Worldwide, the number of individuals aged sixty-five and older is greater than ever, and is projected to grow even more in the foreseeable future. This extraordinary demographic change has engaged researchers of all stripes, such that we now know more about the varied effects of aging than at any time before. Despite this flurry of activity, however, one fundamental area has been neglected: language. Are speech capabilities affected by the inevitable physical and cognitive declines that tend to materialize in later life? The Apparent Time Hypothesis would say no, while the widespread use of Elderspeak suggests otherwise. But empirical evidence involving the actual spontaneous production of older adults is thin on the ground.

In this talk, Shana Poplack describes work in progress on Speaking While Aging, the multilevel project being carried out at the uOttawa Sociolinguistics Lab to fill this gap. Drawing on decades of research on the everyday speech of local francophones and anglophones, and focusing on language change and stability, our team applies variationist methodology and the lessons learned from the study of younger generations to hundreds of hours and millions of words of spontaneous speech of 135 individuals aged 65-104. Poplack reviews what we’re discovering about the phonetic, syntactic and discourse strategies that effectively characterize Golden Age.