NEW ENGLAND DIALECTS
Aims | Papers | Geographic Domain | More on N. England dialects | PIs | Instruments | "Live free or die"
Overview
We examine dialect variation in Boston, New Hampshire, Vermont,
and the bordering region of Quebec, looking particularly at variation
that can be attributed to patterns of migration of various ethnic groups.
After conducting a series of surveys across the area, we recorded speech from people
who live throughout the region. Our goal is to decribe linguistic variation relating phonological, syntactic, etc. patterns to where people
live, where they (or their ancestors) came from, as well as differences
according to age, sex, class, and attitude, which would help us determine
the direction and rate of any changes in progress.
• To update the base of knowledge concerning the phonological dialect
features, which have not been thoroughly examined since publication of
the Linguistic Atlas of New England (1937), map out current isoglosses
and dialect regions and compare them to those of LANE, where possible.
• To examine the effect of geographic features (i.e., barriers such
as mountains and rivers) and compare them with that of political borders.
• To examine children’s and adolescents’ participation in their speech
community by virtue of their acquisition of Vermont and New Hampshire
dialect features as compared with that of their parents and other adults.
• To explore children’s participation in dialect change by examining
their acquisition of new dialect features as opposed to those which appear
to be becoming obsolete.
• To examine the effect of various ethnic influences characteristic
of speakers in the region: Abenaki, English and French. We are particularly
interested in exploring the influences on English of Abenaki and French,
both of which died out in this region in the 1950's. French was spoken
for a relatively short period of time, beginning in the mid 1800's, whereas
Algonquian was spoken for 4000 years
• To determine the influence of expanding urban culture on older rural
dialects.
Papers and presentations
Wood, James. 2011. Short-a in Northern New England. Journal of English Linguistics 39.2:135-65.
Nagy, N. & P. Irwin. 2010. Boston (r): Neighbo(r)s nea(r) and fa(r). Language Variation and Change 22:2.241-78. Abstract
Nagy, N. 2009. Boston (R): Neighbo(r)s nea(r) and fa(r). Paper presented at U Buffalo and CVC III (York U.). Abstract , talk slides, and handout for CVC III conference at York University.
Villard, Sarah. 2009. Postvocalic /r/ in the Upper Valley of Vermont and New Hampshire. Paper presented at NWAV 38, Ottawa.
Nagy, N. 2008. Perception and production frequency in R speech. Poster (PDF) presented at Lab Phon 11, Wellington, NZ.
Irwin, P. & N. Nagy. 2007. "The return of R." Paper presented at NWAV 36, Philadelphia. Abstract
Irwin, Patricia & Naomi Nagy. 2007. "Bostonians' /r/ speaking: A Quantitative look at (R) in Boston." University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics 13.2: Papers from NWAV 35:135-147. abstract PDF | paper PDF
Nagy, N. & J. Roberts. 2004. New England: phonology.
In Edgar Schneider, Kate Burridge, Bernd Kortmann, Rajend Mesthrie
and Clive Upton,eds. A Handbook of Varieties of English. Volume
1: Phonology. Berlin, NY: Mouton de Gruyter. 270-281. [This
is a multimedia volume. There is a free sneak preview at www.mouton-online.com.]
Reprinted as Nagy, N. & J. Roberts. 2008. New England: Phonology. In E. Schneider, K. Burridge, B. Kortmann, R. Mesthrie & C. Upton, eds. A Handbook of Varieties of English. Volume 2: Varieties of English of the Americas and the Caribbean. Berlin, NY: Mouton de Gruyter. 52-66.
Nagy, N. 2001.'Live
free or die' as a linguistic principle. American Speech 76.1:30-41.
(Download .PDF
of full paper.)
Nagy, N., J. Roberts, & C.
Boberg. 2001. Yakking with the Yankees. American Language Review 5.1:40-43.
Ryback-Soucy, W. & N.
Nagy. 2000.Exploring the dialect
of the Franco-Americans of Manchester, NH. Journal of English
Linguistics 28.3:249-264. (.zip file)
Nagy, N. 2000. Mary, Merry,
Marry quite contrary, how does your dialect go? American Dialect
Society, Chicago.
Nagy, N. (1999) Live
free or die: NH maintains linguistic independence from Boston. NWAVE,
Toronto.
Nagy, N. & J. Roberts.
1998.Yankee Doodles in Dialectography: Updating New England. Poster presented at NWAVE 27, Athens,
GA.
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Naomi Nagy, Department of Linguistics , University of Toronto.
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Julie
Roberts, Department of Communication
Sciences, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT.
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Charles
Boberg, Linguistics
Department, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec.
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To date, we have collected and entered survey data from the following
locations (# of responses is approximate):
Map of regions surveyed in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
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Location
(USA)
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No. of Responses
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Location
(Canada)
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No. of Responses
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NH
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Quebec
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Barrington
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12
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Montreal
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72
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Contoocook
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12
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Eastern Townships
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12
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Derry
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10
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Western provinces
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Durham
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6
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Calgary, AL
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6
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Gorham
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12
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Saskatoon, SA
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6
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Keene
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12
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British Columbia
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12
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Londonderry
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12
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Ontario
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Manchester
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30
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Brockville area
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12
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Nashua
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18
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Eastern
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12
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Newmarket
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12
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Ottawa
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12
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Rochester
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12
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Toronto
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12
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Sandwich, Tamworth
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12
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N. Brunswick
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MA
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Moncton
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12
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Amherst
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12
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Belmont, Northfield
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12
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Beverly
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12
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Various others
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40
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Billerica
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6
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Chelmsford
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6
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Milford
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12
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Boston
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18
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Sheffield
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12
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Haverhill
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12
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Central
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24
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north of Boston
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24
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Southern
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12
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ME
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Saco
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12
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Learn more about this project.
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