sociolinguistics

Chapter 8: L. & Geography (Geolinguistics)

How did the dialect areas emerge in the US?

  1. different changes took place at different times
  2. Americ. Eng. as originally a colonial variety, it was brought to the US by people of various backgrounds and different places of the British Isles (e.g,.Midland dialect due to settlers from Scotland and Northern Ireland)
  3. eastern seaboard was exclusively settled  by pple from one particular area of the British Isles
--> overall American English of today as a result of dialect mixture (first dialect levelling)
--> koinéization has taken place

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