A woman writes to Dear Abby to say that she has moved
to the Boston area after living her whole life in Jackson,
Mississippi. It has been two years, but she is still not used
to people laughing in her face and mocking her accent.
She doesn’t understand why people find this not only
acceptable, but amusing. She wants to know how best to
respond when she comes across this behavior. How do
you think Miss Abby will respond, and why?
In an article called “The Nationalization of a Southernism,”
Tillery et al. (2000) present evidence that one feature of
Southern U.S. English is actually spreading into the North,
at a good pace. What feature do you think this might be?
Read the article and discuss how and why this might be
happening. If you would like to look at this issue more
closely, read Hyman (2006).Notes
1 In this chapter I am leaving aside African American Vernacular
English as it is spoken in the South. The similarities and differences
between Southern AAVE and Southern White Vernacular English
(SWVE) are a matter of disagreement among linguists, one that cannot
be addressed here in sufficient detail. See especially Cukor-Avila
(2003) for a concise overview of what is called the divergence–
convergence debate.
2 Ayers is a life-long resident of the South and an expert on Southern
history. Those interested in language variation over space and most
especially the concept of the South will find All over the Map:
Rethinking America’s Regions, a book Ayers co-wrote and co-edited, to
be of great use and interest.
3 Kretzschmar provides a concise but thorough discussion of the
technological and theoretical challenges of mapping Southern English
(Kretzschmar 2003, 2004, 2008a, 2008b).
4 November 2008. URL on file.