A Basic Course in Anthropological Linguistics (Studies in Linguistic ...

132 A BASIC COURSE IN ANTHROPOLOGICAL LINGUISTICS
(“to do”) > hacer rather thanfacer-is attributed to the influence of the Iberian
language that was spoken before the invasion of the Romans. That language
did not have an /f/ in initial position.
In the US, there are three major regional dialects: (1) Northern, also called
Eastern or New England; (2) Southern; and (3) Midland, also known as Western
or Midwestern. Many local dialects exist within these main ones. The Northern
dialect is spoken mainly in New York and New England. Some characteristics
of Northern pronunciation include dropping the /r/ sound (car pronounced /
kah/)), and using the short /o/ instead of the open /a/ vog = /fag/). The Southern
dialect is spoken mainly in the Southern States. Some of its features include
the loss of the /r/ sound, the use of the broad /a/ (time = /ta”m/), and the use
of a short /i/ for /e/ before a nasal sound (pen = /pihn/). The Midland dialect is
spoken in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and most states west of the Appalachian
Mountains. This dialect is sometimes considered the standard form of American
English because it is spoken over the largest geographic region. Pronunciation
characteristics of the Midland dialect include the use of the /r/ sound in all
word positions, the use of the open /a/ for short /o/, and the use of a long /ay/
in the word time.
To study dialects, a number of specific tools have been developed. One of
the first to be fashioned is the so-called dialect atlas. This is, as its name
indicates, a collection of maps of specific regions. Each map shows the actual
form that a word or phrase takes on in the regions or areas surveyed. The first
to construct such a map was a German school teacher named Georg Wenker
in 1876. Wenker sent a list of sentences written in Standard German to other
school teachers in northern Germany, asking them to return the list transcribed
into the local dialect. By the end of the project, he had compiled over 45,000
questionnaires. Each questionnaire contained 40 sentences. Wenker then
produced two sets of maps, highlighting different features. The maps were
bound together under the title Sprachatlas des Deutschen Reichs.
The questionnaire method established by Wenker remains the basis for
conducting dialect surveys to this day, although the procedure for gathering
the data has, of course, changed. Dialectologists now send trained observers
into the designated region(s) to conduct and record interviews. This fieldwork
approach started with the Swiss linguist Jules Gillikron in the last decade of
the nineteenth century. Gillikron devised a questionnaire for eliciting 1,500
common vocabulary items. He then chose a fieldworker, named Edmond
Edmont, to compile the relevant data in the designated parts of France. From
1896 to 1900, Edmont recorded 700 interviews at 639 sites. Known as the
Atlas linguistique de la France, publication of the atlas got under way in 1902
and was completed in 1910.