An Account of Variation on CV Epenthesis in Thai Words through the Lens of Sociolinguistics

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to investigate the free variation of CV epenthesis through the lens of sociolinguistics in Thai words focused on the occurrence of its variants according to three variables: (i) age, (ii) the speaker’s education background, and (iii) style. The data was collected from 135 native Thai speakers, aged from 20 to over 60 years, with a range of educational backgrounds including undergraduate, Bachelor’s degree, and upper-level Bachelor’s degree. Two styles were selected for this study: (i) conversation representing the informal style and (ii) word lists representing the formal style. The data were analyzed using a one-way ANOVA and a Chi-square Test (χ2-test). The results revealed that age in terms of style showed that younger people (20-30 years) preferred CV deletion over CV epenthesis, whereas the oldest group (40-50 and over 60 years) preferred CV epenthesis to CV deletion. Regarding, educational background, the results suggest that a higher percentage of speakers at the undergraduate level preferred CV deletion while a higher percentage of speakers at the Bachelor’s degree and upper Bachelor’s degree level preferred to use CV epenthesis. The results also showed that style had an impact on the variation. With informal style, a greater proportion of speakers preferred to use CV deletion; however, when the context required a formal style, it was elicited by prompting the speakers to use variation more carefully. Thus, this research shows that the speakers prefer to use CV epenthesis when using a formal style.