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Kim, Young-Sook. “A Historical Sociolinguistic Study on Phonological Variables in English.” Studies in English Language & Literature. 37.1 (2011): 203-23. This study aims to investigate social phonological variables in English from the perspective of diachronic linguistic changes, contrasting to the previous studies which focused mostly on synchronic linguistic variations. It is suggested that there were two kinds of linguistic changes on social phonological variables ― one is a change in sound, the other is a change in social meaning. That is, social phonological variables simply were variables in sound and did not function as a marker of social status at first but as several centuries passed, they have come to be social variables which function as a scale of social stratification. In order to support this suggestion, the periodical data in accordance with the stage of the change is analyzed. And this data is extracted from the literary texts which are regarded as real utterance at that time. In addition, the cause of linguistic changes is also explained on the basis of sociolinguistic approaches. (Ulsan University)