11 - Language and region

Summary

This chapter examines the regions with respect to linguistic systems, and examines how one can use them effectively in sociolinguistics. Wilbur Zelinsky has written extensively about regions as culture areas. Zelinsky insists that a region be genuine, and be recognized by its participants, in order for the region to be distinguished from other locations as an area in which one can observe the evidence of culture, of course including language. Zelinsky also proposes college towns as educational voluntary regions, retirement voluntary regions like those in Arizona and Florida, and "pleasuring places" where people not only visit to play at the beach or in the snow but also choose to live. Las Vegas is one of the fastest-growing places in the country. Zelinsky adds to these two basic kinds of regions one more type: the "vernacular region" or "perceptual region".