Language Variation And Change in the American Midland: A New Look At 'Heartland' English (Varieties of English Around the World General Series)

335 Pages·2006·2.82 MB·English

by  Thomas E. Murray

<DOCINFOAUTHOR""TITLE"LanguageVariationandChangeintheAmericanMidland:AnewlookatHeartlandEnglish"SUBJECT"VEAW,VolumeG36"KEYWORDS""SIZEHEIGHT"240"WIDTH"160"VOFFSET"4">
LanguageVariationandChangeintheAmericanMidland
Varieties of English Around the World
GeneralEditor
EdgarW.Schneider
DepartmentofEnglish&AmericanStudies
UniversityofRegensburg
Universitätsstraße31
D-93053REGENSBURG
Germany
[email protected]
EditorialAssistant
AlexanderKautzsch
EditorialBoard
LaurieBauer(Wellington);ManfredGörlach(Cologne);
RajendMesthrie(CapeTown);PeterTrudgill(Fribourg);
WaltWolfram(Raleigh,NC)
GeneralSeries
VolumeG36
LanguageVariationandChangeintheAmericanMidland:
ANewLookat‘Heartland’English
EditedbyThomasE.MurrayandBethLeeSimon
Language Variation and Change
in the American Midland
A New Look at ‘Heartland’ English
Editedby
Thomas E. Murray
KansasStateUniversity
Beth Lee Simon
IndianaUniversity-PurdueUniversity
JohnBenjaminsPublishingCompany
Amsterdam(cid:1)/(cid:1)Philadelphia
TM Thepaperusedinthispublicationmeetstheminimumrequirements
8
ofAmericanNationalStandardforInformationSciences–Permanence
ofPaperforPrintedLibraryMaterials,ansiz39.48-1984.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
LanguageVariationandChangeintheAmericanMidland:ANewLookat
‘Heartland’English/editedbyThomasE.MurrayandBethLeeSimon.
p. cm.(VarietiesofEnglishAroundtheWorld,issn0172–7362;v.
G36)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindexes.
1.Englishlanguage--Variation--MiddleWest.2.Englishlanguage--
Dialects--MiddleWest.3.Englishlanguage--MiddleWest.4.MiddleWest-
-Languages.I.Murray,ThomasE.(ThomasEdward),1956-II.Simon,
BethLee.III.VarietiesofEnglisharoundtheworld.Generalseries;36.
PE2932.L36 2006
427’.977--dc22 2005053635
isbn9027248966(Hb;alk.paper)
©2006–JohnBenjaminsB.V.
Nopartofthisbookmaybereproducedinanyform,byprint,photoprint,microfilm,or
anyothermeans,withoutwrittenpermissionfromthepublisher.
JohnBenjaminsPublishingCo.·P.O.Box36224·1020meAmsterdam·TheNetherlands
JohnBenjaminsNorthAmerica·P.O.Box27519·Philadelphiapa19118-0519·usa
JB[v.20020404] Prn:14/11/2005;9:40 F:VE36DE.tex / p.1(44-72)
“ThecountryIcomefromiscalledTheMidwest”
BobDylan
ForTimothyFrazer

JB[v.20020404] Prn:20/12/2005;12:36 F:VE36CO.tex / p.1(45-105)
Table of contents
IntroducingtheMidland:Whatisit,whereisit,howdoweknow? ix
BethSimon
Whatisdialect?RevisitingtheMidland 1
ThomasE.MurrayandBethLeeSimon
Part I TheEvolvingMidland
TheNorthAmericanMidlandasadialectarea 33
SharonAsh
TrackingthelowbackmergerinMissouri 57
MatthewJ.Gordon
EvidencefromOhioontheevolutionof/æ/ 69
ErikR.Thomas
Part II DefiningtheMidland
Ontheuseofgeographicnamestoinformregionallanguagestudies 93
EdwardCallary
OntheeasternedgeoftheHeartland:Twoindustrialcitydialects 105
ThomasS.Donahue
ThefinaldaysofAppalachianHeritageLanguage 129
KirkHazen
It’llkillyeorcureye,one:Thehistoryandfunctionofalternativeone 151
MichaelMontgomery
JB[v.20020404] Prn:20/12/2005;12:36 F:VE36CO.tex / p.2(105-146)
 Tableofcontents
Part III PowerandPerception
StandardizingtheHeartland 165
RichardW.Bailey
HowtogettobeonekindofMidwesterner:Accommodation
totheNorthernCitiesChainShift 179
BetsyE.Evans,RikaIto,JamilaJones,andDennisR.Preston
Midland(s)dialectgeography:Socialanddemographicvariables 199
TimothyFrazer
Drawingoutthe/ai/:Dialectboundariesand/ai/variation 209
CynthiaBernstein
Part IV OtherLanguages,OtherPlaces
LearningSpanishintheNorthGeorgiaMountains 235
EllenJohnsonandDavidBoyle
TheMidlandabovetheMidland:Dialectvariationbyregion,sex,
andsocialgroupinthelinguisticatlasoftheUpperMidwest 245
MichaelD.LinnandRonaldRegal
Portablecommunity:Thelinguisticandpsychologicalreality
ofMidwesternPennsylvaniaGerman 263
StevenHartmanKeiser
TheEnglishoftheSwissAmishofNortheasternIndiana 275
ChadThompson
References 293
Index 313
JB[v.20020404] Prn:21/12/2005;9:08 F:VE36IN.tex / p.1(45-122)
Introducing the Midland
What is it, where is it, how do we know?
BethSimon
IndianaUniversityPurdueUniversity–FortWayne
TheMidland:Whatisit?
Regionmatters.PoliticalhistoriansAyersandOnuf(1996)claimthat
[r]egionswithdistinctiveclimates,geographies,cultures,andhistories... provide
theframeworkforunderstandingwhoweare,whathashappenedtous,andwhat
wecanlookforwardto.... Thinkingourselvesacrossspace,wethinkourselves
backward in time ... Americangeographythusrecapitulates American history;
historyisimmanentinthedistinctivecharacterandcultureofthenation’sdiverse
regions.Thisdialecticofspaceandtime,mobilityandnostalgia,hasshapedour
understandingoftheroleofregionsinAmericanhistory.(1)
The sense, feeling, perception, salient notion that the continental United States has
had, at each stage of its history, identifiable regions, and specifically, an identifiable
sociocultural and linguistic middle region, has been a formative and continuously
influential aspect of the American popular imagination. The idea originates in the
colonialperiodofNorthAmericansettlementandinlandmigration,wherea“three-
wayterritorialdifferentiation... NewEngland,theMiddleColonies,andtheSouth”
developed.Webster,whofinds“distinctive”pronunciationandlexicalpatternsforeach
ofthethreeareas,describesthe“middle”as“tincturedbyavarietyofIrish,Scots,and
Germandialects”(Montgomery2004:310).Whilecontemporarypublicdiscoursere-
gardingU.S.regionalityisoftenarticulatedasaNorth–Southsplit,Preston(1993a)
foundthatnonspecialistlistenerscategorizeAmericansintothree,nottwo,dialectre-
gions.Prestonhimself(2003)suggestsdifferentiatinga“dialectologyoftheear”from
a“dialectologyofthemouth.”TheformeryieldstheenduringbipartateNorth/South.
The latter, though, reveals a four-layer dialect stack: Upper North, Lower North,
“skinny Midland just south of the” Northern Cities Shift South, Upper South, and
South(“deepandcoastal”)(250–251).