Southern American English in Alabama

1. Southern American English in Alabama Alabama Humanities Foundation Speakers Bureau Catherine Evans Davies Professor of Linguistics Dept. of English, The University of Alabama

2. Terminology • linguistics = the study of “language” • a language • vocabulary (lexicon and semantics) • accent (phonology) • grammar (morphology and syntax) • discourse conventions (patterns of use) • a dialect or variety • an idiolect

3. A Dialect “Continuum” • Formal edited English • Informal regional standard • Vernacular (casual speech, defined as containing stigmatized features)

4. A Yankee in the South • Fascination with Southern Speech • Outsider as Observer and Analyst • Research methodology with native speakers ensures accuracy

5. Plan for the Lecture • Historical context • Key dimensions of dialect (vocabulary, accent, grammar, discourse patterns) • Language attitudes and dialect changes in progress

6. A Bit of Geography

9. Indigenous Languages • Moundville: 800-1200 • Cherokee, Creek, and Choctaw • Chief Tuscaloosa encounters De Soto 1540 • 1814

10. What influences would we expect to find, if any, from indigenous languages?

11. Examples of Place Names • Alabama (An Upper Creek tribe, known to the French in 1702 as “Alibamons”) Name derived from: Choctaw alba, “plants,” “weeds,” plus amo, “to trim,” “to gather” —that is, “those who clear the land,” or “thicket clearers” (Read 1937/1984)

12. Examples of Place Names • Tuscaloosa From Choctaw tashka, “warrior,” and lusa, “black” (Read 1937/1984)

13. Colonial Empires • New Spain • Gordo (actually named for a famous battle in the Mexican War of 1846) • Chula Vista • New France • Mobile • Dauphin Island 1763 – Seven Years’ War/French & Indian War

14. American Settlement in Northern Alabama:Scots-Irish Small Farmers • Early 17th century from Scotland to northern Ireland • Early 18th century into Philadelphia and south through Cumberland Gap

15. American Settlement in Southern Alabama:Plantation Culture • “Alabama Fever” after 1814, Federal Road • “Black Belt” area with prosperous settlers from Virginia who could afford to buy large tracts of land • Importation of slave labor from West Africa through the Caribbean

16. There is an ongoing debate in the field concerning: (1) the relative influence on Southern English of dialects of British English and the varieties of English spoken by the slaves and influenced by their native West African languages, and (2) the similarities and differences between the speech of black and white Southerners

17. The Status of European American and African American Vernaculars • There is a restricted subset of features unique to AAVE (all others are shared) • Frequency of occurrence of common features is important in differentiating varieties • “The uniqueness of AAVE lies more in the particular array of structures that comprise the dialect than it does in the restricted set of potentially unique structures.” • Regional variation within AAVE, but common core of features shared across regions = strong ethnic association of this variety

18. New data : • WPA ex-slave narratives, letters, etc. (earlier AAVE not as distinct from Anglo varieties as researchers had thought) • Examination of the sociohistorical situation and the demographics of the antebellum South

19. Early Settlement by Other Groups • Germans in Cullman • Welsh in Cullman and in coalmining areas near Birmingham: Abernant • French in Demopolis • …..

20. Dimensions of Dialect • Vocabulary • Accent • Grammar • Discourse Patterns

21. Vocabulary:Linguistic Atlas of the Gulf States (LAGS) • Virginia Foscue’s boundary 1974 (for speech of white Alabamians)

22. Tiny red insect that burrows into skin and causes itching: • North AL: chigger • South AL: red bug

23. Bread that is baked with yeast: • North AL: loaf bread • South AL: light bread

24. The insect with a long straight tail and long straight double wings that hovers over water: • North AL: snake doctor • South AL: mosquito hawk

25. Words of West African origin:

26. Tote • Perhaps (via Black West African English) of Bantu origin; akin to Kongo -tota, to pick up, • and Swahili -tuta, to pile up, carry (Merriam Webster)

27. Okra • From a West African language, prob. Igbo ók ùr ù Cf. Akan ŋkr umã, Twi ŋkrakra broth.In U.S. regional form okry with ending remodelled (Oxford English Dictionary)

28. Banjo • Akin to Jamaican English banja, fiddle; probably akin to Kimbundu and Tshiluba mbanza, a plucked stringed instrument. (American Heritage Dict.)

29. Accent

30. monophthongized [ai] (esp. in North AL) • Example: “tide” • Phrase taught in school: “nice white rice”

31. fronted [u] (found in contemporary Scottish, and also now in California) • Example: How are you? I’m so glad to see you!

32. The Southern Vowel Shift (Labov 1997) /i/ (beet)/u/ (boot) /I/ (bit) /Ʊ/ (put) /e/ (bait) /o/ (boat) /ɛ/ (bet)/ʌ/ (but) /æ/ (bat)/ɔ/ (bought) /a/ (father)

33. The “Southern Shift” (Labov 1997) • i “feel”--“They were on the field in Mobile.” • I “fill” – “I asked him to fill it to the top.” • e “sale” --- “There’s a sale at the mall.” • Ɛ “sell” ---- “I can sell it to you for less.” Part of constant shifting of vowel system of English, e.g. 1400-1600 “The Great Vowel Shift”

34. pronunciation of “r” [turned into vowel except in word-initial position] • “red” • “ladder,” “far” • “farm” • (influence partly from contact of plantation elites with London after American Revolution, as also upper classes in Boston, NYC, Philadelphia, Charleston, Savannah)

35. Strong “r” characteristic of American English • Scots-Irish (North Alabama) • Other British dialects such as from the Southwest (e.g. Long John Silver) • More authentic for Shakespeare

36. Grammar

37. The Pronoun System of English • Early Modern English (1500) • I /me we/us • thou/thee ye/you • he/him; she/her; it they/them • Contemporary English (2000) • I /me we/us • you you • he/him; she/her; it they/them

38. The Pronoun System of Southern English • Contemporary English (2000) • I /me we/us • you you • he/him; she/her; it they/them • Contemporary Southern English (2000) • I /me we/us • you y’all • he/him; she/her; it they/them Montgomery suggests origins in Scots-Irish.

39. Grammar • “double modals” [I might could do it] “What’s something that you might can do to take your mind off of eating?” (10/7/04)

40. The English Verb • I go there every Friday. • Only one “modal” verb is allowed (showing ability, possibility, probability): I can go there every Friday I could go there every Friday I may go there every Friday I might go there every Friday • “Double modals” in Southern English: I may can go there every Friday I might could go there every Friday • Effect? Montgomery suggests origins in Scots-Irish

41. Negation • Positive sentence: I saw it • Negative sentence: • Early Modern English: I saw it not • Modern English: I did not see it

42. Negation (continued) • Single negation with polarity item: • I saw something like them. • I saw nothing like them./I didn’t see anything like them. • Double negation: • I didn’t see nothing like them. (but: I saw something not unlike them.) • Triple negation: • I didn’t see nothing like them nowhere. • Pre-posed negation with “ain’t”: • I ain’t seen nothing like ‘em nowhere. • Ain’t seen nothin’ like ‘em nowhere. • Dreamland Barbeque: “Ain’t nothin’ like ‘em nowhere.” Multiple negation found in Shakespeare and other authors.

43. Discourse Patterns • politeness • storytelling traditions

44. Politeness • address terms showing respect • rituals of conversation • indirectness

45. Storytelling Traditions • “I’m a Southern storyteller; we digress.”

46. Social Judgments Associated with Dimensions of Dialect • Within Alabama • By Non-Alabamians • “Tailoring” an accent

47. Current Trends (1865 – 2008)

48. Regional Identity • New research is suggesting the postbellum period as highly significant for the development of a distinctively Southern way of speaking

49. Recent Linguistic Changes and Regional Identity

50. Increase in “R-fulness”among Younger Speakers