Major Dialect Atlases

1. Major Dialect Atlases • The Roadmaps To Linguistics Christian Schimmrick BA Anglistik/Amerikanistik Seminar Dialectology Chemnitz University of Technology christian.schimmrick@s2007.tu-chemnitz.de

2. Table of Contents • Introduction • Important Atlases & Their Development • Linguistic Atlas of New England • Linguistic Atlas of England • Atlas of North American English • Tools & Additions • Indexes to Linguistic Atlases • References

3. Introduction

4. Introduction • A Dialect Atlas is a publication containing a set of maps on which speech variations are recorded — also called Linguistic Atlas. • (Source: Miriam Webster Online) • A Dialect Atlas is a collection of maps of a certain area indicating the distribution of various phonological, morphological, lexical, or other features of the dialects of that area. • (Source: Random House Unabridged Dictionary)

5. Introduction • Why do we need Linguistic Atlases? • present survey data graphically • unified, compact source for dialect research • cover a broad range of linguistic features • enable us to trace historical development of languages

6. Introduction • Which map types do Linguistic Atlases contain?

7. Important Atlases & Their Development

8. The Linguistic Atlas of New England

9. Important Atlases & Their Development • The Linguistic Atlas of New England (LANE) : Facts • initiated in the early 1920s by Hans Kurath and others • first American Linguistic Atlas • contains over 700 maps • survey: 1931-1933 • over 400 interview informants • data collecting: 750 item questionnaire • answers recorded in IPA transcription

10. Important Atlases & Their Development

11. Important Atlases & Their Development • The Linguistic Atlas of New England (LANE) : Development • plan of mapping dialect of North American English • fieldworkers traveled to pre-selected communities • in every community : 2 informants • informant profiles set by Kurath:- Informant 1: old-fashioned / unschooled (farmer)- Informant 2: middle-class member / grade- or highschool • priority on historical American towns (early American settlements) • results of interviews were plotted on many maps

12. Important Atlases & Their Development • The Linguistic Atlas of New England (LANE) : Development • every map shows the distribution of:- regional vocabulary- pronunciation- forms of grammarand the actual phonetic form of the Informants words/phrases • use of isoglosses and/or word boundaries

13. Important Atlases & Their Development • The Linguistic Atlas of New England (LANE) : Impact • published 1939 - 1943 in three volumes • this atlas is the foundation of historical analyses • classic resource for linguists • most complete publication in the history of American dialectology • although the survey fieldwork has been completed:- each region still has a director, analyzing data & completing it- supervising work

14. Important Atlases & Their Development • The Linguistic Atlas of New England (LANE) : Hans Kurath • born: 1891 in Villach, Austria • immigrated to the US in 1907 • leading figure in American geographical linguistics • 1920: graduate student in German Linguistics at University of Chicago:- had the opportunity to travel a lot through the USA- found many varieties of regional English • convinced to create a complete, systematic study of American English

15. Important Atlases & Their Development • The Linguistic Atlas of New England (LANE) : Hans Kurath • main interest of research: historical linguistics • reconstruct the evolution of American English from the „pure“ forms of the early settlers to contemporary regional dialects • in 1920s: professor for German and Linguistics • was convinced that language is a record book of society and events (growth of trade / urbanization / population movements) • Linguistic Atlas of New England: huge success- beginning of survey & atlas development in England - 1941: president of the Linguistic Society of America

16. The Linguistic Atlas of England

17. The Linguistic Atlas of England (LAOE) : Facts success of Hans Kuraths Linguistic Atlas of New England made up the ground for English Dialect Atlas development Kurath in front of the Second International Congress of Phonetic Sciences:„Unfortunately the lines leading back to the Mother Country, to England [...], will remain vague and tentative until a linguistic Atlas of the British Isles is made.“ (Hans Kurath, ‚Second International Congress of Phonetic Sciences‘ , 1935) one of the most important stages of the English Dialect survey (SED) planned by Harold Orton and Eugen Dieth Important Atlases & Their Development

18. The Linguistic Atlas of England (LAOE) : Facts first, fullest, systematically collected body of dialect material for all english regions strong historical bias field survey: 1950 - 1961 11 special trained fieldworkers & over 300 localities data collecting: 1300 questions survey featuring phonological / lexical / morphological and syntactical features high consistency of material quality expected Important Atlases & Their Development

19. The Linguistic Atlas of England (LAOE) : Facts questionnaire took 18 hours to complete informants: - over 60 years old- one man & one woman- agricultural background after completing survey: 404 000 items Important Atlases & Their Development

20. Important Atlases & Their Development SED interview: fieldworker & informant

21. The Linguistic Atlas of England (LAOE) : Facts 9 sections of the questionnaire:1. The Farm & Farming2. Animals3. Nature4. House & Housekeeping5. The Human Body6. Numbers7. Time & Weather8. Social Activities9. States, Actions, Relations reflects the environment and the daily life of the English countryman reason: old dialect forms are mostly found in rural areas Important Atlases & Their Development

22. Important Atlases & Their Development Phonological Map Isoglosses Example: „week“ IPA Transcription Survey Data

23. The Linguistic Atlas of England (LAOE) : Development aims of the atlas:- present traditional vernacular English - rely on oldest and most conservative forms of dialect speech- illustrate regional distribution of speech used since ancient times use of isoglosses Orton emphasized older forms to show greater derivation from Standard English sound-recordings after 1952 not successful:- financial problems- obscures general patterns of distribution (confusion) Important Atlases & Their Development

24. Important Atlases & Their Development • The Linguistic Atlas of England (LAOE) : Harold Orton • born: 1898 in Byers Green, Durham, England • university lecturer and dialectologist (University of Leeds) • co-founder of the SED (Survey of English Dialects) with Eugen Dieth • retired in 1964 and died in 1975, the year of the expected publication • planned the publication programme:- Introduction (1962)- Basic Material (1962-1971) / 4 volumes; each three parts

25. The Atlas of North American English

26. Important Atlases & Their Development • The Atlas of North American English (ANAE) : Facts • record of the regional dialects of English spoken in the US & Canada • based on the TELSUR telephone survey carried out 1992 - 1999 • provides the first comprehensive view of North American pronunciation & phonology • main focus on:- mechanisms,- causes and- consequences,of linguistic change

27. Important Atlases & Their Development • The Atlas of North American English (ANAE) : Facts • no fieldworkers compared to LANE & LAOE:- 13 telephone interviewers- chosen telephone numbers identifying major ethnic groups • 805 recorded interviews • 762 informants living in urbanized areas (> 50.000 inhabitants) • mostly Euro-Americans • tape / digital recording & acoustic editing by normalization program (PLOTNIK)

28. Important Atlases & Their Development • The Atlas of North American English (ANAE) : Facts • provides information on:- perception and production- acoustic measurements- realization of phonemic categories & forms- phonological systems & individual phonemes • featuring 139 color maps + sound samples on CD-ROM • shows the change of sounds IN PROGRESS in relation to gender, age and city size

29. Important Atlases & Their Development • The Atlas of North American English (ANAE) : Impact • major aim: re-establish the links of dialect geography and general linguistics (data vs theoretical interpretation) • develop connections between Atlas data and the theory of soundchange • reveals increasing diversity of English in North America

30. Important Atlases & Their Development Cities & Informants

31. Important Atlases & Their Development Merger of /i/ and /e/ before nasals ‚pin‘ vs ‚pen‘

32. Important Atlases & Their Development • Atlas of North American English (ANAE) : William Labov • born in 1927 in Rutherford, New Yersey, USA • one of the most important linguists • regarded as the founder of sociolinguistics (the study of language in human society) • 1948: Harvard • 1949 - 1961: industrial chemist • 1971 - now: professor of linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania

33. Important Atlases & Their Development • Atlas of North American English (ANAE) : William Labov • famous for his methods of data collecting • influential in social dialectology • still studies changes in phonology of American English

34. Important Atlases & Their Development • Comparison

35. Tools & Additions

36. Important Atlases & Their Development • Indexes to Dialect / Linguistic Atlases : Facts • list-type publications showing data of many linguistic atlas projects • often necessary for research • usually atlases contain lists of the questionnaire data & the appropriate maps • confusion

37. Important Atlases & Their Development • Indexes to Dialect / Linguistic Atlases : Why? • get an overview over the numerous publications of publications • compact tool of research:- ‚item of interest‘ vs ‚where to find‘ • long term projects (like atlases) suffer from fragmentation:- the longer the project the more data- overlapping of certain publications - no overlapping: confusion where to find the missing data • enable us a de-fragmented, easier view on material in compact form (good overview over the data of many survey/Atlas publications, making them comparable)

38. References

39. References • Fischer, AndreasAn Index to Dialect Maps of Great Britain (1991) • Labov, Bill (2005)The Atlas of North American English • Orton, Harold (1971)The Linguistic Atlas of England • Widdowson, J.D.A. & Upton, Cliff (1996)An Atlas of English Dialects

40. References • http://www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/NationalMap/NationalMap.html • http://us.english.uga.edu/ • http://www.muturzikin.com/cartesusa/usa.htm • http://www.csiss.org/classics/content/17 • http://www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/home.html • http://www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/maps/Map3.html • http://www.unc.edu/~gerfen/Ling30Sp2002/sociolinguistics.html