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112 books match the query 'Languages' and 2 start with h

cover of Handbook of the Linguistic Atlas of the Middle and South Atlantic States

Handbook of the Linguistic Atlas of the Middle and South Atlantic States

William A. Kretzschmar Jr., Virginia G. McDavid, Theodore K. Lerud, and Ellen Johnson

University of Chicago Press, 1993

Who uses "skeeter hawk," "snake doctor," and "dragonfly" to refer to the same insect? Who says "gum band" instead of "rubber band"? The answers can be found in the Linguistic Atlas of the Middle and South Atlantic States (LAMSAS), the largest single survey of regional and social differences in spoken American English. It covers the region from New York state to northern Florida and from the coastline to the borders of Ohio and Kentucky. Through interviews with nearly twelve hundred people conducted during the 1930s and 1940s, the LAMSAS mapped regional variations in vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation at a time when population movements were more limited than they are today, thus providing a unique look at the correspondence of language and settlement patterns.

This handbook is an essential guide to the LAMSAS project, laying out its history and describing its scope and methodology. In addition, the handbook reveals biographical information about the informants and social histories of the communities in which they lived, including primary settlement areas of the original colonies. Dialectologists will rely on it for understanding the LAMSAS, and historians will find it valuable for its original historical research.

Since much of the LAMSAS questionnaire concerns rural terms, the data collected from the interviews can pinpoint such language differences as those between areas of plantation and small-farm agriculture. For example, LAMSAS reveals that two waves of settlement through the Appalachians created two distinct speech types. Settlers coming into Georgia and other parts of the Upper South through the Shenandoah Valley and on to the western side of the mountain range had a Pennsylvania-influenced dialect, and were typically small farmers. Those who settled the Deep South in the rich lowlands and plateaus tended to be plantation farmers from Virginia and the Carolinas who retained the vocabulary and speech patterns of coastal areas.

With these revealing findings, the LAMSAS represents a benchmark study of the English language, and this handbook is an indispensable guide to its riches.

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cover of Heartland English: Variation and Transition in the American Midwest

Heartland English

Variation and Transition in the American Midwest

Timothy C. Frazer

University of Alabama Press, 1993

Mapping the Diverse Voices of America's Linguistic Heartland.

Heartland English is the first book-length scholarly treatment of English spoken in the Midwest, or the northern interior of the continental United States. For generations, the American Midwest has been portrayed as the home of a single, uniform variety of "standard" American English. Heartland English: Variation and Transition in the American Midwest challenges that assumption through the first book-length scholarly examination of the rich linguistic diversity that exists across the region. Bringing together the work of leading dialectologists and language scholars, editor Timothy C. Frazer presents a groundbreaking exploration of how history, migration, settlement patterns, geography, culture, and social change have shaped the spoken language of the Midwest.    

Covering communities across the northern interior of the United States, the volume reveals a complex linguistic landscape marked by regional dialect boundaries, evolving pronunciations, distinctive vocabulary, and shifting patterns of speech. Rather than viewing Midwestern English as a static or homogeneous dialect, the contributors demonstrate how linguistic variation reflects the movement of peoples, the influence of neighboring regions, and the ongoing transformation of American society.   

Drawing on research in dialect geography, sociolinguistics, historical linguistics, and language variation studies, Heartland English offers valuable insights into the ways language both shapes and reflects regional identity. The collection examines how speakers perceive dialect differences, how those differences develop over time, and why the Midwest remains one of the most important regions for understanding the evolution of American English. As a landmark contribution to the study of language in North America, the book continues to serve as an essential resource for scholars investigating the relationship between language, culture, and place.

A Publication in the Centennial Series of the American Dialect Society in celebration of the beginning of its second century of research into language variation in America.

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