Recent Diachronic Change in Affiliative Vocatives in British English

This study investigates recent diachronic change in affiliative address in spoken British English by comparing data from the demographic components of the BNC1994 and BNC2014. Using a systematically coded dataset of over 6000 vocative tokens, we analyze forms that signal solidarity and social closeness (including dude , bro , girl , dear , love , and others) across gender, age, social class, and relationship type. Mixed‐effects logistic regression modeling reveals a significant increase in masculine‐derived familiarizers (such as bro and mate ) and a concurrent decline in traditional endearments (such as dear and love ). Younger speakers lead the shift toward newer familiarizers that show cross‐gender uptake, while women overall continue to favor endearments. These findings suggest a functional reorganization of affiliative address in contemporary British English, reflecting broader societal trends toward informality and the redefinition of interpersonal warmth in everyday interaction.