The sandhi phenomenon known as liaison in French bears a strong social connotation, that is to say when its realisation is facultative, it is a marker of a high social class.
Are there facultative phenomenons that bears no social connotation?
2 Answers
Yes, I believe there is a very strong connection in many languages, possibly the strongest of all things connected with upper-class speech ("old money", not merely the rich). It is just that facultative phenomena (see what I did there), which I will define as two things between which your choice hardly changes meaning, contain much space for variation, and class markers thrive on variation. Consider the following:
Synonyms:
English:
- U: loo, etc.
- Non-U: toilet
Dutch:
- U: plee, wc, < silence >, etc.
- Non-U: toilet
Pronunciation of foreign words:
Dutch:
- U: restaur/ɑ̃/ (hope I'm getting the a right, and that it is displayed right)
Non-U: restaur/ɑnt/
U: engage/ɑnt/ (sic)
- Non-U/odd: *engage/ɑ̃/
It should also be noted that less articulate speech usually distinguishes upper-class speech from middle-class speech; in RP, I believe, the word formidable more or less becomes fo- < drawl > in quick speech.
Facultative phenomena can simply bear geographical information, I would say that this is mostly where the social connotations come from in the first place.
/mɛosi/or/mɛzosi/depending on the social class of the speaker and the formality of the interaction./t/.