Language in Motion 2

Eppur’ si Muove.^1

Galileo Galilei

Changes in progress

There is a common belief that regional differences in U.S. English are
eroding, and that as time passes, we all will sound more alike. The broadcast
and print media outlets are believed to be the power that fuels this march
toward homogeneity, and remarks on this topic show up in letters to the
editor, on discussion forums, in human interest news stories and in weblogs.
For example, “Dialects are becoming rare. TV and increased geographic
mobility have us speaking more and more alike no matter where we’re

from. We’re losing a portion of our culture” (Braiterman 2008).^2

Where this idea originated is unclear. What we can be said with certainty
is that regional varieties of English are not becoming more alike over time,
despite mass communication. Hard evidence makes it clear that just the
opposite is true. Regional varieties of American English are changing, and
many of the changes in progress are causing differences to intensify rather
than lessen.
Salvucci (1999) synthesized all the major studies of language variation
over space from 1968 to the late 1990s, and came up with the map shown in
Figure 2.1 The linguists who contributed to this identification of dialect
areas did so on the basis of bundles of linguistic features (or isoglosses) that
constitute a kind of fluid linguistic border. Some of the changes in progress
discussed in this chapter may seem unlikely to you, but closer examination
might change your mind.