American English Language in Society 18 Language, Society and the Elderly, Nikolas Coupland, Justine Coupland, and Howard Giles GENERAL EDITOR 19 Linguistic Variation and Change, James Peter Trudgill, Chair of English Linguistics, Milroy University of Fribourg 20 Principles of Linguistic Change, Vol. I: ADVISORY EDITORS Internal Factors, William Labov J. K. Chambers, Professor of Linguistics, 21 Intercultural Communication (3rd edn.), University of Toronto Ron Scollon, Suzanne Wong Scollon, and Ralph Fasold, Professor of Linguistics, Rodney H. Jones Georgetown University 22 Sociolinguistic Theory (2nd edn.), William Labov, Professor of Linguistics, J. K. Chambers University of Pennsylvania 23 Text and Corpus Analysis, Michael Stubbs Lesley Milroy, Professor of Linguistics, 24 Anthropological Linguistics, William Foley University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 25 American English: Dialects and Variation (3rd edn.), Walt Wolfram and Natalie Schilling 1 Language and Social Psychology, edited by Howard Giles and Robert N. St Clair 26 African American Vernacular English, John 2 Language and Social Networks (2nd edn.), R. Rickford Lesley Milroy 27 Linguistic Variation as Social Practice, 3 The Ethnography of Communication Penelope Eckert (3rd edn.), Muriel Saville‐Troike 28 The English History of African American English, edited by Shana Poplack 4 Discourse Analysis, Michael Stubbs 29 Principles of Linguistic Change, Vol. II: 5 The Sociolinguistics of Society: Social Factors, Introduction to Sociolinguistics, Vol. I, William Labov Ralph Fasold 30 African American English in the Diaspora, 6 The Sociolinguistics of Language: Shana Poplack and Sali Tagliamonte Introduction to Sociolinguistics, Vol. II, 31 The Development of African American Ralph Fasold English, Walt Wolfram and Erik R. Thomas 7 The Language of Children and 32 Forensic Linguistics, John Gibbons Adolescents: Suzanne Romaine 33 An Introduction to Contact Linguistics, 8 Language, the Sexes and Society, Philip Donald Winford M. Smith 34 Sociolinguistics: Method and Interpretation, 9 The Language of Advertising, Torben Lesley Milroy and Matthew Gordon Vestergaard and Kim Schrøder 35 Text, Context, Pretext: Critical Issues in 10 Dialects in Contact, Peter Trudgill Discourse Analysis, H. G. Widdowson 11 Pidgin and Creole Linguistics, Peter 36 Clinical Sociolinguistics, Martin J. Ball Mühlhäusler 37 Conversation Analysis: An Introduction, 12 Observing and Analysing Natural Jack Sidnell Language: A Critical Account of 38 Talk in Action: Interactions, Identities, Sociolinguistic Method, Lesley Milroy and Institutions, John Heritage and Steven 13 Bilingualism (2nd edn.), Suzanne Clayman Romaine 39 Principles of Linguistic Change, Vol. III: 14 Sociolinguistics and Second Language Cognitive and Cultural Factors, William Acquisition, Dennis R. Preston Labov 15 Pronouns and People, Peter Mühlhäusler 40 Variationist Sociolinguistics: Change, and Rom Harré Observation, Interpretation, Sali A. Tagliamonte 16 Politically Speaking, John Wilson 41 Quotatives: New Trends and Sociolinguistic 17 The Language of the News Media, Implications, Isabelle Buchstaller Allan Bell American English DIALECTS AND Variation Third Edition Walt Wolfram and Natalie Schilling Enhancements and Exercises by Caroline Myrick and Joel Schneier This third edition first published 2016 © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Inc Edition History: Blackwell Publishing, Ltd. (1e, 1998; 2e, 2006) Registered Office John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ , UK Editorial Offices 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148‐5020, USA 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ , UK The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ , UK For details of our global editorial offices, for customer services, and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at www.wiley.com/wiley‐blackwell. 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Cover image: fStop Images GmbH/Alamy Set in 10.5/13pt Ehrhardt by SPi Global, Pondicherry, India 1 2016 Contents Companion Website x List of Figures xi Preface xiii Phonetic Symbols xvii 1 Dialects, Standards, and Vernaculars 1 1.1 Defining Dialect 2 1.2 Dialect: The Popular Viewpoint 2 1.3 Dialect Myths and Linguistic Reality 8 1.4 Standards and Vernaculars 9 1.5 Language Descriptivism and Prescriptivism 14 1.6 Vernacular Dialects 16 1.7 Labeling Vernacular Dialects 17 1.8 Why Study Dialects? 18 1.9 A Tradition of Study 21 1.10 Further Reading 24 References 25 2 Why Dialects? 27 2.1 Sociohistorical Explanation 28 2.1.1 Settlement 28 2.1.2 Migration 29 2.1.3 Geographical factors 30 2.1.4 Language contact 31 2.1.5 Economic ecology 33 2.1.6 Social stratification 34 2.1.7 Social interaction, social practices, and speech communities 35 2.1.8 Group and individual identity 38 2.2 Linguistic Explanation 40 2.2.1 Rule extension 42 2.2.2 Analogy 44 2.2.3 Transparency and grammaticalization 47 2.2.4 Pronunciation principles 50 2.2.5 Words and word meanings 55 vi Contents 2.3 The Final Product 57 2.4 Further Reading 57 References 58 3 Levels of Dialect 59 3.1 Lexical Differences 59 3.2 Slang 64 3.3 Phonological Differences 68 3.4 Grammatical Differences 79 3.5 Language Use and Pragmatics 86 3.6 Further Reading 93 References 94 4 Dialects in the United States: Past, Present, and Future 97 4.1 The First English(es) in America 98 4.1.1 Jamestown 98 4.1.2 Boston 100 4.1.3 Philadelphia 103 4.1.4 Charleston 105 4.1.5 New Orleans 106 4.2 Earlier American English: The Colonial Period 106 4.3 American English Extended 110 4.4 The Westward Expansion of English 115 4.5 The Present and Future State of American English 117 4.6 Further Reading 122 References 123 5 Regional Varieties of English 125 5.1 Eliciting Regional Dialect Forms 126 5.2 Mapping Regional Variants 128 5.3 The Distribution of Dialect Forms 132 5.4 Dialect Diffusion 143 5.5 Perceptual Dialectology 148 5.6 Region and Place 153 5.7 Further Reading 154 Websites 155 References 156 6 Social Varieties of American English 159 6.1 Social Status and Class 159 6.2 Beyond Social Class 162 6.3 Indexing Social Meanings through Language Variation 164 6.4 The Patterning of Social Differences in Language 165 Contents vii 6.5 Linguistic Constraints on Variability 170 6.6 The Social Evaluation of Linguistic Features 174 6.7 Social Class and Language Change 177 6.8 Further Reading 179 References 179 7 Ethnicity and American English 183 7.1 Ethnic Varieties and Ethnolinguistic Repertoire 184 7.2 Patterns of Ethnolinguistic Variation 185 7.3 Latino English 188 7.4 Cajun English 196 7.5 Lumbee English 199 7.6 Jewish American English 203 7.7 Asian American English 206 7.8 Further Reading 210 References 211 8 African American English 217 8.1 Defining the English of African Americans 218 8.2 The Relationship between European American and African American English 220 8.3 The Origin and Early Development of African American English 225 8.3.1 The Anglicist Hypothesis 226 8.3.2 The Creolist Hypothesis 226 8.3.3 A Note on Creole Exceptionalism 228 8.3.4 The Neo‐Anglicist Hypothesis 228 8.3.5 The Substrate Hypothesis 230 8.4 The Contemporary Development of African American Speech 231 8.5 Conclusion 238 8.6 Further Reading 239 References 240 9 Gender and Language Variation 245 9.1 Gender‐based Patterns of Variation 247 9.2 Explaining General Patterns 251 9.3 Localized Expressions of Gender Relations 253 9.4 Communities of Practice: Linking the Local and the Global 255 9.5 Gender and Language Use 258 9.5.1 The “Female Deficit” Approach 259 9.5.2 The “Cultural Difference” Approach 263 9.5.3 The “Dominance” Approach 265 9.6 Investigating Gender Diversity 267 viii Contents 9.7 Talking about Men and Women 269 9.7.1 Generic he and man 269 9.7.2 Family names and addresses