THE ROLE OF LANGUAGE VARIATION IN THE AI ERA OF TECHNOLOGY

Abstract

The differences in language variation in pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, and discourse style, register, and conventions in writing between social groups, regions, and communicative contexts have always been the focus of the meaning production and meaning interpretation. With the advent of the AI, though, the variation of language has ceased to be an object of sociolinguistic description and become a significant factor in the access of technology, the operation of the system, and social equity. This paper will analyze the interaction of the contemporary AI systems with linguistic diversity, (i) the effect of variation on the performance and fairness of the speech and language technologies, (ii) how the data and modeling practices of the AI industry is restructuring the language norms, (iii) how users modify their own linguistic behaviors in response to AI interfaces and (iv) what governance, evaluation, and design strategies can reshape language technologies to the sociolinguistic realities of plural societies. Based on the sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, computational linguistics, and science and technology studies, the paper will assert that language variability is not marginal noise, but rather is a constituent feature of language that AI systems need to represent explicitly. It suggests that participation-aware AI could be provided in the form of a framework, with a focus on collaborative data, dialect-conscious evaluation, sociotechnical audit and disclosure of normative assumptions. It is concluded in the paper that linguistic diversity may be sidelined by AI through the pressure to standardization and uneven error rates, or it may be advocated by deliberate design and policy. In both instances, language change will continue to be one of the strategic locations where technological authority interacts with social identity, and the interests of AI governance materialize in the daily speech.