The Dialects of Northern New England
Overview
We propose to examine dialect variation in 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. One
valuable, but often overlooked, source of information about language change is
the speech of children. We will incorporate this aspect into our fieldwork
methodology, making this body of research different from previous dialectology
work. We will record speech patterns of people who live throughout the region,
and then see what sorts of patterns there are which relate 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.
Specific Aims
· 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
- Nagy, N. (2001) 'Live free or die' as
a linguistic principle. American Speech 76.1:30-41.
- 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.
Principal investigators
- Naomi Nagy, Department of Linguistics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario.
- Julie Roberts,Department of Communication Sciences, University of Vermont,
Burlington, VT.
- Charles Boberg, Linguistics Department, McGill University, Montreal,
Quebec.
Domain of the survey
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.
Location
(USA) |
No. of Responses |
Location
(Canada) |
No. of Responses |
NH |
|
Quebec |
|
Barrington |
12 |
Montreal |
72 |
Contoocook |
12 |
Eastern Townships |
12 |
Derry |
10 |
Western provinces |
|
Durham |
6 |
Calgary, AL |
6 |
Gorham |
12 |
Saskatoon, SA |
6 |
Keene |
12 |
British Columbia |
12 |
Londonderry |
12 |
Ontario |
|
Manchester |
30 |
Brockville area |
12 |
Nashua |
18 |
Eastern |
12 |
Newmarket |
12 |
Ottawa |
12 |
Rochester |
12 |
Toronto |
12 |
Sandwich, Tamworth |
12 |
N. Brunswick |
|
MA |
|
Moncton |
12 |
Amherst |
12 |
|
|
Belmont, Northfield |
12 |
|
|
Beverly |
12 |
Various others |
40 |
Billerica |
6 |
|
|
Chelmsford |
6 |
|
|
Milford |
12 |
|
|
Boston |
18 |
|
|
Sheffield |
12 |
|
|
Haverhill |
12 |
|
|
Central |
24 |
|
|
north of Boston |
24 |
|
|
Southern |
12 |
|
|
ME |
|
|
|
Saco |
12 |
|
|
|