Peter Trudgill- Norwich Study

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the well-known sociolinguist Peter Trudgill conducted a large-scale sociolinguistic investigation looking at the relationship between social class and language use. The study took place in the city of Norwich, where Trudgill himself was actually born – go figure!

Trudgill's study would come to be very well-known throughout the world of sociolinguistics, and, although his research was based on individuals from Norwich, his theory can be applied to many different communities. In this article, we'll look at what Trudgill's aims were (what did he want to find out?), as well as his methods, results, and conclusions.

Fig. 1 - Norwich is Peter Trudgill's hometown and was the relocation for his investigation.

Peter Trudgill's Norwich study of accents and dialects

Peter Trudgill is a renowned sociolinguist known for his influential study conducted in Norwich, England, in the 1970s. Being born and bred in Norwich, Peter Trudgill would have been very familiar with Norwich accents and dialects and would have been a part of various social networks there. The Norwich study focused on the investigation of language variation and social factors that influence language use. Trudgill examined the pronunciation of certain linguistic features and their correlation with social class.

One notable finding from the study was the relationship between the pronunciation of the postvocalic /r/ sound and social class. Trudgill discovered that individuals from lower social classes were more likely to use non-standard pronunciations, such as dropping the /r/ sound in words like 'car' or pronouncing it in words like 'farmer.' The Norwich study provided valuable insights into the connection between language and social identity, paving the way for further research in sociolinguistics.

In summary: Trudgill's primary aim was to investigate whether social factors impacted how the people of Norwich speak. He was primarily interested in:

• social class
• gender
• speech consciousness (whether people felt scrutinised while talking or not)

Peter Trudgill's theory of language variation

Trudgill believed that people belonging to higher social classes would use more standard language forms, and the higher the social class, the closer to prestige varieties their language would be.

Trudgill also assumed that language use would change depending on how conscious a person was of their speech. If you've ever amped up the poshness when delivering an oral presentation, you'll know exactly what Trudgill meant!

William Labov, an American linguist who pioneered variationist sociolinguistics, carried out an investigation into overt and covert prestige. Labov looked at how different social classes used language on a spectrum from non-standard English to prestigious varieties of English.

As the Norwich study took place after Labov's study, Trudgill was aware that the concept of overt and covert prestige may impact his investigation, so he needed to figure out a way to control that.

Overt and covert prestige

The idea of prestige being split into two subcategories, overt and covert, was spearheaded by Labov in his New York Department Store study (1966).¹

In this study, he spoke to sales assistants in three different department stores considered to have different levels of prestige. These stores were Saks Fifth Ave (high prestige), Macy’s (mid prestige), and S. Klein (low prestige).

Labov's study aimed to see if social class affected how people pronounced the rhotic /r/ sound in words such as 'fourth', 'car', and 'floor'. The results of the study showed that the sales assistants working in more prestigious stores pronounced the /r/ more distinctly as opposed to those working at less prestigious stores.

The fact that more overt prestige was present in the more prestigious stores demonstrates how standard forms of language are deemed as being more socially acceptable than non-standard forms.

This also links to the factor of self-consciousness in Trudgill's study, as when people from lower social classes felt more watched, their pronunciation became more standard.

Peter Trudgill's Norwich Study: methodology

Before selecting and interacting with his informants (the participants of the study), Trudgill needed to set up an index against which to measure social class based on a range of factors including:

• occupation

• education

• location/ housing type

• income

Once he had effectively collated these variables into his social class index, he then chose 60 informants randomly from the electoral register, ensuring an even spread across different areas of Norwich. The informants were then presented with a series of questions about their jobs, education level, income, etc, and Trudgill recorded the information.

Trudgill noted each instance of the linguistic variables he was observing and studied this data in conjunction with the social class index he had devised. By doing this he was able to draw correlations between different social factors (education, occupation, income, location) and the type of language used (standard or non-standard).

Linking back to the concepts of overt and covert prestige and conscious speech, Peter Trudgill created various scenarios of ranging formality and paid attention to speech to ensure his results were more balanced and reliable. Some examples of the scenarios he used included:

• Interview-style questioning.

• Getting informants to read passages of text.

• Asking informants to tell a funny anecdote.

Peter Trudgill's Norwich study: linguistic variables

Rather than trying to find patterns across all linguistic features used by the informants, Trudgill decided to pay particular attention to a few specific ones. This would have made it much easier to track the changes across different social classes and identify any potential reasons for speech differences.

Two of the key variables Trudgill looked at were:

• Subject-verb agreement with the third-person singular e.g. 'she say' compared to 'she says'.

• The pronunciation of the -ing ending of words e.g. 'walkin' compared to 'walking'.

Peter Trudgill's Norwich study: results

Trudgill divided the informants into five definitive social classes depending on the factors included in his social class index. The classes Trudgill devised were as follows:

• Middle middle class (MMC)

• Lower middle class (LMC)

• Upper working class (UWC)

• Middle working class (MWC)

• Lower working class (LWC)

Trudgill then looked at how frequently the informants used non-standard forms of the English language. He used data gathered across all of the different scenarios in which he placed the informants, to make these social class judgements.

The study's results clearly showed that people of lower social classes used significantly more non-standard forms (such as saying 'walkin' or 'eatin' instead of 'walking' and 'eating'), whereas people in higher social classes had speech much closer to prestige varieties.

Peter Trudgill was also able to determine that people adopted more standard language forms when they felt more scrutinised, for example, when being interviewed. On the other hand, they tended to use more non-standard English when simply telling funny stories.

The Norwich study also showed that men were significantly more likely to use non-standard forms of English than women, regardless of social class.

The Norwich Study - results and gender

Here's a little Peter Trudgill quote that sums up his conclusion regarding the results of his Norwich study and gender

Of course, this will not be the case in all communities or social circles, but Trudgill's general idea is that non-standard features in the English language are widely more accepted and celebrated when they're used by men than when they're used by women.

If you think back to the 40s and 50s, a woman's place was in the home, raising the children, and carrying out other so-called womanly duties. Women were expected to dress nicely and make an effort, as well as to conduct themselves in a manner deemed 'proper' by society at the time.

Although the times have certainly changed a lot since then, the results of the Norwich study still illustrate a clear divide between the sexes and a significant influence of traditional gender roles in society, particularly where occupations are concerned.

As with many sociolinguistic studies, even though Trudgill was not primarily concerned with gender, the impact of gender in society trickled down into the Norwich study and became a secondary factor after social class.

Fig. 2 - Working class speech holds gendered connotations.

Peter Trudgill Norwich study: criticism

Peter Trudgill is a very well-known and well-respected sociolinguist, and his work influenced many later sociolinguistic investigations. As valuable as the Norwich study is, like every other theory in this world, it is not without flaws.

One of the most important criticisms of the Norwich study is that it gives little credit to the informants. Trudgill doesn't seem to acknowledge that the linguistic choices made by the speakers could have been conscious ones.

More recent sociolinguistic research has placed more emphasis on how speakers purposefully use and adopt different language features to create a sense of identity and integration within their communities.

Penelope Eckert carried out a study looking at language variation across different social classes from 1989–2000 (the Belton High study, also commonly known as the Jocks and Burnouts study). Her research concluded that the speakers she monitored used language variation as a social practice.

In other words, the speakers were 'actively constructing the social meaning of variation'³, or were using language purposefully to fulfil a social function.

The English language is such a rich and varied resource for people to utilise for different societal purposes, yet Trudgill makes little mention of any potentially active selection of language features.