Field Work in Utah English

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Field Work in Utah English

• English Language Society Meeting
• February 8, 2007

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What do these signs have in common?
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Why is it important to do field work in a
language like Utah English?

• dialect prejudice
• dialect change
• dialect acquisition
• social factors that influence dialect
• speech pathology
• computer language processing
• heritage/ genealogy

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Why do field work in Utah English?
From The Phonological Atlas of Northern America
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Why do field work in Utah English?
Utah is also a great place to study dialect
acquisition and social factors (like
religion)
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How do you do field work in a language like
English?

• Usually we need a lot of speakers, so . . .
• interviews
• phone calls
• covert observations
• public forums
• door-to-door
• We decided on door-to-doorso the four of us got
  a map of Utah County and each took a different
  section

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The Utah English Project Team
Diane, Wendy, Jared and Danny
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Some of the Questions from the Survey

• In what building does a farmer keep his animals?
• Name the days of the week
• What is the term for a sweetened carbonated
  beverage?
• If you had to say theres a difference, whats
  the difference between a bag and a sack?
• What do you say when people say thank you to you?

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What were some of the challenges of doing field
work in dialects of English?

• Achievement of a random sample
• Recording of the speakers
• Confusion over some of the questions
• Worry about keeping anonymity
• Worry about saying the wrong thing
• Anger of some of the groups (non-LDS
  participants)
• Belief that they did not have a Utah accent
• Suspicions about our work/danger to us

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(No Transcript)
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Some more fun things we encountered

• Overexcitement about helping us out
• Peoples feelings about Utah English
• Coaching by husbands/wives

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NWAV and LSA 2005