Udo Buffler, Birgit Lascho, Kai Schäfer, Alexander Schneider,
Sarah Schneider, Daniela Thrasher
Justus-Liebig-University, FB 05 – Department of English
PS: English Dialects, Prof. Dr. Magnus Huber
1
1. Dezember 2005
American Regional Dialects
Dialect areas of the United States
This article is based on three different scholars and
their approaches to define the major dialect regions
of the United States and their results of
investigating distinctive linguistic features of these
regions.

Hans Kurath, an American linguist with
Austrian roots, started his investigation of the
eastern U.S. in the 1930’s and identified three
major dialect areas: Northern, Midland and
Southern. He excluded the West because
settlement-routes intermingled the eastern
dialects. (1949)

Craig M. Carver, an American dialectologist,
stated that there are only two dialect areas:
Northern and Southern. He rejected Kurath’s
idea of a Midland area.
Carver’s main contribution was to set up a
linguistic Atlas for the entire USA (American
Regional Dialects 1987)

William Labov, another American linguist intended to simplify the methods of investigation. He
overruled the fieldwork-methods used by Kurath and Carver mainly depending on lexical terms and
variations. Labov started a national Telephone Survey (TELSUR) and brought up the Phonological
Atlas of North America. The idea was to show sound-changes correlating to geography and to
population. (1997)
Chain-Shifts and Mergers
The latest and obviously the most appropriate approach to the dialectolgical situation in the U.S. by W.
Labov is indicated by the recognition of chain-shifts (vowel-shifts) and mergers (2 or more phonemes
merge or collapse into one sound (either one of the two previous sounds, or another sound)). These are
the two main types of sound changes.
Udo Buffler, Birgit Lascho, Kai Schäfer, Alexander Schneider,
Sarah Schneider, Daniela Thrasher
Justus-Liebig-University, FB 05 – Department of English
PS: English Dialects, Prof. Dr. Magnus Huber
2
1. Dezember 2005
The o/oh merger
Map 1 shows the extent of this merger in speech production before /t/, as in cot vs. caught. The
geographic appearance of this merger is quite broad it covers half the geographic area of the United
States. Only the North, North Midland and Mid-Atlantic States where the population is high the o/oh
sound is pronounced separately.
The in~en merger
This
conditioned
merger
concerns the distinction between
/i/ and /e/ before /m/ and /n/, as
in pin vs. pen, him vs. hem. This
is usually reflected in a high
front vowel for both, so that both
pin and pen sound like pin to
speakers of other dialects. As a
result, the two words are
normally distinguished as ink
pen and safety pin in these areas.
Chain-Shifts
The greatest difficulties for
speech recognition are posed not
by mergers but by chain shifts of vowels. Over the past two decades, two major patterns of chain
shifting have been identified, which rotate the vowels of English in opposite directions.
The Northern Cities Shift is
found
throughout
the
industrial inland North and
most strongly advanced in
the largest cities: Syracuse,
Rochester, Buffalo, Cleveland, Toledo, Detroit, Flint,
Gary, Chicago, Rockford.
The shift begins when /æ/,
the vowel of cad, moves to
the position of the vowel of
idea /i'/ (1). The vowel /o/ in
cod then shifts forward so
that it sounds like cad to
speakers of other dialects (2).
/oh/ in cawed moves down to the position formerly occupied by cod (3), /e/ in Ked moves down and
back to sound like the vowel of cud (4), /cud moves back to the position formerly occupied by cawed
(5), and /i/ in kid moves back in parallel to the movement of /e/ (6).
Udo Buffler, Birgit Lascho, Kai Schäfer, Alexander Schneider,
Sarah Schneider, Daniela Thrasher
Justus-Liebig-University, FB 05 – Department of English
PS: English Dialects, Prof. Dr. Magnus Huber
3
1. Dezember 2005
On the other hand, the Southern
Shift, found throughout the Southern
States, South Midland, and many
other areas, moves vowels in an
opposite direction. The shift begins
when /ay/ becomes monophthongized
and shifts slightly to the front (1). The
nucleus of the diphthong /ey/ then
falls along a non-peripheral track
until it becomes the lowest vowel in
the system (2). The nucleus of the
diphthong /iy/ follows a parallel path
towards mid-center position (3). The
short front vowels /i, e/ shift
forward and up until they reach the
front peripheral positions formerly occupied by /iy/ and /ey/, and /æ/ moves in parallel (4). The nuclei
of /uw/ and /ow/ then shift forward to front and center positions (5,6). /ohr/ (now most often merged
with /owr/ ) moves up to high back position (7), and /ahr/ shifts up and back to the position that /ohr/
vacated (8).
The Northern Cities Shift and the Southern Shift are both complex relations of 6 to 10 vowels. One of
the goals of the Telsur project is to derive a small set of numerical parameters which can place each
speaker's system within the overall configuration of the regional dialects of North America in a way
that reflects both
geographic and
linguistic
regularities. Two
such parameters
will only be
mentioned here:
æ/e reversal and
e/o alignment.
They are designed
primarily as
measures of
participation in the
Northern Cities
Shift, but they also
isolate Southern
systems, since the
movements of the
Southern Shift are
diametrically
opposed to
movements of the
Northern Cities Shift.
Udo Buffler, Birgit Lascho, Kai Schäfer, Alexander Schneider,
Sarah Schneider, Daniela Thrasher
Justus-Liebig-University, FB 05 – Department of English
PS: English Dialects, Prof. Dr. Magnus Huber
4
1. Dezember 2005
Sociolinguistic differences – ethnicity and gender
Race
From a sociolingual perspective, what is popularly identified as „ethnicity” may be difficult to separate
from various other factors such as region or class. Afro American Vernacular English (AAVE)
represents the paradigmatic case for examining the role of ethnicity in dialect diversity. AAVE is for
example strongly linked to social status within the community as well as to Southern regional English.
Other linguistic varieties are for example only geographically linked to certain bilingual regions like
Chicano English which is mostly spoken in the south western parts of the United States. Generally one
can say, that the extent to which ethnic membership correlates with linguistic diversity varies from
linguistic variable to linguistic variable, from race to race and in the race itself.
Gender varieties
Introduction/Background Knowledge:
Historical development of “Gender and Language Variation”:

In the past: male-female language differences in English were seen as uninteresting; this field
has not traditionally been a central concern of dialect studies;

Today: there exists and extensive collection of studies, anthologies, and books devoted
exclusively to issues of language and gender in English (e.g. Deborah Tannen: “You Just Don´t
Understand”)
Cross-Sex Language Difference in Dialect Surveys:
General Findings regarding male-female language differences:

Fact 1: women tend to use more standard language features then men, whose speech tends to be
more vernacular

Fact 2: women adopt new language variants much earlier than men
The contradiction between fact 1 and 2: women appear to be more conservative than men; they use
more standard variants which often represent older language forms  women appear to be more
progressive then men because they adopt new variants more quickly;

Fact 3: the patterning of male-female language differences depends not only on the language
feature in question but also on the social class of the speaker
Udo Buffler, Birgit Lascho, Kai Schäfer, Alexander Schneider,
Sarah Schneider, Daniela Thrasher
Justus-Liebig-University, FB 05 – Department of English
PS: English Dialects, Prof. Dr. Magnus Huber
5
1. Dezember 2005
Explaining Cross-Sex Language Differences: The Prestige Approach:
A: Labov (1984) explained that women are more prestige-conscious than men:

Reason 1 (Labov): women are quicker to adopt innovative variants, which carry local prestige
and which haven´t been in place long enough to acquire negative valuation in the lager
community (be up to date)

Reason 2 (Labov): women in the lower middle class are most likely to stigmatize features and
adopt prestige features because members of this social class are more upwardly mobile than
members of any other socioeconomic class

Reason 3 (Labov): males tend to use more stigmatized variants in their speech than females;
symbolic: males and females want to define themselves as either masculine or feminine (e.g.
non-standard forms may symbolize masculinity and toughness)
B: Trudgill (1983) goes a step beyond Labov; he asks why women are more prestige-conscious than
men:

Reason 1 (Trudgill): women want to transmit culture through childrearing

Reason 2 (Trudgill): men and women have different occupational roles; men have traditionally
been rated by their occupation; women have often been rated to a greater extend by how they
appear; therefore the linguistic “cosmetic” of prestigious language may be more important for
women than it is for men
These reasons are not only theories. Labov´s and Trudgill´s notions that women´s linguistic behaviour
can be explained in terms of their focus on social prestige are of widespread acceptance.
Lexical and grammatical differences in American regional dialects
1. Lexical differences
1.1. Definition

we talk about lexical differences in regional dialects if the same object is described by
different labels

by this process the meaning of words can change in two ways:
it can be narrowed or broaded.
Udo Buffler, Birgit Lascho, Kai Schäfer, Alexander Schneider,
Sarah Schneider, Daniela Thrasher
Justus-Liebig-University, FB 05 – Department of English
PS: English Dialects, Prof. Dr. Magnus Huber
6
1. Dezember 2005
1.2. Examples:

the words "creek" and "ditch" taken from the dialect spoken in the Outer Bank islands of North
Carolina
1.2.1 Creek
Other islands in the Outer bank
bay in a common meaning
Island of Overcake
refers only to a specific body of water
1.2.2 Ditch
Other islands in the Outer bank
small river in general
Island of Overcake
refers only to the inlet which allows boats to enter the creek
At both examples the meanings are narrowed, but the opposite is also possible.
2. Grammatical differences
2.1. Definition

grammatical differences in regional dialects means that a special grammatical word category
like the plural can be described by different word forms. In one dialect for example the plural
could be marked by the suffix "s" and in another dialect it could be marked without the suffix
"s". Other grammatical changes are also possible like the use of the “-ed”-ending in verbs, the
use of the “-ing”-ending in verbs or the use of prepositions.
2.2. Example: The use of the plural-s in some dialects spoken in the Anglo-American South

in some Anglo-American dialects the plural “-s” is used:
The cats are nice.

in some dialects spoken in the Anglo-American Southern the plural-s is eliminated by nouns
indicating weights and measures if the plural noun is preceded by a specific number, since this
number serves as a clear marker that the following noun is plural, thus making the “-s”-ending
superfluous.
Go about four mile_ up the road.
Udo Buffler, Birgit Lascho, Kai Schäfer, Alexander Schneider,
Sarah Schneider, Daniela Thrasher
Justus-Liebig-University, FB 05 – Department of English
PS: English Dialects, Prof. Dr. Magnus Huber
7
1. Dezember 2005
Some phonological aspects about different dialects
Some selected features:
Midland & West
Rural Southern White
rhotic
conservative vowel sheme –
have remained
monophthongal
vowel shift:
o and au shift into an
intermediate vowel:
cot and caught are merged
not to be fit into larger group


New England
non-rhotic (Boston, Eastern NE)
car [ka:] park [pa:k]
“southern drawl”
southern shift
 triphtongization
 glide weakening
 pin/pen/merger
northern shift:
vowel shift:
o and au shift into an intermediate
vowel:
cot and caught are merged
(homophones)
“ju” (jod-dropping):
after [n] [d] [t] [s] [z] [l]
new [n(j)u:], Tuesday [t(j)uzdeı]
Some words as examples (vowel pronunciation, supported by audio-samples):
GA
kit
Midland & West
New England
Rural southern
white
ɪ
æ
ɪ
æ
ɪ
εə
i
æε
α
α
α~ɒ
α
strut
ʌ
ɜ
ə
ɜ
choice
ɔɪ
oɪ
ɪ
oi
face
eɪ
εi
eɪ
εi ~ æi
price
αɪ
ai > əɪ
αɪ > əɪ
ai ~ a:æ ~ a:
north
ɔɚ(r)
æ a
o
æ
ɔ (r)
æ > εə a
oɚ
æ
α
a
α~ɔ
ɔo ~ ɒo ~ αo
nurse
ɚ
ə
ə (r)
ɚ > ɐɚ > ɜi
mouth
aʊ
əʊ
aʊ > əʊ
æɔ~æɒ~aɒ
trap
lot
bath
thought
Udo Buffler, Birgit Lascho, Kai Schäfer, Alexander Schneider,
Sarah Schneider, Daniela Thrasher
Justus-Liebig-University, FB 05 – Department of English
PS: English Dialects, Prof. Dr. Magnus Huber
8
1. Dezember 2005
Sources:
Berg Flexner, Stuart: I hear America talking, N.Y. (1976)
Carver, Craig M.: American Regional Dialects: A Word Geography, Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press (1989)
Fought, Carmen: Chicano English in Context, Houndmills (2002)
Kortman, Bernd: English Linguistics: Essentials (Anglistik – Amerikanistik), Cornelsen Verlag (2005)
Kortmann, Bernd, Schneider, Edgar W. (eds.): A handbook of Varieties of English, Vol. 1, Phonology, Mouton de Gruyter
(2004), including the accompanying CD
Poplack, Shana (ed.): The English History of American English, Malden, Mass. (2000)
Rickford, John R.: Afro American Vernacular English, Malden, Mass. (1999)
Viereck, Wolfgang /Karin, Ramisch, Heinrich: dtv-Atlas: Englische Sprache, dtv-Verlag (2002)
Wolfram, Walt, Schilling-Estes, Natalie: American English, 2nd edition, Blackwell Publishing (2006)
Internet-Sources:
www.wikipedia.org (28th Nov 2005)
www.evolpub.com/Americandialects(11th Nov. 2005)
www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/ (26th Nov. 2005)