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Issues in Early American English: Using evidence from the journal of Madam Knight

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2008

Daniel Brink
Daniel Brink
Affiliation:
Arizona State UniversityTempe, AZ 85287-0502
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Abstract

A much underused resource in the study of Early American English is the anecdotal commentaries provided by the rather large number of contemporary journals which often provide evidence about an important issue in Early American English. This paper addresses the question of “leveling” in Colonial American English: did it take place, and, if so, when, where, and in what form, and shows how at least one contemporary journal provides rather impressive indications of the presence of strong, entrenched dialect differences at the turn ot the 18th century, suggesting that leveling, at least on the scale sometimes assumed by modern commentators, had not occurred by Madam Knight's day.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Germanic Linguistics , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , July 1994 , pp. 199 - 210
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Germanic Linguistics 1994

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