Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-pfhbr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-10T04:43:09.909Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A new role for an ancient variable in Appalachia: Paradigm leveling and standardization in West Virginia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 April 2014

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

Abstract

In many rural English-speaking communities, linguistic processes such as paradigm leveling come into direct conflict with social processes of standardization. In the US region of Appalachia, an analysis of past be leveling illustrates the progression of the sociolinguistic clashes between these forces. A quantitative sociolinguistic examination of leveled was (e.g., We was there) for 67 native Appalachian speakers was conducted to assess the status of past be in light of economic and educational improvements over the 20th century. The results indicate that leveled was declined sharply, with the youngest speakers demonstrating more standardized patterns. Although the overall rate of was leveling declined across apparent time, the rate of was contraction (e.g., We's there last night) increased, offering native Appalachians a reduced variant to contest the social push toward a fully standardized system.

Type
Research Article
Information
Language Variation and Change , Volume 26 , Issue 1 , March 2014 , pp. 77 - 102
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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

Anderwald, Lieselotte. (2001). Was/were variation in non-standard British English today. English World-Wide 22:1–21.Google Scholar
Anderwald, Lieselotte. (2002). Negation in non-standard British English: Gaps, regularizations and asymmetries. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Baayen, R. Harald. (2008). Analyzing linguistic data: A practical introduction to statistics using R. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bailey, Guy. (2002). Real and apparent time. In Chambers, J. K., Trudgill, P., & Schilling-Estes, N. (eds.), The handbook of language variation and change. Malden: Blackwell. 312–332.Google Scholar
Bender, Emily. (2001). Syntactic variation and linguistic competence: The case of AAVE copula absence. Ph.D. dissertation, Stanford University.Google Scholar
Blanton, Linda Lonon. (1974). The verb system in Breathitt County, Kentucky: A sociolinguistic analysis. Ph.D. dissertation, Illinois Institute of Technology.Google Scholar
Bock, Kathryn, Butterfield, Sally, Cutler, Anne, Cutting, J. Cooper, Eberhard, Kathleen M., & Humphreys, Karin R. (2006). Number agreement in British and American English: Disagreeing to agree collectively. Language 82(1):64–113.Google Scholar
Britain, David. (2002). Diffusion, levelling, simplification and reallocation in past tense BE in the English Fens. Journal of Sociolinguistics 6(1):16–43.Google Scholar
Bybee, Joan. (2007). Frequency of use and the organization of language. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Carver, Craig. (1987). American regional dialects: A word geography. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Cassidy, Frederic G. (ed.). (1985). Dictionary of American regional English. Vol. 1: Introduction and A–C. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Chambers, J. K. (2004). Dynamic typology and vernacular universals. In Kortmann, B. (ed.), Dialectology meets typology. New York: Mouton de Gruyter. 127–145.Google Scholar
Cheshire, Jenny. (1982). Variation in an English dialect: A sociolinguistic study. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cheshire, Jenny, Edwards, Viv, & Whittle, Pamela. (1993). Non-standard English and dialect levelling. In Milroy, J. & Milroy, L. (eds.), Real English: The grammar of English dialects in the British Isles. London: Longman. 53–96.Google Scholar
Cheshire, Jenny, & Fox, Sue. (2009). Was/were variation: A perspective from London. Language Variation and Change 21(1):1–38.Google Scholar
Christian, Donna M. (1978). Aspects of verb usage in Appalachian speech. Abstract in Dissertation Abstracts International 39.7317A. Washington, DC. Ph.D. dissertation, Georgetown University.Google Scholar
Christian, Donna, Wolfram, Walt, & Dube, Nanjo. (1988). Variation and change in geographically isolated communities: Appalachian English and Ozark English. Publications of the American Dialect Society 74. Tuscaloosa: American Dialect Society.Google Scholar
Eckert, Penelope. (2000). Language as social practice. Malden: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Eisikovits, Edina. (1991). Variation in subject-verb agreement in Inner Sydney English. In Cheshire, J. (ed.), English around the world: Sociolinguistic perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 235–256.Google Scholar
Fasold, Ralph W. (1972). Tense marking in Black English: A linguistic and social analysis. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics.Google Scholar
Hackenberg, Robert G. (1972). Appalachian English: A sociolinguistic study. Ph.D. dissertation, Georgetown University.Google Scholar
Hall, Joseph Sargent. (1942). The phonetics of Great Smoky Mountain speech. Publications of the American Dialect Society 17, part 2. Tuscaloosa: American Dialect Society. (Electronic ed., Durham: Duke University Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/487132)Google Scholar
Hay, Jennifer, & Schreier, Daniel. (2004). Reversing the trajectory of language change: Subject-verb agreement with be in New Zealand English. Language Variation and Change 16:209–235.Google Scholar
Hazen, Kirk. (1996). Dialect affinity and subject-verb concord: The Appalachian-Outer Banks connection. SECOL Review 20:25–53.Google Scholar
Hazen, Kirk. (1998). The birth of a variant: Evidence for a tripartite negative past be paradigm. Language Variation and Change 10:221–245.Google Scholar
Hazen, Kirk. (2000a). Subject-verb concord in a post-insular dialect: The gradual persistence of dialect patterning. Journal of English Linguistics 28:127–144.Google Scholar
Hazen, Kirk. (2000b). Identity and ethnicity in the rural south: A sociolinguistic view through past and present be. Publications of the American Dialect Society 83. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Hazen, Kirk. (2002). Identity and language variation in a rural community. Language 78(2):240–257.Google Scholar
Hazen, Kirk. (2008). (ING): A vernacular baseline for English in Appalachia. American Speech 83(2):116–140.Google Scholar
Hazen, Kirk. (2011). Flying high above the social radar: Coronal stop deletion in modern Appalachia. Language Variation and Change 23(1):105–137.Google Scholar
Hazen, Kirk, & Hamilton, Sarah. (2008). A dialect turned inside out: Migration and the Appalachian diaspora. Journal of English Linguistics 36(2):105–128.Google Scholar
Johnson, Daniel Ezra. (2009). Getting off the GoldVarb standard: Introducing Rbrul for mixed-effects variable rule analysis. Language and Linguistics Compass 3(1):359–383.Google Scholar
Kortmann, Bernd, & Szmrecsanyi, Benedikt. (2004). Global synopsis: Morphological and syntactic variation in English. In Kortmann, B., Burridge, K., Mesthrie, R., Schneider, E. W., & Upton, C. (eds.), A handbook of varieties of English. Vol. 2. New York: Mouton de Gruyter. 1142–1202.Google Scholar
Kurath, Hans. (1949). A word geography of the Eastern United States. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Labov, William. (1972). Language in the inner city. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Labov, William. (1994). Principles of linguistic change: Internal factors. Cambridge: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Labov, William. (2001). Principles of linguistic change, Vol. 2. Malden: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Labov, William. (2006). The social stratification of English in New York City. 2nd ed.New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Labov, William, Ash, Sharon, & Boberg, Charles. (2006). Atlas of North American English: Phonetics, phonology and sound change. New York: Walter de Gruyter.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. Washington, DC: US Department of Education.Google Scholar
McMahon, April. (1994). Understanding language change. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Mesthrie, Rajend. (2004). Indian South African English: Morphology and syntax. In Kortmann, B., Burridge, K., Mesthrie, R., Schneider, E. W., & Upton, C. (eds.), A handbook of varieties of English. Vol. 2. New York: Mouton de Gruyter. 974–992.Google Scholar
Montgomery, Michael. (1989). Exploring the roots of Appalachian English. English World-Wide 10:227–278.Google Scholar
Montgomery, Michael. (2001). On the trail of Ulster emigrant letters. In Ickringill, S. & Fitzgerald, P. (eds.), Atlantic crossroads: Historical connections between Scotland, Ulster and North America. Newtownards, Northern Ireland: Colourpoint. 13–26.Google Scholar
Montgomery, Michael, & Chapman, Curtis. (1992). The pace of change in Appalachian English. In Rissanen, M., Ihalainen, O., Nevalainen, T., & Taavitsainen, I. (eds.), History of Englishes: New methods and interpretations in historical linguistics. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 624–639.Google Scholar
Moore, Emma. (2011). Interaction between social category and social practice: Explaining was/were variation. Language Variation and Change 22:347–371.Google Scholar
Nevalainen, Terttu. (2006). Vernacular universals? The case of plural was in early Modern English. In Nevalainen, T., Klemola, J., & Laitinen, M. (eds.), Types of variation: diachronic, dialectal and typological. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 351–369.Google Scholar
Nevalainen, Terttu. (2009). Number agreement in existential constructions: A sociolinguistic study of eighteenth-century English. In Filppula, M., Klemola, J., & Paulasto, H. (eds.), Vernacular universals and language contact: Evidence from varieties of English and beyond. New York: Routledge. 80–102.Google Scholar
Patrick, Peter L. (2002). The speech community. In Chambers, J. K., Trudgill, P., & Schilling-Estes, N. (eds.), The handbook of language variation and change. Malden: Blackwell. 573–598.Google Scholar
Poplack, Shana, & Tagliamonte, Sali. 2001. African-American English in the Diaspora. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Richards, Hazel. (2010). Preterite be, a new perspective? English World-Wide 31(1):62–81.Google Scholar
Schneider, Edgar, & Montgomery, Michael B. (2001). On the trail of early nonstandard grammar: An electronic corpus of southern US antebellum overseers' letters. American Speech 76:388–409.Google Scholar
Schreier, Daniel. (2002). Past be in Tristan da Cunha: The rise and fall of categoricality in language change. American Speech 77:70–99.Google Scholar
Schreier, Daniel. (2008). St. Helenian English: Origins, evolution and variation. Varieties of English around the World G37. Philadelphia: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Schreier, Daniel. (2009). How diagnostic are English universals? In Filppula, M., Klemola, J., & Paulasto, H. (eds.), Vernacular universals and language contact: Evidence from varieties of English and beyond. New York: Routledge. 57–79.Google Scholar
Smith, Jennifer. (2000). Synchrony and diachrony in the evolution of English: Evidence from Scotland. Ph.D. dissertation, University of York.Google Scholar
Smith, Jennifer, & Tagliamonte, Sali. (1998). We was all thegither, I think we were all thegither: Was regularization in Buckie English. World Englishes 17(2):105–126.Google Scholar
Starks, Donna, & Thompson, Laura. (2009). Agreement patterns in existential constructions in the New Zealand Niuean community. World Englishes 28(3):319–335.Google Scholar
Tagliamonte, Sali. (1998). Was/were variation across the generations: View from the city of York. Language Variation and Change 10(2):153–192.Google Scholar
Tagliamonte, Sali. (2006). Analysing sociolinguistic variation. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tagliamonte, Sali. (2009). There was universals: Then there weren't: A comparative sociolinguistic perspective on ‘default singulars’. In Filppula, M., Klemola, J., & Paulasto, H. (eds.), Vernacular universals and language contact: Evidence from varieties of English and beyond. New York: Routledge. 103–132.Google Scholar
Tagliamonte, Sali. (2011). Variationist sociolinguistics: Change, observation, interpretation. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Tagliamonte, Sali, & Baayen, R. Harald. (2012). Models, forests, and trees of York English: Was/were variation as a case study for statistical practice. Language Variation and Change 24:135–178.Google Scholar
Tagliamonte, Sali, & Smith, Jennifer. (1999). Analogical leveling in Samana English: The case of was and were. Journal of English Linguistics 27:8–26.Google Scholar
Tagliamonte, Sali, & Smith, Jennifer. (2000). Old was, new ecology: Viewing English through the sociolinguistic filter. In Poplack, S. (ed.), The English history of African American English. Malden: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Trudgill, Peter. (1974). The social differentiation of English in Norwich. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tucker, R. Whitney. (1966). Contraction of “was.” American Speech 41(1):76–77.Google Scholar
US Census. (2013) Education portal: http://www.census.gov/hhes/socdemo/education/index.html and http://www.census.gov/hhes/socdemo/education/data/cps/historical/index.html.Google Scholar
Walker, James A. (2007). “There's bears back there”: Plural existentials and vernacular universals in (Quebec) English. English World-Wide 28(2):147–166.Google Scholar
Wolfram, Walt. (1969). A sociolinguistic study of Detroit Negro speech. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics.Google Scholar
Wolfram, Walt, & Christian, Donna. (1975). Sociolinguistic variables in Appalachian dialects. Report for National Institute of Education of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, NIE-G-74-0026.M. Washington, DC: Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.Google Scholar
Wolfram, Walt, & Christian, Donna. (1976). Appalachian speech. Arlington: Center for Applied Linguistics.Google Scholar
Wolfram, Walt, Hazen, Kirk, & Schilling-Estes, Natalie. (1999). Dialect change and maintenance on the Outer Banks. Publications of the American Dialect Society 81. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.Google Scholar
Wolfram, Walt, & Sellers, Jason. (1999). Ethnolinguistic marking of past be in Lumbee Vernacular English. Journal of English Linguistics 27(2):94–114.Google Scholar
Wolfram, Walt, & Thomas, Erik R. (2002). The development of African American English. Malden: Blackwell.Google Scholar