Speaking of Alabama: The History, Diversity, Function, and Change of Language - Couverture rigide

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 081731993X ISBN 13 : 9780817319939

Editeur : The University of Alabama Press, 2018

Synopsis

Informative and entertaining essays on the accents, dialects, and speech patterns particular to Alabama. Thomas E. Nunnally's fascinating volume presents essays by linguists who examine with affection and curiosity the speech varieties occurring both past and present across Alabama. Taken together, the accounts in this volume offer an engaging view of the major features that characterize Alabama's unique brand of southern English. Written in an accessible manner for general readers and scholars alike, Speaking of Alabama includes such subjects as the special linguistic features of the Southern drawl, the "phonetic divide" between north and south Alabama, "code-switching" by African American speakers in Alabama, pejorative attitudes by Alabama speakers toward their own native speech, the influence of foreign languages on Alabama speech, the vowel and diphthong differences that distinguish certain Alabama regions from others, as well as ongoing changes in Alabama's dialects. Adding to these studies is a foreword by Walt Wolfram and an afterword by Michael B. Montgomery, both renowned experts in southern English, which place both the methodologies and the findings of the volume into their larger contexts and point researchers to needed work ahead in Alabama, the South, and beyond. The volume also contains a number of useful appendices, including a guide to the sounds of Southern English, a glossary of linguistic terms, and online sources for further study. Language, as presented in this collection, is never abstract but always examined in the context of its speakers' day-to-day lives, the driving force for their communication needs and choices. Whether specialist or general reader, Alabamian or non-Alabamian, all readers will come away from these accounts with a deepened understanding of how language functions between individuals, within communities, and across regions, and will gain a new respect for the driving forces behind language variation and language change.

A propos du livre

À propos de l?auteur

Thomas E. Nunnally is a professor emeritus of English at Auburn University. He is coeditor of From the Gulf States and Beyond: The Legacy of Lee PedersonandLAGs and Language Variety in the South Revisited.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: The University of Alabama Press
• Date d'édition: 2018
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 081731993X
• ISBN 13: 9780817319939
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 400
• Éditeur: Nunnally Thomas E.
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible