community of Sheshat

shiu, located near Goose Bay in Labrador, has been the subject of

a fairly intensive sociolinguistic and ethnographic investigation. The

purpose of the sociolinguistic component of this study, the ethno

graphic aspects of which have been reported on elsewhere (Mailhot

1985), is to describe the extensive language variability which exists

within the settlement, and to attempt to establish its social corre

lates. Since the community of Sheshatshiu was permanently estab

lished only in the late 1950s, having served prior to that as a sum

mer gathering ground for the several nomadic Montagnais territorial

hunting groups who were to settle the community, an important fac

tor in clarifying intracommunity linguistic differences would appear

to be the various territorial group or band affiliations of its residents.

As Figure 1 demonstrates, these group affiliations are, from a fairly

broad geographical perspective, three in number:

1) a northern or Mushuau affiliation, with links to the Naskapi speakers who

were to settle in Davis Inlet and Fort Chimo

2) a more westerly or Uashau affiliation, with links to the Montagnais of Sept-

Isles and Schefferville1

1Thta grouping includes the classification termed "Sheshatshiu" in earlier studies, which was used to designate those subjects having a longer affiliation

with the community of Sheshatshiu.

65

66 SANDRA CLARKE

3) a southerly or Maskuanu affiliation, with links to the Montagnais of such Quebec Lower North Shore communities as St. Augustin, Mingan, Natash-

quan and La Romaine.

An important concern of the Sheshatshiu sociolinguistic variabil

ity project is to determine the extent to which there has emerged

linguistic homogeneity among younger speakers in a community char

acterized by the diverse regional backgrounds of its oldest generation.

In other words, to what degree has there developed, over the past 25

or so years, a distinct Sheshatshiu dialect of Montagnais, a dialect

which has resolved the problem of competing variants raised by the

marked divergences among its input or source dialects?

The answers to these questions, of course, should provide some

indication as to the extent to which territorial group affiliations have

continued to exert their force on the social structure of the commu

nity; these links appear to be particularly strong among the older

generations, whose social networks seem to be based almost exclu

sively on kinship ties. Some insight should also be obtained as to any

potential social hierarchy which, within the Sheshatshiu community,

characterizes speakers with different territorial group links.

It is of course to be expected that other social variables may play

a major role in clarifying linguistic differences that are presently ob

servable within the community. Age of subjects is an important con

sideration, since age correlates highly with such factors as amount of

education, exposure to English, and general acculturation. Thus the

older present-day community residents would have little if any formal

education, little knowledge of English, and a largely bush orientation.

This would contrast markedly with the community-centered lifestyle

of younger Sheshatshiu residents, all of w h o m have undergone some

amount of schooling in English.

Various sociolinguistic studies, which of course have dealt almost

exclusively with urban settings, have underlined the importance of

yet another social variable: sex of subjects. In such investigations,

the linguistic usage of males and females has proven to follow certain

fairly well-defined patterns, most notably that of a greater sensitivity

to prestige speech features on the part of females. It would be of

considerable interest to discover whether, in a social setting which is

very different from that which forms the focus of most sociolinguistic

investigation, the linguistic behaviour of men and women reflects this dominant pattern.

LINGUISTIC VARIATION 67

Certain preliminary results from the Sheshatshiu sociolinguis-

tics project have already been reported (e.g., Clarke and MacKenzie

1984). While these have exclusively involved formal speech style,

as elicited by means of a word list, they nevertheless suggest the

following hypotheses:

1) there is evidence in Sheshatshiu Montagnais to indicate development towards a more homogeneous dialect among younger speakers; nevertheless, this dialect does not clearly approximate any one of the competing territorial group dialects spoken by the oldest segments of the community.

2) subject sex is not as important a social variable as are age and territorial group affiliation in clarifying present-day intracommunity linguistic differences in Sheshatshiu Montagnais.

In investigating these hypotheses, this paper will focus on the

ways in which Sheshatshiu Montagnais appears to be dealing with

the problems raised by the not inconsiderable variation resulting from

the regional or territorial separation of its input dialects. Such varia

tion has been investigated, though minimally, in some of the sociolin

guistic literature. Trudgill (1984) reports on several investigations of

speech communities characterized by extensive dialect mixing as a

result of settlement by people of divergent regional backgrounds. He

notes that by the third generation, much of the linguistic variation

that results may be reduced. Yet the ensuing simplification is not

accomplished merely by means of dialect levelling; as an alternative

solution, competing variants, i.e., those that have different regional

origins, may be allocated new functional specifications. Given the

considerable territorial group differences displayed by the oldest in

habitants of the community, Sheshatshiu Montagnais offers an ideal

location to test the generalizability of Trudgill's observations.

Data for the present investigation are derived from the free speech

portion of the Sheshatshiu study. That is, the paper will present

a first analysis of the main body of linguistic data collected by

the project, namely relatively casual speech style as elicited in an

interviewer-interviewee type of situation. It must be stressed that,

owing to the immense amount of data collected, the results to be

presented are to be regarded as preliminary. The complete study

involves a sample of 87 subjects, representing both male and female

speakers of various age levels, from the three territorial groups pre

viously mentioned. This paper, however, will examine only a 19-

68 SANDRA CLARKE

subject sample; as represented in Table 1, this mini-sample consists

of three family groups each of which displays a different territorial

group affiliation, as well as a three-generational structure. The pre

liminary nature of the presentation will also be seen in the reliance

on frequency of usage ratios, rather than on full-fledged statistical

analysis, since such analysis was felt to be inappropriate for the small

sample size to be dealt with here.

Although the Sheshatshiu study has examined some 20 phonolog

ical variables, the present paper can deal only with a subset of these,

and so will concentrate primarily on consonant features; specifically,

on the variant pronunciations associated in present-day Sheshatshiu

speech with the Montagnais clusters /§c/, /s/ or /§/ plus stop con

sonant, and with the pre-aspirated sequences /ht/ and / h£/.

The Variable /§£/

The phonological variable represented as /§£/ derives from any

one of the Proto-Algonquian sequences */xk/, */tk/ and */§k/, which

in Cree/Montagnais fell together as /sk/ or /§k/ (for details, see

Cowan 1977); ensuingly, there occurred in Montagnais dialects a

palatalization to /§£/ before front vowels. [§c] is in fact the normal

reflex or variant to be found in present-day Mushuau or northern

areas of the Quebec-Labrador peninsula, while the [s] or [ss] vari

ant is associated principally with Uashau speakers now settled in the

communities of Sept-Isles and Schefferville.

Table 2 represents the ratio of usage of the [s(s)] or Uashau-like

variant for each of the subjects in the mini-sample.2 As can be seen

from the Table, the Uashau-like [s(s)] variant is clearly on the in

crease, the youngest age group or third generation displaying, no

matter what their territorial group background, almost universal us

age of this variant, to the exclusion of other realizations. Territorial

group dialect differences are obvious among the grandparents' gener

ation, however, since, as expected, Uashau subjects of this age group

display a higher degree of [s(s)] usage than do subjects representing

the other two groups. What is interesting is that the obvious trend

in favour of a uniform Uashau-like realization, as revealed by the

In each case, the decimal is to be interpreted as the percentage ratio of the actual usage of a given realization or variant to the total usage of the variable in all its possible realizations.


mini-sample, seems to be led by female subjects. As many urban

sociolinguistic studies have shown females to be in the vanguard of

change, particularly change in the direction of a prestige feature, this

variable already provides the suggestion that a similar tendency may

also be found in this tiny, rural Algonquian community.

Pre-aspirated Stop Clusters

The /§£/ variable has revealed a trend towards adoption by young

er speakers of a single variant from among the competing variant pos

sibilities offered to them by the characteristic dialects of the oldest

residents of the community. The second of the consonantal variables

to be examined offers a slightly different picture. This is the She

shatshiu treatment of Cree/Montagnais pre-aspirated clusters. In

the Quebec-Labrador peninsula, the Mushuau or northern dialects

typically show the greatest retention rate of the aspirated first ele

ment of such clusters; in Lower North Shore or Maskuanu dialects,

pre-aspiration is usually maintained only in word-final position; and

in Sept-Isles/Schefferville Uashau dialects, the aspirate element of

the cluster is typically deleted, the result being a simple stop conso

nant (see, for example, MacKenzie 1980:67-69). All three of these

patterns are found to varying degrees in Sheshatshiu Montagnais.

In this paper, discussion will be limited to the pre-aspirated se

quence /ht/; this is because /he/ presents a fairly complicated soci

olinguistic profile in which linguistic conditioning plays a consider

able role, whereas the remaining sequences — /hp/, /hk/, and /hkw/

— display few pre-aspirated tokens. Table 3 presents frequencies of

occurrence of the pre-aspirated pronunciation of the /ht/ sequence

among the 19-subject mini-sample. As in the case of /§£/, the con

siderable territorial group differences which exist among the grand

parents', and to a lesser extent the parents', generation are largely

resolved among the youngest group of speakers in the mini-sample.

The obvious development is toward loss of aspiration; once again,

this trend is led by the females, since with the exception of the old

est generation of Mushuau subjects, pre-aspiration is an exclusively

male feature among members of the mini-sample.

It is not to be assumed, however, that the trend towards reten

tion of a single of the variant possibilities offered by the divergent

territorial group backgrounds of the oldest members of the commu-

70 SANDRA CLARKE

nity represents the sole resolution of the competing variant problem

in present-day Sheshatshiu Montagnais. To illustrate this, let us

examine yet another possible realization of originally pre-aspirated

sequences, namely, a fricative variant. Fricative realizations are es

pecially common in the dialects of those with Mushuau or northern

backgrounds, and are also found, though to a lesser degree, in the

speech of those with Maskuanu or Lower North Shore affiliations (cf.

MacKenzie 1980:69-69).

Table 4 represents a fricative pronunciation of the /he/ sequence,

which, to judge from the usage of the 19-subject sample, is the pre-

aspirated sequence most subject to the fricativization rule in present-

day Sheshatshiu Montagnais, particularly when it occurs in word-

final position. As Table 4 demonstrates, the highest rate of frica

tive usage for this variable is associated with subjects of Mushuau

background representing the two older age groups of the generational

mini-sample. Such usage is, however, by no means exclusively indica

tive of a Mushuau affiliation, since it is found, although to a lesser

degree, among parents and grandparents of the other two territorial

groups. What is interesting is that, while fricativization appears to

be on the decline among the younger generation of Mushuau speak

ers as they move towards a degree of usage more characteristic of

other territorial groups in the community, the fricative realization

does not appear to be declining to any appreciable degree within the

other two groups. In actual fact, the fricative variant appears some

what more closely associated with male rather than female speech;

indeed, among the Uashau family of the mini-sample, it is clearly a

male marker.

If eventual analysis of the full 87-subject sample reveals this trend

to be significant, it will confirm an alternate resolution of the com

peting variant dilemma: certain of the possible linguistic realizations

offered by the dialect mixing situation to be found in the Sheshatshiu

speech community may come to take on a social significance which

they did not previously possess. In other words, the usage of the

mini-sample suggests that a feature which among older age groups

serves as a territorial group marker may be currently undergoing

reinterpretation as a marker of male speech.


/s/ or /§/ plus Consonant

To this point our examination of consonant variables would sug

gest that at least two solutions to the problem of competing variants

are to be found in present-day Sheshatshiu Montagnais: on the one

hand the trend towards maximal simplification or levelling though

the elimination of all but one variant; on the other, a tendency to

wards retention of two or more variants, with ensuing specialization

of social function for each. Whether or not these trends prove to

be significant, they are by no means the only ones to be observed

among the Sheshatshiu mini-sample. Examination of a third conso

nantal variable — /s/ or /§/ plus stop — reveals neither of these

two trends to be in evidence. Here, territorial group affiliation seems

to retain its significance for subjects of all generations, to a greater

extent than it did in the case of the variables previously examined.

In other words, we are dealing here with a more conservative linguis

tic variable, the competing variants of which do not appear to have

undergone any appreciable amount of levelling or reinterpretation

among younger generations of speakers.

In most dialects of Montagnais, the distinction between pre-

consonantal /s/ and /§/ has been levelled. In the northern or Mushuau

area of the Quebec-Labrador peninsula, the usual outcome of the

neutralization process is [s], while it is [§] in the Maskuanu dialects

spoken on the Quebec Lower North Shore. As in the case of the

variables previously examined, both of these variants are to be found

among the oldest residents of the community of Sheshatshiu, depend

ing on territorial group affiliation.

Tables 5 and 6 summarize usage of the [s] variant, among the

mini-sample, with respect to the consonant clusters /st/ ~ /§t/ and

/sk/ ~ /Sk/, respectively. Since no clear male/female usage pattern

is discernible within the 19-subject mini-sample, these Tables simply

represent mean usage over both sexes for each of the three territorial

groups under investigation. Table 5 clearly indicates that, over all

three generations, Mushuau subjects are the greatest users of the [s]

variant with respect to the /st/ ~ /§t/ cluster, while the means of

Table 6 reveal that Maskuanu subjects use an [s] pronunciation for

the /sk/ ~ /§k/ cluster much less frequently than do the other two

territorial groups. In other words, the variable under investigation

appears to be the first for which no apparent resolution has been

72 SANDRA CLARKE

found for the competing variant problem: thus favoured realizations

among all three generations clearly continue to indicate subjects'

territorial group affiliation.

The brief survey of the distributional patterns in our 19-subject

mini-sample that are associated with three different consonant vari

ables reveals that not all linguistic variables may be expected to be af

fected, at the same rate, by the levelling tendencies which are clearly

operant with respect to competing variants in present-day Sheshat

shiu Montagnais. One final pattern should be examined, however,

since it differs from all three of those previously investigated. For in

this case, the solution to the competing variant problem appears, on

the basis of the usage of our 19-subject mini-sample, to be the alloca

tion of specialized linguistic functions to variant pronunciations that

previously characterized membership in particular territorial groups.

Word-initial /a/ and /*/

The variables which illustrate such a development are two word-

initial short vowels: /a/ and /i/. A survey of the regional dialects of

the Quebec-Labrador peninsula reveals markedly different variants

in the case of these two variables. In the Uashau dialect spoken at

Sept-Isles and Schefferville, the tendency in the case of both of these

vowels is towards procope or deletion, so that words like /aku:p/

'coat' and /iskwew/ 'woman' would both tend to be pronounced as

monosyllabic through deletion of the initial vowel. In the Maskuanu

or Lower North Shore dialects, however, both of these vowels when

used word-initially tend to undergo a lonsing rule, resulting in [a]-

like and [i]-like variants. Among older Sheshatshiu speakers of differ

ent territorial group backgrounds, then, both tendencies are present.

Table 7 appears to confirm that the trend towards deletion is most

prevalent among the older Uashau-affiliated subjects of the commu

nity; thus the deletion rate of the Uashau grandparents and parents

surpasses that of their non-Uashau counterparts. Similarly, Table 8

confirms that initial short-vowel tensing is considerably more charac

teristic of the Maskuanu-afiliated subjects, among the parents' and

particularly the grandparents' generation.

Yet Tables 7 and 8 also indicate that the younger generations of

the community appear to be developing a highly interesting solution

to the competing variant problem. Table 7 reveals that, in the case of


initial /a/, the youngest generation has opted in favour of the deleted

variant, regardless of territorial group affiliation. Likewise, Table

8 indicates a considerable increase, among non-Maskuanu-affiliated

younger speakers, of the tensed [i] variant. In other words, the com

peting variant conflict appears in this case to be undergoing resolu

tion through the development of a differentiation in linguistic func

tion for the two principal territorial group variants. Were the pro-

cope or deletion rule to come to apply in the case of both word-initial

vowels, a word-initial vocalic contrast would be lost. The solution

has been a tendency to restrict the originally Uashau deletion rule

to words in initial short /a/, and to apply the originally Maskuanu

tensing rule to words in initial short /if. The two rules, then, have de

veloped a specialized linguistic function which was clearly not present in the input dialects.

Conclusion

The above examination of fewer than half a dozen phonologi

cal variables in the casual speech style of 19 Sheshatshiu residents

suggests that the problem of competing territorial group variants is

being dealt with in a number of interesting ways. These range from

the elimination of all but one variant to retention of two or more; the

latter trend may be accompanied by innovative tendencies, through

the association of particular linguistic variants with specialized social

or even linguistic functions.

What, however, do these observations have to offer concerning

the two hypotheses advanced earlier in this paper? With respect

to the second — namely the relative importance of the subject vari

able of sex by comparison to the social variables of age and territorial

group affiliation — it is clear from analysis of the casual speech of the

19-subject mini-sample that subject sex may play at least as impor

tant a role in the Sheshatshiu speech community as it does in larger

urban areas. As to the first hypothesis, to the effect that linguistic

change in Sheshatshiu Montagnais is not clearly progressing in the di

rection of any single one of the input dialects, there is some evidence

from the data examined in this paper that the more homogeneous

dialect developing among younger speakers is being more influenced

by a Uashau-like speech model than by any other of the regional

source dialects. This is particularly evident in the increased use of

74 SANDRA CLARKE

an [s(s)] variant for the /3c/ variable, and in the loss of aspiration

in pre-aspirated clusters. What is especially interesting, however, is

that in these two instances the Uashau-like variant also happens to

represent the least phonetically complex of the competing variants,

in the sense that it is the variant most subject to regular rules of

phonetic conditioning: an assimilation rule in the case of the /§£/

variable, and a consonant cluster simplification rule in the case of

pre-aspirated clusters.

For the moment, it is impossible to conclude which of the two

possible explanations just outlined is the correct one; that is, it is

unclear whether the Uashau speech variety represents a type of pres

tige model within the community of Sheshatshiu, or whether the

favoured variants have in these two cases emerged merely as the re

sult of regular rules of phonetic conditioning. Even though in both

cases female subjects are in the lead with respect to the adoption of

the phonetically conditioned variant, this observation is of little help

in selecting one or the other of the two possible explanations. As a

result of various urban sociolinguistic investigations, it is by now a

commonplace observation that females are typically more advanced

with respect to the adoption of prestige linguistic features. Never

theless, it has also been noted (e.g., Milroy 1985) that females may

in certain urban contexts be in the vanguard with respect to linguis

tic change that results in phonetic simplification. It is to be hoped

that analysis of the full 87-subject sample will more clearly indicate

which of these two competing explanations is the more likely one in

the case of the speech community of Sheshatshiu.3

REFERENCES

Clarke, Sandra, and Marguerite MacKenzie

1984 Language Change in Sheshatshiu Montagnais. Pp. 225-240 in Pa

pers of the Fifteenth Algonquian Conference. William Cowan, ed. Ottawa: Carleton University.

3The research reported on in this paper was made possible by a team research

grant from the Institute for Social and Economic Research of Memorial University.

The principal researchers are, in addition to the author, Marguerite MacKenzie, Jose Mailhot and Adrian Tanner.


Cowan, William

1977 *xk/ek proto-algonquien dans le Montagnais du 17e siecle. Pp. 143-150 in Actes du Huitieme congres des Algonqumistes. William Cowan, ed. Ottawa: Carleton University.

MacKenzie, Marguerite

1980 Towards a Dialectology of Cree-Montagnais-Naskapi. Ph.D. thesis, University of Toronto.

Mailhot, Jose

1985 La mobilite territoriale chez les Montagnais-Naskapis du Labrador. Recherches amerindiennes au Quebec 15:3-11.

Milroy, James

1985 The Methodology of Urban Language Studies: The Example of Belfast. Paper presented at the First Symposium on Hiberno-English, Trinity College, Dublin.

Trudgill, Peter

1984 Contact and Mixture in Colonial English dialects. Paper presented at the NWave XIII Conference. University of Pennsylvania, Philadel

phia.

76 SANDRA CLARKE

FIGURE 1

GENERATION

1 (Grandparents)

2 (Parents = son + spouse)

3 (Children)

TERRITORIAL GROUP

MUSHUAU

M

1 (69)

1 (44)

2 (21, 15)

F

1 (55)

(stepmother)

(deceased)

2 (24, 18)

UASHAU

M

1 (72)

1 (38)

1 (17)

F

1 (65)

1 (42)

1 (19)

MASKUANU

M

1 (76)

1 (52)

2 (31, 16)

F

(deceased)

1 (49)

1 (26)

TABLE 1. 19-subject 3-family mini-sample

(M - Male, 7 - Female. Age of each subject is provided within brackets)

(Mushuau -- having affiliations with the Kaskapi speakers of Davis Inlet/Schefferville)

(Uasiau. — having affiliations with Sept-Isles/Schefferville speakers)

(Maskuanu — having affiliations with Quebec Lower North Shore speakers)


GENERATION

1 (Grandparents)

2 (Parents • son + spouse)

3 (Children)

TERRITORIAL GROUP

MUSHUAU

M

.63

1.00

.91

F

.89

-

1.00

UASHAU

M

.83

.93

.95

F

.89

1.00

1.00

MASKUANU

M

.68

.73

.86

F

.85

.93

TABLE 2. [s] or [ss]-like realizations of the /sc/ cluster (Number of tokens per cell ranges from 9 to 48)

GENERATION

1 (Grandparents)


3 (Children)

TERRITORIAL GROUP

MUSHUAU

M

.40

.00

.00

F

.27

-

.00

UASHAU

M

.17

.04

.00

F

.00

.00

.00

MASKUANU

M

.00

.19

.00

F

.00

.00

TABLE 3. Pre-aspirated [ht] realization of the sequence /ht/ (Number of tokens per cell ranges from 10 to 58)

78 SANDRA CLARKE

GENERATION

1 (Grandparents)


3 (Children)

TERRITORIAL GROUP

MUSHUAU

M

.32

.25

.10

F

.13

-

.10

UASHAU

M

.06

.05

.08

F

.00

.00

.00

MASKUANU

M

.00

.06

.06

F

.19

.06

TABLE 4. Fricative realizations of the pre-aspirated sequence /hc7

(Number of tokens per cell ranges from 16 to 53)

GENERATION

1 (Grandparents)


3 (Children)

Overall

TERRITORIAL GROUP

MUSHUAU UASHAU

.83

1.00

.86

.87

.55

.84

.60

.66

1

MASKUANU

.55

.66

.71

.66

TABLE 5. [st] realizations of the /{B}t/ variable (Number of tokens per cell ranges from 8 to 58)

LINGUISTIC VARIATION

GENERATION

1 (Grandparents)


3 (Children)

Overall

MUSHUAU

.48

.78

.56

.54

TERRITORIAL GROUP

UASHAU

.43

.52

.78

.54

MASKUANU

.19

.23

.39

.29

TABLE 6. [sk] realizations of the / V k / variable (Number of tokens per cell ranges from 9 to 59)

GENERATION

1 (Grandparents)


3 (Children)

TERRITORIAL GROUP

MUSHUAU

M

.25

.57

.85

F

.36

-

.91

UASHAU

M

.45

.78

.90

F

1.00

.83

1.00

MASKUANU

M

.36

.74

.89

F

.56

.83

TABLE 7. Deletion of word-initial short /a/

(Number of tokens per cell ranges from 4 to 22)

80 SANDRA CLARKE

GENERATION

1 (Grandparents)


3 (Children)

TERRITORIAL GROUP

MUSHUAU

M

.08

.80

.44

F

.04

-

.50

UASHAU

M

.00

.20

.50

F

.23

.40

.82

MASKUANU

M

.74

.90

.55

F

.50

1.00

TABLE 8. Tensing of word-initial short /i/ (Number of tokens per cell ranges from 1 to 26)

social correlates of linguistic variation in sheshatshiu

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