Prestige. Hardly a new concept. Though I suppose tying prestige to the mere *fact* of difference, rather than to specific varieties, is a bit of a switch. If that's really what's happening.

I read a recent collection of essays on the causes of language change (dialect formation in New Zealand, the great vowel shift, and so on), and noticed a couple of different writers making casual reference to a maintenance of distinguishing traits for "ideological" (or at least not-purely-utilitarian) reasons.

It's one I can recognize from personal experience, having had it pointed out. Although the cornpone aspects of my dialect get re-inforced by phone calls with my family, they've been maintained largely by a need to "admit who I am."

Perhaps similarly, several essays indicated that when a small group of outsiders comes into contact with a larger group (via trade or migrant labor), it's the larger group's language which tends to be modified.

Interesting. What's the title of the book? I'll have to take a look at it.

Yeah, when I was in college people told me I sounded like an Okie when I was on the phone to my aunt and uncle. The details of language use are endlessly fascinating.

The book is _Motives for Language Change_, ed. Raymond Hickey.

I'm going to keep an eye out for more studies of oppositional linguistics. I mentioned the case of "self-image" or "self-definition," which might be part of what was observed among New Guinean married women. Some other possible examples from personal observation:

- The "exoticization" perks gained by maintenance of an English, Scottish, or Irish accent in American cities.

- The "populist" perks gained by emphasis of a southern accent in American politics.

- The "race traitor" or "class traitor" pressures brought to bear on African-Americans, on Irish-born residents of England, and on lower-class Britons who have improved their economic status.

I had a TA whose voice instantly became extremely Canadian when she was talking to another TA out in the hall. All of us students were amazed.