American Speech current issue

CONTRIBUTORS' COLUMN

2008-09-16

"GOOD OLD IMMIGRANTS OF YESTERYEAR," WHO DIDN'T LEARN ENGLISH: GERMANS IN WISCONSIN

Wilkerson, M. E., Salmons, J. — 2008-09-16

One myth about language and immigration in North America is that nineteenth-century immigrants typically became bilingual almost immediately after arriving, yet little systematic data has been presented for this view. We present quantitative and qualitative evidence about Germans in Wisconsin, where, into the twentieth century, many immigrants and their descendants remained monolingual, decades after immigration had ceased. Even those who claimed to speak English often had limited command. Quantitative data from the 1910 Census, augmented by qualitative evidence from newspapers, court records, literary texts, and other sources, suggest that Germans of various socioeconomic backgrounds often lacked English language skills. German continued to be the primary language in numerous Wisconsin communities, and some second- and third-generation descendants of immigrants were still monolingual as adults. Understanding this history can help inform contemporary debates about language and immigration and help dismantle the myth that successful immigrant groups of yesterday owed their prosperity to an immediate, voluntary shift to English.

THE LOW-BACK MERGER IN THE STEEL CITY: AFRICAN AMERICAN ENGLISH IN PITTSBURGH

Eberhardt, M. — 2008-09-16

This article investigates the status of the low-back vowels in African American English in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where the vowels have been merged since at least the late 1800s. The low-back merger is currently spreading across much of the United States, but to date, its incidence in African American speech has been found to be limited. This article draws from a sample of 34 African Americans native to Pittsburgh. Using data from a word list along with an acoustic analysis of the low-back vowels in conversational speech from sociolinguistic interviews, this article shows that African Americans in Pittsburgh have merged the low-back vowels, thus sharing in this feature of the local phonological system. The article also explores the sociohistorical conditions that facilitated the spread of the merger from white to African American speech in the region.

PARIS HILTON, BRENDA FRAZIER, BLOGS, AND THE PROLIFERATION OF CELEBU-

Brown, D. W. — 2008-09-16

In 1939, Walter Winchell coined celebutante in recognition of young Brenda Frazier's status and fame. More recently, celebu- has detached and become a productive combining form. Part of that productivity can be ascribed to its felicitous phonological properties. Many celebu- coinages, however, appear in blogs. Thus, the productivity of celebu- results from the specific register conditions of blogs. The specific case of celebu- reveals much about these conditions—the need for semantic economy, the saliency of humor, the function of nominalization, as well as the role of critique and sometimes cruelty. Additionally, celebu- coinages illustrate how blogs have emerged as sites of linguistic innovation.

CELEBU- WORD LIST: AN INTERESTING FORAY INTO CALCULATING RELEVANCE

Barnhart, D. K. — 2008-09-16

AMONG THE NEW WORDS

Glowka, W., Barrett, G., Barnhart, D. K., Melancon, M., Salter, M., Miller, G. — 2008-09-16

LINGUISTIC EMANCIPATION AFTER KING

Brown, D. W. — 2008-09-16

A DEFINITE(?) MAYBE

Marlow, D. W. — 2008-09-16