Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T16:10:59.014Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Appalachian English in southern Indiana? The evidence from verbal -s

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 October 2007

Brian José
Brian José
Affiliation:
Indiana University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In this article, the variable use of verbal -s with (especially, third-person) plural subjects is examined in extreme south-central Indiana. The patterns observed are compared to the same in several varieties of Appalachian English, and it is argued that the local language variety reflects the morphosyntactic stability of the linguistic system brought here by pioneer settlers from various Appalachian states some 200 years before. A very small pilot-study corpus of comparable data from the extreme northwestern corner of Indiana is called on to help refute a “universalist” explanation for the similarities found in southern Indiana and Appalachia. Finally, the conditions surrounding the transplantation of Appalachian English to Kentuckiana and to other places (i.e., the Ozarks, North Carolina's Outer Banks) are considered, and questions are raised about the degree of isolation believed to be necessary in the respective communities.

Type
Research Article
Information
Language Variation and Change , Volume 19 , Issue 3 , October 2007 , pp. 249 - 280
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Anderwald, Lieselotte. (2001). Was/were-variation in non-standard British English today. English World-Wide 22:1–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aniya, Sosei. (1992). The semantics and the syntax of the existential there-construction. Linguistic Analysis 22:154–184.Google Scholar
Appalachian Regional Commission. http://www.arc.govGoogle Scholar
Bailey, Guy, Maynor, Natalie, & Cukor-Avila, Patricia. (1989). Variation in subject-verb concord in Early Modern English. Language Variation and Change 1:285–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berry, Lester V. (1940). Southern mountain dialect. American Speech 15:45–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blanton, Linda. (1974). The verb system in Breathitt County, Kentucky: A sociolinguistic analysis. Doctoral dissertation, Illinois Institute of Technology.Google Scholar
Börjars, Kersi, & Chapman, Carol (1998). Agreement and pro-drop in some dialects of English. Linguistics 36:71–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brewer, Jeutonne P. (1986). Durative marker or hypercorrection? The case of -s in the WPA ex-slave narratives. In Montgomery, Michael & Bailey, Guy (eds.), Language variety in the South: Perspectives in black and white. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. 131–148.Google Scholar
Britain, David. (2002). Diffusion, levelling, simplification and reallocation in past tense BE in the English Fens. Journal of Sociolinguistics 6:16–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Britain, David, & Sudbury, Andrea (2002). There's sheep and there's penguins: Convergence, ‘drift’ and ‘slant’ in New Zealand and Falkland Island English. In Jones, Mari C. & Esch, Edith (eds.), Language change: The interplay of internal, external, and extra-linguistic factors. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 209–240.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Butters, Ronald R. (1973). Black English {−z}: Some theoretical implications. American Speech 48:37–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Butters, Ronald R., & Stettler, Kristin. (1986). Existential and causative Have … to. American Speech 61:184–190.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carver, Craig. (1987). American regional dialects: A word geography. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chambers, J. K. (2003). Dynamic typology and vernacular universals. In Kortmann, Bernd (ed.), Dialectology meets typology: Dialect grammar from a cross-linguistic perspective. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 125–145.Google Scholar
Cheshire, Jenny. (1982). Variation in an English dialect: A sociolinguistic study. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Childs, Becky, & Mallinson, Christine. (2004). African American English in Appalachia: Dialect accommodation and substrate influence. English World-Wide 25:27–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Christian, Donna, Wolfram, Walt, & Dube, Nanjo. (1988). Variation and change in geographically isolated communities: Appalachian English and Ozark English. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.Google Scholar
Clarke, Sandra. (1997). English verbal -s revisited: The evidence from Newfoundland. American Speech 72:227–259.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crozier, Alan. (1984). The Scotch-Irish influence on American English. American Speech 59:310–331.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cukor-Avila, Patricia. (1997). Change and stability in the use of verbal -s over time in AAVE. In Schneider, Edgar W. (ed.), Englishes around the World, Vol 1. Amsterdam: Benjamins. 295–306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dannenberg, Claire, & Wolfram, Walt. (1998). Ethnic identity and grammatical restructuring: Be(s) in Lumbee English. American Speech 73:139–159.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dubois, Sylvie, & Horvath, Barbara M. (2003). Verbal morphology in Cajun Vernacular English. Journal of English Linguistics 31:34–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eisikovits, Edina. (1987). Variation in the lexical verb in inner-Sydney English. Australian Journal of Linguistics 7:1–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eisikovits, Edina (1991). Variation in subject-verb agreement in Inner Sydney English. In Cheshire, Jenny (ed.), English around the world: Sociolinguistic perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 235–255.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellis, Michael. (1994). Literary dialect as linguistic evidence: Subject-verb concord in nineteenth-century Southern literature. American Speech 69:128–144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feagin, Crawford. (1979). Variation and change in Alabama English: A sociolinguistic study of the white community. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Ferree, Harriett Frank, & Hardin, Harold ‘Jim’. (1961). A history of ye olde towne of Mauckport. Mauckport, IN: The Mauckport High School Alumni Association.Google Scholar
Flanigan, Beverly Olson. (2000). Mapping the Ohio Valley: South Midland, Lower North, or Appalachian? American Speech 75:344–347.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Godfrey, Elizabeth, & Tagliamonte, Sali. (1999). Another piece for the verbal -s story: Evidence from Devon in Southwest England. Language Variation and Change 11:87–121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Griffin, Frederick P. (1984). Harrison County's earliest years. Corydon, IN: O'Bannon Publishing.Google Scholar
Griffin, Frederick P. (1991). History of Corydon and Harrison County Indiana: A scrapbook of newspaper clippings, Vol. 1. Jasper, IN: Printing Services.Google Scholar
Griffin, Frederick P. (1993). History of Corydon and Harrison County Indiana: A scrapbook of newspaper clippings, Vol. 2. Paoli, IN: Willow Creek Printing.Google Scholar
Hackenberg, Robert. (1973). Appalachian English: A sociolinguistic study. Doctoral dissertation, Georgetown University.Google Scholar
Hall, Joseph S. (1942). The phonetics of Great Smoky Mountain speech. Doctoral dissertation, Columbia University.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, Jesse W. (1946). The dialect of Appalachia in southern Illinois. American Speech 21:96–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hay, Jennifer, & Schreier, Daniel. (2004). Reversing the trajectory of language change: Subject-verb agreement with be in New Zealand English. Language Variation and Change 16:209–235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hazen, Kirk. (1996). Dialect affinity and subject-verb concord: The Appalachian–Outer Banks connection. SECOL Review 20:25–53.Google Scholar
Hazen, Kirk (1998). The birth of a variant: Evidence for a tripartite negative past be paradigm. Language Variation and Change 10:221–244.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hazen, Kirk (2000a). Subject-verb concord in a postinsular dialect: The Gradual persistence of dialect patterning. Journal of English Linguistics 28:127–144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hazen, Kirk (2000b). Identity and ethnicity in the Rural South: A sociolinguistic view through past and present Be. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Hazen, Kirk, & Fluharty, Ellen. (2004). Defining Appalachian English. In Bender, Margaret (ed.), Linguistic diversity in the South: Changing codes, practices, and ideologies. Athens: University of Georgia Press. 50–65.Google Scholar
Henry, Alison. (1995). Belfast English and Standard English: Dialect variation and parameter setting. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kytö, Merja. (1993). Third-person present singular verb inflection in early British and American English. Language Variation and Change 5:113–139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Labov, William, Cohen, Paul, Robbins, Clarence, & Lewis, John. (1968). A study of the non-Standard English of Negro and Puerto Rican Speakers in New York City. Washington, DC: United States Office of Education, Cooperative Research Project Number 3288.Google Scholar
Larmouth, Donald, & Marjorie, Remsing. (1993). ‘Kentuck’ English in Wisconsin's Cutover region. In Frazer, Timothy C. (ed.), ‘Heartland’ English: Variation and transition in the American Midwest. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. 215–228.Google Scholar
Mallinson, Christine, & Wolfram, Walt. (2002). Dialect accommodation in a bi-ethnic mountain enclave community: More evidence on the development of African American English. Language in Society 31:743–755.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCafferty, Kevin. (2003). The Northern Subject Rule in Ulster: How Scots, how English? Language Variation and Change 15:105–139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCafferty, Kevin (2004). ‘[T]hunder storms is verry dangese in this countrey they come in less than a minnits notice. … .’: The Northern Subject Rule in Southern Irish English. English World-Wide 25:51–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meechan, Marjory, & Foley, Michele. (1994). On resolving disagreement: Linguistic theory and variation—There's bridges Language Variation and Change 6:63–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Montgomery, Michael. (1989). Exploring the roots of Appalachian English. English World-Wide 10:227–278.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Montgomery, Michael (1994). The evolution of verb concord in Scots. In Fenton, Alexander & MacDonald, Donald A. (eds.), Studies in Scots and Gaelic: Proceedings of the Third International Conference on the Languages of Scotland. Edinburgh, UK: Canongate Academic. 81–95.Google Scholar
Montgomery, Michael (1997). Making transatlantic connections between varieties of English: The case of plural verbal -s. Journal of English Linguistics 25:122–141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Montgomery, Michael (2000a). Isolation as a linguistic construct. Southern Journal of Linguistics 1:25–36.Google Scholar
Montgomery, Michael (2000b). The idea of Appalachian isolation. Appalachian Heritage 28(2):20–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Montgomery, Michael (2004). Appalachian English: Morphology and syntax. In Kortmann, Bernd & Schneider, Edgar W. (eds.), A handbook of varieties of English: A multimedia reference tool, Vol. II. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 245–280.Google Scholar
Montgomery, Michael (2006). Notes on the development of existential they. American Speech 81:132–145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Montgomery, Michael, & Fuller, Janet M. (1996). What was verbal -s in 19th-century African American English? In Schneider, Edgar W. (ed.), Focus on the USA. Amsterdam: Benjamins. 211–230.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Montgomery, Michael, Fuller, Janet M., & DeMarse, Sharon. (1993). ‘The black men has wives and Sweet harts [and third person plural -s] Jest like the white men’: Evidence for verbal -s from written documents on 19th-century African American speech. Language Variation and Change 5:335–357.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Montgomery, Michael B. & Hall, Joseph S. (2004). Dictionary of Smoky Mountain English. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press.Google Scholar
Morgan, J. L. (1972). Verb agreement as a rule of English. CLS 8:278–287.Google Scholar
Mufwene, Salikoko S. (1996). The Founder principle in creole genesis. Diachronica 13:83–134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Myhill, John, & Harris, Wendell A. (1986). The use of the verbal -s inflection in BEV. In Sankoff, David (ed.), Diversity and diachrony. Amsterdam: Benjamins. 25–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nevalainen, Terttu, Raumolin-Brunberg, Helena, & Trudgill, Peter. (2001). Chapters in the social history of East Anglian English: The case of the third-person singular. In Fisiak, Jacek & Trudgill, Peter (eds.), East Anglian English. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer. 187–204.Google Scholar
Pietsara, Kirsti. (1988). On existential sentences in the dialect of Suffolk. Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 89:72–99.Google Scholar
Pitts, Walter. (1981). Beyond hypercorrection: The use of emphatic -z in BEV. CLS 17:303–310.Google Scholar
Pitts, Walter (1986). Contrastive use of verbal -z in slave narratives. In Sankoff, David (ed.), Diversity and diachrony. Amsterdam: Benjamins. 73–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pooley, Robert C. (1934). Subject-verb agreement. American Speech 9:31–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Poplack, Shana, & Tagliamonte, Sali. (1989). There's no tense like the present: Verbal -s inflection in Early Black English. Language Variation and Change 1:47–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Poplack, Shana, & Tagliamonte, Sali (2004). Back to the present: Verbal -s in the (African American) English diaspora. In Hickey, Raymond (ed.), Legacies of Colonial English: Studies in transported dialects. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 203–223.Google Scholar
Preston, Dennis R. (1993). Two Heartland perceptions of language variety. In Frazer, Timothy C. (ed.), ‘Heartland’ English: Variation and Transition in the American Midwest. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. 23–47.Google Scholar
Preston, Dennis R. (1996). Where the worst English is spoken. In Schneider, Edgar (ed.), Focus on the USA. Amsterdam: 297–360.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, John, Lawrence, Helen, & Tagliamonte, Sali. (2001). GoldVarb 2001: A multivariate analysis application for Windows. http://www.york.ac.uk.depts/lang/webstuff/goldvarbGoogle Scholar
Roose, William H. (1911). Indiana's birthplace: A history of Harrison County Indiana. New Albany, IN: The Tribune Company, Printers.Google Scholar
Schendl, Herbert. (1996). The 3rd plural present indicative in Early Modern English—Variation and linguistic contact. In Britton, Derek (ed.), English Historical Linguistics 1994: Papers from the 8th International Conference on English Historical Linguistics. Amsterdam: Benjamins. 143–160.Google Scholar
Schilling-Estes, Natalie, & Wolfram, Walt. (1994). Convergent explanation and alternative regularization patterns: Were/weren't leveling in a vernacular English variety. Language Variation and Change 6:273–302.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schneider, Edgar W. (1983). The origin of the verbal -s in Black English. American Speech 58:99–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schreier, Daniel. (2002). Past be in Tristan da Cunha: The rise and fall of categoricality in language change. American Speech 77:70–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Jennifer, & Tagliamonte, Sali. (1998). ‘We were all thegither… I think we was all thegither’: Was regularization in Buckie English. World Englishes 17:105–126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sommer, Elisabeth. (1986). Variation in Southern urban English. In Montgomery, Michael & Bailey, Guy (eds.), Language variety in the South: Perspectives in black and white. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. 180–201.Google Scholar
Strang, Barbara M. (1966). Some features of S-V concord in present-day English. In Cellini, I. & Melchiori, G. (eds.), English studies today. Roma: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura. 73–87.Google Scholar
Tagliamonte, Sali. (1998). Was/were variation across the generations: View from the city of York. Language Variation and Change 10:153–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tagliamonte, Sali (2002). Comparative sociolinguistics. In Chambers, J. K., Trudgill, Peter, & Schilling-Estes, Natalie (eds.), The handbook of language variation and change. Malden, MA: Blackwell. 729–763.Google Scholar
Tagliamonte, Sali, & Smith, Jennifer. (1999). Analogical levelling in Samaná English: The case of was and were. Journal of English Linguistics 27:8–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tortora, Christina. (2006). The case of Appalachian expletive they. American Speech 81:266–296.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trüb, Regina. (2006). Nonstandard verbal paradigms in earlier white southern American English. American Speech 81:250–265.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Herk, Gerard, & Walker, James A. (2005). S Marks the spot? Regional variation and early African American correspondence. Language Variation and Change 17:113–131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Viereck, Wolfgang. (1995). Verbal -s inflection in ‘Early’ American Black English. In Fisiak, Jacek (ed.), Linguistic change under contact conditions. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 315–326.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
von Schneidemesser, Luanne. (2002). Settlement history in the United States as reflected in DARE: The example of German. American Speech 77:398–418.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wessel, Paul, & Smith, Walter H. F. (1991). Free software helps map and display data. EOS Trans., AGU 72:441. [http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/pwessel/pwessel.html]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wessel, Paul, & Smith, Walter H. F. (1995). New version of the Generic Mapping Tools released. EOS Trans., AGU 76:329. [http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/pwessel/pwessel.html]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wessel, Paul, & Smith, Walter H. F. (1998). New, improved version of the Generic Mapping Tools released. EOS Trans., AGU 79:579. [http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/pwessel/pwessel.html]CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolfram, Walt. (1980). A-prefixing in Appalachian English. In Labov, William (ed.), Locating language in time and space. New York: Academic Press. 107–143.Google Scholar
Wolfram, Walt (1988). Reconsidering the semantics of a-prefixing. American Speech 63:247–253.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolfram, Walt (2000). Issues in reconstructing earlier African-American English. World Englishes 19:39–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolfram, Walt, & Christian, Donna. (1976). Appalachian speech. Arlington, VA: Center for Applied Linguistics.Google Scholar
Wolfram, Walt, Hazen, Kirk, & Schilling-Estes, Natalie. (1999). Dialect change and maintenance on the Outer Banks. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.Google Scholar
Wolfram, Walt, & Schilling-Estes, Natalie. (2003). Language change in ‘conservative’ dialects: The case of past tense be in Southern enclave communities. American Speech 78:208–227.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolfram, Walt, & Sellers, Jason. (1999). Ethnolinguistic marking of past be in Lumbee Vernacular English. Journal of English Linguistics 27:94–114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolfram, Walter A. (1969). A sociolinguistic description of Detroit Negro speech. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics.Google Scholar
Wright, Laura. (2001). Third-person singular present-tense -s, -th, and zero, 1575–1648. American Speech 76:236–258.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, Laura (2002). Third person plural present tense markers in London prisoners' depositions, 1562–1623. American Speech 77:242–263.CrossRefGoogle Scholar