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ERIC Number: ED121053
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1974
Pages: 21
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
What You Sound Like to an Arkansawyer.
Underwood, Gary N.
This paper reports on the Arkansas Language Survey, which had two purposes: (1) to explore the idea advanced by Labov that Americans generally have negative attitudes about their language, and to see to what extent this applies to Arkansawyers; and (2) to determine how Arkansawyers judge the way other Americans speak English. The twenty-four white adult subjects, chosen randomly among natives of the Arkansas Ozarks region, ranged in age from 29 to 74 years. There were 16 females and 8 males. They were asked to rate each of 10 speakers, heard on a recording, on speech and personality. The ten speech areas included on the tape were: eastern Massachusetts; Charleston, South Carolina; central Kentucky; New York City; Little Rock, Arkansas; Chicago; northeast Arkansas; Alabama; Ozark Arkansas; and Philadelphia. The results showed that the subjects perceived their own Ozark speech as having the most favorable traits. The closely related dialect of northeast Arkansas was the second preference, followed by Coastal Southern English of Alabama. Southern English was seen as more favorable than Northern speech, which in turn was preferred over Black English. Finally, the subjects did not exhibit the linguistic self-hatred postulated by Labov. (CLK)
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: N/A
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Arkansas
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A