Dialect Diversity in America

The sociolinguist William Labov has worked for decades on change in progressin American dialects and on African American Vernacular English (AAVE). In DialectDiversity in America, Labov examines the diversity among American dialects and presentsthe counterintuitive finding that geographically localized dialects of North American English areincreasingly diverging from one another over time. Contrary tothe general expectation that mass culture would diminish regional differences, the dialects of LosAngeles, Dallas, Chicago, Birmingham, Buffalo, Philadelphia, and New York are now more differentfrom each other than they were a hundred years ago. Equally significant is Labov's finding that AAVEdoes not map with the geography and timing of changes in other dialects. The home dialect of mostAfrican American speakers has developed a grammar that is more and more different from that of thewhite mainstream dialects in the major cities studied and yet highly homogeneous throughout theUnited States.Labov describes the political forces that drivethese ongoing changes, as well as the political consequences in public debate. The author alsoconsiders the recent geographical reversal of political parties in the Blue States and the RedStates and the parallels between dialect differences and the results of recent presidentialelections. Finally, in attempting to account for the history and geography of linguistic changeamong whites, Labov highlights fascinating correlations between patterns of linguistic divergenceand the politics of race and slavery, going back to the antebellum United States. Complemented by anonline collection of audio files that illustrate key dialectical nuances, Dialect Diversityin America offers an unparalleled sociolinguistic study from a preeminent scholar in thefield.