Language Variation and Change A case study of Kohima Village

Abstract

This is a variationists study of Angami speech community of Kohima Village. The study focuses on language variation and change in progress across generations in the village. Kohima Village presents the importance of inter-clan marriages as an important factor in leading the linguistic change among the youngest speakers. The present study is an extension of my earlier study on language variation in Kohima village (Suokhrie 2015). The study suggested that a clan is a major factor in understanding language variation in Kohima village. The present study intends to build upon the findings of the earlier preliminary study and take it forward by systematically testing the role of clan in language variation, dialectal contact caused by a number of factors, particularly exogamy; the implications of the dialectal contact on the phonetic orientation of learner in the speech community and the social embedding of language change.