The Development of Regional Dialect Locality Judgments and Language Attitudes Across the Life Span

The development of language attitudes and perception of talker regional background was investigated across the life span (N = 240, age range = 4-75 years). Participants rated 12 talkers on dimensions of geographic locality, status, and solidarity. Children could classify some dialects by locality by age 6-7 years and showed adult-like patterns by age 8 years. Children showed adult-like status ratings for some dialects by age 4-5 years but were not fully adult-like until age 12 years. Solidarity ratings were more variable and did not exhibit a clear developmental trajectory, although some adult-like patterns were in place by age 6-7 years. Locality ratings were a significant but modest predictor of attitude ratings, suggesting that geographic knowledge is one contributor to language attitudes throughout development.