Conference: Language Variety in the South (LAVIS IV): The New South

North Carolina State University, Raleigh NC

Investigators

Abstract

Apart from a few urban centers (e.g., Atlanta, GA; Washington, DC; and Memphis, TN), the South has had largely a rural history, but the region has become increasingly complex over the past half-century. Raleigh, NC, for example, where Language Variation in the South (henceforth, "LAVIS IV") will be held, has more than quadrupled in size over this period, growing from 100,000 to 435,000 residents due to an economic and cultural transformation. Other Southern cities are experiencing similar growth, and by most accounts, the majority of the fastest growing American cities are now found in the US South. But the story is more complex than uniform demographic and economic boom; many traditionally important Southern cities, including Birmingham, AL; Knoxville, TN; and Richmond, VA, have grown little over this period. Further, non-metro regions have also undergone other cultural changes. The Appalachian Mountain region and Creole culture in Louisiana, for example, has been changed in part due to tourism, making the local history and dialect a potential cultural commodity even as the number of economically distressed counties in these regions has grown. "The New South" is, in part, a story of demographic and economic boom alongside population and financial recession, but many other compelling narratives exist as well, including the cultural and demographic transformations brought by immigrants from all over the world including Asians (Chinese, Vietnamese, Hmong, Indian, Pakistani, etc.), Middle Easterners (Lebanese, Iraqi, Egyptian, Saudi, Yemeni, etc.) and Southern and Eastern Europeans (Albanian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, etc.). Clearly the most visible new group in the region is the recently arrived Hispanic population, which has resulted in the region having the largest percentage of monolingual non-English speakers of any in the United States. The fourth decennial meeting of LAVIS brings together top sociolinguistic researchers from around the US to draw scholarly and public attention to the most prominently recognized regional variety of English in the United States. The examination of an array of factors (e.g., regional, ethnic, urban, rural, status, gender, style, etc.) demonstrates how diverse and complex Southern language variation is, and the impact that language variation has on social perception of the South, including persistent and unjustified stereotypes of Southern speech. The themes explored by the panelists span regional groups (Appalachian) and ethnic groups (African Americans, Latinos, Cajuns, etc.); long standing minority groups (African Americans and Cherokee) and new immigrant populations (Chinese Americans, Hungarians, Italians, and Hispanics); urban and rural groups, etc. The specific objectives for LAVIS IV consider sociolinguistic issues related to social, economic, and political change embedded in the construct of "The New South" for both longstanding populations (e.g., Native American Indian, African American, Cajun) and more recent immigrants, all of which lay the foundation for the continued linguistic research on language stability and change in the American South.