A History of English Language

The english language in america
339
uing variation and change in American English. Joshua Fishman’s description of
immigrant languages in the United States reminds us of an often neglected point: “The
two processes—de-ethnization and Americanization, on the one hand, and culturallinguistic
self-maintenance, on the other—are equally ubiquitous throughout all of
American history. They are neither necessarily opposite sides of the same coin nor
conflicting processes. Frequently the same individuals and groups have been
simultaneously devoted to both in different domains of behavior. However, as a nation
we have paid infinitely more attention to the Americanization process than to the selfmaintenance
process.” 10 As we shall see later, at least nine varieties of American English
have enough coherence within themselves and distinction from other varieties, to warrant
their description as separate dialects. But just because distinguishing features can be
perceived, it is easy to exaggerate them while losing sight of the great majority of
features that the speech of all parts of the country has in common. Even African
American Vernacular English, the most conspicuous example of a non-standard dialect,
diverges from the uniformity of American English in superficial ways (see § 250.8). The
relatively few features that characterize African American Vernacular English, some of
which are features of standard Southern English, are more important as a social reality
than as a linguistic reality. 11 The features are perceived as more pervasive than they
actually are, and a few occurrences of patterns such as He tired or She don’t be busy
evoke in the listener’s mind a full stereotype with its associations, negative or positive,
depending on the listener’s nonlinguistic sympathies. But regarding the linguistic
insignificance of the features themselves, sociolinguists and traditional dialectologists
have made the same point. William Labov draws upon the deep structures of generative
grammar to show that differences between the English of black speakers and that of white
speakers “are largely confined to superficial, rather low level processes.” 12 And Raven
I.McDavid, Jr., who spent years recording American dialects for the Linguistic Atlas,
confirmed the conclusions of the less systematic observers quoted above: “To those
familiar with the situation in European countries, such as France or Italy or even England,
dialect differences in American English are relatively small.” 13
10
Language Loyalty in the United States (The Hague, 1966), p. 15.
11
This useful distinction is drawn by William Labov, “Some Features of the English of Black
Americans,” in Varieties of Present-Day English, ed. Richard W.Bailey and Jay L.Robinson (New
York, 1973), pp. 242–43.
12
William Labov, The Study of Nontandard English (Champaign, IL, 1970), p. 40. Labov’s
analysis shows that the patterns of Black English provide systematic aspectual distinctions and thus
are not “mistakes” in the usual sense.
13
“The Dialects of American English,” McDavid’s chapter in W.Nelson Francis, The Structure of
American English (New York, 1958), p. 482.