Historical Sociolinguistics

The aim of historical sociolinguistics is to explore the links between language and society in a historical context. It is a broad field, and utilizes many different methods and approaches to account for the data available in different linguistic varieties and historical periods. Common research themes are:

1. How did language vary in the past? Who used different variants, and when?

2. What social meaning did these variants have for members of the speech community?

3. What can historical sociolinguistic evidence tell us about mechanisms of language change?

This article outlines some of the key theoretical and methodological concerns of historical sociolinguistics, and demonstrates how different types of historical sociolinguistic enquiry have been carried out.