Intro to Geography of Language

2 VOCABULARY DIFFERENCES What do you fry your eggs in? creeper, fryer, frying pan, fry pan, skillet, or spider What do you call a soft drink? pop, soda, soda pop, or tonic? What do you call a long sandwich containing salami etc.? hero, submarine, hoagy, grinder or poorboy

3 What do you drink water out of? drinking fountain, cooler, bubbler or geyser How do you get something from one place to another? take, carry, or tote What do you carry things in? a bag, a sack, or a poke How do you speculate? reckon, guess, figgure, figger, suspect, imagine

4 BRITISH-AMERICAN PRONUNCIATION DIFFERENCES calf, bath, pass, aunt learn, fork, core, brother carry, very secretary, stationery, territory, dictionary, laboratory, necessary, missionary either, neither, potato, tomato clerk, schedule captain, bottle (glottals [in Cockney])

5 BRITISH-AMERICAN VOCABULARY DIFFERENCES girl, cop, hood (of a car), trunk (of a car), suspenders, apartment, bathroom, elevator, truck, wig, gasoline, bar, line, monkey wrench, television, flashlight, subway bird, bobby, bonnet, boot, braces, flat, loo, lift, lorry, peruque, petrol, pub, queue, spanner, tele, torch, tube

6 BRITISH-AMERICAN STRESS DIFFERENCES Aluminum Applicable Cigarette Formidable Kilometer Laboratory secretary (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 413)

7 BRITISH-AMERICAN SPELLING DIFFERENCES Cheque centre, theatre colour, honour defence, offence labelled, travelled Pyjamas tyre

8 BRITISH EXPRESSIONS TO WATCH OUT FOR fag or faggot (wood for the fireplace, or cigarette) solicitor (lawyer) to knock someone up (wake someone up in the morning, or visit someone)

9 COCKNEY RHYMING SLANG apples and pears (stairs) Aristotle (bottle) pig’s ear (beer) Mother Hubbard (cupboard) plates and dishes (Mrs.)

Questions about proximate cause of bird song variation: 1. What genes/proteins/hormones are involved in song production? 2. What are the brain structures involved in song production and how do they develop? 3. What are the developmental differences between males and females that produces male singers? 4. How do within species dialects develop what are the characteristic differences in song pattern? 5. Are there regional preferences among females for local dialects?

Questions about ultimate cause of bird song variation: 1. Why do birds appear to have to learn the details of their songs as juveniles? 2. Why do dialects exist in nature? 1. Do dialects provide an adaptive advantage? 2. Are they a product of local genetic differences?

Transmission of an effective dialect in that habitat? (travel farther?) (less degradation?) See Great Tit! (sound interference problems) See Fig 2.21

2.21 Songs match habitats

Figure 2.22 The songs sung by great tits differ in cities versus forests

Second Hypothesis: Young males match their song to their neighbor. Better able to communicate with territory neighbors and demonstrate his ability to learn. Males should be able to fine-tune their song even after settling on an initial version.

16 EASTERN U.S. DIALECTS (Marckwardt and Dillard 280)

17 NORTHERN, MIDLAND & SOUTHERN EXPANSION WESTWARD (Shuy 294)

18 American Regional Dialects Why is it that people in all parts of the country do not speak in the same way? 1. English, like all languages, constantly changing. 2. Not all changes take place in all parts of country 3. Not all changes take place at same time Often, spread of changes is stopped short by barriers to communication between groups of speakers. 1. Geographical isolation 2. Temporal dislocation (separation over time) 3. Social isolation

19 Types of Groups into which Society is Organized: Large-scale groupings: 1. Regional dialects 2. Social dialects, or “Sociolects” -- social classes-- educational groupings -- genders-- ethnicities -- age cohorts Small-scale groupings: 3. Social networks, e.g. -- immigrant communities -- neighborhoods and recreation groups

Problems (cont’d) Asymmetries in intelligibility, e.g., – Danish speakers understand Swedish, but not vice versa – Brazilian Portuguese speakers understand Spanish, but not vice versa

Problems (cont’d) Nonlinguistic criteria (political, historical, geographic etc.) may play a role – Mandarin, Cantonese are mutually unintelligible, but are referred to as ‘dialects’ of Chinese – Serbian and Croatian are mutually intelligible, but are referred to as separate languages Czech vs. Slovak Norwegian vs. Swedish

22 Traditional Dialectology Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE) Cassidy, F.G. (1985:xxix), fig. 7)

23 Diagnosing Dialect Differences

24 Northern Cities and Southern Cities Vowel Shifts (Labov, 1991) i˘ e˘ I E Q a ç √ o˘ U u˘ key characteristics: fronting of (a), tensing and raising of (ae), backing of short (e,i), lowering of (oh) in W New England, N PA, N OH, IN, IL, MI, WI (Buffalo, Chicago) traditionally tense (long) vowels and / U / are unaffected lax subsystem is moving ordering of elements via “push” and “drag” chains somewhat controversial (iy) beat (i) bit (ey) beat (e) bet (ae) bat (o) bottle, father (uw) boot (u) book (ow) boat (uh) but (oh) ball, caught

25 Northern Cities and Southern Cities Vowel Shifts (Labov, 1991) i˘ e˘ I E Q a ç √ o˘ U u˘ key characteristics: fronting of long back vowels (uw), (ow), upward rotation and development of inglides in short (e,i) while long (ey,iy) rotate back and downward in all of the US South both shifts are viewed as related (and separate from a third pattern, associated with the merger of (oh-a) ). (iy) beat (i) bit (ey) beat (e) bet (ae) bat (o) bottle, father (uw) boot (u) book (ow) boat (uh) but (oh) ball, caught

A Working Definition of Standard English A particular dialect of English the only non-localized dialect of global currency without significant variation universally accepted as appropriate educational target in teaching English

Dialects, Standards, Vernaculars Wolfram & Schiling-Estes  we usually make judgments about people by the kind of language they use  regional background  social status  ethnicity  education

 language differences may serve as most reliable indicator of social position in society:  live a certain way  expected to match that lifestyle with our talk  don’t meet people’s expectations to match that lifestyle with our talk (e.g., a teacher talking like a punk)  mismatch is a topic for conversation

Power and language? Racism and language?

Bilingual sign