American English

Companion Website x

List of Figures xi

Preface xiii

Phonetic Symbols xvii

1 Dialects, Standards, and Vernaculars 1

1.1 Defining Dialect 2

1.2 Dialect: The Popular Viewpoint 2

1.3 Dialect Myths and Linguistic Reality 8

1.4 Standards and Vernaculars 9

1.5 Language Descriptivism and Prescriptivism 14

1.6 Vernacular Dialects 16

1.7 Labeling Vernacular Dialects 17

1.8 Why Study Dialects? 18

1.9 A Tradition of Study 21

1.10 Further Reading 24

References 25

2 Why Dialects? 27

2.1 Sociohistorical Explanation 28

2.1.1 Settlement 28

2.1.2 Migration 29

2.1.3 Geographical factors 30

2.1.4 Language contact 31

2.1.5 Economic ecology 33

2.1.6 Social stratification 34

2.1.7 Social interaction, social practices, and speech communities 35

2.1.8 Group and individual identity 38

2.2 Linguistic Explanation 40

2.2.1 Rule extension 42

2.2.2 Analogy 44

2.2.3 Transparency and grammaticalization 47

2.2.4 Pronunciation principles 50

2.2.5 Words and word meanings 55

2.3 The Final Product 57

2.4 Further Reading 57

References 58

3 Levels of Dialect 59

3.1 Lexical Differences 59

3.2 Slang 64

3.3 Phonological Differences 68

3.4 Grammatical Differences 79

3.5 Language Use and Pragmatics 86

3.6 Further Reading 93

References 94

4 Dialects in the United States: Past, Present, and Future 97

4.1 The First English(es) in America 98

4.1.1 Jamestown 98

4.1.2 Boston 100

4.1.3 Philadelphia 103

4.1.4 Charleston 105

4.1.5 New Orleans 106

4.2 Earlier American English: The Colonial Period 106

4.3 American English Extended 110

4.4 The Westward Expansion of English 115

4.5 The Present and Future State of American English 117

4.6 Further Reading 122

References 123

5 Regional Varieties of English 125

5.1 Eliciting Regional Dialect Forms 126

5.2 Mapping Regional Variants 128

5.3 The Distribution of Dialect Forms 132

5.4 Dialect Diffusion 143

5.5 Perceptual Dialectology 148

5.6 Region and Place 153

5.7 Further Reading 154

Websites 155

References 156

6 Social Varieties of American English 159

6.1 Social Status and Class 159

6.2 Beyond Social Class 162

6.3 Indexing Social Meanings through Language Variation 164

6.4 The Patterning of Social Differences in Language 165

6.5 Linguistic Constraints on Variability 170

6.6 The Social Evaluation of Linguistic Features 174

6.7 Social Class and Language Change 177

6.8 Further Reading 179

References 179

7 Ethnicity and American English 183

7.1 Ethnic Varieties and Ethnolinguistic Repertoire 184

7.2 Patterns of Ethnolinguistic Variation 185

7.3 Latino English 188

7.4 Cajun English 196

7.5 Lumbee English 199

7.6 Jewish American English 203

7.7 Asian American English 206

7.8 Further Reading 210

References 211

8 African American English 217

8.1 Defining the English of African Americans 218

8.2 The Relationship between European American and African American English 220

8.3 The Origin and Early Development of African American English 225

8.3.1 The Anglicist Hypothesis 226

8.3.2 The Creolist Hypothesis 226

8.3.3 A Note on Creole Exceptionalism 228

8.3.4 The Neo-Anglicist Hypothesis 228

8.3.5 The Substrate Hypothesis 230

8.4 The Contemporary Development of African American Speech 231

8.5 Conclusion 238

8.6 Further Reading 239

References 240

9 Gender and Language Variation 245

9.1 Gender-based Patterns of Variation 247

9.2 Explaining General Patterns 251

9.3 Localized Expressions of Gender Relations 253

9.4 Communities of Practice: Linking the Local and the Global 255

9.5 Gender and Language Use 258

9.5.1 The "Female Deficit" Approach 259

9.5.2 The "Cultural Difference" Approach 263

9.5.3 The "Dominance" Approach 265

9.6 Investigating Gender Diversity 267

9.7 Talking about Men and Women 269

9.7.1 Generic he and man 269

9.7.2 Family names and addresses 270

9.7.3 Relationships of association 271

9.7.4 Labeling 272

9.8 The Question of Language Reform 273

9.9 Further Reading 275

References 276

10 Dialects and Style 281

10.1 Types of Style Shifting 282

10.2 Attention to Speech 286

10.2.1 The patterning of stylistic variation across social groups 287

10.2.2 Limitations of the attention to speech approach 291

10.3 Audience Design 293

10.3.1 The effects of audience on speech style 295

10.3.2 Questions concerning audience design 298

10.4 Speaker Design Approaches 301

10.4.1 Three approaches to style, "three waves" of quantitative sociolinguistic study 301

10.4.2 Studying stylistic variation from a speaker-design perspective 303

10.5 Further Considerations 306

10.6 Further Reading 307

References 309

11 The Application of Dialect Study 311

11.1 Dialects and Assessment Testing 313

11.1.1 "Correctness" in assessing language achievement and development 314

11.1.2 Testing linguistic knowledge 318

11.1.3 Using language to test other knowledge 319

11.1.4 The testing situation 321

11.2 Teaching Mainstream American English 323

11.2.1 What standard? 323

11.2.2 Approaches to MAE 326

11.2.3 Can MAE be taught? 328

11.3 Further Reading 334

References 335

12 Dialect Awareness: Extending Application 337

12.1 Dialects and Reading 337

12.2 Dialect Influence in Written Language 340

12.3 Literary Dialect 343

12.4 Proactive Dialect Awareness Programs 347

12.5 Venues of Engagement 349

12.6 A Curriculum on Dialects 351

12.7 Scrutinizing Sociolinguistic Engagement 358

12.8 Further Reading 363

Websites 363

References 364

Appendix: An Inventory of Distinguishing Dialect Features 367

Glossary 391

Index 415