Articlebronze2002

“DAHNTAHN” Pittsburgh: MONOPHTHONGAL /Aw AND REPRESENTATIONS OF LOCALNESS IN SOUTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA

Barbara Johnstone · Neeta Bhasin · DENISE WITTKOFSKI

74 citations0/0 files storedAmerican Speech

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

Linguistic Variation and Morphology Phonetics and Phonology Research Linguistic and Sociocultural Studies

Abstract

In this paper we report on an exploratory study of the history of the monophthongization of the diphthong /aw/ in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.We suggest that the persistence of this feature may be linked to the dominant role it plays in print representations of local-sounding speech.In sketching the history of the variable (aw) in the speech of working-class male Pittsburghers as far back as 1850 or so, this study contributes to the small body of descriptive and historical research about the North Midland speech of Pittsburgh and southwestern Pennsylvania.In addition, the study contributes to the growing sociolinguistic literature exploring the linguistic correlates of the rapid social and economic changes of the last few decades and their effects on people's senses of self and place (Bailey et al. 1993;Lane 1998;Schilling-Estes 1998;Beal 1999;Milroy and Watt 1999;Dyer 2000;Røyneland 2000).In what follows, we provide evidence for two claims.First, we describe exploratory work that suggests that the use of the monophthongal variant of the diphthong /aw/ (as in [at] for out or [dantan] for downtown) by white, working-class male Pittsburghers is not disappearing, as might be expected on some grounds.Second, we show that of all the features of local speech that are the object of local stereotyping (Labov 1972, 180; Labov 2001, 196-97), the monophthongal pronunciation of /aw/ is by far the most salient, as measured by the frequency with which it is represented in the popular print media via nonstandard spelling.Pittsburghers tell each other over and over, in newspaper cartoons, editorials, and articles, on t-shirts and refrigerator magnets, and in occasional explicit public debate about the role local speech should play in local life, that "real Pittsburghers" say "dahntahn" for downtown, "aht" for out, and so on.At this point we can only suggest that the trajectory of monophthongal /aw/ in Pittsburgh may have

Citations in this library

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 74 citations exist upstream.

References

1963The Social Motivation of a Sound Change 1985Acts of Identity: Creole-Based Approaches to Language and Ethnicity 1972Sex, covert prestige and linguistic change in the urban British English of Norwich 1987Dialects in contact. By Peter Trud Gill. (Language in society. 10.) Oxford: Blackwell. 1986. Pp. viii. 174.1998CONTEMPORARY TRANSFORMATIONS OF LOCAL LINGUISTIC COMMUNITIES 1998American English: Dialects and Variation 2000Linguistic Variation as Social Practice: The Linguistic Construction of Identity in Belten High 1998Investigating “self-conscious” speech: The performance register in Ocracoke English

Cited by

2015Germanic Heritage Languages in North America 2017Displacement and local linguistic practices: R‐lessness in post‐Katrina Greater New Orleans 2010Diachrony and AAE: St. Louis, Hip-Hop, and Sound Change outside of the Mainstream 2017Identifying Regional Dialects in On‐Line Social Media 2021Accent in North American Film and Television 2011The status of frequency, schemas, and identity in Cognitive Sociolinguistics: A case study on definite article reduction

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.