New Jersey Dialects

[Dennis R. Preston]

>Drew,

>Several recent pieces of resarch by Wiliam Labov and/or Sherry Ash
>(University of Pennsylvania) focus quite specifically on
>differences, diffusion, and other matters (some lexical as well as
>phonological) in New Jersy. I have the oral presentations filed away
>in my head, but don't have any recent print references. One such for
>sure was presented by Sherry at the NCState NWAV in 2001 entitled
>"The distribution of a phonemic split in the Mid-Atlantic Region:
>Yet more on short a." It has detailed information, as I recall,
>about a continuum through New Jersey (from NYC to Phildelphia). I'd
>get in touch with them.

dInIs

PS: None of our convention were violated in your request.

>Hello all!
>
>This is my first post to ADS-L, so I apologize if I violate any of
>your conventions or
>offend anyone just by being here.
>
>Could anyone direct me to resources concerning speech in New Jersey?
>Specifically, I
>am looking for information on North Jersey/South Jersey phonological
>contrasts as
>influenced by proximity to New York City and Philadelphia
>respectively. The more
>recent the study, the better. I have found entire books on the
>topic, but they have all
>been too old to be of much use. I have also seen some of the surveys
>that have been
>done recently (e.g. the Harvard online survey and the ongoing work
>being done by
>DARE), but they provide little information on dialectical
>differentiations *within* New
>Jersey. Additionally, I have seen some research done on the unique
>"Piney" speech of
>the Pine Barrens. That is of little interest to me. Beyond that, I
>haven't been able to find
>much. There is a lot of hearsay about the way New Jerseyans talk,
>but there seems to
>be very little actual linguistic work being done on the topic.
>
>I am interested in the way people in New Jersey (specifically people
>in their late teens/
>early twenties) speak today, and especially whether there is an
>actual distinction
>between the so-called "North Jersey" and "South Jersey" modes of speech.
>
>Any ideas?
>
>Many thanks,
>
>Drew Pidkameny


--
Dennis R. Preston
University Distinguished Professor
Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic,
        Asian and African Languages
Wells Hall A-740
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1027 USA
Office: (517) 353-0740
Fax: (517) 432-2736