Date: Wed, 12 Oct 1994 00:48:43 -0400

From: PPATRICK[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]GUVAX.BITNET

Subject: Re: Phila. dialect



As other folks pointed out re: Philly dialect studies, Labov and a

whole list of collaborators have written a whole slew of stuff. But a

starting point (for white, as opposed to black, Philly vernacular)

would be "The Exact description of the speech community", which

painstakingly describes the precise phonetic conditioning of the /ae/

to /aeh/ split. But it also briefly notes and reviews other Philly

studies, from the 1940s on, including Ferguson, Cofer etc.

Unfortunately I don't know where it's published, I only have a

mid-80s manuscript. Anybody know the proper ref?

"Three Dialects of English" also has some Philly stuff (pub. I

think in Penny Eckert's edited NWAVE volume, 1992?)...

--plp