American Voices AVA01 21/7/05, 10:48 AM1 AVA01 21/7/05, 10:48 AM2 AMERICAN VOICES How Dialects Differ from Coast to Coast Edited by Walt Wolfram and Ben Ward AVA01 21/7/05, 10:48 AM3 Editorial material and organization © 2006 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd blackwell publishing 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK 550 Swanston Street, Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia The right of Walt Wolfram and Ben Ward to be identified as the Authors of the Editorial Material in this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher. First published 2006 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd 1 2006 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data American voices : how dialects differ from coast to coast / edited by Walt Wolfram and Ben Ward. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN-13: 978-1-4051-2108-8 (alk. paper) ISBN-10: 1-4051-2108-4 (alk. paper) ISBN-13: 978-1-4051-2109-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 1-4051-2109-2 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. English language— Dialects—United States 2. English language—Variation—United States. 3. English language—Dialects—Canada. 4. English language— Dialects—Caribbean Area. I. Wolfram, Walt, 1941– II. Ward, Ben, 1962– PE2841.A77 2006 427′.973—dc22 2005017255 A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library. Set in 10.5/13pt Minion by Graphicraft Typesetters Limited, Hong Kong Printed and bound in the United Kingdom by T J International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall The publisher’s policy is to use permanent paper from mills that operate a sustainable forestry policy, and which has been manufactured from pulp processed using acid-free and elementary chlorine-free practices. Furthermore, the publisher ensures that the text paper and cover board used have met acceptable environmental accreditation standards. For further information on Blackwell Publishing, visit our website: www.blackwellpublishing.com AVA01 21/7/05, 10:48 AM4 Contents List of Illustrations ix Preface xi 1 Language Evolution or Dying Traditions? The State of American Dialects 1 Walt Wolfram and Natalie Schilling-Estes Part I The South 2 Sounds of the South 11 Guy Bailey and Jan Tillery 3 Defining Appalachian English 17 Kirk Hazen and Ellen Fluharty 4 If These Hills Could Talk (Smoky Mountains) 22 Christine Mallinson, Becky Childs, Bridget Anderson, and Neal Hutcheson 5 Doing the Charleston (South Carolina) 29 Maciej Baranowski 6 The Lone Star State of Speech (Texas) 36 Guy Bailey and Jan Tillery 7 Speaking the Big Easy (New Orleans, LA) 42 Connie Eble AVA01 21/7/05, 10:48 AM5 8 Sounds of Ole Man River (Memphis, TN) 49 Valerie Fridland Part II The North 9 Yakking with the Yankees (New England) 57 Julie Roberts, Naomi Nagy, and Charles Boberg 10 Beantown Babble (Boston, MA) 63 Jim Fitzpatrick 11 Mainely English 70 Jane S. Smith 12 Steel Town Speak (Pittsburgh, PA) 77 Barbara Johnstone and Scott Kiesling 13 New York Tawk (New York City, NY) 82 Michael Newman 14 Expressions of Brotherly Love (Philadelphia, PA) 88 Claudio Salvucci 15 Maple Leaf Rap (Canada) 93 J. K. Chambers Part III The Midwest 16 An Introduction to Midwest English 101 Timothy C. Frazer 17 Straight Talking from the Heartland (Midwest) 106 Matthew J. Gordon 18 Words of the Windy City (Chicago, IL) 112 Richard Cameron 19 Different Ways of Talking in the Buckeye State (Ohio) 118 Beverly Olson Flanigan 20 Spirited Speech (St. Louis, MO) 124 Thomas E. Murray 21 Saying Ya to the Yoopers (Michigan’s Upper Peninsula) 130 Beth Simon vi Contents AVA01 21/7/05, 10:48 AM6 Part IV The West 22 Getting Real in the Golden State (California) 139 Penelope Eckert and Norma Mendoza-Denton 23 Desert Dialect (Utah) 144 David Bowie and Wendy Morkel 24 Dialects in the Mist (Portland, OR) 149 Jeff Conn 25 Arizona’s not so Standard English 156 Lauren Hall-Lew Part V Islands 26 Topics from the Tropics (Hawai’i) 165 Miriam Meyerhoff 27 Speaking Strictly Roots (West Indies) 172 Renee Blake 28 Gullah Gullah Islands (Sea Island, SC, GA) 178 Tracey L. Weldon 29 Islands of Diversity (Bahamas) 183 Walt Wolfram, Becky Childs, Jeffrey Reaser, and Benjamin Torbert 30 Dialects in Danger (Outer Banks, NC) 189 Walt Wolfram 31 Fighting the Tide (Smith Island, MD) 196 Natalie Schilling-Estes 32 From Cod to Cool (Newfoundland, Canada) 203 Sandra Clarke 33 The World’s Loneliest Dialect (Tristan da Cunha) 210 Daniel Schreier Part VI Sociocultural Dialects 34 Bridging the Great Divide (African American English) 217 John Baugh Contents vii AVA01 21/7/05, 10:48 AM7 35 When Linguistic Worlds Collide (African American English) 225 Walt Wolfram and Benjamin Torbert 36 Talkin’ with mi Gente (Chicano English) 233 Carmen Fought 37 Stirring the Linguistic Gumbo (Cajun English) 238 Megan E. Melançon 38 From the Brickhouse to the Swamp (Lumbee Vernacular English) 244 Walt Wolfram 39 More than Just Yada Yada Yada (Jewish English) 251 Cynthia Bernstein 40 Fading Future for Ferhoodled English (Pennsylvania German) 258 Marion Lois Huffines Notes on Contributors 264 viii Contents AVA01 21/7/05, 10:48 AM8 List of Illustrations 1 Dialect areas of the United States, based on telephone survey data 1 2 A group of Confederate soldiers awaits orders during the re-enactment of a Civil War battle 11 3 A farmer hoes beans in the mountains 17 4 A creek running through the Great Smoky Mountain National Park 22 5 Historic building in Charleston, South Carolina 29 6 A traditional Texas welcome 36 7 Bourbon Street, New Orleans during Mardi Gras 42 8 Paddle steamer docked on the Mississippi River 49 9 A row of houses on Martha’s Vineyard 57 10 Boston street scene 63 11 The joys of eating Maine lobster 70 12 Downtown Pittsburgh from the West End overlook 77 13 New York contemplating the Hudson River 82 14 Professionals in Philadelphia 88 15.1 Urban life on Toronto’s Yonge Street 93 15.2 The literacy gap 96 16 Hiding in a wheatfield 101 17.1 A typical barn in the cornbelt 106 17.2 The pattern of vowel changes known as the Northern Cities Shift 109 18 Work on a construction project in the Chicago River North area 112 19.1 Dusk falls in Dayton, Ohio 118 List of Illustrations ix AVA01 21/7/05, 10:48 AM9 19.2 Traditional dialect boundaries based on the Linguistic Atlas of the United States 120 20 St. Louis skyline and Gateway Arch 124 21 Ice fishing is a popular pastime among the “Yoopers” of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula 130 22 Soaking up the rays in southern California 139 23 The chapel at Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Utah 144 24 Fishing on the banks of the Willamette River, Portland, Oregon 149 25 Monument Valley, Arizona 156 26 Place of Refuge, located on the Big Island, Hawai’i 165 27 Women preparing crayfish, Jamaica 172 28 South Carolina river basin 178 29 Governor’s Island, Bahamas 183 30 Ocracoke Island 189 31 Fisherman, Smith Island, Maryland 196 32 Excavations have proven that the Vikings were the earliest European visitors to Newfoundland 203 33 Edinburgh, Tristan da Cunha 210 34 Young man in the city 217 35 Boy in a field 225 36 Time out on the railroad tracks 233 37 Boaters at the mouth of Bayou Cane, Louisiana 238 38 Lumbee girls 244 39 Young Orthodox Jews 251 40 An Amish buggy in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania 258 x List of Illustrations AVA01 21/7/05, 10:48 AM10 [...]... profiles that led to American Voices began innocently But it was hardly by accident In fact, it developed from a shared vision by the co-editors of this volume In 1997, publisher Ben Ward launched a magazine dedicated to bringing language issues to the attention of allied service professionals and to the American public in an attractive, readable format Linguists sometimes talk about the need to make language... the movies yesterday? American Dialects in the New Millennium Even as some traditional American dialects recede, new ones appear, reflecting the changing dynamics of American demography and social structure But the present contours are deeply embedded in the historical origins of American English, and future developments no doubt will take their cues from the present dialect profile Dialects mark the regional... different from the usual book project We hope that the collection will be of interest both to the leisure reader interested in language differences and to undergrad students in courses on the English language, American dialects, and sociolinguistics For convenience, the articles are arranged in broad-based sections that may stretch traditional notions of region A section is also devoted to island dialects, ... data (from Labov, Ash, and Boberg 2005) © 2005 by William Labov, Sharon Ash, and Charles Boberg from Atlas of North American English (New York/Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter) Most people find dialects intriguing At the same time, they have lots of questions about them and often have strong opinions as well Probably the most common question we encounter about the condition of American dialects is, “Are American. .. beginning of the chapter To a large extent, traditional dialect divisions in the US reflect differences first established in Colonial America by people from different parts of the British Isles These differences were cemented in early cultural hubs such as Richmond, Philadelphia, Boston, and Charleston and later diffused outward as English speakers moved inland But do these differences still hold at... and Southern speech Changing Trends in Dialects The continuity and enhancement of basic dialect boundaries during a century of demographic and social change is certainly a feature story, but there are some sidebars that point to change in the dialects of American English as well Several factors have had a significant impact on the repositioning of American English dialects at the turn of the millennium... communication networks To go along with these demographic and technological developments, changes in social structure and cultural values have affected the development of dialects Language Contact One factor that has always contributed to the distinctive flavor of American English is the influence of other languages, from the earliest Native American influences on the vocabulary of general American English... that unites African Americans across urban and rural areas that range from Boston to Los Angeles Population Movement Dialect boundaries often follow the migratory routes of the major population movements Historically, the significant migrations of Englishspeaking people in the US have run along east–west lines However, the last half of the twentieth century was characterized by some different patterns... Schilling-Estes 5 AVC01 5 21/7/05, 10:48 AM in different ways Whereas some dialect features may spread out from a central area in a fairly straightforward way, like ripples in a pond, others may “jump” from region to region For example, the pronunciation changes affecting some Northern cities have been shown to spread from one major metropolitan area to another, skipping intervening areas of low population... subject matter into jargon-laced presentations that are comprehensible only to the few thousand professional linguists in the world This collection of articles is intended to do better It attempts to translate the detailed research of professional dialectologists into readable descriptions for those who are curious about language differences but have neither the background nor the desire to be professional . American Voices AVA01 21/7/05, 10:48 AM1 AVA01 21/7/05, 10:48 AM2 AMERICAN VOICES How Dialects Differ from Coast to Coast Edited by Walt Wolfram and Ben Ward AVA01 21/7/05, 10:48 AM3 Editorial. Publishing Ltd 1 2006 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data American voices : how dialects differ from coast to coast / edited by Walt Wolfram and Ben Ward. p. cm. Includes bibliographical. story, but there are some sidebars that point to change in the dialects of American English as well. Several factors have had a significant impact on the reposi- tioning of American English dialects