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Sibiu Alma Mater University Journals – Series C. Social Sciences – Volume 5, no. 2 / 2012
American dialects
Adina ILIESCU
George Bariţiu University of Brasov, 6 Lunii St., 500327 Brasov, Brasov County, Romania
Tel.: +40 268 319948, E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract
The main aim of this paper is to present the history of the American regional dialects. Today, English
is spoken by three hundred million people, on four continents. Among these, two hundred million live
in the United States of America. We may understand from this fact that there are many variations of
this language. English is used to different purposes and in different social contexts. From this paper,
we may notice that English has numerous dialects. At the same time, there are differences in
vocabulary, the same word having various meanings in different regions of the same country.
Keywords: dialect, colonists, colony, region, development, trade, map.
Rezumat
Prezenta lucrare are ca scop principal prezentarea istoriei dialectelor regionale americane. Astăzi,
Engleza este vorbită de trei sute milioane de oameni, pe patru continente. Dintre aceştia, două sute
milioane trăiesc în Statele Unite ale Americii. Prin răspândirea Englezei se poate înţelege faptul că
există multe variaţiuni ale acestei limbi. Engleza este folosită în diferite scopuri şi în contexte sociale
variate. Din această lucrare se poate observa că limba engleză are nenumărate dialecte. In acelaşi timp,
vocabularul diferă, acelaşi cuvânt putând să aibă mai multe înţelesuri în regiuni diferite ale aceleaşi
ţări.
Cuvinte cheie: dialect, colonişti, colonie, regiune, dezvoltare, comerţ, hartă.
The number of settlers from London for New
England was 193, or fifteen percent; for
Virginia 179, or twenty eight percent. The
counties which sent the most settlers to New
England were: Norfolk, Kent, Essex, Devon;
to Virginia, Gloucester, Kent, Yorkshire,
Lancaster sent settlers. Among the
emigrants from Gloucester to Virginia and
New England, more than half came from
Bristol (Paullin & Wright in Ken & Aderman,
1. Introduction
We best understand the different dialects if we take
into consideration the districts in England from
which the earliest American settlers came. The
English spoken by the colonists who came in the
17th century, determined the language of the
communities in which they settled. The people
who came later in these districts were incorporated
to the speech which already existed there.
1963, p. 108).
The nucleus of the New England colonies was
around Massachusetts Bay and the earliest
settlements in the South were in the district of
Virginia. Of the settlers in New England before
1700, 1281 have been traced to their source in
England, and for Virginia during the same period
the English homes have been found for 637. The
result shows that the predominant element in New
England was from the south-eastern and southern
counties of England.
So that two thirds of the New England colonists
before 1700 came from the south of England,
mainly the southeast. As regards Virginia, 42
percent were derived from London, Gloucester and
Kent all in the south. More than 50 percent of the
Virginia settlers came from the southern half of
England. The conclusion is that the English
brought to New England and Virginia was the
English spoken in the southern parts of England,
and the likeness of the New England and Southern
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Adina ILIESCU – American dialects
dialects in this country in Standard English is due
to the predominance of settlers from the south of
England in these colonies.
2. Discussion
With respect to the early settlers in the middle
colonies, the Quakers played the principal part in
the settlements along the Delaware, and this sect
had its largest role following in the north of
England and the north Midlands. Many settlers in
eastern Pennsylvania and the bordering parts of
New Jersey and Delaware came from the northern
half of England. Many Scotch-Irish also came to
Pennsylvania and later to the South and West.
They were mostly Scots, settled for quite a long
time in northeastern Ireland so they spoke
Northern English. The Germans, a large element in
the population of the middle colonies acquired
English from the English - speaking colonists
among whom they settled. It is possible that the
population of the Middle States was much more
northern than that of New England and Virginia.
The predominance of the Scotch-Irish at the
western frontier was an important factor for
carrying the English spoken in the middle colonies
into the newer areas of the West and in making this
speech the basis of General American.
In 1949 Professor Hans Kurath in A Word
Geography of the Eastern United States, on the
basis of lexical evidence, mainly in the Atlantic
Coast states, distinguished eighteen speech areas,
which he grouped into three main groups:
Northern. Midland and Southern. Later on,
Wolfram, on the basis of Kurath's work and The
Pronunciation of English in the Atlantic (written
by Kurath and McDavid in 1961), and The
Linguistic Atlas of the United States and Canada,
came up with another distribution of American
Regional Dialects. This is based on lexical and
pronunciation differences.
2.1. Main Regional Dialect
The North, for instance, is characterized by
phonological features like the pronunciation of
vowels in morning and mourning, the
pronunciation of roots with the same vowel as that
used in boot versus the vowel of put; lexical items
are of the type specified earlier pail for bucket, etc.
Grammatical features include items like dove as
the past tense of dive, phrases like sick to/at the
stomach, etc. Each of the regions has such sets of
features linked to that region.
In the 19th century, the industrial revolution
resulted in the growth of a number of industrial
centers, so that many farm population came to live
in the cities. The development of the railroad
increasing the mobility of the people and the
migrations westward, led to a general
abandonment of narrowly local speech forms for
more accessible, fewer, varieties. But some local
speech forms have been preserved up to the present
day. Certain colonial cities such as Boston,
Philadelphia and Charleston became prestigious
because they developed as centers of trade and
immigration.
Wolfram presents three major regional dialects
areas:
– The Northern Dialect from the northern part
of Pennsylvania, westward through the northern
part of Ohio and the southern border of the
Great Lakes. New England is generally
considered a separate region, as New York City
is.
– The Midland Area, subdivided into a North
Midland and a South Midland area, runs across
Maryland,
and
southward
along
the
Appalachian mountain range.
– The Southern Area, goes down the eastern
coast from the eastern and southern portions of
Maryland, and westward through the Gulf. Sub
regional divisions include the Virginia
Piedmont and eastern shores of Maryland and
Virginia.
They became economically, socially and culturally
representative, dominating the areas surrounding
them. Consequently, local expressions and
pronunciations specific to the country side were
replaced by new forms emerging from these
powerful centers. Not much has been noticed for
the influence of New York City on any large
surrounding area. But we can not deny the
importance of New York City for the language of
radio, television, publication. It was said that the
Brooklyn dialect of popular stereotype is similar to
that of the same working-class people in New
Orleans, because of the trade connections between
New Orleans and New York City.
In his turn, Carver proposes a summary map of
American regional dialects, based on lexical
items. It is the first map which is equally interested
in the western United States, an area which had
been ignored in previous summaries. Carver's
departure point of the method is to admit layers of
regional concentration. Carver reduces the
distinction between North, Midland, Midland and
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Sibiu Alma Mater University Journals – Series C. Social Sciences – Volume 5, no. 2 / 2012
South to a basic North-South regional distinction.
The Midland region is reduced to secondary levels
of dialect features localized in the southern North
and northern South areas.
Labov, in his article The Three Dialects of English
comes up with a different approach to determining
the major American regional dialects. His criteria
for dialect distinction are phonological rather than
lexical. Labov's concern is with overall shifts in
subsystems of vowels in English, as a language
spoken in the whole world. Labov has perceived
two main rotations in English vowels:
a) one rotation is called The Northern Cities Shift.
In this rotation the phonetic values of the low
long vowels are moving forward and upward and
the short vowels are moving downward and
backward. For instance, the phonetic value of a
vowel like the open o of coffee is moving
downward and forward toward the I a 1 of father.
The low vowel in a word like pop or lock moves
towards the [æ] of bat, which, in turn, moves
upward towards the vowel [є] of bet. At the same
time, another rotation moves the short vowel [I]
of bit towards the [є] of bet.
Regionally, the vowel rotation begins in western
New England, goes westward towards
Pennsylvania, northern Ohio, Indiana, Illinois,
Michigan, Wisconsin. More developed stages of
this change can be encountered in younger
speakers in the largest metropolitan areas as
Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago.
b) With respect to The Southern Vowel Shift, in this
rotation system, the short front vowels are
moving upward, having the gliding character (a
gradually changing sound made in passing from
one position of the speech organs to another) of
long vowels. Labov's classification highlights the
importance of urbanization in the common
system of regional disposition, mainly as far as
the Northern Cities Shift and the Low Back
Vowel Merger are concerned. The former is a
metropolitan occurrence whereas the latter is a
non metropolitan event, at least in the
West.Undoubtedly the debate about more
detailed dialect subdivisions will go on.
2)
3)
4)
Elisabeth M. Kerr and Ralph M. Aderman in
Aspects of American English (1963), consider that
the best division of regional dialects in the U.S.A.
would be in seven classes:
1) The first class is Eastern New England - This
includes entire New England region or parts of
states that lie in the east of the Connecticut
River in Massachusetts and Connecticut and
5)
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east of the Green Mountains in Vermont. While
all features of the dialect are not uniform in
their distribution we may notice as
characteristic the retention of a rounded vowel
in words like hot and top, which the rest of the
country has unrounded to a shortened form of
the a in father, the use of the broad a in fast,
path, grass, etc., and, the loss of the r in car,
hard, etc., except before vowels (carry, Tory).
The region has as focal area (an area which
because of political, commercial, cultural or
other importance, has influenced the speech of
surrounding areas), Boston.
New York City - Although often considered
apart of the Eastern New England dialect, the
speech of New York City and surrounding
counties is on the whole quite different. The
pronunciation of curl like coil, third like thoid,
is the most distinctive feature of New York City
in the popular mind, although it should be said
that among cultivated New Yorkers curl and
coil are phonemically different. While it has
generally lost the r, cot and caught are
phonemically contrasted [kat, kоt] since the o in
words like cot and top, before voiceless stops (a
plosive consonant uttered without vibration of
the vocal cords) is almost always unrounded.
Middle Atlantic - It comprises the eastern third
of Pennsylvania below the Northern – Midland
line, the southern half of New Jersey, the
northern half of Delaware and the bordering
parts of Maryland. It keeps the r in all positions,
it always pronounces [æ] in fast, ask, grass,
etc., it has the unrounded vowel in forest, hot.
In all these features except the unrounded
vowel in words like forest and closet it agrees
with General American. Philadelphia is its focal
area.
Western Pennsylvania - Perhaps it would be
better to speak of this area as Western Midland,
because it is known how far westward it
extends beyond the Pennsylvania line. It
extends into Western Maryland and the
bordering parts of West Virginia on the south.
In its over-all pattern it belongs to General
American, so that cot and caught are
homonyms , r is always pronounced, the sound
[æ] is present in words like ask, path, etc.
Southern Mountain - It is not possible yet to
mark with confidence the limits of this area,
especially on its southern and western
boundaries. It covers however, all of West
Virginia except the counties bordering on
Pennsylvania and Maryland, the mountain
Adina ILIESCU – American dialects
regions of Virginia and North Carolina, most of
Kentucky and Tennessee, with a small portion
of the bordering states to the south. The area
proves a mixed character in its speech, being
settled first from Pennsylvania and later from
the South. Consequently, the r is sounded as in
Midland. It is impossible to say whether it
should be considered a variety of Midland or of
Southern, and while it appears to be a Midland
type modified by Southern, it seems best for the
present to designate it by a name that it is
mainly topographical in character.
6) Southern - This Southern dialect includes a
large area, the old plantation country and
therefore we cannot expect uniformity in it. The
focal areas are the Virginia Piedmont and the
low country near the cost of South Carolina. In
many districts it agrees with eastern New
England in the loss of r finally and before
consonants, as in car and hard, but tends to go
further and omit the r before a word beginning
with a vowel, as in far away [fa:ә`we]. But it
does not have the rounded vowel in words like
top and hot, or the broad a in grass, dance.
Final consonant clusters are weakly articulated:
last, kept, find, become las', kep', fin', mainly in
substandard use. There are considerable local
differences in the speech of the South, enabling
a southerner to tell from a short conversation
the particular state which another southerner
comes from. But a northerner can seldom do
this.
7) General American - It includes about two
thirds of the area of the United States and
comprises two thirds of the total population. All
the regions included above except eastern New
England, metropolitan New York and Southern
are considered to form General American.
General American has been called "the most
distinctly American manner of speaking"
(Kurath, 1928: 286 in Kerr & Aderman, 1963:
108). As major characteristics of General
American, the following are noticeable: the flat
a in fast, path, etc., the unrounded vowel in hot,
top, etc., the retention of a strong r in all
positions, and less tendency than British
English to introduce a glide after the vowel [e]
and [o], late, note. The diphthong heard in the
Southern British pronunciation of words like
note, go is missing from most parts of General
American. Local preference for certain words
or expressions does not prevent familiarity with
other expressions for the same thing. A
Philadelphian who usually says baby coach also
knows baby carriage and may sometimes use
it. The general pattern is felt in the major
features mentioned, especially the flat a and the
retention of the [r] phoneme.
2.2. Regional Words
We cannot draw a conclusion without mentioning
some important regional words. It's worth saying
that such environmental factors as topography,
climate, plant and animal life also played their role
in inducing the dialect of an area. For instance, in
those parts of the country where snow is a rarity or
does not fall at all, terms related to snow will not
be very necessary. Or, the complexity and size of
the network of fresh-water flows influences the
meaning and the distribution of such terms as
brook, creek, branch, river, wash, bayou. In parts
of Ohio and Pennsylvania, for example, the term
creek is used for a much larger amount of water
than in Michigan.
Let us examine now briefly some regional words
taken from A Word Geography of the Eastern
United States (1949) by Hans Kurath.
Clothes closet - In New England and the North
Midland including the Shenandoah Valley and
northern West Virginia, clothespress is a common
term for the clothes closet in rural areas. On
Narragansett Bay, in Western Pennsylvania and the
bordering counties of Ohio and West Virginia,
Clothespress is popular among all social classes in
the country as well as in the cities. In the urbanized
areas around Boston, in the lower Hudson Valley,
in the lower Connecticut Valley and around
Philadelphia, (clothes) closet is now used almost
entirely.
Picket fence - Fences with pointed or pointless
upright slats which usually surround the dwelling
and the garden, are named picket fences in the New
England settlements area, paling fences, paled
fences or simply palings in the Midland and the
Southern area. The variant paled fence is common
to the Philadelphia area. Picket fence comes as a
modern term in large parts of the Midland and the
South, namely in the Ohio Valley, on Chesapeake
Bay, in north-eastern North Carolina, in the
Charleston area in South Carolina.
Roller shades - The term roller shades is widely
used in the Hudson Valley, the Virginia Piedmont,
the greater part of the Carolinas, and in other urban
areas. Curtain is very much used in the sense of
roller shades in New England and the New
England settlement area, in the Philadelphia area,
or, Chesapeake Bay and in the coastal part of
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Sibiu Alma Mater University Journals – Series C. Social Sciences – Volume 5, no. 2 / 2012
north-eastern North Carolina. The term blinds is
used in Midland. In the Philadelphia area and on
Delmarva, blinds rivals with curtains. In all of the
South 'Midland and the rest of Pennsylvania,
blinds has won over. There, this term is never
employed as the equivalent of shutters.
the South Midland quarter till. The Midland till
has been carried seaward and even rivals the
Southern to on the Neuse. Pennsylvania shows a
picture of great confusion. In the central part of the
state the characteristic Midland till is still usual,
but it is losing ground in the east to of, which now
preponderates in Philadelphia and the southeastern
part of the state: and in the Pittsburgh area of and
to are gradually replacing till.
Store room - Many houses have a room in the attic
or the cellar for storing old furniture and utensils.
In the South Atlantic States we find a variety of
words to designate it: lumber room, plunder room,
trumpery room, junk room, catch-all. Lumber
room is the Virginia Piedmont and Tidewater term,
which is now popular also on the Eastern Shore of
Virginia (but not of Maryland) and in the Valley of
Virginia. The greater part of North Carolina and
bordering parts of South Carolina have plunder
room, and this word is not uncommon, by the side
of lumber room, in Virginia south of the James.
From Albemarle Sound to the lower Neuse
trumpery room is popular, on Delaware Bay,
catch-all. The expressions for this storeroom were
not systematically recorded in the Middle Atlantic
States and in New England, but for the eastern half
of Pennsylvania. Store room appears to be the
common term in the Philadelphia area, junk room
from the Susquehanna westward. Junk room is also
common in the Pennsylvania settlements of the
piedmont of North Carolina and on the Cape Fear
River by the side of plunder room.
3. Conclusions
Undoubtedly, the language of the United States has
a major influence everywhere that English is
spoken as a first language. And this influence will
probably increase in time even more, because as
Clive James said. "It is an American characteristic
not to stop running even after you have arrived"
(Frost & Shea, 1987: 27).
Not only do Americans form by far the largest
single body of speakers of English, but they also
have a preponderance of economic and political
power and prestige. The wealth and power of the
United States make her a creditor nation in
linguistic matters.
The American influence on English speaking
countries and mainly on British English, manifests
itself especially in vocabulary. Many people are
surprised to learn that some commonly used words
are of American origin: words like cockroach,
loafer, stevedore, tornado, are so familiar that we
do not think of them as Americanisms, and the
same is true of more recent importations like:
blurb, cagey, gimmick, rugged (in the sense of
robust).
Living room - In all the Eastern states living room
and sitting room (settin ' room among the common
people) are the usual names for the room in which
the family gathers evenings, and receives and
entertains friends. Sitting room is now rather a
rural expression. Living room is fully established in
the cities and among the younger generation of the
country. Only the larger houses have or had a best
room for formal occasions: weddings, funerals, and
the reception of honored guests, which is known as
the parlor from Maine to the Carolinas. The oldtime parlor is now a thing of the past. Some now
call it the front room.
In this paper I tried to illustrate: some historical
data about the formation of American language
and American people, the major aspects in which
American English differs from British English as
well as the homogeneity of American English.
References
All these terms are usual almost everywhere in the
Eastern States, but with varying frequency.
Barber C. 1993. The English Language. A Historical
Introduction, Cambridge University Press
Quarter of eleven - Of, to, and till are all used over
large areas in this phrase. In the Northern area, on
Delaware Bay, and on Chesapeake Bay of and to
stand side by side in this expression. Quarter of
prevails in the Boston area and in the Hudson
Valley, elsewhere of and to seem to be in balance.
The greater part of the Southern area (Eastern
Virginia, northwestern North Carolina, and the
Low Country of South Carolina) has quarter to,
Cobb T. & Gardiner R. 1994. Today’s English
Grammar, Ed. Prietenii Cartii, Bucuresti
Crum R., Cram W. & MacNeil R. 1992. The Story of
English, Faber & Faber, London Boston, BBC
Books
Frost D. & Shea M. 1987. The Mid-Atlantic Companion.
Or How to Misunderstand Americans as Much as
30
Adina ILIESCU – American dialects
They Misunderstand Us, Sphere Books Limited
Wolfram W. 1991. Dialects & American English.
Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs.
Kerr E.M. & Aderman R.M. 1963. Aspects of American
English, Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc.
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