Southern American English

1. Southern American English Angelica Buerkin Lara India Carol Santoro

2. Introduction • Alternatively called Southern States English • Commonly used in AL, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, TN, N. & S. Carolina, VA and parts of AR, MD, OK, TX, and WV

3. Varieties of SAE • Broken into as many as 18 subdialects • Dialects fall under 4 main subheadings: Delta, Coastal, Interior, and South Midland • Affected by the surrounding languages • French in Louisiana • Spanish in Texas • Lack of German words is noticeable compared to Northern speech

4. Divisions of SAE

5. Coastal • Southeastern corner of VA, NC coastal plain, all of SC and GA, and the western half of FL • SC is the heart of the region • Characterized by large amounts of slang expressions • Shares a lot of lexicographic similarities to New England, unlike the other three main subdivisions

6. Delta • Centers on southern Louisiana, specifically New Orleans • Extends approximately 50 miles to the east to the Red River and west to the Arkansas border • Contains the only non-English-based creole (French Creole) • One of the most linguistically varied regions in the US

7. Settling the U.S.: South and West England • English in the South began with Jamestown, VA • Four waves of immigrants from southern and western England followed consisting mostly of the gentry class and their servants • Gentry retained tighter link with homeland as opposed to other colonists seeking religious freedom so linguistic features were kept • Origin of [r]-dropping in VA, N. and S. Carolina

8. Settling the U.S.: North England, Scotland and Ireland • Waves of immigrants from northern England, Ireland, and Scotland followed between 1717 and 1775 • Strongly influenced vocabulary • May be origin of might could and might would double modals

9. Slavery’s Effect on SAE • Divergence of African-American Southern speech and white Southern speech • Resulted from differences in social and political standings during colonization • Influenced vocabulary

10. Westward Expansion

11. Americans Moving Westward • Division between Northern and Southern dialects results from different waves of settlements • One wave left New England/PA and heading through upstate NY, OH, IN, IL • Other wave left Chesapeake Bay and spread out between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers

12. Origins • Linguists believed that British regional dialects were main source of SAE • Assumes that American regional dialects reflect the early settlement history and were formed during the colonial period • Recent research indicates that these beliefs are insufficient • For instance, the pen/pin merger and expressions like fixin to and y’all emerged after the colonial period

13. Farm Economy • South is the only semi-tropical region of the US • Created a farming economy • Most of the region was rural • Linguistic features brought in by the settlers remained isolated

14. Urbanization of the South • Creation of rail system and the development of stores and villages brought isolated dialects together • Urban population of the South doubled between 1860 and 1900 and again between 1900 and 1940 • Migration to urban areas led to interaction of local rural dialects • Previously restricted features expanded

15. Shift from Old SAE to New SAE • Since 1940, people entering Southern cities likely come from the North or outside the US • Has resulted in a shift from old SAE which was formed from the merger of many rural Southern features

16. Old Southern American English

17. Phonology • Non-rhotic before a consonant or a word boundary • “guard” /gard/  “god” /gad/ • “sore” /sor/  “saw” /sa/ • Found mostly in New Orleans, Mobile, Savannah, and Norfolk • Today most of SAE is now rhotic, but those areas in which non-rhoticity also preserves the “Intrusive R.” • Intrusive R • Featured in most parts of the south except the coastal regions • “law” /la/ “lawr” /lar/ • No yod-dropping • “due”  /dIu/ • Primarily foundin NC, northwest SC, and in a corridor between Jackson and Tallahassee

18. Phonology Continued • “Wh” words pronounced • “where”  /hwer/, “why”  /hwai/ • Words like “caught” and “stalk” are distinguished from homophones “cot and “stock” by diphthongizing the vowel • “caught”  /kawt/, “cot”  /k כt/ • Distinction between /ær/, /εr/, /er/ • “marry,” “merry,” “Mary”

19. Pen/Pin Merger • The vowels in the two words “pen” and “pin” merged between 1825 and 1850 in a small population of the South • This merge spread throughout the South until WWII when it was more or less universally found • The diphthong /ai/ as in “way” also spread like this • Spread due to urbanization • Before 1860, less than 1 in 10 Southerners lived in urban areas, and only 21 towns between Virginia and Texas had populations greater than 5,000 • By 1900 the urban population had doubled and would double again by the end of WWII

20. Grammar • Verb “to be” deleted in 2nd person and 3rd person plural • “You smarter than the average bear.” • “They gonna leave today.” (Cukor-Avila, 2003) • Circumfix “a- -in’” • “The wind was ahowlin’.” • The use of “like to” to mean “nearly” • “I like to had a heart attack.” • The use of “yonder” as a determiner • “yonder woods”

21. Vocabulary • Words fading from today’s speech • “snap beans”  “green beans” • “snake doctor”/“mosquito hawk”  “dragonfly” • Older, almost completely obsolete terms • Singletree: a bar of wood on a wagon to which traces are attached • Dogtrot: a two room house with an open hall down the middle

22. New Southern American English http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ih_u71wMgBQ&feature=related

23. Supper Coke Critter Holler Whup Reckin’ Gosh Hot Damn! Chill bumps ‘tater Quarter til Doohickey Yonder ( over yonder) Yella? Yankee Buggy Ma’am/Sir Lexical Differences

24. Fixin’ Replaces “about to” I’m fixing to eat supper. Ya’ll You all Ya’ll’s ( Gen Form) All Yall Every one of you all Avoids confusion You => 2nd singular You => 2nd plural Merging of Adv/Adj He got here real quick. Grammatical Differences • Done • Replaced “Did” • I done told you! • Been • Replaces have been in perfect preterite tense • I been hollerin’ for hours. • Me, him, her, etc. in reflexive Dative • I’m gonna get me a coke. • Got • Replaces have (possessive) • I got me a new truck.

25. This here Replaces “this one” This here roof needs fixin’. Right/Sure Used as adverbs She sure whupped you. I’m right tired. Them/Them there Demonstrative adj or nouns See them folks? Them’s from a farn country Itch Verb Don’t itch it, Mary! Was Regularization of past tense Usually contracted You’s at the piggly wiggly too? Dove/drunk/drug Used as past tense of Dive Drink drag Grammatical Differences Cont.

26. Might could Used to could Might can Might would Used to would Use to wouldn’t Used to couldn’t Might should ought to Might have could have => strategy of politeness not available in other dialects Multiple Modals

27. /i/ => /I / Beet / I / => /ijə/ Mitt /e/ => /ε/ Bait=> Bet / ε / => / εjə/ Bed <= /u/ Boot <= /o/ Poem Southern Vowel Shift

28. Greater length in stressed syllables as compared to unstressed Re-stressing Dipthongization Southern Drawl

29. (gúi.ta.rø) vs gui.(tá.rø) (bé.hin.)dø vs be.(hín.dø) Distinguishes Behind (prep) Behind (noun) (pó.li.)cø vs po.(lí.cø) (cé.men).tø Ce.(mén.tø) *note longer length of ce- po- and be- syllables Southern Drawl: Stress

30. Short lax vowels develop a glide towards /j/ and in some cases back down to schwa /æ/ --> /æjə/ [læjəp] / I/ --> / Ijə/ [lIjəp] / ε /--> /εjə/ [bεjəd] Southern Drawl: Dipthongization

31. Roll Tide!!! [ta:d] Ride [ra:d] Ice Tea [a:hs ti] There’s an Oil Fire in the Ice hole! [כ:l] [fa:r] [a:hs] Monopthongization of /ai/ & /øi/

32. / ε / and / I / => / I / before nasal Pen [pˆn] Pin [pˆn] Men [mˆn] / I / before /ng/ [sing] => [sæng] or [sεng] [θIng]=> [θæng] or [θεng] /r/ Often deleted if it is at the syllable coda following a vowel Fella /D/ and /z/ Before nasals Isn’t => idn’t Business [bIdnəs] Palatalization before /u/ [tjune] [djuke] [njuz] [u] often not rounded Foot [I] like quality Phonetic overlap Other Features

33. Fronted Dipthong /æu/ replaces /æ/ Out Mountain Dipthong /au/ replaces / כ/ Caught Law Salt Talk All Southern /au/ shift

34. Southern States English. University of Arizona. Available: http://www.ic.arizona.edu/~lsp/Southern.html. Wells Christopher, John. 1982. Accents of English. New York: Cambridge University Press. Bailey, Guy and Jan Tillery. 2005. Do you speak American. Public Broadcasting System. Available: http://www.pbs.org/speak/seatosea/americanvarieties/southern/sounds/. Cooper, Cynthia G. 2004. Southern American English: past, present, and future. American speech: 79(2): 210-214. Carver, Craig M. 1989. American regional dialects.Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press. Nagle, Stephen J. and Sara L. Sanders. 2003. English in the Southern United States. New York: Cambridge University Press. Sources