Dialects in the United States: Past, Present, and Future

1. Dialects in the United States: Past, Present, and Future Wolfram & Schilling-Estes Chapter 4

2. Key Ideas • Formation of dialects involves a complex array of historical, social, and linguistic factors • Dialects are not static, discrete entities • Dialects simultaneously reflect the past, present, and future • Boundaries persist • Dialects mark the regional and cultural cartography as well as any other cultural artifact or practice • Dialects will continue to have an emblematic role in American life

3. Schneider’s 5 Stages (2003) • Foundation Stage • Typified by colonization; not homogeneous • Exonormative Stage • Foreign dominance; expatriate norms • Nativization Stage • Differentiation of new language variety from homeland • Endonormative Stabilization Stage • Adopts own new language norms • Differentiation • Internal diversification

4. 4.1 The First English(es) in America • Early Modern English had its own dialectal variation • Standardization not until mid-18th century • Different areas of the US were settled by speakers of different British English dialects

5. 4.1 The First English(es) in America • Jamestown, 1607 (Tidewater Virginia): • From the southeast of England (London area) • r-less after vowels (and before consonants in words like cart and work)—except for communities like Ocracoke that were settled by people from the southwest of England [NB: English was largely r-pronouncing “r-ful” at this time, and an authentic pronunciation of Shakespeare would sound more like current American English than current RP.]

6. 4.1 The First English(es) in America (cont.) • Characteristics of settlers’ English retained in US English (but changed in RP): • Phonological: The vowel in path, dance, can’t as /æ/ [changed in RP to /ɑ/] • Semantic: mad as ‘angry;’ fall for ‘autumn’ • Syntactic: • “I haven’t gotten the mail yet.” [Brit: haven’t got] • “I don’t think I left the keys in the car, but I might have.” [Brit: but I might have done]

7. 4.1 The First English(es) in America (cont.) • Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1620 (Eastern New England): settlers from southeastern England (r-less) in contrast with • Western New England: r-pronouncing: • (1) settled by r-ful speakers • (2) dialect contact and language contact (in New York and Penna. with Dutch and Germans) • (3) relative lack of contact with London

8. Place Names • Often reflect original Native American inhabitants: • Merrimac • Massachusetts • Tappahannock • Massaponex

9. 4.1 The First English(es) in America (cont.) • Philadelphia, 1680: • William Penn and the Quakers from northern England (r-ful) • Welsh • Germans: “Pennsylvania Dutch” [from “Deutsch”] • Scots-Irish (1724, peak in 1772-3, at time of Revolution 14% of population): strongly r-ful (descendents of Scots who emigrated to Northern Ireland at the beginning of the 17th century for economic and political reasons) Spread into Mid-Atlantic states and the highlands of the American South (brought “you all”)

10. 4.1 The First English(es) in America (cont.) • Highland South: “yeoman farming culture” of the Scots-Irish • Lowland South: plantation culture (as in lower Virginia area: Richmond) • Influence of Charleston, SC (1670): heterogeneous European, r-less, connection with West Indies • Africans through the slave trade from West Africa (pidgin, creole to AAVE/Anglicist hypothesis)

11. A Note on New Orleans: • 1717: The French founded the city • 1765: Acadians were deported from Canada and arrived in New Orleans [Cajuns] • Plantation culture: slave trade • Mid 1700’s: city briefly held by British and Spanish • 1803: New Orleans was acquired by the US under the Louisiana Purchase

12. 4.2 Earlier American English: The Colonial Period • New England Dialect Area centered in Boston: Eastern and Western New England • New York: Upstate and Metropolitan • Midland: fanning out from Philadelphia (includes “Upper South”?) • Highland (Upper) South: (Western Virginia, North Carolina, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Northern Arkansas, Western Oklahoma) • Lowland South: Atlantic South (Tidewater and Charleston) and Delta South (distinctive New Orleans region)

13. 4.2 Earlier American English: The Colonial Period (cont.) • Influences from other languages (German, French, West African languages, Native American languages) • Contacts among speakers of different varieties of British English • Important links of eastern cities (Boston, NY, Richmond, Charleston) to London as British RP developed (r-less) • 1735: complaints about American usages (“American English” appears in 1782): • Jefferson: coining new words • Franklin: advocating spelling reform • Noah Webster: dictionary, new spellings • New England and the South partners in linguistic conservatism

14. 4.3 American English Extended • The northern US is largely a region of New England expansion • Inland North (entire North minus New England) • Upper Midwest –influence of immigrants (1860 census shows 30% born outside of US: Minnesota, Wisconsin, northern Michigan; highest percentage in US) • Midland expansion by settlers from Upper South, Mid-Atlantic states, and New England/NY dialect area: fanning out in the West • Hoosier Apex of Southern speech • Southern: (Old Southwest) Alabama as separate subdialectal area • AL settled later than other areas • Settlers from both Lower and Upper Southern dialect regions

15. 4.3 American English Extended • 19th century immigration largely to North • Irish via New York in 1830s and 1840s • Germans in 1840s and 1860s • Italians between 1865 and 1920 • Eastern and Central European Jews between 1880 and 1910 • Scandinavians in 1870s

16. 4.4 The Westward Expansion of English • California Gold Rush of 1849 • Western areas: • Northwest: Washington, most of Oregon, Western Idaho (Portland as distinctive) • Southwest (influence of Spanish in lexicon) • Southern California • 20th century migration from dustbowl—”Grapes of Wrath” • Currently developing UPTALK • Texas (1836) • Southern Texas still largely Spanish-speaking • New Mexico is officially bilingual

17. 4.5 The Present and Future State of American English Example of change: • Pronunciation of R in NYC: originally r-ful, then r-lessness spread from Eastern New England and was fully established in mid 1800’s, then began to recede after WWII

18. 4.5 The Present and Future State of American English (cont.) • Changing patterns of immigration and language contact • Shifting patterns of population movement • SWAMPING versus FOCUSING (p. 128) • Changing cultural centers • Rural versus urban • Markers of regional speech transformed into social class, ethnicity, or urban-rural distinctions • Increasing interregional accessibility • DIALECT ENDANGERMENT

19. 4.5 The Present and Future State of American English (cont.) • Labov’s findings from telephone surveys: TELSUR (p. 131) • The West has become a distinctive region • Basic dialect divisions may be intensifying • Atlas of North American English (see link on course page and in eLearning)