Language

 edited by Michael Montgomery and Ellen Johnson

 

“This volume offers a comprehensive treat-ment of the origins and varieties of the myriad languages of the South. I now finally understand why as a native Floridian I say ‘red bug’ while my colleagues from North Carolina say ‘chigger.’ An intriguing account of why southerners speak the way they do."

          — Ann Rowe, Florida State University

“Some entries straighten out longstanding confusion about how southerners use the language; others illuminate fascinating new topics; all are scholarly and authoritative, yet completely accessible. The introductory essay is alone worth the price.”

                      — John Shelton Reed, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The fifth volume of The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture explores language and dialect in the South, including English and its numerous regional variants, Native American languages, and other non-English languages spoken over time by the region’s immigrant communities.

Among the more than 60 entries are 11 on indigenous languages and major essays on French, Spanish, and German. Each of these provides both historical and contemporary perspectives, identifying the language’s location, number of speakers, vitality, and sample distinctive features. The book acknowledges the role of immigration in spreading features of Southern English to other regions and countries and in bringing linguistic influences from Europe and Africa to Southern English. The fascinating patchwork of English dialects is also fully presented, from African American English, Gullah, and Cajun English to the English spoken in Appalachia, the Ozarks, the Outer Banks, the Chesapeake Bay Islands, Charleston, and elsewhere. Topical entries discuss ongoing changes in the pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar of English in the increasingly mobile South, as well as naming patterns, storytelling, preaching styles, and politeness, all of which deal with ways language is woven into southern culture.

Michael Montgomery is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English at the University of South Carolina. His many books include Language Variety in the South: Perspectives in Black and White.

Ellen Johnson is associate professor of linguistics at Berry College in Rome, Georgia, and author of Lexical Change and Variation in the Southeastern United States.

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

          • Language in the South
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          • African American English

          • Afro-Seminole Creole (Shiminol, Maskogo)

          • Algonquin Languages

          • American Sign Language

          • Appalachian English

          • Bahamian English

          • Caddo

          • Cajun English

          • Catawba

          • Charleston English

          • Chesapeake Bay English

          • Conch

          • Confederate English in Brazil

          • French

          • German

          • Gullah

          • Immigrant Languages, Recent

          • Indian Trade Languages

          • Indigenous Languages, Other

          • Iroquoian Languages

          • Jewish Language

          • Liberian Settler English

          • Lumbee English

          • Muskogean Languages

          • Natchez Language

          • New Orleans English

          • Outer Banks English

          • Ozark English

          • Siouan Languages

          • Spanish

          • Texas English

          • Tidewater Virginia Dialect

          • Yuchi Language


            ____________________________
  • African American Discourse Features
  • African American Naming Patterns
  • Conversation
  • Creolization
  • Dictionary of American Regional English
  • Fixin’ to
  • Folk Speech
  • Grammar, Changes in
  • Illiteracy
  • Linguistic Atlas of the Gulf States
  • Linguistic Atlas of the Middle and South Atlantic States
  • Linguists and Linguistics
  • Literary Dialect
  • McDavid Jr., Raven I.
  • Narrative
  • North Carolina Language and Life Project
  • Oratorical Themes
  • Perceptions of Southern English
  • Personal Names
  • Place-names
  • Politeness
  • Preaching Style, Black
  • Preaching Style, White
  • Pronunciation, Changes in
  • Proverbs
  • “R” in Southern English
  • Randolph, Vance
  • Southern Drawl
  • Southern English in Television and Film
  • Storytelling
  • Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages
  • Toasts and Dozens
  • Turner, Lorenzo Dow
  • Vocabulary, Changes in
  • Y’all