Development and Modern

Impacts of UK/US English

TANNER DODRILL
KENDALL GREGORY
BECCA LUCKERT
HUI WANG

Outline
Topic

One: Dialects of Old English and

Middle English

Topic

Two: Colonial Era English

Topic

Three: Dialects and Regionalism in

the US

Topic

Four: Accent Stereotyping in the US

Old English Dialects

https://www.uni-due.de/SHE/HE_DialectsOldEnglish.htm#T_Dialects of Old
English

The Lords Prayer Northumbrian

& West Saxon
Fder ure u e eart
on heofonum,
si in nama gehalgod.
To becume in rice,
gewure in willa,
on eoran swa swa on
heofonum.

FADER USR u arin

heofnu
Sie gehalgad NOMA IN.
Tocyme RC IN.
Sie WILLO IN
su is in heofne and in
eoro.

Middle English Dialects

https://www.uni-due.de/SHE/HE_DialectsMiddleEnglish.htm#T_West Midland (Middle

English)

English Accents in Early America

Colonial English

Frontier Expansion

The Rhotic Shift

Non-rhotic speech becoming more common in London during 17 th

century

Migrated to some New World colonies

Non-rhotic Regions
Eastern New England
Massachusetts Bay
Colony, 1620
Plymouth Colony
Maine

Tidewater Virginia
Jamestown 1607

Coastal South
Charleston, SC 1670
Wolfram and Schilling-Estes 2006: 107

Rhotic Regions

Middle Colonies

Rhotic speech

Lack of contact with London

Farms vs. plantations

Settled by non-English speakers and/or by rhotic English

speakers

New York

New Netherlands 1624 New York in 1664

Became largely non-rhotic mid 19th century

Pennsylvania

Quakers from North & Midland England

Germans & Scots-Irish

German and ScotsIrish migration from

Pennsylvania
18th century

https://xdamageincx.wordpress.com/
geneaology/family-tree/how-andwhy-the-scots-irish-came-to-

Westward Expansion

Northerners Great Lakes; Midland & southerners

followed rivers through Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois

Ohio Valley, late 18th century

Canals and Roads accelerated migrations &

settlements

Erie Canal 1825

National/Cumberland Road 1811

Accent/Dialect Regions Today

http://emedia.leeward.hawaii.edu/hurley/Ling102web/mod2_identity/2mod2.3.2US.htm

Dialect leveling/endangerment

Dialect Leveling
the

reduction of variation between dialects of the

same language in situations where speakers of these
dialects are brought together Claire Lefebvre

Dialect Endangerment
as

more of the remote areas of the nation are

opened to intercommunication with the outside
world, their distinctive language varietiesmay be
overwhelmed by encroached dialects. Walt
Wolfram and Natalie Schilling-Estes

ms

Social Class

Preservation
No national
standard
dialect of
English
Sociolinguists
Dying dialects

2010 Census Briefs

Demographic

Non-Caucasian

in the U.S.

37.6%

Hispanic 16.3%

African-American/Black 14%

Asian 5.6%

American Indian/Alaska Native 1.7%

Caucasian

Non-Caucasian

 Reverse

linguistic stereotyping

listeners

tend to hear the pronunciation

they expect to hear

Accent

prestige theory

accents

give way to judge qualities of the

speaker
Example

a speaker who has a standard accent =

more intelligent + better rated qualities

Fuertes (2000)
Hispanic counselors race and accent and Euro-Americans universal diverse
orientation: A study of initial perceptions

Hispanic
Rated

accented counselors
poorly

Less

patients willing to commit to long-term

therapy

Non-Hispanic
Solidarity

counselor without an accent

and status dimensions

Foon (2001)
A social structural approach to speech evaluation

Standard-accented

individuals

Rated

higher on the status dimension

Rated

lower on the solidarity dimension

If

social class is known beforehand, accent

will not be used to form judgments

Discussion
Train

listeners, not just speakers

Preserve

social justice as core