An ADS evaluation of dialects in movies?

[Bob Haas]

Dennis,

I suppose I am a lay person, since my specialty is not linguistics, but rather
renaissance and restoration drama with a minor in comp/rhetoric.  I do,
however, follow the proceedings on the list with a fair amount of excitement
and enthusiasm and am a little disappointed by your answer that seems to say
that your work is too complex for us to handle.

At the same time, I realize that theoretically-heavy material--by its very
nature--is too difficult to reduce to a one-page precis, but could you give us
some brief idea of what you base this revisionist (that's a loaded word, I
know, but I simply mean that you're proposing a rather new look at something
that's fairly entrenched) conceptualization of the antebellum southern accent?
If not, is there someone else out there that can inform the list of this
phenomenon?

I also realize that many members of the list might be facing a couple--if not
more--stacks of papers to grade before the final holiday rush, but this topic
seems to be a very good opportunity to explore linguistics and accent beyond
many of our typical (but fun, and let's not stop them) discussions of "pop" vs.
"soda."

Thanks for the time.

Bob, not Brittany

"Dennis R. Preston" wrote:

> Brittany,
>
> I'd like to, but this is fairly recent (and unfortunately very technically
> embedded stuff, in acoustic phonetics, I'm afraid), and there is no single
> source. It's our fault for not publishing more stuff that is comprehensible
> to interested lay-persons.
>
> Best,
>
> dInIs
>
> >Dennis, could you recommend an article or book that would further explain
> >this phenomenon?  It sounds very interesting to this son of the south; I
> >thought that the accent went back to before the War Against Northern
> >Aggression, but I'm no linguist, just an interested dilettante.
> >
> >Many thanks.
> >
> >Bob Haas
> >Department of English
> >High Point University
> >University of North Carolina at Greensboro
> >
> >                      "Shun the frumious Bandersnatch!"
>
> Dennis R. Preston
> Department of Linguistics and Languages
> Michigan State University
> East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
> preston at pilot.msu.edu
> Office: (517)353-0740
> Fax: (517)432-2736

--

Bob Haas
Department of English
High Point University
University of North Carolina at Greensboro

                       "Shun the frumious Bandersnatch!"