Blog 16: Dialect Boundaries

by: Sarah Cummings

Responses are due by Friday, Nov. 12th, at class time.
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This article was a study of different dialects in the Middle East part of the United States. This particular study focuses more on the different dialects of Ohio. 12 locals that never lived outside of their hometown were taken from 4 different cities in Ohio and asked to circle and label areas where the people speak differently from them. They have to label from 1-4 their differences in dialect. 1 being where they speak like them and 4 being where they sound completely different.

The respondents were recorded and asked to follow up questions for clarification. The two respondents from Southern Ohio didn't agree on the dialect areas. One said there was no difference in dialect with people from Ohio, they all sound the same. The other divided Ohio in two parts. The upper and western area of Ohio was unlabelled while the southern region by Kentucky and West Virginia was labelled "hillbilly slang". He/ she said that the northern and western part of Ohio was similar to the lower Michigan, Indiana, and Pennsylvania.

Southern Ohio was similar to Kentucky and West Virginia, but West Virginia was more "twangy". I-70 (runes east and west) was used as the main divider between upper and lower Ohio. The 3 participants from southeast/central Ohio seemed to agree that the speech within Ohio is largely the same, with few pockets of difference attributed to cultural or ethnic background of residence.

The 3 respond ants from central Ohio (Columbus) tended to outline and comment more on dialect areas than that of the respiondants from the southern part of the state. Northern Ohio was circled with Southern Michigan and Indiana. northeast Ohio was given it's own dialect and said they have their own way of speaking, ("like the New Yorker's) with several dialects with varying degrees of differentiation. Northwestern respondents percieved at least 4 different dialect regions that extend beyond state boarders- central and nothwestern Ohio constitute one dialect region that extends towards the west into Indiana, northeast Ohio and southern and eastern Michigan is another area. A third area is found in southeastern to central Ohio and extends into Pennsylvania. Region 4 is found in southern Ohio and extends across the Ohio river into Kentucky and West Virginia.