Recent studies of bi-ethnic enclave dialect communities in the American South suggest that earlier versions of African American speech both accommodated local dialect norms and exhibited a persistent substratal effect from the early African-European contact situation. We examine this hypothesis by considering the sociolinguistic situation in Texana, North Carolina, a small African American community in the Smoky Mountain region of Appalachia. Though its population is only about 150 residents, it is the largest African American community in the Smoky Mountains. This study considers diagnostic sociolinguistic variables for Texana residents in order to examine the extent to which the members of this African American community align their speech with local dialect norms as the basis for evaluating the status of earlier and contemporary African American English (AAE) in Appalachia. Morphosyntactic variables examined are 3rd pl. -s attachment, 3rd sg. -s absence, copula absence, and past tense be leveling; phonological variables include rhoticity, syllable coda consonant cluster reduction, and /ai/ glide weakening. When compared to cohort white Appalachian speakers, data from older Texana residents confirm the regional accommodation of earlier AAE and at the same time point toward substrate influence in the historical development of AAE. However, unlike AAE in other enclave regional contexts, we find that the dialect of younger residents is not moving toward a supraregional norm of AAE. Instead, young speakers are accommodating several key features of Southern American English, specifically the Southern Appalachian English (AppE) variety that is characteristic of the Smoky Mountain region of North Carolina. Explanations for the attested diachronic changes as well as future trajectories of change for Texana speakers must appeal to sociopsychological factors such as regional identity and orientation to explain local community language norms.
2014. Linguistic repertoire and ethnic identity in New York City. Language & Communication 35 ► pp. 43 ff.
Bloomquist, Jennifer
2009. DIALECT DIFFERENCES IN CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA: REGIONAL DIALECT USE AND ADAPTATION BY AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE LOWER SUSQUEHANNA VALLEY. American Speech 84:1 ► pp. 27 ff.
Buer, Lesly-Marie, Bayla Ostrach & Genoa Clark
2021. There Are No “Addicted” Babies in Appalachia: Mindfully Approaching Regional Substance Use. Journal of Appalachian Studies 27:1 ► pp. 89 ff.
Byrd, Arynn S., Yi Ting Huang & Jan Edwards
2023. The impact of dialect differences on spoken language comprehension. Applied Psycholinguistics 44:4 ► pp. 610 ff.
CARPENTER, JEANNINE
2005. THE INVISIBLE COMMUNITY OF THE LOST COLONY: AFRICAN AMERICAN ENGLISH ON ROANOKE ISLAND. American Speech 80:3 ► pp. 227 ff.
Carpenter, Jeannine & Sarah Hilliard
2005. Shifting Parameters of Individual and Group Variation. Journal of English Linguistics 33:2 ► pp. 161 ff.
CHILDS, BECKY & CHRISTINE MALLINSON
2006. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF LEXICAL ITEMS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF ETHNOLINGUISTIC IDENTITY: A CASE STUDY OF ADOLESCENT SPOKEN AND ONLINE LANGUAGE. American Speech 81:1 ► pp. 3 ff.
2006. Researching Naturally Occurring Speech. In Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics, ► pp. 556 ff.
Eberhardt, Maeve
2008. The Low-Back Merger in the Steel City: African American English in Pittsburgh. American Speech 83:3 ► pp. 284 ff.
Eberhardt, Maeve
2009. The Sociolinguistics of Ethnicity in Pittsburgh. Language and Linguistics Compass 3:6 ► pp. 1443 ff.
EBERHARDT, MAEVE
2009. AFRICAN AMERICAN AND WHITE VOWEL SYSTEMS IN PITTSBURGH. The Publication of the American Dialect Society 94:1 ► pp. 129 ff.
Gordon, Matthew J.
2019. Language Variation and Change in Rural Communities. Annual Review of Linguistics 5:1 ► pp. 435 ff.
Hasty, J. Daniel & Becky Childs
2021. Investigating Appalachian Englishes: Subregional Variation in the New Appalachia. Journal of Appalachian Studies 27:1 ► pp. 69 ff.
Hasty, J. Daniel & Becky Childs
2023. You ain’t from here, are you?: Subregional Variation and Identification in the New Appalachia. American Speech: A Quarterly of Linguistic Usage
Hazen, Kirk
2011. Flying high above the social radar: Coronal stop deletion in modern Appalachia. Language Variation and Change 23:1 ► pp. 105 ff.
Hazen, Kirk
2018. The Contested Southernness of Appalachia. American Speech 93:3-4 ► pp. 374 ff.
Holt, Yolanda Feimster
2018. Mechanisms of Vowel Variation in African American English. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 61:2 ► pp. 197 ff.
José, Brian
2007. Appalachian English in southern Indiana? The evidence from verbal -s. Language Variation and Change 19:3 ► pp. 249 ff.
Kretzschmar, William A.
2016. Roswell Voices: Community Language in a Living Laboratory. In Creating and Digitizing Language Corpora, ► pp. 159 ff.
McLarty, Jason
2018. African American Language and European American English Intonation Variation Over Time in The American South. American Speech 93:1 ► pp. 32 ff.
Mitchell, David, Marivic Lesho & Abby Walker
2017. Folk Perception of African American English Regional Variation. Journal of Linguistic Geography 5:1 ► pp. 1 ff.
Moody, Simanique
2015. New Perspectives on African American English: The Role of Black-to-Black Contact. English Today 31:4 ► pp. 53 ff.
Purnell, Thomas C.
2009. Convergence and Contact in Milwaukee: Evidence From Select African American and White Vowel Space Features. Journal of Language and Social Psychology 28:4 ► pp. 408 ff.
Roy, Joseph, Janna B. Oetting & Christy Wynn Moland
2013.
Linguistic Constraints on Children's Overt Marking of
BE
by Dialect and Age
. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 56:3 ► pp. 933 ff.
Salmons, Joseph C. & Thomas Purnell
2020. Contact and the Development of American English. In The Handbook of Language Contact, ► pp. 361 ff.
Wolfram, Walt
2007. Sociolinguistic Folklore in the Study of African American English. Language and Linguistics Compass 1:4 ► pp. 292 ff.
Wolfram, Walt
2018. Changing Ethnolinguistic Perceptions In The South. American Speech 93:3-4 ► pp. 344 ff.
Wolfram, Walt
2019. African‐American English. In The Handbook of World Englishes, ► pp. 314 ff.
[no author supplied]
2005. References. In Clinical Sociolinguistics, ► pp. 281 ff.
[no author supplied]
2013. Reference Guide for Varieties of English. In A Dictionary of Varieties of English, ► pp. 363 ff.
[no author supplied]
2020. 1. Introduction. The Publication of the American Dialect Society 105:1 ► pp. 1 ff.
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