Article published In:
English World-WideVol. 26:2 (2005) ► pp.199–221
Mergers in the mountains
West Virginia division and unification
This paper examines the status of two vowel mergers in a rural area of the United States. The front-lax merger has traditionally been a southern US merger, and the low-back merger has traditionally been a northern or western US merger. In areas of West Virginia, the same speakers demonstrate both. This geographic overlap of both mergers reinforces the idea that West Virginia is a transitional dialect region. In addition, the traditionally distinct dialect regions of West Virginia are finding increased unity in this overlap of mergers.
Keywords: merger, Midland English, variation, vowel, American English, dialectology
Cited by
Cited by 14 other publications
Austen, Martha
2020. Production and perception of the Pin-Penmerger. Journal of Linguistic Geography 8:2 ► pp. 115 ff. 
Boberg, Charles
2020. Diva Diction. American Speech 95:4 ► pp. 441 ff.
Boberg, Charles
2021. Accent in North American Film and Television,
Cramer, Jennifer
2018. Perceptions of Appalachian English in Kentucky. Journal of Appalachian Studies 24:1 ► pp. 45 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.
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
2008. (ING): A VERNACULAR BASELINE FOR ENGLISH IN APPALACHIA. American Speech 83:2 ► pp. 116 ff.
Hazen, Kirk
2018. The Contested Southernness of Appalachia. American Speech 93:3-4 ► pp. 374 ff.
Hazen, Kirk & Sarah Hamilton
2008. A Dialect Turned Inside Out. Journal of English Linguistics 36:2 ► pp. 105 ff.
Lee, Sinae
2018. Patterns of the Mainstream Sound Change in a Liminal Region: Low Back Merger in Washington DC. Journal of English Linguistics 46:4 ► pp. 267 ff.
[no author supplied]
2013. Reference Guide for Varieties of English. In A Dictionary of Varieties of English, ► pp. 363 ff.
[no author supplied]
2018. References. The Publication of the American Dialect Society 103:1 ► pp. 191 ff.
[no author supplied]
2023. References. In Sounds of English Worldwide, ► pp. 354 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 2 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.