An examination of language variation in a small Blue Ridge community

Social Network Theory (SNT) began as a tool used by sociologists to measure and describe an individual's involvement in his or her community. Used in sociolinguistics by Lesley and James Milroy, SNT has been applied to speech communities to offer explanations of language maintenance and language change. The theory, as outlined in L. Milroy's book, Language and Social Networks , is employed in the analysis of data collected in an insular, working-class community in Belfast, Ireland. "An Examination of Language Variation in a Small Blue Ridge Community" examines the application of 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 (referred to by the pseudonym 'Carrollton') located in the mountains of western North Carolina, an area that is 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 that name a speaker as a network member, the variable of network score could not be linked statistically to the use of many Carrollton linguistic features. Given this unexpected result, this paper provides and explanation of the inter-network variation through the use of identity theory.;The social identity of the Carrollton network members is discussed in terms of resistance to change and adaption to change. The network members align themselves with resistance or adaptation and these two interpretations of social identity are reflected in individual language use. Those speakers who align themselves with tradition and resistance to change are shown to use a greater number of vernacular features. Though no one social variable can explain the sum total of linguistic variation represented in the Carrollton interviews, the combination of all the social variables discussed and the addition of an identity factor provides a glimpse of the powerful social forces that tie language to a community and to its speakers.