Varieties of American English
S. Gramley, WS 2009‐10
Dialect geography
The basis of American English lay in Elizabethan England
and, in this sense, it was the English of Shakepeare.
This English was, however, far from
uniform. It consisted
of a Northern‐Scottish, an east and west Midlands, and a Southern type.
Linguistic regions of the United States (the lower 48)
The First Settlers
The first British settlers in North America came chiefly from the south of England (cf. Cassidy 1984) and probably used forms of English with relatively few local features. Furthermore, they were – especially in the case of New England – generally well educated and more urban than rural in origin (see also Boorstin 1958: 271‐277 and Viereck 1975: 62‐65). The Virginia settlers established a commercially oriented type of plantation agriculture which guaranteed a relatively close association with (trading partners in) England. Initially this was based on tobacco, later on (and farther south) on other staples such as rice and sugar, but mostly on cotton. The New England colonies were shaped by the preponderance of religiously motivated settlers who were, for the most part, Puritans. They were town‐dwellers and were community‐oriented. In 1776 the third largest English‐speaking city in the world was in New England (Boston: 25,000). New Englanders had • high esteem for education
• the first printing press in North America (1636)
• founded the first English “university” after Oxford and Cambridge: Harvard in 1636
• a local school system in place by the 1640s
This may well have had a major influence on the recognition and acceptance of a standard language.
The Virginia settlers established a colony which was a collection of plantations and farms and in which in 1776 the largest “city” (Williamsburg) had a permanent year‐round population of 1,500.
A plantation represented a complex organism: • at the head was the owner‐manager
Standard English
• in between were overseers Regional English or Scottish or Irish
• slave craftsmen contributed to the autonomy Plantation Creole of the plantation
high on the • house servants (slaves) though without any basilect‐acrolect
rights were relatively privileged
continuum
• field slaves lived a life of hard labor with few Low on the diversions and no comfort
continuum
The linguistic situation which this produced was extremely diverse. settlement
from the
south of England
Early New England Text
Hath God essayed to go and take him a part of a Nation from the midst of a Nation, by temptations, by signs, by wonders, by a mighty hand & by an out‐stret[c]hed arm, according to all that the Lord your God hath done for you before your eyes? God hath shewn us almost unexampled unparall[el]ed mercy. And it were very well if there were a memorial of these things faithfully drawn up, and transmitted to Posterity . . . It is our great duty to be the Lords Remembrancers or Recorders . . . that the mercies of the Lord (that hath allured us into this wilderness, spoken comfortably to us and dealt bountifully with us therein) may be faithfully registred in our hearts, and remembred by us. It is a desireable thing, that all the loving kindnesses of God, and his singular favours to this poor and despised out cast might be Chronicled and communicated (in the History of them) to succeeding Ages; that the memory of them may not dy and be extinct, with the present Generation. ...
New‐England Pleaded with (Cambridge, 1673), p. 23. Colonial Virginian Text
Internal Migration
As the sparse farmlands of New England were occupied, population pressure led to
‐inland migration to the west, first to western New England, then along the course of the Great Lakes to the Upper Midwest
‐ urbanization was promoted in the young textile industries of New England (power from water‐driven mills) – especially from the early 19th century on
In the course of the development of the cotton culture starting in the early 19th century there was rapid settlement from the southeast into what is known as the Old Southwest (western Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Tennessee) but also Arkansas and eastern Texas. settlement
from the
south of England
Meanwhile settlements were founded (or taken over from the Dutch [New Amsterdam = New York] and the Swedish [Delaware]) in the Middle Colonies. English settlement had a higher proportion of people from the North, Scotland, or Ulster. Pennsylvania, an originally Quaker colony, was founded on views of religious tolerance. Consequently, it attracted members of many religious sects, both English and German.
Philadelphia, the second‐largest English‐speaking city in the world in 1776 with 40,000 inhabitants, was a major port of entry for settlers who then moved on to the west and south.
Backwoodsmen
By the late 17th century the best farming lands in Virginia were taken – generally by settlers from southern England. The new immigration consisted largely of Northern and non‐English settlers, i.e. Scots and Scotch‐Irish (Ulstermen). Their port of entry was Philadelphia, and from there they moved into the still "vacant" lands west of the fall‐line (i.e. beyond the point where the rivers were navigable). This was the Piedmont and the mountains.
By the second half of the 18th century they were moving along the Ohio River into the Middle West. These "backwoodsmen" often felt little loyalty to England.
settlement
from the
south of England
settlement from the north, Scotland, and Ulster
Frontier Boast
I was ridin along the Mississippi in my wagon, when I came acrost a feller
floating down stream, settin in the starn of his boat fast asleep. Well, I hadn't had a fight for ten days; felt as tho' I should have to kiver myself up in a salt barrel, to keep so wolfy about the shoulders. So says I, hallo stranger, if you don't mind your boat will run off and leave you. So he looked up at me slantindicular, and I looked down on him slantindicular. He took out a chor of tobacco, and says he, I don't vallee you tantamount to that; and the varmant clapped his wings and crowed. I ris
up, shuch my mane, croocked my neck, and nickered like a horse. He run his boat plump head foremost ashore. I stopped my wagon, and set my triggers. Mister, says he, I can whip my weight in wild cats, and ride straight thro' a crab apple orchard on a flash of lightning ‐ clear meat axe disposition ‐ the best man, if f I an't, I wish I may be tetotaciously
exfluncated. Frontier Boast (cont’d.)
So we come together; he was a pretty severe colt, but no part of a priming for me. I put it to him mighty droll ‐ in ten minutes he yelled enough, and swore I was a ripstaver! Says I, an't I the yallow flower of the forest? And I'm all brimstone but the head, and that's aquafortis! Says he, stranger, you're a beauty, and if I only know'd your name, I'd vote for you next election. Says I, my name is Nimrod Wildfire ‐ half horse, half alligator, and a touch of the airthquake ‐ that's got the prettiest sister, fattest horse, and ugliest dog in the district, and can out run, out jump, throw down, drag out and whip any man in all Kentuck! (Blair 1960: 281)
Non‐English Speaking Settlers
Early on there was a fairly large amount of immigration from Germany. Initially this was into Pennsylvania, where religious toleration was practiced and where many of the often religiously motivated German settlers (Mennonites / Amish, Moravians, Dunkards, German Reformed, Lutherans, etc.) felt welcome.
These Germans followed the same directions of internal migration as the northern and non‐English British settlers – to the South and the Middle West.
settlement
from the
south of England
settlement
from the
north, Scotland, and Ulster
settlement from Germany
The Tories
A final early movement of the population came as a result of the American Revolution (1775‐1781/83). A large number of Tories (American colonists loyal to the Crown) left or were driven out of parts of the North (New York, New England – relatively few left the middle states and the South). Their major goal?
Canada – up to then largely French‐speaking. Most went to Upper Canada (= Ontario) The result was to anchor English strongly in Canada and to insure its basically American English character. settlement
from the
south of England
Tories refugees
settlement
from the
north, Scotland, and Ulster
settlement
from
Germany
Indelible Americans
One final early influence on AmE remains to be mentioned: The large number of African slaves – initially in all the colonies, but in effect chiefly in the Southern ones. The kind of language which was spoken by this group has creole characteristics but also a significant number of features of pronunciation shared with Southern American English.
settlement from
Southern England (from early 17th
century on)
Tories refugees
settlement from
the Northern England, Scotland, and Ulster (late
17th)
settlement
from Germany (late 17th)
later: some slaves from the French colonies (esp. Haiti)
(late 18th century)
slaves from the Caribbean (and in some
cases directly from Africa (from 1619 on; westward movement in the 19th)
Plantation Creole: Basilect and high mesolect
WHY THE ALLIGATOR'S BACK IS ROUGH
The night after the violent flirtation between Daddy Jack and 'Tildy, the latter coaxed and bribed the little boy to wait until she had finished her work about the house. After she had set things to rights in the dining‐room and elsewhere, she took the child by the hand, and together they went to Uncle Remus's cabin. The old man was making a door‐mat of shucks and grass and white‐oak splits, and Daddy Jack was dozing in the corner.
“W'at I tell you, Brer Jack?" said Uncle Remus, as ‘Tildy came in. "Dat gal atter
you, mon!”
' Fer de Lord sake, Unk' Remus, don't start dat ole nigger. I done promise Miss Sally dat I won't kill 'im, en I like ter be good ez my word ; but ef he come foolin' longer me I'm des nat'ally gwine ter onj'int 'im. Now you year me say de word."
But Daddy Jack made no demonstration. He sat with eyes closed, and paid no attention to 'Tildy. After a while the little boy grew restless, and presently he said:
"Daddy Jack, you know you promised to tell me a story to‐night."
"He wukkin' wid it now, honey," said Uncle Remus, soothingly. "Brer Jack," he continued, "wa'n't dey sump'n' n'er 'bout ole man Yalligater?"
"Hi!" exclaimed Daddy Jack, arousing himself, "'e 'bout B'er 'Gater fer true. Oona
no bin see da' B'er 'Gater ? “
WHY THE ALLIGATOR'S BACK IS (cont’d.)
The child had seen one, but it was such a very little one he hardly knew whether to claim an acquaintance with Daddy Jack's 'Gater.
"Dem all sem," continued Daddy Jack.
"Big mout', pop‐eye, walk on 'e belly; 'e is bin got bump, bump, bump 'pon 'e bahk, bump, bump, bump 'pon 'e tail. 'E dife 'neat' de water, 'e do lif 'pon de lan'.
" One tam Dog is bin run B'er Rabbit, tel 'e do git tire; da' Dog is bin run 'im tel
him ent mos' hab no bre't' in 'e body; 'e hide 'ese'f by de crik. side. 'E come close 'pon B'er 'Gater, en B'er 'Gater, 'e do say:
"`Ki, B'er Rabbit! wut dis is nick you blow so? Wut mekky you' bre't' come so?'
"'Eh‐eh! B'er 'Gater, I hab bin come 'pon trouble. Dog, 'e do run un‐a run me.'
"`Wey you no fetch 'im 'long, B'er Rabbit ? I is bin git fat on all da' trouble lak dem. I proud fer yeddy Dog bark, et 'e is bin fetch‐a me trouble lak dem.'
"`Wait, B'er 'Gater! Trouble come bisitin' wey you lif ; 'e mekky you' side puff ; 'e mekky you' bre't' come so.'
[The story continues for four more pages.] (Harris 1881: 141f)
Leveling or Koinéization
Early remarks by visitors to America from Great Britain pointed out the relatively unified nature of American English.
Note the words of James Fenimore Cooper: "…the language of the country, instead of becoming more divided into provincial dialects, is becoming, not only more assimilated to itself as a whole, but more assimilated to a standard which sound general principles, and the best authorities among our old writers, would justify. The distinctions in speech between New England and New York, or Pennsylvania or any other state, were far greater twenty years ago than they are now." (quoted in Baugh / Cable: 352)
Why is this so?
Cooper went on to explain this in the following way: "When one reflects on the immense surface of country that we occupy, the general accuracy, in pronunciation and in the use of words, is quite astonishing. This resemblance in speech can only be ascribed to the great diffusion of intelligence, and to the inexhaustible activity of the population, which, in a manner, destroys space" (quoted in Baugh / Cable: 351).
Perhaps more to the point:
Dr. Witherspoon, the president of Princeton University, remarked of the common people that "being much more unsettled, and moving frequently from place to place, they are not so liable to local peculariarites either in accent or phraseology" (ibid.).
As Isaac Candler put it after visiting the U.S. in 1822 and 1823: "The United States having been peopled from different parts of England and Ireland, the peculiarities of the various districts have in a great measure ceased. As far as pronunciation is concerned, the mass of people speak better English, than the mass of people in England. … The common pronunciation approximates to that of the well educated class of London and its vicinity" (Baugh / Cable: 351). This is the principle of leveling or koinéization which is the result of a number of varieties tending toward forms which are less marked in nature. Traditions of Variety
Leveling has definitely taken place – not just in American English, but also in other overseas varieties such as Australian English.
Yet the language is far from leveling into a single type. Labov
distinguishes four major systems of pronunciation, which we will
look at more carefully in two weeks. Traditional dialectology takes as a primary task the location of
dialect boundaries and the explanation of these locations. The importance of a boundary is determined by the number of isoglosses that follow it and the tightness of their bundling, rather than the linguistic relations of these isoglosses. In fact, the less structural relation there is between isoglosses, the more important is their coincidence for establishing dialect boundaries, a coincidence which can be explained by the common social histories of speakers on each side of the boundary. Settlement histories are the primary boundaries identified by the Linguistic Atlas of the Atlantic States: first through the bundling of lexical items (Kurath, 1949), then through the additional coincidence of phonological isoglosses. (Kurath and McDavid, 1961: 1‐2)
Literature
Baugh, A.C. and T. Cable (1993) A History of the English Language, 4th ed. London: Routledge.
Blair, W. (1960 [1931]) Native American Humor. N.Y.: Chandler.
Boorstin, D. (1958) The Americans. vol. 1 The Colonial Experience. N.Y.: Vintage.
Byrd, W. (1733) History of the Dividing Line.
Cassidy. F. (1984) “Geographical Varition of English in the United States,” In: Bailey and Görlach (eds.) English as a World Language. London, 177‐209.
Harris, J.C. (1881) Nights with Uncle Remus. Myths and Legends of the Old Plantation. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Viereck, W. (1975) Regionale und soziale Erscheinungsformen des britischen und amerikanischen Englischen. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
Oakes, U. (1673) New‐England Pleaded with. Cambridge.