The Social Life of Appalachian Englishes

ISBN-13: 9781032727783 / Twarda / 2024 / 184 str.

Allison Burkette

Opis

Appalachian Englishes (AEs) have a long history of representation in linguistic literature, but until now no single work has examined the interplay of language production and perception with an eye toward the role that language plays in the construction of personal and social identities.

Recenzje

The Social Life of Appalachian Englishes offers the most thorough and engaging portrait of the language and culture of one of America’s most distinctive and iconic regions. The work stems from one of the most ambitious undertakings in dialectology, the Linguistic Atlas Project, and contextualizes the ensuing linguistic analyses in the voices and stories of Appalachian residents. This volume examines not only the history that gave birth to the ways of speaking throughout the Appalachian region, it offers a compelling commentary on how those ways of speaking are viewed from within and outside the region and why this matters. Additionally, the authors persuasively explain why learning more about Appalachian English is essential for anyone interested in language and culture, and in doing so, pays the region the homage it deserves.

Jeffrey Reaser, North Carolina State University, USA

Spis treści

Preface

Acknowledgements

Glossary

 

Chapter 1: “It tickles him so good” – The Social Life of Language in Appalachia

Setting in

Appalachia as a construct

Perceptions of Appalachia

The study of language

Introducing sociolinguistics

Appalachia in previous sociolinguistic studies

Contextualizing Appalachian Englishes

Recollection

Discussion Questions

Exercises

Chapter 2: “She’d write him a dun” – Words and Meanings

Setting in

Variability in language

Vocabulary in Appalachia

What the LAP can tell us about an ‘Appalachian vocabulary’

Appalachian vocabulary features in the LAP

A cottage industry

Fanning the lexical flames

Out of the fire and into the pan

Where you put your groceries

Recollection

Discussion Questions

Exercises

Chapter 3: “Build us a far” – Sounding Appalachian

Setting in

The study of speech sound

The sounds of Appalachian Englishes

Appalachian pronunciation features in the LAP

Hwæt happened to the /h/?

Intrusive consonants?

One vowel or two?

Recollection

Discussion Questions

Exercises

Chapter 4: “They didn’t nobody starving” – Making Sense of Grammatical Variation

Setting in

The study of grammar

The grammatical features of Appalachian Englishes

Appalachian grammatical features in the LAP

Growed up too fast

We was all waiting

Three mile of bean plants

Recollection

Discussion Questions

Exercises

Chapter 5: “All he's talked about up that mountain” – Discourse and Narrative

Setting in

Discourse, narrative, and meaning

Appalachian discourses in the LAP

Excerpt 1: That’s good cooking in that

Excerpt 2: Some people call ‘em pokes and things

Excerpt 3: Them’s quilts or coverlets

Excerpt 4: Well of course a pen [pɛn] if you say it distinctly

Excerpt 5: Who? What? Y’all?

Recollection

Discussion Questions

Exercises

Chapter 6: “Roots of my raisin” – Perceptions of Appalachian Englishes

Setting in

Perceptual dialectology

Mental maps

Qualitative approaches

Insiders and outsiders

Where are Appalachian Englishes?

What are Appalachian Englishes?

Recollection

Discussion Questions

Exercises

Chapter 7: “A relatively distinct way of speaking” – Integrating Our Understandings

Setting in

Putting the “dialect” in perceptual dialectology

Mapping production and perceptions

Perception, production, and identity

Appalachia(n) as ‘other’

Recollection

Discussion Questions

Exercises

 

Bibliography

Index

O autorze

Jennifer Cramer is Professor of Linguistics and Affiliate Faculty of Appalachian Studies at the University of Kentucky, USA. She is the author of Contested Southernness (2016), co-editor of Cityscapes and Perceptual Dialectology (2016), and co-author of Linguistic Planets of Belief (2020) and English with an Accent (2023).

Allison Burkette is a Professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Kentucky, USA, where she currently serves as Department Chair and as the Editor of the Linguistic Atlas Project. Burkette is the author of Language and Material Culture (2015) and Language and Classification (2018).