Date:    Sat, 9 May 1998 21:24:37 -0500
<br>From:    "Donald M. Lance" <engdl[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]SHOWME.MISSOURI.EDU>
<br>Subject: Re: St Louis Blues
<br>
<br>David Sutcliffe wrote on 25 April 1998:
<br>(I'm working on a backlog of e-mail.)
<br>
<br>>This reminded me of the research William Labov, Sherry Ash & associates
<br>>are doing on vowel shift chains. They are convinced that a great
<br>>Northern vowel shift is under way in the northern cities of Chicago,
<br>>Detroit, etc. and are also convinced there's a great Southern vowel
<br>>vowel shift in progress throughout the South. This leaves the cities in
<br>>the middle, Cincinatti and westwards, and here they find that each major
<br>>city is going its own sweet way (Labov, pers. communication 1995). I'm
<br>>not sure what they say about St Louis, but it would be enlightening to
<br>>talk to them about this.
<br>
<br>Labov now has some telephone data from Missouri.  He started with 4 or so
<br>interviews in the larger cities.  A couple of years ago he gave a paper on
<br>his Missouri data, but I can't remember all the particulars.  You can see
<br>the latest version of his research in a couple of ways.  You can find
<br>"Phonological Atlas of the US" in the ADS' "Language-Related Resources":
<br>
<br>http://www.msstate.edu/Dept/English/lang.html
<br>
<br>Or you can go to Labov's website directly:
<br>
<br>http://www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/ICSLP4.html
<br>
<br>(I'm giving this redundant cyber-info both for Sutcliffe and for anyone
<br>else who did not know of the ADS resource or Labov's website.)
<br>
<br>The maps in his 1996 paper show evidence of the Northern Cities Shift (NCS)
<br>in St. Louis.  In my experience, during the 1970s and 1980s most St Louis
<br>County students had fully adopted the NCS, but in the 1990s their younger
<br>siblings and nieces/nephews/children seemed to be doing something else.
<br>
<br>Labov told me (Jan 1998, personal communication at ADS) that his team is
<br>finding a corridor of NCS from Chicago to St. Louis.
<br>
<br>>At all events the situation they describe seems
<br>>to bear out the three-way division: Northern, Midland, Southern, which
<br>>was recently questioned.
<br>
<br>Yes, Missouri data tend to support the N-M-S tripartite division, though
<br>it's by no means a simple matter.
<br>
<br>
<br>DMLance
<br>