The Pronunciation of English in the State of Washington

Abstract

O NE OF the last linguistic frontiers in the United States is that currently encountered in the state of Washington. The settlement history of this area dates back scarcely one hundred years, and the number of older nativeborn residents is comparatively small. Moreover, even now, many sections of the state are virtually uninhabited. The influx of settlers toward the end of the nineteenth century has had a rather decisive effect on the nature of English pronunciation in Washington, although linguistic leveling has not yet assumed any very clear-cut geographical lines. It is the intention here merely to give some idea of the features of pronunciation as they exist in various communities throughout the state, with indications as to how certain dialect mixtures are being resolved, distributed, or made mutually compatible. Modern railroad lines and 'U.S.' highways still follow the paths of early overland trails that brought settlers to the Oregon country. Appropriately enough, residents of Middle Western states, for whom the routes were handiest, have always been the principal migrants in this direction. It follows, then, that the states of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho manifest speech characteristics most reminiscent of their Middle Western founders. In Oregon, the Missouri element has predominated since the earliest days, and the adjacent areas of Washington show very clearly the dynamic spread of these people all along the Columbia River, particularly in the areas east of Walla Walla. Following the Missouri emigrants into Washington, and outnumbering them eventually, especially in the Pacific counties, other waves of settlers emanated from Iowa, southern Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. These people, in turn, were joined by natives of New York and Maine who made the long trip by sea and settled along the shores of Puget Sound, Gray's Harbor, and the mouth of the Columbia River. The 'seafarers,' however, were almost entirely absorbed--at least linguistically--by Middle Western elements within a few brief generations. As a result, the speech of southern Illinois and Iowa may be considered typical for most of the state of Washington. The following restrictions and variations, nevertheless, can be observed: i. The pronunciation of vowel sounds in such words as caught, brought, daughter, thought, is not differentiated from those in such words as hot, lot, cot, in the speech of many people. In fact, most of the people interviewed by the