English is the most common language spoken in the United States, and although it functions as the de facto official language, it is not the legally the official language. There is no official language in the United States. Socially conservative politicians have passed laws in many states making English the official state language. Sometimes these laws restricts the ability of local governments to provide services in other languages, and in other instances it simply makes it less likely that the government will provide services in other languages.
Americans speak and sign over 400 languages, and over 150 of those are indigenous to American soil. Spanish is spoken at home by about 12% of the US population, making it perhaps the second largest Spanish speaking country in the world. It’s worth noting too that the oldest Spanish settlements in the US pre-dates the oldest English colony by over 40 years. Of course, the Spanish settlements were predated by Native Americans by millennia.
Creole and Cajun French
The state of Louisiana has perhaps the most fascinating linguistic landscape in the US. The people of this region have been long able to resist full linguistic integration into the United States partly because of the isolation created by the swampiness of the region. Louisiana Creole, the creolized language of many people in south and southwestern Louisiana is spoken by people who call themselves Creoles. It, like the language of Haiti, is a hybrid of French and African languages, plus probably a healthy dose of Haitian Creole as well. Many other people in the region speak Cajun French, which is less a creolized language, than it is an isolated dialect of Canadian French. Linguistic differences among French speakers in South Louisiana are evident in the differences between Cajun and Zydeco musical styles, as well as ethnic identity in South Louisiana.
Figure 5-6: Linguistic Map of Louisiana – This map depicts the percent of persons speaking French at home. Yellow – 4-10%; Orange 10-15%; Red 15-20%; Dark Red: 20-30%. Sources: Wikimedia and Modern Language Association
American Dialects
Your ability to communicate efficiently with other Americans may depend on where you (or perhaps your parents) grew up. People from the Midwest and West Coast tend to speak a kind of “ordinary” American English widely used by national television news anchors, and spokespersons for various products advertised on TV and radio. However, people living in isolated regions of the United States, and a few big cities often have very dialects that others find challenging to understand.
Figure 5-7: Philadelphia, PA - Menu Sign This menu sign from Jim's Steaks uses the word "Hoagie" to refer to the large bready sandwich, that most of the United States calls a "sub" sandwich. Can you think of other words for these sandwiches?
There are many dozens regional dialects in the United States. Some argue that multiple distinct dialects exist even within New York City. Some have argued that single cities, (e.g. Cincinnati, Ohio) have a dialect. Linguist Rick Aschmann has mapped North American dialects using YouTube videos to identify small differences in word choice and pronunciation (see Cool Link). However, the main dialect regions in the United States remain largely aligned to the main folk culture regions. In the northeastern states, the dialects are generally within the family of Yankee dialects. In much of the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest, people speak with a Midland dialect, and the South is broken into Upland (Appalachian) and Lowland Southern dialects.
Mapping Dialects
Figure 5-8: Florence, Kentucky - Water Tower. This monumental sign welcomes motorists leaving "the North" into "the South" just below Cincinnati on Interstate 75. Why do you think the vernacular "Y'ALL" is included so prominently?
Maps of American dialects are fascinating. They generate a lot of laughs at the crazy things other Americans say; but keep in mind there are significant cultural differences frequently at play as well. There are several dialect survey tools online...take one and see the accompanying maps. Possibly the most entertaining dialect question for students is the “What do you call a soft drink?” question. Most Americans use the word “pop” or “soda”, but in much of the south, people say “Coke” to refer to any soft drink, even a Pepsi or a Dr. Pepper. This is funny to others, but you probably have said “Frisbee” to refer to a flying disc, or “Kleenex” to refer to a tissue.
Figure 5-9: US Map - Dialects use different terms for sweetened carbonated beverages. Areas in the country in red say "soda"; blue areas say "pop" and green areas say "coke". Source: Joshua Katz and the Harvard Dialect Survey
Why Omaha?
Omaha Nebraska has become one of the leading locations in the United States for the telecommunication industry because of its central location. During the Cold War, the US military placed the Strategic Air Command just outside Omaha. Its location made it harder for other countries to strike at this key element of the US’s national defense system. Because the Strategic Air Command was nearby, Omaha benefitted from the nation’s most advanced (and secure) telecommunications network. This high tech network permitted nearby businesses to experiment with toll free telephone call centers. Nebraska’s location in the Central Time zone also made Omaha an ideal location for local telephone workers to make and receive calls from both coasts. The growth of the call center industry in Omaha spurred additional growth in telecommunications, high tech and other service industries. Perhaps most importantly, the local dialect in Omaha is probably the most easy-to-understand version of American Midland English in the US. Omaha’s location on the plains, in the center of the continental United States, is a primary reason for its “neutral” accent? Had Omaha been isolated by mountains, or swamps; or if it was on the coast, not only would its dialect be quite different, but it is very likely that it would have a different economy, different politics and religion etc.
Figure 5-10: Los Angeles, CA - T shirt. Questions of which words are appropriately applied to ethnic groups represents a struggle for power. This t-shirt was for sale on Olvera Street a tourist destination. It's mostly printed in English.
Several places in the United States have site and/or situations that have contributed to significant linguistic differences from Omaha, Nebraska. Appalachian English, sometimes affectionately (sometimes derogatorily) referred to as a “Hillbilly Accent”, is commonly spoken by many people who live in the less accessible reaches of the Appalachian and Ozark Mountains. Many of the people who moved into these areas during the 18th and 19th century were from Scotland or Ireland. Their speech patterns, though certainly changed since those times, have perhaps undergone fewer changes than dialects in other parts of the US because the inaccessibility of the highlands discouraged in-migration from elsewhere. Because these locations have been spatially isolated, it stands to reason that dialect innovations made by people in these mountains spread throughout the neighboring communities, but rarely enter the speech patterns of the rest of the United States. Comparably isolated dialects can be found in other inaccessible locations in the US, such as on islands or in swampy areas.
Listen to the regional dialects found in some of the more geographically isolated locations in the United States. Think about the role of isolation on other cultural practices.
Ethnicity is frequently expressed through dialect; and conversely a dialect may be a marker of ethnicity. Geographers contend that both are products of the peculiar spatial experience of each group. Each of the dialects spoken in the United States, or anywhere for that matter, bears the mark of the ethnicities and therefore source points of the people who once lived there. So for example, the dialects of New York City bear the imprint of the many thousands of Italian, Irish and other second-wave immigrants that moved there in the mid-19th century. They learned to speak American English, but retained some elements of the languages and dialects they brought across the Atlantic. Intermarriage and decades of living and working together no doubt created dialects that hybridized elements of speech into a new working whole. For many decades, speech patterns in regions of the US that border Mexico have reflected the influence of the many Spanish-speaking residents that live there, so that many places it is easy to find people speaking a hybridized dialect called Spanglish.
Ebonics
African American Vernacular English, popularly known as Ebonics, demonstrates not only the power of place, but perhaps also the stubbornness of cultural change. Ebonics is a source of some controversy for several reasons. In 1996, the Oakland, California school board passed a resolution recognizing Ebonics as sort of language. This sparked outrage among socially conservative politicians and some pundits, many of whom characterized Ebonics as mostly lazy, street slang. The primary motivation of the Oakland School Board was to find additional funding to help black students in their district better master standard American English by tapping into funds used to teach English as a second language to students that spoke languages other than English at home. Linguists were generally sympathetic to the argument made by the Oakland School Board and weighed in with studies that show that a proper understanding student’s home dialect or language was useful to teachers.
The controversy in Oakland revealed several interesting issues for cultural geographers. First, language patterns demonstrate how some everyday practices exert a special resistance to cultural change. In this case, elements of African language systems appear, even after centuries, to remain lodged the modern speech patterns of many black Americans. Clearly, many African-Americans proudly seek to preserve speech patterns that help maintain a distinct ethnic identity. Second, the controversy highlighted the important roles space and place play in the maintenance and diffusion of dialects. The long history of social and spatial ghettoization of Blacks has helped preserve some relic speech patterns brought from Africa. The linguistic effects of isolation noticeable among people living on islands, mountains and in swamps was partially replicated within the African-American community through a variety of racist policies and cultural norms. It is also apparent to anyone who has listened to the speech of white southerners, or white people who live in predominantly Black regions, that speech patterns also easily transcend racial and ethnic lines. Finally, the Ebonics controversy of the mid-1990s, was depressing because of the rush to judgment by those who knew nothing of linguistics. The vitriolic response in the media to a suggestion that a dialect might be given some of the same pedagogic considerations as a language was surprising. The dimensions of the controversy highlighted very clearly th importance of language in the creation and maintenance of identity, political and cultural order.
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