FALL 2021
Regional and social dialects
Stephen Neagle’s book English in the Southern United States chronicles the different elements that make Southern dialects so recognizable—including things like /r/-lessness and monophthongization. In fact, Neagle describes /r/-lessness as one of many “features commonly associated with Southern English” (Neagle 26). However, the book does note that there is “very little and doubtful documentation” of the monophthongization of /ai/—to this I might say that within my own experience, the dialects used by individuals in my family who have been born and raised in the American South would indicate otherwise. Both of the pieces of discourse I examined exhibit this characteristic in one fashion or another, though it is perhaps more noticeable in Dr. Stafford’s longer video. One of the points that the book makes, though, is with regard to the increasing rhotic accent with younger speakers of Southern dialects—in this situation specifically, I am able to reflect on my own dialect versus that of my grandfather (and of Dr. Stafford as well)—there is a stark difference in the way that I pronounce words like “retired” and the way that Pap Pap or Dr. Stafford would. This, of course, doesn’t mean that I am not from the South—it simply indicates a shift in generation, which Neagle seems to agree with in saying that “New Southern [dialects are] expressed by the increasing use of rhoticity among the young” (Neagle 34). It seems primarily as though the elements I take greatest note of in my grandfather and Dr. Stafford’s speech indicates primarily their age, with their geographic history coming in a close second. I have always found the Henderson area accent to be unique, and it has always been one of my favorites.
Happy birthday voicemail from Pap Pap. MP4 file, created 31 Aug. 2021. Listen here.
Nagle, Stephen J. English in the Southern United States. Cambridge Univ. Press, 2011.
NC State, director. Inside NC State's Memorial Belltower: A Tour with Dr. Tom Stafford. YouTube, YouTube, 13 May 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBakVctQD50.