The Role of Chronological, Biological and Social Ageing in Speech Production

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Background: One of the most robust findings in linguistics and speech science is the effect of age onspeech production. Physiological and cognitive effects of ageing are evidenced by changes inprocessing speed (Cerella 1985), inhibitory control (Hasher & Zacks 1988) and slower articulatorymovements (Wohlert & Smith 1998). At the same time, sociolinguistic research has longdemonstrated that most age-related differences in pronunciation are more likely to be social thanphysiological in nature (Labov 1972). While speech production and sociolinguistic research bothexamine different aspects of age, they remain fundamentally premised upon chronological age: thenumber of years since birth. However, it is known that speakers of the same chronological age mayhave different 'biological ages', undergoing physical decline at different rates (Dawson 2020). Inaddition to this, an individual's 'social age', such as the age of their social network and the kinds ofactivities and behaviours in which they are engaged, is also a better predictor of sociolinguisticvariation (Eckert 2000). Consequently, the true relationship between speech and different kinds ofageing remains poorly understood and depends on how well chronological age captures theunderlying dimension of interest in any particular study.