Finally stealing a minute from other obligations to note at least a couple of highlights from the American Dialect Society and Linguistic Society of America last week, things I haven't seen noted elsewhere and that relate to this region.
First off, the Upper Midwest was very well represented – even in high-profile places: ADS President Joan H. Hall, from UW-Madison's own Dictionary of American Regional English, gave a luncheon address on “Why bother studying American dialects?” Word on the street was very positive, although I haven't gotten more detail.
Marquette's Steve Hartman Keiser gave a very nice paper on "The disappearing past and futures of Pennsylvania German dialectology" with lots on that language in the Midwest. This continues work that he's been doing for a while, but it was a welcome overview for those of us who aren't up on that growing community. Rika Ito of St. Olaf gave a fine overview on Hmong in the Twins Cities with some detail on accommodation to Upper Midwestern norms in the vowel systems of a set of speakers. That seems to be a new project and I certainly look forward to seeing how it develops.
The most-discussed LSA event among folks I talked to was probably “Phonology: An Appraisal of the Field in 2007", featuring lots of big names. Phonoloblog's Eric Baković has promised some comments on that, and a few comments are already up. Of course blogging the LSA and ADS is now a highly developed sport. Tenser, said the Tensor has a few pics and lots of prose and links here.
Next year things will be in Chicago and I'm already hoping for lots on language and dialect in this region.
Sunday, January 14, 2007
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