Chapter 1: American English - A Historical Perspective Flashcards
What is the 1st main period in the history of US English?
1st = period from first English settlers to the American continent to the Declaration of Independence (Jamestown 1607 to Declaration of Independence 1776)
What is the 2nd main period in the history of US English?
2nd = expansion period - from the War of Independence to the end of the 19th century (Westward expansion, gold rush, cowboys, Manifest Destiny)
What was moving westward a sign of?
Linguistic independence
What is the 3rd main period in the history of US English?
3rd = international period - new waves of immigration from Northern Europe, Eastern Europe, Italy, Spanish-speaking Latin America
How did the new waves of immigration impact US English?
- More linguistic contributions from different nationalities
- Greater need to educate the masses and create a homogenous variety of English
What are the 4 stages of Schneider’s Model?
1) foundation
2) stabilisation
3) nativisation
4) differentiation
Explain the 4 stages of Schneider’s Model.
1) foundation = dialect mixing leads to a levelling out of dialects (so people can understand each other), but this variety is still reliant on the ‘mother country’.
2) stabilisation = more levelling out, but people become linguistically creative and less dependent on the ‘mother country’
3) nativisation = emergence of a new identity - its own variety
4) differentiation = new variety become totally independent and has no real ties to the ‘mother country’
What are the 3 techniques of naming and renaming?
1) borrowing words from indigenous people e.g., skunk
2) changing the meaning of an already existing word = semantic shift e.g., ‘corn’ meant wheat originally, but now refers to sweetcorn.
3) combining already existing words to create new words = compounds e.g., sidewalk
What is ‘catty-corner’ an example of? What are its linguistic origins?
- Example of folk etymology
- From the verb ‘cater’ = to cut, to move diagonally; also from ‘quatre’
- Graphemic adaption (spelling) e.g., ‘quatre/catre’ became ‘catty’
- Phonological adaptation (sound) e.g., ‘catre’ became ‘catty’
- Semantic adaption e.g., ‘quatre’ = ‘cat’ which makes you think of a kitten, hence ‘kitty-corner’
What is another example of folk etymology?
‘Chaise lounge’ from ‘chaise longue’
Give some examples of language contact and the country of origin of each word.
- canyon = Spanish
- cookbook = German/Dutch
- enchilada = Spanish
- dumb = German/Dutch
- schmuck = Yiddish
- schlep = Yiddish
- Santa Claus = German/Dutch
- zucchini = Italian
- levee = French
- bagel = Yiddish
- gung-ho = Chinese
What languages make up Yiddish? List some linguistic contributions from Yiddish.
- Yiddish = mixture of German and Hebrew
- sch- words e.g., schlep, schmooze, schmaltzy, schmuck
- calques (loan translations) e.g., come on already!; shut up already!; that’s enough already!
Who was Noah Webster and what was his goal?
- Political reformer, lexicographer
- Goal = to simplify the American language, educate the masses, make national independence a time for linguistic independence.
What is the colonial lag hypothesis?
Idea that US English came second, but retained some older features of English.
Give 3 examples of the colonial lag hypothesis.
1) fall = common words in Elizabethan England, but was replaced by ‘autumn’ in Britain
2) pronouncing ‘r’ = a retention, not an innovation, because this was very present in Old English
3) words ending in ‘-ary’ e.g., secretary = pronounced in US English the way there were in the 16th century.
