A Marshland of Ethnolinguistic Boundaries: Conflicting Past and Present BE Paradigms in Coastal Carolina Speech.

This thesis investigates the extent to which localized contact situations figure in the early development of African-American speech. Because many African American varieties of English have their roots in the rural Southern United States, evidence from the longstanding, bi-racial insular contact situation in Hyde County, North Carolina, provides a valuable opportunity to shed light on the earlier development of African-American speech. This thesis focuses on the morphosyntactic features of past tense BE and copula absence as two variables diagnostic in situating ethnolinguistic alignment for this African-American community. The analysis examines speech samples for 32 Anglo-American and African-American Hyde County speakers that show disparate patterns of ethnolinguistic alignment. I hypothesize that this mixed alignment patterning is attributable to the long-term effects of ethnic boundaries within a broader context of localized coastal identity. At the same time, I also hypothesize that AAVE in Hyde County is moving away from that local dialect identity towards a more uniform AAVE norm as part of the larger cultural reorientation of African American identity that evolved coterminous with the Civil Rights movement and school desegregation.

Author dc:creator

• Green, Elaine Weslee

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Walt Wolfram, Chair
• Erik Thomas, Member
• David Herman, Member

Statement dc:rights

• I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to NC State University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report.

Dc Identifier Other

etd-19981106-201702

OAI record oai:identifier

https://repository.lib.ncsu.edu/server/oai/request?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=dim&identifier=oai%3Arepository.lib.ncsu.edu%3A1840.16%2F1993