Folk speech on the Cumberland Plateau : a phonological analysis

The purpose of this dissertation is to provide a baseline phonology of the folk speech of the northern Cumberland Plateau area in Tennessee. The northern part of the Cumberland Plateau (Campbell, Claiborne, Cumberland, Fentress, Morgan, and Scott Counties) is a particularly fruitful area for linguistic study because, since its initial settlement, the region has remained a distinct socio-cultural unit. Settled primarily by Englishmen, Scotch-Irish, and Germans, the northern part of the plateau has always been relatively isolated, relatively self-sufficient, and poor. Furthermore, during the last thirty years the population of the area has steadily declined because of outmigration. The northern part of the Cumberland Plateau, then, provides a situation in which one can study a variety of English which has developed with a minimum of outside influence.

The phonology is based on field records and protocols made for the Linguistic Atlas of the Gulf States, and the study is limited to folk speech--the speech of those who are classified Type IA in American linguistic geography. The phonology outlines the segmental phonemic structure of the area, describes the processes which delete, add, substitute, and rearrange phonemes, and, whenever possible, offers phonetic, contextual or historical explanations.

The folk speech of the northern part of the Cumberland Plateau is essentially a westward extension of the South Midland dialect. There are, however, several features which seem to be especially characteristic:

l. /a/ and /x/ serve as checked analogues of the free diphthongs /ai/ and /au/ respectively;

2. an excressent /t/ frequently follows word-final continuants;

3. an intrusive /r/ frequently appears not only in wash but also in ought to;

4. final obstruents are often unvoiced;

5. /au/ is usually realized as [Rf] or [xo<];

6. /x/ is sometimes realized as [x‡] before velars and nasals;

7. /ai/ is often monophthongal before voiceless as well as voiced obstruents.