Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T06:09:32.942Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Flying high above the social radar: Coronal stop deletion in modern Appalachia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 May 2011

Kirk Hazen
Kirk Hazen
Affiliation:
West Virginia University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In this paper I examine how a classic feature of variationist research, coronal stop deletion (CSD), operates at the end of the 20th century in one of the most renowned vernacular dialects in the United States, English in Appalachia. Through examination of CSD in a corpus of Appalachian speech, this paper also focuses on the methodological choices available. Several methodological questions are reviewed, such as the choices concerning voicing of the codas (wind vs. went vs. west). The corpus comprises interviews with 67 Appalachian speakers, yielding 17,694 tokens of potential CSD. These were analyzed using quantitative variationist methodology to reveal that morphological categories are less influential than even the preceding phonological environment. This finding is in stark contrast with some other vernacular varieties and suggests that apparent morphological influences are actually phonological influences that present themselves as morphological trends. Overall, the following phonological environment is overwhelmingly the most influential linguistic factor on the rate of CSD. These Appalachian speakers maintain relatively high rates, in effect constraining the social distinctions within Appalachia that could possibly be made using CSD, but marking them as vernacular speakers for those outside Appalachia.

Type
Research Article
Information
Language Variation and Change , Volume 23 , Issue 1 , March 2011 , pp. 105 - 137
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bybee, Joan. (2002). Word frequency and context of use in the lexical diffusion of phonetically conditioned sound change. Language Variation and Change 14:261–290.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carver, Craig. (1987). American regional dialects: A word geography. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Childs, Becky, & Mallinson, Christine. (2004). African American English in Appalachia: Dialect accommodation and substrate influence. English World-Wide 25(1):27–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fasold, Ralph W. (1972). Tense marking in Black English: A linguistic and social analysis. Washington, D.C: Center for Applied Linguistics.Google Scholar
Gahl, Susanne, & Garnsey, Susan. (2004). Knowledge of grammar, knowledge of usage: Syntactic probabilities affect pronunciation variation. Language 80(4):748–775.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gahl, Susanne, & Garnsey, Susan. (2006). Knowledge of grammar includes knowledge of syntactic probabilities. Language 82(2):405–410.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guy, Gregory R. (1980). Variation in the group and the individual: The case of final stop deletion. In Labov, W. (ed.), Locating language in time and space. New York: Academic Press. 1–36.Google Scholar
Guy, Gregory R. (1991). Contextual conditioning in variable lexical phonology. Language Variation and Change 3:223–239.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guy, Gregory R. (2009). Unique lexical representations or multiple exemplars? A presentation at the annual meeting of the Linguistic Society of America.Google Scholar
Guy, Gregory R., & Boberg, Charles. (1997). Inherent variability and the obligatory contour principle. Language Variation and Change 9(2):149–164.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hazen, Kirk. (2002). Identity and language variation in a rural community. Language 78:240–257.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hazen, Kirk. (2008). (ING): A vernacular baseline for English in Appalachia. American Speech 83(2):116–140.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hazen, Kirk, Butcher, Paige, & King, Ashley. (2010). Unvernacular Appalachia. English Today 24(4):13–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hazen, Kirk, Hamilton, Sarah, & Vacovsky, Sarah. (2011). The fall of demonstrative them: Evidence from Appalachia. English World-Wide 32(1):74–103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hooper, Joan Bybee. (1976). Word frequency in lexical diffusion and the source of morpho-phonological change. In Christie, W. (ed.), Current progress in historical linguistics. Amsterdam: North Holland. 96–105.Google Scholar
Jurafsky, Daniel, Bell, Allan, Gregory, Michelle, & Raymond, William. (2001). Probabilistic relations between words: Evidence from reduction in lexical production. In Bybee, J. & Hopper, P. (eds.), Frequency and the emergence of linguistic structure. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. 229–254.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Khan, Farhat. (1991). Final consonant cluster simplification in a variety of Indian English. In Cheshire, J. (ed.), English around the world: Sociolinguistic perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 288–298.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kurath, Hans. (1949). A word geography of the Eastern United States. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Labov, William. (1989). The child as linguistic historian. Language Variation and Change 1:85–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Labov, William. (1997). Resyllabification. In Hinskens, F., van Hout, R., & Wetzels, L. (eds.), Language variation and phonological theory. Amsterdam: Benjamins. 145–180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Labov, William. (2001). Applying our knowledge of African-American English to the problem of raising reading levels in inner-city schools. In Lanehart, S. (ed.), Sociocultural and historical contexts of African American English. Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 299–330.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Labov, William, Ash, Sharon, & Boberg, Charles. (2006). Atlas of North American English. Hague: Mouton de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Labov, William, & Cohen, Paul. (1967). Systematic relations of standard and non-standard rules in the grammars of Negro speakers. Project Literacy Reports No. 8. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University. 66–84.Google Scholar
Labov, William, Cohen, Paul, & Robins, Clarence. (1965). A preliminary study of the structure of English used by Negro and Puerto Rican speakers in New York City. Final report, Cooperative Research Project 3091 [ERIC ED003819].Google Scholar
Labov, William, Cohen, Paul, Robins, Clarence, & Lewis, John. (1968). A study of the Non-Standard English of Negro and Puerto Rican speakers in New York City, Vols. 1 & 2. United States Office of Education Final Report, Research Project 3288 [ERIC ED028423 and ED028424].Google Scholar
Luhman, Reid. (1990). Appalachian English stereotypes: Language attitudes in Kentucky. Language in Society 19:331–348.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mallinson, Christine, & Wolfram, Walt. (2002). Dialect accommodation in a bi-ethnic mountain enclave community: More evidence on the development of African American English. Language in Society 31(5):743–775.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Preston, Dennis. (1991). Sorting out the variables in sociolinguistic theory. American Speech 66:33–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raymond, William D., Dautricourt, Robin, & Hume, Elizabeth. (2006). Word-internal /t,d/ deletion in spontaneous speech: Modeling the effects of extra-linguistic, lexical, and phonological factors. Language Variation and Change 18:55–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Romaine, Suzanne. (1984). The sociolinguistic history of t/d deletion. Folio Linguistica Historia 2:221–255.Google Scholar
Sankoff, David, Tagliamonte, Sali, & Smith, Eric. (2005). Goldvarb X: A variable rule application for Macintosh and Windows. Department of Linguistics, University of Toronto.Google Scholar
Schneider, Edgar W. (2004). Global synopsis: Phonetic and phonological variation in English world-wide. In Schneider, E. W., Burridge, K., Kortmann, B., Mesthrie, R., & Upton, C. (eds.), A handbook of varieties of English. New York: Mouton de Gruyter. 1111–1138.Google Scholar
Schreier, Daniel. (2003). Convergence and language shift in New Zealand: Consonant cluster reduction in 19th century Maori English. Journal of Sociolinguistics 7(3):378–414.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schreier, Daniel. (2005). Consonant change in English worldwide: Synchrony meets diachrony. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schreier, Daniel. (2009). How diagnostic are English universals? In Flippula, M., Klemola, J., & Paulasto, H. (eds.), Vernacular universals and language contacts: Evidence from varieties of English and beyond. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Schuchardt, Hugo. (1885). Über die Lautgesetze: Gegen die Junggrammatiker. Berlin: R. Oppenheim.Google Scholar
Tagliamonte, Sali. (2006). Analysing sociolinguistic variation. New York. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tagliamonte, Sali, & Temple, Rosalind. (2005). New perspectives on an ol' variable: (t,d) in British English. Language Variation and Change 17(3):281–302.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Torbert, Benjamin. (2001). Tracing Native American English history through consonant cluster reduction: The case of Lumbee English. American Speech 76(4):361–387.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trudgill, Peter. (1974). The social differentiation of English in Norwich. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wolfram, Walter A. (1969). A sociolinguistic description of Detroit Negro speech. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics.Google Scholar
Wolfram, Walter A. (1973a). Sociolinguistic aspects of assimilation: Puerto Rican English in New York City. Arlington, VA: Center for Applied Linguistics.Google Scholar
Wolfram, Walter A. (1973b). Variable constraints and rule relations. In Fasold, R. W. (ed.), Variation in the form and use of language. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Wolfram, Walter A. (1993). Identifying and interpreting variables. In Preston, D. (ed.), American dialect research. Amsterdam: Benjamins. 193–221.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolfram, Walter A., Childs, Becky, & Torbert, Benjamin. (2000). Tracing language history through consonant cluster reduction: Comparative evidence from isolated dialects. Southern Journal of Linguistics 24(1):17–40.Google Scholar
Wolfram, Walter A., & Christian, Donna. (1976). Appalachian speech. Washington, DC: The Center for Applied Linguistics.Google Scholar
Wolfram, Walter A., & Fasold, Ralph W. (1974). The study of social dialects in American English. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Wolfram, Walter A., & Thomas, Erik R. (2002). The development of African American English. Oxford: Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar