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49
CENTER FOR APPLIED LINGUISTICS
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Waft Wolfram Donna Christian
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Center forAppled Linguistics
Library of Congress Catalog Card No.: 76-15079 ISBN: 87281,050-X June 1976
[email protected] By the Center for Applied Linguistics 1611 North Kent St, :et
Arlington, Virginia 22209 Printed in the U.S.A.
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"Evezybody lives in the mountains has an accent all to theirself."
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Preface
Although the focus on social dialects during the past decade has greatly advanced the theoretical and descriptive base of sociolinguistics, it is apparent that the descriptive concerns have often been quite selective. Descriptive accounts of some varieties proliferate rapidly while other varieties remain virtually ignored. ln this book, we hope to expand the descriptive base of dialect diversity in American English by focusing on an often-neglected geographical area of tne United Statesthe mountain range of Appalachia. While we have adopted a particular sociolinguistic model for our description, we have endeavored to present our findings in a way that would make them accessible to specialists in fields other We are than professional linguistics and still be of use to linguists. primarily interested in ptaviding 4 meaningful reference work for educators--particularly reading specialists, English teachers, language arts specialists, and spcech pathologists. We are further concerned with the educational implications of such diversity, and therefore dis-, cuss the educational significance of dialect diversity at some length. We weuld like to think of our description of Appalachian English as comprehensive, but we are well aware of the fact that there are a number of descriptive aspects which we have treated in little or no detail. This book originally developed from one part of a final research report, Sociolinguistic Variables in Appalachian Dialects, carried out under contract NIE-C-74-0026 with the National Institute of Education 0/10, from June 1974 - August 1975. Detailed formal descriptions of a number of the features treated in the final research report are not included here but they can be found in the second part of the final report submitteC1 to the N1E.
There are many people to whom we wre indebted for assistance and consultation. Prcminent among them are those individuals in Monroe and Mercer Caunties who aided us in our initial contacts in the area. Mary Compton and William McNeel in Monroe County and C. D. Lilly and Haroloi Okes of Mercer County were most gracious in helping us establish contacts in the area. They generously opened up the schools in these counties for those aspects of the research which were conducted in that connection. We could not have participated in a more cordial working relationship. They also offered their kind assistance in extending our contacts to other individuals in the area who assisted us in this venture. including Haskell Shdmate, county clerk of Monroe County, West Virginia, who provided us with invaluable insight into the h