In linguistics, change from above refers to conscious change to a language. That is, speakers are generally aware of the linguistic change and use it to sound more dominant, as a result of social pressure. It stands in contrast to
change from below
Change from Below, Democratic Union of Slovakia (sometimes translated as Change from the Bottom or Change from the Bottom Up; , ZZ, DÚ), in the years 2000—2002 Liberal Democratic Union (abbreviation LDÚ), and 2002—2010 Democratic Union of ...
.
Change from above usually enters the speech of educated people, not the
vernacular dialects. This change usually begins with speakers in higher social classes and diffuses down into the lower classes. Upper classes use these new linguistic forms to differentiate themselves from the lower classes, while lower classes use these forms to sound more educated and similar to the upper class. However, the concepts of change from above and below refer to consciousness and not social class.
Diffusion
Lexical diffusion Lexical diffusion is the hypothesis that a sound change is an abrupt change that spreads gradually across the words in a language to which it is applicable.
It contrasts with the Neogrammarian view that a sound change results from phonetically-condi ...
is a major kind of change. It includes changes of words, sounds, mergers, and reassignment of words to different categories. Recipients of diffusion pick up these changes over a lifetime. Women often lead in these kinds of variation and in change from above in general. This is also the case for change from below.
See also
* in Esperanto
finvenkism
References
Historical linguistics
Sociolinguistics
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