Re: THEORY: Sound changes in literate societies

I'm not sure that the middle class is a "vast majority" when the term is used
in the sense in which sociolinguists use it.  If you give people the choice
of "Lower, Middle or Upper," hardly anyone will admit to being "lower class"
and middle class may well be the vast majority, but the usual sociolinguistic
distinction is "Working Class" vs. "Middle Class," and a lot of people would
identify as working class (though I don't know how much this
self-identification counts for when sociolinguists classify people).

Doug

In a message dated 6/25/2002 4:51:55 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
trwier@UCHICAGO.EDU writes:


> I have to wonder: since the Middle Class in most western countries
> makes up the vast majority of the population (in the US, more than
> 80%), how can we distinguish something caused by the "middle class"
> and something that just happens randomly throughout the population,
>