Appalachian English Research Articles

Los dativos reflexivos no seleccionados en inglés suramericano y apalache frente al español

Southern American and Appalachian English allow the occurrence of non-selected reflexive datives (I need me some water) unlike Standard American and British English. This kind of non-selected arguments looks similar to ethical datives in some Romance languages like Spanish (Este nino no me come nada). However, non-selected reflexive datives have structural differences in Southern American and Appalachian English in comparison with Spanish. This paper sets out to look at these languages (Southern American and Appalachian English vs. Spanish), and describe the syntactic and semantic similarities and differences of non-selected reflexive datives across them. Finally, a theoretical analysis is sketched within the framework of Generative Grammar in order to explain some of such differences and similarities.

Césaire and the Challenge of Translation: The Example of “Strong Men” by Sterling Brown

Césaire and the Challenge of Translation: The Example of “Strong Men” by Sterling Brown

DAREAND REGIONAL AMERICAN LEXICOGRAPHY

The recent completion of the Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE) makes timely an assessment of its achievements and the implications for pursuing regional dictionaries of American English. Using the author’s forthcoming Dictionary of Southern Appalachian English, this article explores how DARE’s practices can instruct a regional dictionary in evaluating sources and incorporating material from three indispensable domains: the library, the field, and the mind. In illustrating lessons learned and new practices developed, the article shows how DARE, far from being the culminating work in the field, creates opportunities for smaller-scale works to benefit from its practices.

The role of positive vs. negative evidence in learning a novel dialect pattern: American English speakers’ grammatical intuitions on a-prefixing in Appalachian English

This paper focuses on the controversies surrounding the effect of linguistic input in language acquisition and investigates how learning of a dialectal pattern, a-prefixing in Appalachian English, can be modulated by positive vs. negative evidence in adult learners whose grammar does not contain this grammatical phenomenon. In an online acceptability judgment study, we measured gradient grammatical intuitions of 41 Appalachian English and 36 native speakers of American English on their perceived acceptability of carefully-matched grammatical and ungrammatical sentences with a-prefixing. We used 16 sentences (50% ungrammatical) for each of the 5 previously established constraints on a-prefixing, divided equally into a pre- and post-test session. The non-dialect speakers were further divided into 3 input groups depending on the type of input they received between the two tests: the positive-evidence group with only grammatical instances of a-prefixing, the negative-evidence group with explicit instruction concerning only ungrammaticality, and the control group with no input. Results indicated that, just like the baseline Appalachian English group, the non-dialect participants were able to distinguish grammatical sentences from ungrammatical ones, crucially in all of the 5 different constraints, prior to the treatment, although they significantly differed from the Appalachian English group in the strength of their judgments. The post-test results revealed a clear benefit of negative evidence on the learning of a novel grammatical phenomenon, albeit only concerning the responses to ungrammatical sentences, while accept-ability judgments for grammatical as well as ungrammatical sentences did not benefit from positive evidence alone. We suggest that the target-like intuitions of our non-dialect participants at the onset result from a deduction of tacitly known principles of English and linguistic universals. Concerning the differential effect of input categories on learning, we argue that exposure to only positive exemplars of the target phenomenon results in overly general hypotheses about its patterning in the language, which may push the learner to perceive new ungrammatical sentences better than their initial acceptability value. Negative exemplars, however, place a pressure on learners to notice the linguistic contexts in which the target phenomenon is not allowed to surface, thereby raising their awareness of the presence of rules.

Constructing the (m)other: A-prefixing, stance, and the lessons of motherhood

AbstractThe present study examines two unprompted versions of the same story, related by a mother and daughter in separate sociolinguistic interviews. Following a quantitative intraspeaker comparison of their use of grammatical features associated with Appalachian English within the entirety of their interviews, this study undertakes a close reading of the narratives (along with additional passages from the daughter) to demonstrate the manner in which the two women construct their identities as “mother” and as “other” through conversational narrative and the use of local dialect features. Specifically, this article addresses the use of regional grammatical variables to enact speaker stances toward mothering, focusing on two women's independent recollections of a single incident and how these narratives dialogically construct the (m)other. (Language variation, Appalachian English, stancetaking, motherhood)*

UNBIASED ASSESSMENT OF FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION IN ENGLISH: DISTINGUISHING DEVELOPMENT AND DIALECT FROM DISORDER

In the United States, as in all countries of the world in which English is widely spoken, there exist different dialects or variants of the language. These dialects are often defined by regional or cultural groups and may vary from each other in one or more of several aspects of the language – phonology, morphology, syntax, lexical semantics, or pragmatics (ASHA 2003, Wolfram 1991). Thus, we can distinguish between Cajun English, spoken in much of Louisiana, Appalachian English, spoken in the states along the Appalachian mountains, especially Kentucky and West Virginia, or the broader Southern American English spoken across the southeastern states. All of these dialects reflect coherent rule-governed varieties of the English language.

Op’nin’ the Door for Appalachia in the Writing Classroom

This essay explores mainstream apprehensions against Appalachian dialect(s), arguing that these dialects/cultures have a misunderstood history and an important role to play in Appalachian composition classrooms.

Perceptual distinctiveness of vowels in relation to dialectal sound change.

We examine distinctiveness among four vowels /ɪ, ε, æ, a/ in Appalachian English in the perception of children (9–13 years) and adults (50–65 years) who spoke the same local variety as the talkers who produced the stimuli. Each listener responded to unique exemplars of bids, beds, bads, bides (both stressed and unstressed) produced by 40 talkers, male and female, children (8–12 years) and adults (50–65 years). The highest identification rates were for beds, and the lowest for bides. For each vowel, stressed variants yielded slightly higher rates than unstressed. Examination of confusions among spectral neighbors revealed systematic confusions between bids and beds. Confusions for bads and bides varied as a function of talker age, gender, and listener age, reflecting effects of cross-generational sound change in this dialect. In a second task, the vowels were presented in hVd-frame and stimulus uncertainty was elevated by increasing the number of vowel categories (12), talker age groups (3), and the addition of another dialect. Similar pattern of responses was obtained by different listeners (children and adults) but overall identification rates were comparatively higher. Altogether, these results show listener sensitivity to cross-generational sound change, which affects both vowel position and formant dynamics. [Work supported by NIH.]

Flying high above the social radar: Coronal stop deletion in modern Appalachia

AbstractIn this paper I examine how a classic feature of variationist research, coronal stop deletion (CSD), operates at the end of the 20th century in one of the most renowned vernacular dialects in the United States, English in Appalachia. Through examination of CSD in a corpus of Appalachian speech, this paper also focuses on the methodological choices available. Several methodological questions are reviewed, such as the choices concerning voicing of the codas (wind vs. went vs. west). The corpus comprises interviews with 67 Appalachian speakers, yielding 17,694 tokens of potential CSD. These were analyzed using quantitative variationist methodology to reveal that morphological categories are less influential than even the preceding phonological environment. This finding is in stark contrast with some other vernacular varieties and suggests that apparent morphological influences are actually phonological influences that present themselves as morphological trends. Overall, the following phonological environment is overwhelmingly the most influential linguistic factor on the rate of CSD. These Appalachian speakers maintain relatively high rates, in effect constraining the social distinctions within Appalachia that could possibly be made using CSD, but marking them as vernacular speakers for those outside Appalachia.

The fall of demonstrative them

The varieties of English in the United States’ Appalachian region have undergone changes throughout the 20th century. This paper examines a change to one of the more stereotyped of vernacular dialect features, the use of them in a demonstrative determiner construction: them apples are the best. Although this dialect feature is found in English varieties around the world, this study is the first to take up a quantitative assessment of it as a sociolinguistic variable. In this paper, we discuss the historical background for demonstrative them, its current distribution in a corpus of modern Appalachian speech, and its relations to the other modern plural demonstratives, these and those. The data reveal that them functions primarily as an alternate to those, but the use of demonstrative them is sharply in decline across apparent time. As a stereotype of Appalachian speech, demonstrative them still remains, but younger Appalachian speakers have largely abandoned this stigmatized form.

Unvernacular Appalachia: an empirical perspective on West Virginia dialect variation

Most popular discussions of varieties of English in Appalachia (USA) focus only on vernacular dialect features, suggesting that these hallmark characteristics are common for ‘true’ mountain folk (Dial, 1972). Naturally, the reality of the dialects in this region is more complex and subdued than the stereotype. While traditional features, such as a-prefixing (e.g. she is a-working), have played a role in the region, most stereotypical, Appalachian dialect features are fading from usage today (Hazen, 2006). Appalachia is a long region divided into numerous sections. Depending on the sources consulted, the regional divisions are quite staggering in their differences. For some, the region of Appalachia can stretch as far north as New York and as far south as Mississippi, including parts of 13 states (Appalachian Regional Commission). Other definitions limit the geography to a much smaller range (Wolfram & Christian, 1976). Aware of this problem, we have chosen to focus on one region universally accepted as part of Appalachia: West Virginia. Geographically, the state fits entirely within the boundaries of all definitions of the region. Likewise, West Virginia also fits the socio-economic profile most commonly associated with Appalachia. To provide the most comprehensive picture possible, we present a brief overview of English in West Virginia, followed by an empirical examination of 10 dialect features. The import of this empirical investigation is that the West Virginia vernacular of the twenty-first century has changed from its roots at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Language skills in low-SES rural Appalachian children: Kindergarten to middle childhood

This study examined the development of language in low-SES rural Appalachian children from kindergarten through middle childhood. Findings showed that the children's language skills improved significantly between kindergarten and middle childhood, with all middle childhood language means within the average range. However, all areas of language except the ability to correctly interpret nonliteral language remained significantly below normative population means. Girls performed significantly better than did boys and higher-SES girls performed better than lower-SES girls. Nonliteral language and receptive syntax were relative strengths and vocabulary and pragmatic judgment were relative weaknesses. Use of grammatical markers of Appalachian English was not related to language skills and, as a group, these children demonstrated adequate phonological working memory. Standardized measures of morphology and syntax best classified children into groups who received remedial services for reading or other language-related tasks and those who did not. Implications of these finding are discussed.

Subject agreement variation: Support for the configurational approach

In this paper we argue that variation in subject-verb agreement in Belfast English and Appalachian English bears on a number of issues that are relevant to current syntactic theory, including clause structure and subject positions, case, the syntax of negative polarity items and negative concord and the structure of the DP. We show that while the nature of the subject plays a role in determining subject-verb agreement in the two varieties (in different ways), subject position is the overt structural manifestation of the differing properties of the subject, independent of which properties are relevant in the variety in question. Our proposal on subject positions, which goes beyond what Henry (1995) proposed for Belfast English, is able to capture clusters of properties not discussed by Henry, and thus more fully accounts for the range of micro-parametric variation we find. This paper thus provides support for a configurational approach to subject-verb agreement.

Dialectal differences in dynamic formant patterns in vowels.

This study examines basic acoustic variation in the dynamic patterns of vowel formants among three regional variants of American English spoken in southeastern Wisconsin (affected by the Northern Cities Shift), western North Carolina (Appalachian English affected by the Southern Vowel Shift), and central Ohio (not considered to be affected currently by any vowel shift). Three groups of speakers (including men and women) produced vowels in citation form (in a /hVd/ context) and in sentences. The sentence material elicited two degrees of vowel emphasis (high and low) in the /bVd/ and /bVt/ contexts. The frequencies and amplitudes of the first three formants were extracted at points corresponding to 20%‐35%‐50%‐65%‐80% of the vowel’s duration. A set of dynamic measures was then calculated using these values that included overall signed/unsigned change in formant frequencies, vector and trajectory lengths, direction/angle of vowel movement in the F1 by F2 plane, and rate of frequency change. The results show significant cross‐dialectal differences in formant patterns in monophthongs, phonemic diphthongs, and nonphonemic diphthongs. The nature and extent of these formant changes varied as a function of speaker dialect in a manner apart from expected variation resulting from phonetic and prosodic context and speaking style. [Work supported by NIH.]

(ING): A VERNACULAR BASELINE FOR ENGLISH IN APPALACHIA

In order to provide a contemporary description of Appalachian English, this article investigates the (ING) variable in Appalachian speech, explaining both the linguistic and social constraints on variation. Data from 67 West Virginia speakers are qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed for grammatical context, preceding and following place of articulation, sociogeographic orientation, age, sex, ethnicity, social class, and interview context. Results indicate that the only linguistic conditioning factor for this speech community is the syntactic category. Socially, the patterns of variation are considerably more complex than the grammatical patterns. Reflecting the sociogeographic boundary found by previous scholars, a Southern-Northern divide exists in the production of variants: the Southern speakers have a higher rate of the alveolar variant than the Northern speakers. The other social factors work within this sociogeographic divide. Yet, contrary to most references to Appalachian rates of (ING), speakers in this sample are far from categorical, with rates ranging from 1% to 96% for the alveolar variant.

Appalachian English in southern Indiana? The evidence from verbal -s

AbstractIn this article, the variable use of verbal -swith (especially, third-person) plural subjects is examined in extreme south-central Indiana. The patterns observed are compared to the same in several varieties of Appalachian English, and it is argued that the local language variety reflects the morphosyntactic stability of the linguistic system brought here by pioneer settlers from various Appalachian states some 200 years before. A very small pilot-study corpus of comparable data from the extreme northwestern corner of Indiana is called on to help refute a “universalist” explanation for the similarities found in southern Indiana and Appalachia. Finally, the conditions surrounding the transplantation of Appalachian English to Kentuckiana and to other places (i.e., the Ozarks, North Carolina's Outer Banks) are considered, and questions are raised about the degree of isolation believed to be necessary in the respective communities.

Honoring Dialect and Culture: Pathways to Student Success on High-Stakes Writing Assessments

Honoring students’ home dialect is a complex task when preparing them to take state writing tests that require the use of Standard English. Working with students who had failed the test and were in danger of not receiving a diploma, Michelle Crotteau created a supportive learning environment in which students could develop linguistic and mechanical fluency. In the Writing Strategies class, students spoke and wrote about their interests, drew on their dialect (Appalachian English), and learned to recognize audience-appropriate situations for using their dialect and Standard English.

Honoring Dialect and Culture: Pathways to Student Success on High-Stakes Writing Assessments

Honoring students' home dialect is a complex task when preparing them to take state writing tests that require the use of Standard English. Working with students who had failed the test and were in danger of not receiving a diploma, Michelle Crotteau created a supportive learning environment in which students could develop linguistic and mechanical fluency. In the Writing Strategies class, students spoke and wrote about their interests, drew on their dialect (Appalachian English), and learned to recognize audience-appropriate situations for using their dialect and Standard English.

The World Made Straight: A Novel (review)

Whether she's writing as poet or journalist, Anne Shelby's voice is confidentand convincing. Shehasbeendowninthewritingtrenches for years, penning children'sbooks, scripting plays aboutthe late Kentucky writer Belinda Ann Mason and the mining protester/midwife Aunt Molly Jackson and teaching words to hundreds of writers of all ages and experiences. It's about time we have her poems and journalism preserved in these simultaneous releases. What a lucky happenstance for her readers, because what Anne Shelby does best is remind us of all the things we need to be mindful of. Yes, quilts and tobacco barns and hardscrabble farming are here, but so is our need to preserve the environment and a culture, a call for fighting domestic abuse and drug trafficking, and the responsibility of remembering and celebrating our foundation myths, place names, Appalachian speech habits and all of our ghostly ancestors. —Marianne Worthington Ron Rash. The World Made Straight: A Novel. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 2006. 304 pages. Hardcover. $24.00. Thoreau has famously remarked that "Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in"; if that's true, then Ron Rash, in his third novel, The World Made Straight, drops his line into the same blue hole. Like the swirling fog and mists whose tendrils form and reform over the meadow at Shelton Laurel, Rash knits together a tale of fragments, of broken characters bucking forces beyond their control, of spaces marked by ghosts and violence, of a history forged through brutality and ignorance. And all this in Madison County, North Carolina, where—in 1863, in this backwoods region shunted along the Tennessee border—members of a Confederate force massacred thirteen Union sympathizers, in the middle of a snow-swept field, their rifle reports echoing into nothingness. "I feel haunted by ghosts," Rash has said, his ancestors participants themselves in the tragic events of "Bloody Madison," a communal act of internecine violence that for a generation has stained the community with unresolved vengeance. Rash captures the essence of that weight—the tug and pull at every step—in the bleakness of this mountain land, how its stark spaces are rife with time, pockets of history swimming with the past like a mirror that conjures the dead. As one character states, "You know a place is haunted when it feels more real than you are." 94 Rash garners writing awards as effortlessly as water running over creek stones. The World Made Straight, like Rash's three volumes of prize-winning poetry (1994 NEAPoetry Fellowship), two collections of short stories (1996 SherwoodAnderson Prize) and two previous novels, One Foot in Eden (2002 Appalachian Book of the Year) and Saints at the River (2004 WeatherfordAward and 2005 SEBABest Book), is thickwith the past and the imprint of history on the land, especially how its grip tangles and complicates the present world likes snags on a trout line. Travis Shelton, a high school dropout who prefers fishing blue holes deep in the Appalachian forest for the elusive speckle trout, one day stumbles upon a cash crop of marijuana plants lining the creek bottom, abountyhe quickly appropriates forhimself, much to the displeasure of the toughbackwoods moonshiner-turned-drug dealer, CarltonToomey. Shortly after, Travis finds refuge with Leonard Shuler, a disgraced high school teacher who now deals dime bags and six-packs to a host of mountain kids like Travis, bent on copping buzzes as they barrel their ways down the long road to nowhere. But Travis, like Leonard himself, is different, and soon Leonard begins to speak of "Bloody Madison" County, the Civil War and a history thatbegins to shape both characters in ways neither is fully aware. Rash has written a beautifully lyrical novel that burrows deep into the heart like a mountain ballad, ringing its notes among the silvered trunks of a dark forest. He has an unfailing ear for this mountain dialect ("There's probably near a million ways a man can die, but I reckon not many would outworse your throat clamping shut on you") as well as a stunning visual eye ("On the stream's banks sumac had blistered to a deep velvety red"), having grownup in the regionhimself, his summers as a boy spent rambling...

THE CASE OF APPALACHIAN EXPLETIVETHEY

This article examines Appalachian English existentials, which employ they as the so-called “expletive” (e.g., They is a big creek yet). Given the morphological identity of expletive they with the third-person plural pronoun (e.g., They are happy), the question arises as to why the verb appears in the singular form in the existential despite the expletive's apparent plurality; this question arises in light of Cardinaletti (1997), who observes that cross-linguistically, Nominative Case-marked expletives trigger agreement. To explain the Appalachian contradiction, this work pursues the proposal that Appalachian expletive they is “weak,” lacking a value for its number feature. This allows us to maintain the idea that the Appalachian expletive does trigger agreement, despite appearances to the contrary. The article also explores (rarer) cases of Appalachian existentials with an apparently plural verb (e.g., They are another one down the street), and discusses three possible analyses of such grammars, where (1) the expletive might have a [+ plural] number feature, (2) the verb might actually be singular (despite appearances to the contrary), or (3) in the case of a plural postverbal subject (They have been some fellows...), the “associate” might raise at LF to agree with the verb.