You might know when you’re supposed to say whom instead of who, but you still don’t always do it. Why is that? Often using more prestigious language can come across as pretentious. However, in some cases, it is important to use language that sounds more elite. The level of respect and status given to language varieties is called linguistic prestige. Understanding the concept of prestige in sociolinguistics provides insight into the relationship between language and society.
Prestige Definition
The word prestige is a noun that describes a high level of respect. Prestige is a type of respect that typically comes with high achievement or status.
When it comes to language, prestige is the level of regard that a variety of language is held in. For example, “The Queen’s English” is a term used to refer to a variety of English found in the United Kingdom. It is generally considered posh and proper. In some formal contexts, like British academia, using the Queen’s English can help a speaker gain prestige. However, in other contexts, such as an informal social event, the use of this variety of English can come across as pretentious. Linguists who study sociolinguistics study connections like these between language and social prestige.
Fig. 1 - People with money often have a lot of prestige.
Prestige in Sociolinguistics
In sociolinguistics, the concept of prestige concerns the degree of respect that a variety of language has. The concept largely depends on social and regional context because what is considered prestigious in one society might be considered the opposite in another society.
According to German linguist Heinz Kloss, prestige around language involves the following factors:1
English is often called the language of prestige and power because non-English speaking countries hold it in high regard and assign higher social status to English speakers.
When studying linguistic prestige, it is important to consider how the concept of social construction plays a role. Coined by sociologists Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann, the term social construction describes the way that ideas are created and then accepted by people in a society.2 For example, the idea that people with more money are more respectable and that their language is more prestigious is not an objective fact of nature. In other words, it is not a fact that one can support with scientific evidence. Rather it is an idea that people have constructed because of the social value placed on money and widely accepted.
Capital
The prestige a variety of language has in society is tied to notions of capital and identity. There are three types of capital: social, financial, and human.
Social Capital
Defined by French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, the term "social capital" refers to the social networks that create opportunities for social mobility and success.
Knowing someone who holds a high-ranking position at a company can help a person get a job at that company.
Financial Capital
Commonly discussed in economics, financial capital refers to monetary resources and investments.
Having a lot of money invested in real estate means someone has a lot of financial capital.
Human Capital
Human capital refers to the skills and abilities that human beings possess and make them productive members of society
Having technical training in computers allows people to be more productive in society than those who do not.
Identity
When people work to gain these three types of capital, they are seeking prestige. They can use language in their quest for capital, but their language use is always reflective of or constructive to their identity. For example, a person from New York would use a different tone and vocabulary to describe certain objects and phenomena than a person from Texas. The way people use language differently in that context is reflective of their regional identity.
The identity category that a person exists in, and the language they use because of it, impact the way they gain and lose capital. For instance, recall the earlier example of the Queen’s English. In a formal context like an academic conference, a college student could use the Queen’s English to gain social and cultural capital. That language makes the student come across as knowledgeable and respectable and can thus help them make connections. As a result, they might also secure financial capital.
Linguistic Prestige and Ethnicity
Building social capital through linguistic variety is also tied to people’s ethnic and racial identities. For example, Black people can often gain social prestige by using their variety of English in their own communities, but not when they use Black English in certain white communities. When people alter their language in order to gain capital in their context, they are code-switching.
In order to tell when to code switch or what type of language to use in a given social context, people engage in self-monitoring. Self-monitoring is the process of regulating language, and it can help people gain prestige.
Linguistic Prestige and Age
Different types of language are held in different levels of regard depending on the speaker’s age. For instance, young people often back front vowels, like the /u/ in "duuuude!" to gain social capital at school and sound cool. On the other hand, an elderly person would not feel the need to use that variety of language to earn social capital and friends.
The above example is an example of generational friction, which describes different attitudes and values across generations.
Overt and Covert Linguistic Prestige
In 1966 American linguist William Labov studied linguistic variation in New York City. The findings from this study led him to distinguish between two types of prestige: cover prestige and overt prestige.
In his study on New York City, Labov found that demographic categories such as age, gender, identity, and social class have a profound influence on people’s use of language. For instance, in New York City, their variation of the pronunciation of the letter “r” has high prestige. Labov found that those with higher social class use letters with prestige like this more than those from lower social classes.3
Overt Linguistic Prestige
Overt linguistic prestige is the prestige widely assigned to language. For instance, in everyday conversation, people often use the word “who?” to ask what person someone is referring to. However, to seem more prestigious, one might ask “whom?” since the word “whom” is widely accepted to be considered more scholarly and therefore prestigious. This is a nuanced understanding that is widely accepted by all English speakers. It is therefore overt-open and clear to everyone. In other words, overt prestige is the prestige assigned to forms of language that are widely considered "correct."
Covert Linguistic Prestige
The word “covert” is an adjective that describes something that is not outwardly acknowledged. Something that is overt is therefore the opposite of something that is overt-openly available and on display. Covert prestige is therefore when a positive value is assigned to a variety of language that is within a specific group. This typically occurs within small social groups and not widely across society. For instance, a Black English accent has more social prestige in some communities than a different English accent.
Jocks and Burnouts
Other theorists challenged this idea, however, such as Penelope Eckert, who argued that social practice has more of an impact on language than demographic categories. In her 1989 study “Jocks and Burnouts,” she found vowel variations occurred between high school students belonging to different social groups (one group was embedded in school life—jocks,and the other was anti-school—burnouts). This challenged Labov's theory because Eckert's emphasis is more on what communities of social practice people participate in rather than what their demographic characteristics are.4
The Value of Linguistic Prestige
Understanding linguistic prestige can help provide insight into the complex social dynamics of a community. The social value of a variety of language is a reflection of the culture's values and how those values impact the way that people view, judge, and interact with one another.
Gaining linguistic prestige is the opposite of being stigmatized for using a language variety. When one uses a variety of language without prestige in a specific context, they are at risk of being stigmatized in their community or viewed as inferior because of what is deemed “inappropriate” or “incorrect” language use. For instance, if a teenager fronts a back vowel like /u/ in a professional setting, they may be looked down upon by people who are older and do not hold such language in high regard.
Labov also studied this concept and explained that when people change their language to adapt to social situations and avoid stigma they are demonstrating linguistic insecurity-sensitivity to stigmatized features of the language. For example, in his 1966 study, middle-class New Yorkers who used stigmatized pronunciations of certain words would work to pronounce them the same way upper-class New Yorkers do in formal circumstances. This change demonstrates their linguistic insecurity. However, sometimes people change their use of language to enhance their communication with a particulate group of people. When one does this, they are demonstrating linguistic awareness.
Labov also found that prestige is on a continuum from casual to formal. Casualness and formality impact the way that people self-monitor in order to avoid social stigma and gain prestige.
Prestige and Language Planning
A key topic within sociolinguistics is language planning.
Language planning: the process of trying to influence the structure or function of language.
Language planning often occurs in response to macro-level sociopolitical problems and tensions. For instance, if a community who uses a less common language variety is struggling to access rights under a new political regime, language planning might be ordered to increase linguistic equality. However, sometimes language planning occurs on a more micro-level within small communities. The are four types of language planning:
Corpus language planning (regarding the structure of a language)
Status language planning (regarding the social status of a language)
Education language planning (regarding how a language is learned)
Prestige language planning (regarding how a language is perceived in its social context)
It can be easy to confuse a language’s social status with its level of prestige. Social status is the social position a language holds with respect to other languages. Prestige is the social image the language has and how it is perceived by those in its social context.
Fig. 3. - A famous example of language planning occurred in Turkey under Ataturk.
Prestige is closely related to status, so status language planning often precedes prestige language planning. Prestige language planning involves consideration of social reception in the design and implementation of status-planning activities. For example, changing the national language of a country is an example of a status-planning activity. When planning for this change, those responsible would have to consider how the change will be received by the public and how to enhance the image and viewpoints surrounding the language in society.
American linguist Joshua Fishman is known for pointing out the ambiguity of the term prestige. He warns that because the term has so many connotations in different contexts, it can be relatively ineffective in the domain of language planning.5
An example of language planning is evident in the history of Turkey. In 1924, the ruler of Turkey, Ataturk, decided to change the letters of the Turkish alphabet from Arabic to Roman in an effort to increase nationalism and literacy rates. His language planning is often criticized for failing to reduce long-existing ethnic tensions between Turks and the Kurds. His failure demonstrates the need for evaluating ethnic conflicts in the process of prestige language planning.
Prestige - Key takeaways
- In sociolinguistics, the concept of prestige concerns the degree of respect that a variety of language has.
- Prestige is relative and highly dependent on the context in which a language variety is used.
- Overt prestige is the prestige assigned to forms of language that are widely considered "correct."
- Covert prestige is when a positive value is assigned to a variety of language that is within a specific group.
- Language planning is the process of trying to influence the structure or function of language.
1 Heinz Kloss, “Types of Multilingual Communities: A Discussion of Ten Variables.” Sociological Inquiry. 1966.
2 Thomas L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann. The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. 1966.
3 Penelope Eckert, Jocks and Burnouts: Social Categories and Identity in High School. 1989.
4 William Labov, “The Social Stratification of English in New York City,” 1966.
5 Joshua Fishman. “Language Maintenance and Language Shift as a Field of Inquiry. A Definition of the Field and Suggestions for its Further Development." Linguistics. 1964.
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