The sociolinguist William Labov has worked for decades on change in progress
in American dialects and on African American Vernacular English (AAVE). In Dialect
Diversity in America, Labov examines the diversity among American dialects and presents
the counterintuitive finding that geographically localized dialects of North American English are
increasingly diverging from one another over time. Contrary to
the general expectation that mass culture would diminish regional differences, the dialects of Los
Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, Birmingham, Buffalo, Philadelphia, and New York are now more different
from each other than they were a hundred years ago. Equally significant is Labov's finding that AAVE
does not map with the geography and timing of changes in other dialects. The home dialect of most
African American speakers has developed a grammar that is more and more different from that of the
white mainstream dialects in the major cities studied and yet highly homogeneous throughout the
United States.Labov describes the political forces that drive
these ongoing changes, as well as the political consequences in public debate. The author also
considers the recent geographical reversal of political parties in the Blue States and the Red
States and the parallels between dialect differences and the results of recent presidential
elections. Finally, in attempting to account for the history and geography of linguistic change
among whites, Labov highlights fascinating correlations between patterns of linguistic divergence
and the politics of race and slavery, going back to the antebellum United States. Complemented by an
online collection of audio files that illustrate key dialectical nuances, Dialect Diversity
in America offers an unparalleled sociolinguistic study from a preeminent scholar in the
field.
Copyright:
2012
Book Details
Book Quality:
Publisher Quality
ISBN-13:
9780813933276
Related ISBNs:
9780813933269
Publisher:
University of Virginia Press
Date of Addition:
05/07/13
Copyrighted By:
the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia