English in the Southern United States

Description

The English of the southern United States is possibly the most studied of any regional variety of any language because of its rich internal diversity, its distinctiveness among regional varieties in the United States, its significance as a marker of regional identity, and the general folkloric appeal of southern culture. However, most, if not all, books about Southern American English have been directed almost exclusively toward scholars already working in the field. This volume, written by a team of experts, many of them internationally known, provides a broad overview of the foundations of and current research on language variation in the southern United States designed to invite new inquiry and inquirers. It explores historical and cultural elements, iconic contemporary features, and current changes in progress. Central themes, issues and topics of scholarly investigation and debate figure prominently throughout the volume. The extensive bibliography will facilitate continued research.

Stephen J. Nagle is Professor of English at Coastal Carolina University. He is author of Inferential Change and Syntactic Modality in English (1989), is editor of a monograph on political changes in eastern Europe (1992), and is author or co-author of articles on English historical syntax, auxiliary verbs in southern English, and teaching English as a second language. Sara L. Sanders is Professor of English at Coastal Carolina University. She is the author or co-author of articles related to language use, language learning and language diversity. She was compositor of the Linguistic Atlas of the Middle and South Atlantic States (LAMSAS) for three years.

'Central themes, issues and topics of scholarly investigation and debate figure prominently throughout the volume. The extensive bibliography will facilitate continued research ...'. Folia Linguistica '... success on the part of the editors in compiling this volume is the discussion of many of the major issues in the field, from phonological, grammatical, and lexical variation to African American English to work on isolated linguistic communities. One of the greatest strengths of this book is the way that many of the chapters are organized around a set of data that exemplifies a major theme or debate in the current literature.' Cynthia G. Clopper, Indiana University 'Nagle and Sanders have done a masterful job of creating a concise and coherent whole from a series of articles ... Not only are the articles consistently accessible, but they are carefully sequenced so that what emerges is both a broader and more detailed picture of the structures and contexts of southern dialects and their evolution.' Jo Tyler, Mary Washington College, Linguist