Phonological variation and geographical orientation among students in a West Swedish small town school

This paper presents main results from a Ph.D. thesis on sociolinguistic variation among students in an upper secondary school in Alingsås, a town of 25,000, northeast of Göteborg. Phonological variants are found to be associated with traditional local dialect, regional and supraregional standard, Göteborg vernacular, general and Göteborg youth language. Correlations with demogeographical areas generally show a pattern going from southwest to northeast (along the E20 highway and the railway from Göteborg). One area does not fit into the continuum, Sollebrunn (NW of Alingsås), where particularly female informants tend to use standard and innovations to a surprisingly high extent. Gender is the second most important social factor, but in different ways. There are major differences from one social group to another when it comes to expressing gendered identity through linguistic means.