Dialects English

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Dialect, Variants, and the Development of American English

The Suggested Reading for this lecture is Victoria Fromkin, Robert

Rodman, and Nina !ams"s #eds$%An Introduction to Language,

chapter &'$

Clipart.com

(E)T*RE T+RTEEN 9495

Spread to the Ne -orld

Undoubtedly the most significant political development in the history ofEnglish after the Norman Conquest as the spread of English to the ne

orld. !nd "ust as the development of the #ritish Empire as a process of

happenstance$ so too the conquest of English as unplanned and hapha%ard.

England as not as early or effective as &pain or 'rance at amassingterritories. #y the time the settlements on the east coast of !merica ere

founded$ the &panish$ (ortuguese$ and 'rench had already acquired the

most desirable colonies for the purposes of e)ploitation. England ended up

settling in North !merica and *ndia$ putting don institutions and the Englishlanguage. Colonies in !ustralia$ Ne +ealand$ and parts of !frica and East

!sia came later. ,he colonies did three important things for the language-'irst$ they increased the spread of English increasing both the number of

English spea/ers and the regions in hich English as spo/en01 second$ they

brought English into close contact ith a ider variety of other cultures1 third$they created more opportunities for variation. !ll of these processes led to the

evolution of different English dialects.

Dialects and Dialectolog!

,here have alays been English dialects. Even in the 2ld English period ecan recogni%e !nglian$ 3entish$ and &a)on variations of 2ld English from$

respectively$ the northern$ the eastern$ and the estern sections of England0.!lthough there as broad dialect mi)ing after the #lac/ eath$ e /no thatthere ere recogni%able dialects in iddle English not only from our on

analysis of te)ts$ but from the testimony of individuals ho lived at the time.

uch of the humor of Chaucer6s The Reeves Tale$ for instance$ is based onthe accents of the to main characters$ !llen and 7ohn$ ho are northerners

at Cambridge. ,his is the same sort of "o/e that ould be made by an author

depicting to students ith strong ississippi accents getting the best of the

tonsfol/ in Cambridge$ assachusetts. Chaucer himself later ma/es fun ofnorthern accents$ or at least the tradition of alliterative poetry that he locates

in the north$ having his (arson say that he is a southern man and does not

spea/ 8rum$ ram$ ruf.ialects in #ritain have been among the most studied linguistic phenomena

since the nineteenth century. :eorge #ernard &ha as only somehat

e)aggerating hen he rote$ inPygmalion$ that ;enry ;iggins could$ througha short sample of speech alone$ 8place a man ithin si) miles. * can place

him ithin to miles in


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seven others0. uring this time a number of tapes ere sent to the #ritish

police from 8Bearside 7ac/ claiming to be responsible for the crimes.

#ecause in part &utcliffe6s accent did not match that of the man on the tapes$he as released after being pic/ed up for questioning and ent on to murder

three additional omen before being caught and sent to prison for life in

=9=. &tanley Ellis$ a #ritish dialectologist at the University of


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#angladesh0$ East !sia ;ong 3ong$ &ingapore$ and other former #ritish

colonies0$ and !frica particularly &outh !frica0. &pea/ers are generally much

better at locali%ing dialects within their on regions than they are at determininghich region a person comes from. ,hus !mericans are notoriously

unable to separate !ustralian from Ne +ealand accents and &outh !frican

spea/ers often do not easily hear the difference beteen !merican andCanadian accents$ particularly if the !merican accents being compared are

from the Upper idest.

-ithin America

ialects are generally shaped by the same processes that drive linguistic

evolution- inheritance from specific sources and geographic and social isolation

and evolution. 'or e)ample$ the distinctive Ne England accent probably

9>oes quite a bit to the fact that most of the people ho originally settled in

Ne England ere from locations ithin a si)tymile radius in East !nglia. #y

=>>D there ere three ma"or varieties of North !merican English-Northern$

hich as spo/en in Ne England and Ne @or/ &tate$Midland$ spo/en in(ennsylvania and Ne 7ersey$ and Southern$ spo/en from aryland to

:eorgia. ,he famous dropped 8r in Ne England speech as already presentat this time$ inherited from pronunciation in the south of England$ and

this form as also spo/en in the &outh.


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many sub"ects and record their pronunciations and ord usage$ plotting the

responses on a map. ! boundary beyond hich a form is never or alays

used is an isogloss. Bhen many isoglosses line up$ e can identify a dialectregion. 'or e)ample$ the boundary beteen the Upper North and the


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has a variety of names. *n northern and eastern Ne 7ersey it is a 8arning

(E)T*RE T+RTEEN 9

99Needle my grandmother6s name for it0$ but in (ennsylvania and Best

Firginia it is a 8&pindle$ in Firginia a 8&na/e octor and on the coast

through elaare$ aryland$ Firginia$ and North Carolina$ a 8&na/e 'eeder.&ome migration patterns into ,ennessee and even ,e)as are consistent ith

the variation in dragonfly names.

Bhen dialectologists plot all of their collected isoglossesKboth those forord use and for pronunciation on the mapKthey generally confirm the ma"or

divisions discussed above. #ut there are some particularly interesting small

areas of dialects that are highlighted by the map though early dialectologists$

and simple observers of !merican English$ had already noticed them0. ,hefirst is a poc/et on the East Coast that includes the cities of Charleston$ &C$

and &avannah$ :!$ and is called the Charleston ialect. 2ne of its characteristic

features is a pronunciation of 8layer that sounds so much li/e 8liar as

almost to be a social commentary. Charleston ialect is often considered tobe the highest prestige dialect of all &outhern English and has more in common

ith upperclass #ritish English of the eighteenth century than otherdialects Ne England dialects$ despite their prestige in !merica$ have more

in common ith middle and loerclass East !nglian settlers0. 2ther distinctive

dialect poc/ets include (rovidence$ A*$ ith its very characteristic namingof a mil/sha/e a 8cabinet$ and (ittsburgh$ (!$ ith a variety of nonstandard

le)ical items and pronunciations. ,here is also a dialect region around &t.


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first global language$ and its variations are an incitement to study. #ut the

various ord choices that people ma/e or ma/e unconsciously0 can have

social consequences in both the small and the large scale- &ome variationsmay be neutral$ but others have the ability to e)press social class$ cultural

solidarity$ and ethnic identity.

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Dialects English