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This article argues that William Barnes looked back to the fourth-century Christianity of his local Dorset to explore questions of faith, language, and nation. In his poetry and still unpublished sermons, Barnes spoke directly to his community in an Old West Saxon Dorset dialect about the early Christianity of their ancient ancestors. I argue that this early Dorset Christianity offered Barnes a way out of nineteenth-century Christian schisms and was also congruous with his interests in the linguistic and religious practices, myths, folklore, and archaeology of Dorset. I also propose that in embracing this early Christianity, Barnes denounced a modern Protestant imperialism whose colonizing mission functioned to eliminate local as well as global linguistic and religious specificities., An 'incarnation or manmuse of the country, of Dorset, of rustic life and humanity': this description of the writer and clergyman William Barnes is one of several written by his [...]

In the 17th century, the English region of East Anglia contained many of the major population centres of the British Isles, not least Norwich, England's second city at that time. One might therefore predict that East Anglian dialects of English would have played a major role in determining the nature of the new colonial Englishes which were first beginning to emerge during this period. This paper considers some of the phonological and grammatical features of East Anglian English which can be argued to have been influential in this way. Keywords: East Anglia; dialects; colonial English; Caribbean English; American English; Australasian English., 1. Introduction At the time when the English language first left the British Isles and started being transported across the Atlantic, in the 1600s (Trudgill 2017), Norwich was the second [...]

Purpose: This study was designed to examine the relationships among minority dialect use, language ability, and young African American English (AAE)-speaking children's understanding and awareness of Mainstream American English (MAE). Method: Eighty-three 4- to 8-year-old AAE-speaking children participated in 2 experimental tasks. One task evaluated their awareness of differences between MAE and AAE, whereas the other task evaluated their lexical comprehension of MAE in contexts that were ambiguous in AAE but unambiguous in MAE. Receptive and expressive vocabulary, receptive syntax, and dialect density were also assessed. Results: The results of a series of mixed-effect models showed that children with larger expressive vocabularies performed better on both experimental tasks, relative to children with smaller expressive vocabularies. Dialect density was a significant predictor only of MAE lexical comprehension; children with higher levels of dialect density were less accurate on this task. Conclusions: Both vocabulary size and dialect density independently influenced MAE lexical comprehension. The results suggest that children with high levels of nonmainstream dialect use have more difficulty understanding words in MAE, at least in challenging contexts, and suggest directions for future research. Keywords: children, cultural and linguistic diversity, education, language, literacy, speech-language-pathology, American English is spoken in a variety of dialects associated with different racial/ethnic groups, geographic regions, and income strata (Wolfram & Schilling-Estes, 1998). Minority dialects such as African American English [...]

This study examines the role of abstractness during the activation of a lexical representation. Abstractness and conflict are directly modeled in our approach by invoking lexical representations in terms of contrastive phonological features. In two priming experiments with English nouns differing only in vowel height of their stem vowels (e.g.,pin vs. pan), we compare a conflict versus non-conflict situation across English dialects. Based on differences in the vowel height representation, the conflict occurs in American English, but not in New Zealand English. The results show that there is a lack of priming in the conflict, but not in the non-conflict situation. This is taken as evidence for the claim that lexical access is sensitive to conflicts and non-conflicts between acoustic-phonetic and phonological information. We therefore conclude that discrete phonological features are crucial determiners for successful speech perception, which is in line with abstractionist approaches. Key words abstraction lexical access lexical representations phonological features semantic priming speech perception, 1 Introduction Speech perception models try to account for the mapping of continuous, physical acoustic speech events onto concrete, categorical representations in the mental lexicon (cf., Klatt, 1989; Miller & [...]

In the second half of the nineteenth century, working- and middle-class Lancashire advocates argued for the legitimacy of their regional dialect and for their rightful place in Britain's literary history. Although today Elizabeth Gaskell and the reverend William Gaskell are the best known of these supporters, at the time the Lancashire dialect writers Ben Brierley and Edwin Waugh--who broke into the middleclass literary world, ironically, via their performance of working-class "authenticity"--were recognized as central to this movement. Brierley's and Waugh's short stories, with their multiple layers of narration, provided a space to negotiate their complex personas at the threshold between middle and working class, revealing the fluidity of nineteenth-century categories of class., In the mid-nineteenth century, when industrialization and education were quickly changing the physical, social, and linguistic landscape of Manchester, the works of Lancashire dialect writers Ben Brierley (1825-96) and his [...]

A study investigated the duration of five American English vowels used in the dialects in the Inland North, Midlands and South. The results revealed differences in vowel durations in the dialects of the three regions, with the longest duration in the South and the shortest in the Inland North.

Le plurilinguisme litteraire et la surconscience linguistique Les chemins qui m'ont menee vers le corpus litteraire anglo-quebecois--un corpus qui m'accompagne depuis pres de dix ans deja--tiennent d'abord au fait que [...]

ABSTRACT Within the continuum of spoken and written English some variations, c. g. the varying usage of negation and the opposition of pronominal usage, can be explained with reference to [...]

Zero copula is a feature of English-based creoles, which has figured in the African American Vernacular English (AAVE) origins debate. A study is conducted which analyzes zero copula on the eastern Caribbean island of Bequia, where a mesolectal creole variety coexists with a nonstandard English variety. Results show that the relative ordering of factors within the grammatical category is parallel in the two varieties, but predicate adjectives are treated differently.

Purpose: This study examined whether child speakers of Southern African American English (SAAE) and Southern White English (SWE) who were also perceived by some listeners to present a Cajun/Creole English (CE) influence within their dialects produced elevated rates of 6 phonological and 5 morphological patterns of vernacular relative to other SAAE- and SWE-speaking children. Method: A group comparison design was followed. The data were listener judgments, 1-min audiotaped excerpts of conversational speech, and transcribed language samples from 93 children (31 classified as specifically language impaired while the others were classified as either aged-matched or language-matched controls; 13 classified as SWE with CE, 40 classified as SWE only, 18 classified as SAAE with CE, and 22 classified as SAAE only). Results: Results indicated that children with a CE influence produced elevated rates of vernacular phonology relative to the others, with 2 patterns (nonaspirated stops and glide reduction) showing statistically significant group differences. In contrast, the children's use of vernacular morphology was unrelated to their CE status, but was instead related to their primary dialect (SWE vs. SAAE) and language ability classification (impaired vs. normal). Conclusions: The findings highlight the role of phonology in listeners' perceptions of dialect variation within 2 nonmainstream dialects (SWE and SAAE). The findings also demonstrate the ways phonological and morphological forms of vernacular can be independently influenced by different types of child variables. KEY WORDS: dialect, multicultural, ethnicity, Language use varies across individuals even when these individuals are perceived to speak the same general dialect. In some cases, this variation relates to individual differences between speakers (for more [...]

Several longstanding, isolated biracial sociolinguistic situations in coastal and the Appalachian regions of North Carolina are examined. Young African Americans in some historically isolated rural regions appear to be moving away from a localized dialect toward a more generalized African American Vernacular English (AAVE) norm.

New Englishes, distinct forms of English which have emerged in postcolonial settings and countries around the globe, are typically regarded individually, as unique varieties shaped by idiosyncratic historical conditions and contact settings and no coherent theory to account for these processes is developed so far. It is argued that despite dissimilarities, a uniform development process, shaped by consistent sociolinguistic and language-contact conditions, has operated in the individual instances of rerooting the English language in another territory.

This article examines the traditional forms of the words 'spirit', 'merry' and 'worry' in Northumbrian English. The words represent three different lexical sets. The author examines the variety of vowels in their stressed syllables and aims to catalogue, analyze and map these sets and their stressed vowel words.

Three different approaches to the characterization of research participants' nonmainstream dialect use can be found in the literature. They include listener judgment ratings, type-based counts of nonmainstream pattern use, and token-based counts. In this paper, we examined these three approaches, as well as shortcuts to these methods, using language samples from 93 children previously described in J. Oetting and J. McDonald (2001). Nonmainstream dialects represented in the samples included rural Louisiana versions of Southern White English (SWE) and Southern African American English (SAAE). Depending on the method and shortcut used, correct dialect classifications (SWE or SAAE) were made for 88% to 97% of the participants; however, regression algorithms had to be applied to the type- and token-based results to achieve these outcomes. For characterizing the rate at which the participants produced the nonmainstream patterns, the token-based methods were found to be superior to the others, but estimates from all approaches were moderately to highly correlated with each other. When type- and/or token-based methods were used to characterize participants' dialect type and rate, the number of patterns included in the analyses could be substantially reduced without significantly affecting the validity of the outcomes. These findings have important implications for future child language studies that are done within the context of dialect diversity. KEY WORDS: African American English, dialect, child language, According to Leonard (1998), conducting research in cross-linguistic contexts carries all of the methodological problems of other child language work and a few more. When Leonard wrote this statement, he [...]

The term '86' has acquired several meanings, but its original interpretation may have referred to the 86th floor of the Empire State Building, where the elevator stopped. Later meanings included rhyming slang for 'nix,' a reference to the percentage of alcohol in Scotch, and ejecting a bar's customer.

The authors have discovered the earliest reference to 'redneck' as a badge of class pride for populist voters in the South. This term, from a newspaper column published in 1891, suggests Southern white farmers or rural laborers used this term in referring to themselves as a matter of social and political solidarity.

The authors present a collection of some new American English words appearing between 1999 and 2001. These include such terms as 'blobject,' 'cell yell,' 'dot snot,' 'Gorebushoff,' 'm-commerce,' 'Nader Trader,' 'scooby snack,' 'scootermania,' 'starter castles,' and 'WAP/Wireless Application Protocol.'

In this paper we use an extensive archive of early New Zealand speakers, together with comparisons with the other Southern Hemisphere varieties of English, to argue that dialect mixture and new-dialect formation are not haphazard processes. We demonstrate that, given sufficient linguistic information about the dialects which contribute to a mixture, and sufficient demographic information about the proportions of speakers of the different dialects, it is possible to make predictions about what the outcome of the mixture will be. We also argue that we have arrived at a probabilistic solution to the problem of randomness in the transmission of dialect features from one generation to another in such situations.

Substrate influence in Hawai'i Creole English (HCE) is discussed, with a focus on the role of the Chinese and Portuguese languages spoken by plantation laborers. Topics include the socio-historical background, the language situation, previous accounts of substrate influence in Hawai'i, Derek Bickerton's arguments against substrate influence in HCE, and substrate transfer and reinforcement.

Letters written by former slaves sent to Liberia in the 19th century have been compared to ex-slave narratives from Virginia. Literacy affected the first source but not the second, showing some African Americans of this period were able to acquire approximate standard English.

The English spoken by African Americans in Hyde County, North Carolina, shows variation due to factors other than social identity. Linguistic research for this region demonstrates robust variation among individuals for African American Vernacular English.

A study is presented of the creation of a new mixed variety in the English New Town of Milton Keynes, which was established in 1967. The roles of age groups, time scale, demography and social-network characteristics of individuals in koineization are discussed.

This investigation compares the impact of two language sampling elicitation contexts, free play and picture description, on variability in the use of African American English (AAE). Subjects were 65 normally-developing African American 4;4- to 6;3-year-old boys and girls from lower socioeconomic status homes. Comparisons of AAE production in the first 50 C units revealed significant differences by context. Picture descriptions elicited more AAE usage overall, a larger set of AAE types, and took less time. Gender differences in the use of AAE tokens were also apparent, with the boys using significantly more tokens than girls in the free play context. The use of AAE types and tokens was comparable for boys and girls in the picture description context. The advantages of language sampling with pictures to determine dialect usage is discussed. KEY WORDS: African American English, children, language, contextual variation, African Americans

Inhabitants of Ghana have created new English words and adapted existing ones to refer to different aspects of life and culture. Ghanaian English, like other West African forms of English, has developed over time and is becoming recognized by the country's leaders and writers as an acceptable form of English. Ghanaians have created new meanings and uses for the English terminology by shortening words, inventing new acronyms, and combining terms to express their everyday experiences.

A study of the English dialect spoken by residents of the Samana peninsula of the Dominican Republic reveals an earlier configuration of the grammar form English perfect. The residents' isolation for four generations prevented their English perfect from being modified as it has been in America. Comparing the dialects of isolated peoples with other language forms illuminates how communication with others and group connections affect grammatical evolution and language extinction.

Gullah, a creole dialect used by African Americans on the coasts of South Carolina and Georgia, is not in danger of being blended with other forms of English but of dying due to social factors. The lack of economic opportunity for young Gullah speakers encourages them to migrate to cities where pressures to conform to normative English are stronger. This reduces the number of new Gullah speakers. Gullah is stronger in regions where contact with newcomers is increasing as speakers strive to retain their distinctness.

The Matched Guise research method can be very useful in assessing the links between cognitive complexity, racial belief and the influence of a non-standard dialect in the analysis of language attitudes. It was established that labelling a speaker as belonging to a particular racial or ethnic group tends to prompt stereotypical responses from listeners. Speakers of informal Non-Standard English are generally regarded as poorly educated and coming from a low status group. Low cognitive complex people have been shown to react in the direction towards their beliefs.

The American English grammatical form of 'need' + past participle is examined regarding its appearance in dialects and sociolinguistics. An example of this use is 'The abstract still needs done.' Sociolinguistic distribution can be shown according to acceptance or rejection of the form, and some surveys of this are presented for midwestern states.

The Swedish-American English dialect spoken by many older Swedish Americans in the Minnesota area serves as an ethnic marker and reflects the loyalty to the speakers' origins and cultural identity. Many Swedes immigrated to Minneapolis and surrounding areas between 1840 and 1930, and their native Swedish language blended easily with English. The vernacular language comprised standard Swedish and English. It was maintained by many in an effort to assimilate without a complete loss of language and identity.

Regression analysis produced no evidence for a boundary between Northern-Midland and Southern dialects in Iowa. Instead, dialect mixture was found throughout the state. Different assumptions about how dialect areas are determined have led to controversy in interpreting the data. Evidence suggests that distinctions between Northern and Southern dialects in American English are less meaningful west of the Mississippi River. Instead of drawing dialect boundaries, a better procedure would be to detail the incidence of varying lexical items and whether speakers in a given area exhibit any central tendency to use Northern, Midland or Southern terms.

This study describes nonstandard syntactic and morphological forms used by 45 poor, urban, 4- to 5.5-year-old African American boys and girls. Distributional analyses revealed three subgroups distinguished by the percentage frequencies of occurrence of utterances containing specific forms, and by the predominant types used by each group. Implications for characterizing the linguistic productions of young African American children are discussed.

Propredicate 'do' is more characteristic of British than American English but is common among Mormons in the Intermountain West. Migration may account for the usage, since the region has the strongest concentration of post-colonial English immigrants in the US. Propredicate 'do' involves constructions such as 'I must have done' or 'we should do.' Naturalistic data and results from a usage survey are discussed.

Philip Carr's conclusions about Scottish vowel-length rule (SVLR) are problematic because he does not answer questions about lexical and dialectical distribution of putative victims. He also misrepresents John Anderson's formulation of SVLR. A proposal about the morphological categories' conditioning of the status of stem and base variations clarifies the issues.

American dialectologists have been working from a theory of three geographical dialects, Northern, Midland and Southern, since 1949, but the evidence supporting three distinct dialects is tenuous. An analysis of data used for three American linguistic atlases that proposed a third dialect reveals that the Midland dialect is unlikely and linguistic variation can be explained by a transitional area where Southern and Northern dialects exist together.

The form of transcription presents a problem in the representation of spoken language, particularly for dialects. Conventional English orthography does not specify pronunciation, so some other convention must be chosen. Complete transcription is time-consuming, difficult to read and preserves irrelevant information. Many dialect transcriptions are inconsistent, represent minor phonetic differences of little importance and suggest condescension. Guidelines are proposed, with a sample transcription from southwest Scots.