LING55AC Lecture 8 - US English Dialects(Tamasi & Antieau 2014 Chp. 5)

Regional Dialect

A variety of language associated with a specific region or social group

Factors Driving Dialect Formation

• Settlement History

• Physical Geography (Indirect effects like isolation/new vocabulary)

• Cultural Centers

• Contact with pre-existing languages

Dialectology

Dialectology uses linguistic interviews to establish regional boundaries

Isogloss

A line drawn on a map demarcating areas where a linguistic feature is used from those where it is not

Group Preferential VS Group Exclusive Linguistic Features

Linguistic features of dialects are typically group preferential (favored in one region, like "coke" in the South) rather than group exclusive (used nowhere else)

4 Major US Dialects

The South, The North, The Midland, and The West

Southern Dialect Features

Includes lexical items like blue John and tommytoes, phonological features like monopthongization of the vowel a and the pin-pen merger, and grammatical features like double modals, perfective done, fixing to, and personal datives.

Midland Dialect Features

Includes lexical items like roasting ear and skillet, intrusive $r$ (e.g., warsh), and positive anymore

Western Dialect Features

Includes features like the fronted u (in words like dude) and positive anymore, noting that the Western dialect is still actively in formation

California English Characteristics & Context

Because California is a newer state, it lacks the deep historical dialect layers of the East Coast, but features a developing regional variety (e.g., fronted u, awesome rhyming with possum) alongside a rich mosaic of multi-ethnic Englishes.