Contrary to Labov'sprinciple of style shifting, studies in language obsolescence portray speakers of dying languages as ‘monostylistic’, a characterization questioned here. Variationist methodology is adopted in a context of gradual language death. By combining quantitative and interactional analyses of data from older, younger, and new speakers of Francoprovençal in France and Switzerland, the article considers (a) to what extent variability in language obsolescence differs from that found in ‘healthy’ languages, and (b) how innovations might spread through communities speaking threatened languages characterized as ‘monostylistic’ and lacking overt normative infrastructure. It is argued that style variation (not monostylism) emerges from linguistic decay: among more fluent speakers, a categorical rule of /l/-palatalization before obstruents becomes underspecified, rendering palatalization available for strategic use. Among new speakers, novel palatal variants form part of an emergent sociolinguistic norm. The study offers fresh insights on the origins of sociolinguistic variation with implications for variationist theory. (Language obsolescence, language death, language variation and change, style variation, new speakers)*

中文翻译：

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严重语言危害中出现的社会语言学变异

与拉博夫相反风格转换原则, 对语言过时的研究将使用垂死语言的人描述为“单一风格的”，这一特征在这里受到质疑。在语言逐渐死亡的背景下采用了变奏方法。通过结合对法国和瑞士法语普罗旺斯语的年长、年轻和新讲者的数据进行定量和交互分析，本文考虑了 (a) 语言过时的变异性在多大程度上不同于“健康”语言中的变异性，以及 (b)创新如何通过讲受威胁语言的社区传播，这些语言被称为“单一风格”且缺乏公开的规范基础设施。有人认为，风格变化（不是单一风格）源于语言衰败：在更流利的说话者中，/l/-palatalization 的分类规则在障碍物变得未指定之前，使颚化可用于战略用途。在新的演讲者中，新的腭变体构成了新兴社会语言规范的一部分。该研究为社会语言变异的起源提供了新的见解，并对变异理论产生了影响。（语言过时、语言死亡、语言变异和变化、风格变异、新说话者）*