The Atlas of North American English

William Labov; Sharon Ash; Charles Boberg

Published by De Gruyter Mouton 2005

The Atlas of North American English

Phonetics, Phonology and Sound Change

William Labov

, Sharon Ash

and Charles Boberg

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110167467

Overview
Contents

About this book

"Choice" Outstanding Academic Title 2006!

The Atlas of North American English provides the first overall view of the pronunciation and vowel systems of the dialects of the U.S. and Canada. The Atlas re-defines the regional dialects of American English on the basis of sound changes active in the 1990s and draws new boundaries reflecting those changes. It is based on a telephone survey of 762 local speakers, representing all the urbanized areas of North America. It has been developed by Bill Labov, one of the leading sociolinguists of the world, together with his colleagues Sharon Ash and Charles Boberg.

The Atlas consists of a printed volume accompanied by an interactive CD-ROM. The print and multimedia content is also available online.

Combined Edition: Book and Multimedia CD-ROM

The book contains

23 chapters that re-define the geographic boundaries of North American dialects and trace the influence of gender, age, education, and city size on the progress of sound change;
findings that show a dramatic and increasing divergence of English in North America;
139 four color maps that illustrate the regional distribution of phonological and phonetic variables across the North American continent;
120 four color vowel charts of individual speakers.

The multimedia CD-ROM supplements the articles and maps by providing

a data base with measurements of more than 100,000 vowels and mean values for 439 speakers;
the Plotnik program for mapping each of the individual vowel systems;
extended sound samples of all North American dialects;
multimedia applications to enhance classroom presentations.

Online Version: Book and CD-ROM content plus additional data

The online version comprises the contents of the book and the multimedia CD-ROM along with additional data. It

presents a wider selection of data, maps, and audio samples that will be recurrently updated;
proffers simultaneous access to the information contained in the book and on the multimedia CD-ROM to all users in the university/library network;
provides students with easy access to research material for classroom assignments.

For more information, please contact Mouton de Gruyter: customerservice@degruyter.com

System Requirements for CD-ROM and Online Version

Windows PC: Pentium PC, Windows 9x, NT, or XP, at least 16MB RAM, CD-ROM Drive, 16 Bit Soundcard, SVGA (600 x 800 resolution)

Apple MAC: OS 6 or higher, 16 Bit Soundcard, at least 16MB RAM

Supported Browsers: Internet Explorer, 5.5 or 6 (Mac OS: Internet Explorer 5.1)/Netscape 7.x or higher/Mozilla 1.0 or higher/Mozilla Firefox 1.0 or higher

PlugIns: Macromedia Flash Player 6/Acrobat Reader

Author information

William Labov and Sharon Ash, University of Pennsylvania, USA; Charles Boberg, McGill University, Montréal, Canada..

Reviews

"ANAE is very much a standalone piece. [...] But such splendid isolation is the privilege of the giants of a discipline, and giants in the world of scholarship is definitley what the authors of this volume are. This is a landmark study, a unique reference point of dialectological scholarship for decades to come and an inspiration for generations of linguistics."
Edgar W. Schneider in: English World-Wide 1/2008

"The ANAE is a massive collection of dialect data and an unprecedented accomplishment in North American English dialectology."
Joshua Wilbur in: English Language and Linguistics 1/2007

"ANAE is a landmark study that will shape research trends for years to come."
Matthew J. Gordon in: Linguist List 17.2299

Coverage in the press:

“Talking the Tawk” The New Yorker

“Sound Decision: New Atlas Divides the US by Dialect” The Chicago Tribune and CubaNow.net

“Continental Drift” The Pennsylvania Gazette

“Is there a Rocky Mountain Accent?” New West

“North American Dialects” National Geographic

“Mayor’s Accent Deserts Boston for New York” New York Times

“It’s not the Sights, it’s the Sounds” New York Times

“Mapping North American English” Associated Press

Topics

Frontmatter Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	I
Table of contents Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	VII
Introduction and methods
Introduction and methods
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	3
Introduction and methods
The North American English vowel system Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	11
Introduction and methods
Principles of chain shifting and mergers Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	16
Introduction and methods
Sampling and field methods Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	21
Introduction and methods
Methods of acoustic analysis Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	36
Introduction and methods
The construction of isoglosses Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	41
Mergers and contrasts
Mergers and contrasts
The restoration of post-vocalic /r/ Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	47
Mergers and contrasts
Nearly completed mergers Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	49
Mergers and contrasts
North American mergers in progress Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	58
North American English vowels
North American English vowels
The vowels of North American English: Maps of natural breaks in F1 and F2 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	77
Overviews of North American dialects
Overviews of North American dialects
The dialects of North American English Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	119
Overviews of North American dialects
The fronting of back upgliding vowels Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	152
Overviews of North American dialects
The short-a and short-o configurations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	169
Regional patterns
Regional patterns
The North Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	187
Regional patterns
Canada Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	216
Regional patterns
New England Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	225
Regional patterns
New York City and the Mid-Atlantic states Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	233
Regional patterns
The South Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	240
Regional patterns
The Midland Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	263
Regional patterns
The West Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	279
Other views of regional differences
Other views of regional differences
Lexical and grammatical maps Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	289
Other views of regional differences
African-Americans Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	297
Other views of regional differences
The findings of the Atlas of North American English: An overview Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	303
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	307
Index of subjects, city names, and persons Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	314

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
Audience: Sociolinguists; Dialectologists; Phonologists; Grammarians; Typologists; Geo-Linguists; Linguists specializing in American and/or English Studies; Institutes; Academic Libraries
Pages
- Front matter: 14
- Main content: 318
Illustrations
- Other: 129 maps
Keywords: English / language

eBook

Published: July 14, 2008
ISBN: 9783110206838

Hardcover

Published: December 8, 2005
ISBN: 9783110167467