Table Of ContentLANGUAGES AND DIALECTS
IN THE U.S.
Languages and Dialects in the U.S. is a concise introduction to language varieties
and dialects in the U.S. for students with little to no background in linguistics.
This edited collection of fourteen chapters offers students detailed insight into the
languages they speak and hear around them, framed within the context of lan-
guage contact, with the goal of promoting students’ appreciation of linguistic and
cultural diversity. The book begins with “setting the stage” chapters, introducing
the concepts of language contact and diversity and the sociocultural context of
the languages and dialects featured in the book. The remaining chapters are each
devoted to a particular U.S. dialect or variety of American English, exploring the
language’s sociolinguistic context, history, and salient grammatical features, with
problem sets and suggested further readings to reinforce students’ understanding
of basic concepts and new linguistic terminology. The languages and dialects cov-
ered include three Native American languages (Navajo, Shoshoni, and Mandan),
African American English, Chicano English, Jamaican Patwa, Southwest Spanish,
Dominican Spanish, Chinese varieties, Haitian Creole, Cajun French, Louisiana
Creole, and vernacular (or nonstandard) varieties of English.
By presenting students with both the linguistic and sociocultural and politi-
cal foundations of these particular language varieties, Languages and Dialects in the
U.S. argues for linguistic and cultural diversity in the U.S., ideal for students in
introductory courses in linguistics, sociolinguistics, language and society, language
and culture, and language variation and change.
Marianna Di Paolo is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University
of Utah.
Arthur K. Spears is Presidential Professor of Anthropology and Linguistics at
The City University of New York.
This page intentionally left blank
LANGUAGES AND
DIALECTS IN THE U.S.
Focus on Diversity and Linguistics
Edited by
Marianna Di Paolo and Arthur K. Spears
Please visit www.routledge.com/textbooks/instructordownload for
access to the answer keys to the problem sets included in this book.
First published 2014
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
And by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2014 Taylor & Francis
The right of Marianna Di Paolo and Arthur K. Spears to be identified as
the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual
chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without
intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Languages and dialects in the U.S. : focus on diversity and linguistics /
edited by Marianna Di Paolo and Arthur K. Spears.
pages cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Dialectology–Research–United States. 2. United States–Languages.
3. Language and languages–Variation. I. Di Paolo, Marianna. II. Spears,
Arthur K. (Arthur Kean), 1943–
P367.5.U6L37 2013
427'.973–dc23 2013025931
ISBN: 978-0-415-72857-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-72860-7 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-85160-0 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
CONTENTS
List of Tables vii
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xv
PART I
Setting the Stage 1
Introduction 3
Marianna Di Paolo and Arthur K. Spears
1 Language Contact 9
Arthur K. Spears and Marianna Di Paolo
2 Thinking about Diversity 21
Arthur K. Spears
PART II
Indigenous U.S. Language Varieties 35
3 Navajo 37
Keren Rice
4 Shoshoni 53
Dirk Elzinga and Marianna Di Paolo
vi Contents
5 Mandan 69
Mauricio J. Mixco
PART III
English and Other U.S. Language Varieties 83
6 Vernacular Dialects of English 85
Walt Wolfram
7 African American English 101
Arthur K. Spears
8 Chicano English 115
Carmen Fought
9 Jamaican Creole 126
Peter L. Patrick
10 Southwest Spanish 137
MaryEllen Garcia
11 Dominican Spanish 151
Barbara E. Bullock and Almeida Jacqueline Toribio
12 Chinese 163
Lauren Hall-Lew and Amy Wing-mei Wong
13 Haitian Creole 180
Arthur K. Spears
14 Cajun French and Louisiana Creole 196
Michael D. Picone
Contributors 215
Index 221
TABLES
3.1 Comparing words in the Navajo and Apache languages 38
3.2 Navajo consonant system 39
3.3 Navajo vowels 40
3.4 Navajo diphthongs 40
3.5 Summary of verb morpheme identification and ordering
of morphemes 45
4.1 Shoshoni vowels 58
4.2 Demonstratives and demonstrative pronouns (objective forms) 59
4.3 Shoshoni phrases 62
4.4 Shoshoni locatives 62
4.5 Shoshoni noncoronal stops and continuants 63
4.6 Shoshoni coronal stops and continuants 64
4.7 Additional Shoshoni data on coronal stops and continuants 64
4.8 Shoshoni [s] and [ ʃ ] 65
4.9 Data on Shoshoni stops and continuants 65
4.10 Summary of morphophonological analysis 66
5.1 Mandan and Hidatsa in the Siouan-Catawba language family 71
5.2 The Mississippi Valley subbranch of Siouan 71
5.3 Mandan vowel length data 74
5.4 Mandan vowel nasalization data 74
5.5 Mandan vowel nasalization exercise 74
5.6 Mandan phonology data 75
5.7 Mandan subject agreement data 76
5.8 Subject agreement exercise 76
5.9 Additional subject agreement exercise 76
5.10 Additional Mandan subject agreement data 77
5.11 Mandan subject and object agreement morphemes 77
viii Tables
5.12 Mandan verb stem exercise 77
5.13 Mandan verb stem data 77
5.14 Mandan data on inflection for tense 78
5.15 Mandan data on inflection for Negation-A 78
5.16 Mandan data on inflection for Negation-B 79
5.17 Mandan mystery suffixes data 80
5.18 More Mandan mystery suffixes data 80
6.1 List A: Sentence pairs for a-prefixing 88
6.2 Comparing intuitions for different speaker groups 91
6.3 Grammaticality and social acceptability exercise 93
6.4 Restructured past tense be 96
6.5 An alternative regularization of past tense be 97
6.6 Devoicing in vernacular dialects 99
6.7 Consonant cluster simplification 100
7.1 Example sentences with be done 110
7.2 Clause sequence in be done sentences 111
7.3 Word set #1: Postvocalic word-final /l/ in a
Midwestern variety of AAE 113
7.4 Word set #2: Postvocalic word-final /l/ in a
Midwestern variety of AAE 113
7.5 Word set #3: Postvocalic word-final /l/ in a
Midwestern variety of AAE 113
8.1 Data from Rosanna (a nonnative speaker of English whose
first language is Spanish; age 56) 122
8.2 Joaquín (older-generation native CHE speaker; age 45) 124
8.3 Chuck (younger-generation native CHE speaker; age 17) 124
9.1 English vowels and word classes with Jamaican
Creole equivalents 132
10.1 Categories of traditional Pachuco Caló 146
10.2 Beginning-level reducing hiatus data 147
10.3 Intermediate-level reducing hiatus data 148
11.1 Data from regional dialects of Dominican Spanish 158
11.2 Dominican hypercorrection data 159
11.3 /s/-deletion data from Dominican Spanish 159
11.4 Hypercorrect forms in Dominican Spanish 159
11.5 Double plural marking data 160
12.1 English words borrowed into Cantonese 175
12.2 English words containing /l/ borrowed into Cantonese 175
12.3 Additional English words containing /l/ borrowed
into Cantonese 176
12.4 Data on Mandarin Chinese classifiers 176
12.5 Additional data on Mandarin Chinese classifiers 177
13.1 Some Haitian words of French origin 185
13.2 Comparison of words in three Haitian varieties and in French 189
Tables ix
13.3 Some Haitian possessive adjective suffixes, Port de Paix dialect 190
13.4 Some nouns and possessive suffixes, Port de Paix dialect 191
13.5 Verbs requiring the presence or absence of te under certain
conditions, Port de Paix dialect 192
13.6 The meanings of two verbs 194
14.1 French nouns 207
14.2 Codeswitched (English) nouns 207
14.3 Tense, mood, and aspect 210
