Language Choice and Language Change: All in a Guyanese Family

Abstract

This article explores some of the reflexes of socialisation in the language behaviour of a family of four in Guyana, South America. The data base is a set of questions posed without this study in mind by the four members of the family during interviews with their respective peers. Affective considerations and stigma are shown to be influential in language choice and language change within and across the generations represented here.