Language variation and change in the American midland : a new look at "heartland" English / edited by Thomas E. Murray, Beth Lee Simon.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Murray, Thomas E. (Thomas Edward), 1956-

Simon, Beth Lee.

Series:

Varieties of English around the world. General series ; v. 36.

Varieties of English around the world. General series, 0172-7362 ; v. G36

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English language--Variation--Middle West.

English language.

English language--Dialects--Middle West.

English language--Middle West.

Middle West--Languages.

Middle West.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xii, 319 p. : ill.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam ; Philadelphia : John Benjamins Pub., c2006.

Summary:

This volume explores the linguistic complexities and critical issues of the Midland dialect area of the USA, and contains a unique data-based set of investigations of the Midlands dialect. The authors demonstrate that the large central part of the United States known colloquially as the Heartland, geo-culturally as the Midwest, and linguistically as the Midland is a very real dialect area, one with regional cohesiveness, social complexity, and psycho-emotional impact. The individual essays problematize historical origins, track linguistic markers of social identity over time and across social spaces, frame dialect issues within the linguistic marketplace, account for extra-linguistic influences on changing patterns of linguistic behaviors, and describe maintenance strategies of non-English languages. This book is an important move forward in the understanding of American English. Sociolinguists, dialectologists, applied linguists, and all those involved in the statistical and qualitative study of language variation will find this volume relevant, timely, and insightful.

Contents:

Language Variation and Change in the American Midland

Editorial page

Title page

LCC data

Dedication

Table of contents

Introducing the Midland

The Midland: What is it?

The Midland: Where is it?

The Midland: How do we know?

Notes

What is dialect?

Introduction

Background of the Midland controversy

Defining the Midland

Midland grammar

Conclusions

I. The Evolving Midland

The North American Midland as a dialect area

Dialect regions of the United States

Settlement

Methods and results

Conclusion

Tracking the low back merger in Missouri

The low back merger in American English

Methods

Results and discussion

Appendix

Excerpts from the Written Questionnaire

Evidence from Ohio on the evolution of /æ/

/æ/ and the Midwest

/æ/ and social history

Methods of acoustic analysis

/æ/ patterns across Ohio

Implications for the history of /æ/

II. Defining the Midland

On the use of geographic names to inform regional language studies

Note

On the eastern edge of the Heartland

Scholarly accounts

Popular accounts from the Web

Discussion

Why an industrial city dialect forms: Conflict theory explanations

Why an industrial city dialect forms: Dialectology and sociology of language explanations

Where are the dialects going? Youngstown shifts

Other evidence

The current Pittsburgh dialect

Broader significance of this study

Dialects reflect, and are formed within, a cultural division of labor

The final days of Appalachian Heritage Language*

Qualitative analysis

Subject-verb concord

Demonstrative and pleonastic pronouns

Quantitative analysis: Monophthongization of /aj/

Conclusion.

Notes

It'll kill ye or cure ye, one

History

Elicitations

Four hypotheses

Discussion and conclusion

III. Power and Perception

Standardizing the Heartland

How to get to be one kind of Midwesterner

Midland(s) dialect geography

Drawing out the /ai/

Dialect areas and variants of /ai/: Hans Kurath and Raven McDavid

Distribution of monophthongal /ai/: William Labov et al.

/ai/ in Illinois: Timothy Frazer

Vowel plots: Erik Thomas

LAGS: Regional and social variation

Attitude study: Alabama and Texas sorority project

Conclusion: Sociolinguistic and regional boundaries of /ai/

IV. Other Languages, Other Places

Learning Spanish in the North Georgia Mountains

The Midland above the Midland

Model selection for individual items

Lexical forms

Phonological forms

Grammatical forms

Correspondence Analysis

Portable community

Strawberry runners, portable community, and linguistic homogeneity

Regional variation in the Deitsch of Southeastern Pennsylvania

The spread of Deitsch across the Midwest

The notion and practice of portable community

Evidence for linguistic homogeneity of Midwestern Deitsch

The psychological reality of Midwestern Deitsch

The English of the Swiss Amish of Northeastern Indiana

The speech community

The Swiss Amish use of English

Contexts for the use of English

Results of English use survey

Possible explanations for the shift to English

Interference and borrowing from English to German

Amish and non-Amish varieties of English

Amish intercommunity variation

Amish to non-Amish variation

Impressionistic observations

References

Index

The series Varieties of English Around the World.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786612155840

9781282155848

1282155849

9789027293541

9027293546

OCLC:

71348517