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Slide 2 Where is Southern English heading? Pressures from North, East, West, South William Labov, University of Pennsylvania Duke University October 9, 2008 Slide 3 www.ling.upenn.edu/~labov Slide 4 Where did Southern English come from? Slide 5 Figure 14.24 Settlement patterns of the Eastern U.S. (Kniffen and Glassie 1966) Slide 6 New light on the expatriate Southern community in Brazil Shana Poplack, William Labov, Maciej Baranowski Slide 7 Older forms of Southern English retained in Americana speech The /j/ glide with /uw/ after coronals in new, tune, news, knew, student, etc. The contrast of /ohr/ vs. / O hr/ in more, four, before, important vs. born, for, north, short, etc. The contrast of /hw/ and /w/ in which, where, vs. witch, wear, etc. The presence of a palatal upglide with the mid-central vowel of first, church, work, etc. The presence of a palatal upglide with the low front vowel in plan, last, cant. Slide 8 /j/ glides for the McFadden family Lance McFadden Leslie McFadden Charles McFadden stupid stupid2 knew1knew2 knew3 news due1 due2 Slide 9 /juw/ vs. /iw/ knew3 knew1 Slide 10 Back vowels before /r/ for Leslie McFadden Slide 11 Back vowels before /r/ for Charles McFadden Slide 12 Map 18.1. Relics of vanishing distinctions in the South Slide 13 Gardes Principle: Mergers cannot be reversed by linguistic means Herzogs Corollary: Mergers expand at the expense of distinctions General principles of merger: Slide 14 Map 9.1 The low back merger of /o/ and /oh/ Slide 15 Map 11.2. Three areas of resistance to the low back merger Slide 16 The Southern Shift Slide 17 Project on Cross-Dialectal Comprehension: Gating Experiment 2 Word Phrase Sentence 1. _________ ________________ ___________________________ 2. _________ ________________ ___________________________ 3. _________ ________________ ___________________________ 4. _________ ________________ ___________________________ 5. _________ ________________ ___________________________ 6. _________ ________________ ___________________________ 7. _________ ________________ ___________________________ 8. _________ ________________ ___________________________ 9. _________ ________________ ___________________________ 10. ________ ________________ ___________________________ CDC South Slide 18 The Southern Shift hit kids set bed Danny grade beatin Guy wipin Slide 19 In chain shifts, I. Tense nuclei rise along a peripheral track II. Lax nuclei fall along a non-peripheral track General principles of chain shifting Slide 20 NCS & Southern Shift Slide 21 The Southern Shift The Canadian Shift Southern Shift & Canadian Shift Slide 22 Figure 18.5. Means of Vy vowels for 21 dialects. IS = Inland South; TS = Texas South; SE = Southeastern; FL = Florida Slide 23 Percent correct in Gating Experiments by city in Cross Dialectal Comprehension study: I knew the GUY Slide 24 Percent correct in Gating Experiments by city and educational level in Cross Dialectal Comprehension study: I knew the GUY Slide 25 Percent correct in Gating Experiments by race and educational level in Cross Dialectal Comprehension study: I knew the GUY Slide 26 Fig. 18.1. Percent monophthongization of /ay/ Slide 27 M18.5. Spread of monophthongization of /ay/ beyond areas shown in PEAS Slide 28 Map 18.5. Second stage of the Southern Shift Slide 29 Map 18.6. Third stage of the Southern Shift Slide 30 The Southern Shift in vowel system of Thelma M., 31, Birmingham, TS 341 Slide 31 Southern Shift in the vowel system of Lance R., 45 [1997], Durham NC, TS627 wide Slide 32 eye of Lance R.,. Durham Slide 33 wide of Lance R., Durham Slide 34 bike of Lance R., Durham Slide 35 Where is Southern English going? Slide 36 Map 7.1 Residual r-lessness in the Eastern U.S. Slide 37 T18.3 Regression on SS Slide 38 Map 9.5. Merger of /i/ and /e/ before nasals Slide 39 Map 9.5. Merger of /i/ and /e/ before nasals (South) Slide 40 /i/ and /e/ before /n/ for L. McFadden (highlighted = prenasal) Slide 41 Map 9.1 The low back merger of /o/ and /oh/ Slide 42 Map 18.9. Back upglide with /oh/ Slide 43 Map 9.1 The low back merger of /o/ and /oh/ Slide 44 Map 11.11. The Southeastern Super-region Slide 45 F12.6. Fronting of /ow/ and /uw/ after coronals for North American regions Slide 46 Figure 11.6. Fronting of /Tuw/ and /ow/ for North American dialects Slide 47 Figure 12.7. Fronting of /uw/ after coronals and before /l/ Slide 48 Table 12.7. Regression analysis of /uw/ before /l/ in the South Slide 49 Back upgliding vowels of Lance R., Durham Slide 50 What are the forces that drive or slow the development of Southern English? Slide 51 1. Structural Slide 52 NCS & Southern Shift Slide 53 What are the forces that drive or slow the development of Southern English? 2. Ideological Slide 54 Red States and Blue States in U.S. 2004 Presidential election Slide 55 States for Kerry in 2000 and dialect areas: solid line = Northern dialect region: dashed line = Inland North and Northern Cities Shift Slide 56 Presidential elections in which the North [NY, MI, WI, IA, MN] has been opposed to the South [TX, AK, LA, MI, AL, GA, FL, SC, NC, KY,TN, VA] Slide 57 Conversation between John F. Kennedy and Senator Russell B. Long of Louisiana, 1960 JFK: But this isnt 1876. Because what happens is it will become the most publicized thing... everybodys looking, now what is this president promising this group and pretty soon youve got the Goddamndest mayhem. Long:... the Negro vote might be the key vote... JFK: At least I could count it... I think its crazy for the South because this way Im concerned about Georgia and Louisiana and these places, heres where we got a chance to carry them, but if I end up with no chance to carry them then I gotta go up north and try to do my business. Slide 58 Slide 59 Valerie Fridland on the similar treatment of (ay) by Blacks and Whites in Memphis Tennessee These similarities are serving as markers of local regional, not ethnic affiliation in the sense of Eckerts (2000) community of practice where social entities co-construct symbolic identity in so far as they participate in shared practices that come to characterize that groups identity. While social unity was a part of the communities of practice explored by Eckert, I would expand her framework to suggest that these shared practices do not necessarily require individuals social cohesion, but merely require historical experience and a strongly circumscribing environment that places speakers in a similar social position relative to the external social world.... The modern South thus stands as a contradiction in terms of race relations with very little ethnic mixing beyond that forced by daily interaction but with a very strong sense of shared historical and cultural heritage uniting Black and White Southerners. --Fridland, Valerie 2000. Tie, tied and tight: The expansion of /ay/ monophthongization in African-American and European-American speech in Memphis, Tennessee. Journal of Sociolinguistics 7:279-298. Slide 60 /i/ and /e/ before nasals for Allison Jones (bold = vowels before nasals) Slide 61 /iw/ in knew1 of Leslie McFadden Slide 62 /juw/ in knew3 of Charles McFadden Slide 63 Survival of the /Ohr/ ~ /ohr/ distinction in the Atlas of North American English at the end of the 20th century Slide 64 Survival of the /iw/~/uw/ distinction in the American South in the Atlas of North American English at the end of the 20th century Slide 65 Back vowels before /r/ for Lance McFadden Slide 66 Figure 18.9. The Southern Shift of /ay/, /ey/ and /iy/ highlighted in the normalized means of 402 Telsur speakers displayed by Plotnik Major Slide 67 The Southern Shift in vowel system of Lucy C., 35, Chattanooga TN, TS 612 Slide 68 /i/ and /e/ before /n/ for Lance McFadden