Hostname: page-component-74656f9884-2dmjx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-10T12:41:25.356Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Alternative Models of Dialect Death: Dissipation vs. Concentration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2026

Natalie Schilling-Estes  and
Walt Wolfram
Natalie Schilling-Estes*
Affiliation:
Georgetown University
Walt Wolfram*
Affiliation:
North Carolina State University
*
Schilling-Estes, Dept. of Linguistics, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057-1051 [nsestes@roughdraft.com]
Wolfram, English Dept., North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC 27695-8105 [wolfram@social.chass.ncsu.edu]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The comparison of the moribund dialects of Ocracoke Island, North Carolina, and Smith Island, Maryland, demonstrates that valuable insight into the patterning of variation and change in language death can be obtained by investigating moribund varieties of healthy languages. In addition, it is crucial to investigate not only cases of death by linguistic decay (dissipation), but also cases of death by population attrition in which linguistic distinctiveness is maintained or heightened among fewer speakers (concentration). The comparative investigation of both types of language death lends insight into the macrolevel socioeconomic and microlevel sociopsychological factors that lead to the maintenance or demise of moribund languages and language varieties, as well as the nature of change in language death. It is demonstrated that change in both concentrating and dissipating varieties is rapid but otherwise indistinct from change in healthy varieties and that unusual patterns of variation and change can be explained by appealing to the social significance of language features.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 75 , Issue 3 , September 1999 , pp. 486 - 521
Copyright
Copyright © 1999 Linguistic Society of America

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Andersen, Henning. 1988. Center and periphery: Adoption, diffusion, and spread. Historical dialectology, ed. by Fisiak, J., 39–83. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andersen, Roger W. 1982. Determining the linguistic attributes of language attrition. The loss of language skills, ed. by Lambert, Richard D. and Freed, Barbara F., 83–118. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.Google Scholar
Arnold, Jennifer, Blake, Renee, Davidson, Brad, Schwenter, Scott; and Solomon, Julie (eds.) 1996. Sociolinguistic variation: Data, theory, and analysis. Stanford, CA: Center for the Study of Language and Information.Google Scholar
Bailey, Charles-James N. 1973. Variation and linguistic theory. Arlington, VA: Center for Applied Linguistics.Google Scholar
Bailey, Guy. 1993. Some patterns of linguistic diffusion. Language Variation and Change 5. 359–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bailey, Guy, Wikle, Tom, Tillery, Jan; and Sand, Lori. 1991. The apparent time construct. Language Variation and Change 3. 241–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baugh, John. 1996. Dimensions of a theory of ethnolinguistics. Toward a social science of language: Papers in honor of William Labov, vol. 1: Variation and change in language and society, ed. by Guy, Gregory, Feagin, Crawford, Schiffrin, Deborah, and Baugh, John, 397–419. Philadelphia: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Bavin, Edith L. 1989. Some lexical and morphological changes in Walpiri. In Dorian 1989, 267–86.Google Scholar
Campbell, Lyle. 1994. Language death. The encyclopedia of language and linguistics, vol. 4, ed. by Asher, R. E. and Simpson, J. M. Y., 1960–68. Oxford & New York: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Campbell, Lyle, and Muntzel, Martha. 1989. The structural consequences of language death. In Dorian 1989, 181–96.Google Scholar
Cedergren, Henrietta J., and Sankoff, David. 1974. Variable rules: Performance as a statistical reflection of competence. Language 50. 333–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cheek, Davina Adrianne. 1995. Harkers Island $$ and the Southern norm: A microcosm of languages in contact. Raleigh, NC: North Carolina State University thesis.Google Scholar
Chambers, J. K. 1973. Canadian raising. Canadian Journal of Linguistics 18. 113–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chambers, J. K. 1989. Canadian raising: Blocking, fronting, etc. American Speech 64. 75–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chambers, J. K. 1995. Sociolinguistic theory. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Cook, Eung-Do. 1989. Is phonology going haywire in dying languages? Phonological variations in Chipewyan and Sarcee. Language in Society 18. 235–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dauenhauer, Nora Marks, and Dauenhauer, Richard. 1998. Technical, emotional, and ideological issues in reversing language shift: Examples from Southeast Alaska. In Grenoble & Whaley 1998a, 57–98.Google Scholar
Dize, Frances W. 1990. Smith Island, Chesapeake Bay. Centreville, MD: Tidewater Publishers.Google Scholar
Dorian, Nancy C. 1981. Language death: The life cycle of a Scottish Gaelic dialect. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dorian, Nancy C. 1986. Abrupt transmission failure in obsolescing languages: How sudden the 'tip' to the dominant language communities and families. Berkeley Linguistics Society 12. 72–83.Google Scholar
Dorian, Nancy C. (ed.) 1989. Investigating obsolescence: Studies in language contraction and obsolescence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dorian, Nancy C. 1994. Varieties of variation in a very small place: Social homogeneity, prestige norms, and linguistic variation. Language 70. 631–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dorian, Nancy C. 1998. Western language ideologies and small-language prospects. In Grenoble & Whaley 1998a, 3–21.Google Scholar
Dressler, Wolfgang. 1972. On the phonology of language death. Chicago Linguistic Society 12:448–57.Google Scholar
Dressler, Wolfgang. 1988. Language death. Linguistics: The Cambridge survey 4: Language: The sociocultural context, ed. by Newmeyer, Frederick J., 184–92. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fishman, Joshua. 1991. Reversing language shift: Theoretical and empirical foundations of assistance to threatened languages. Bristol, PA: Multilingual Matters Ltd.Google Scholar
Grenoble, Lenore A., and Whaley, Lindsay J. (eds.) 1998a. Endangered languages: Current issues and future prospects. Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grenoble, Lenore A., and Whaley, Lindsay J. 1998b. Toward a typology of language endangerment. In Grenoble & Whaley 1998a, 22–54.Google Scholar
Grinevald, Colette. 1998. Language endangerment in South America: A programmatic approach. In Grenoble & Whaley 1998a, 124–59.Google Scholar
Guy, Gregory. 1993. The quantitative analysis of linguistic variation. American dialect research, ed. by Preston, Dennis R., 223–49. Philadelphia: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hale, Kenneth. 1998. On endangered languages and the importance of linguistic diversity. In Grenoble & Whaley 1998a, 192–216.Google Scholar
Hale, Kenneth, Krauss, Michael, Watahomigie, Lucille: Yamamoto, Akira, Craig, Colette, Jeanne, LaVerne Masayesva; and England, Nora. 1992. Endangered languages. Language 68. 1–42.Google Scholar
Hamp, Eric P. 1989. On signs of health and death. In Dorian 1989, 197–210.Google Scholar
Hill, Jane H. 1989. The social functions of relativization in obsolescent and nonobsolescent languages. In Dorian 1989, 149–64.Google Scholar
Hoenigswald, Henry M. 1989. Language obsolescence and language history: Matters of linearity, leveling, loss, and the like. In Dorian 1989, 347–54.Google Scholar
Holloway, Charles E. 1997. Dialect death: The case of Brule Spanish. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jacobs, Annette Kaia'titahkhe. 1998. A chronology of Mohawk language instruction at Kahnawà:ke. In Grenoble & Whaley 1998a, 117–23.Google Scholar
Josey, Meredith. 1998. A spectrographic study of the/ay/diphthong in Chilmark, Massachusetts, and its social implications. New York: New York University, @@sc@@ms@@/sc@@.Google Scholar
King, Ruth. 1989. On the social meaning of linguistic variability in language death situations: Variation in Newfoundland French. In Dorian 1989, 139–48.Google Scholar
Labov, William. 1963. The social motivation of a sound change. Word 19. 273–307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Labov, William. 1966. The social stratification of English in New York City. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics.Google Scholar
Labov, William. 1969. Contraction, deletion, and inherent variability of the English copula. Language 45. 715–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Labov, William. 1972a. Sociolinguistic patterns. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Labov, William. 1972b. Some principles of linguistic methodology. Language in Society 1. 97–120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Labov, William. 1980. The social origins of sound change. Locating language in time and space, ed. by Labov, William, 251–66. New York: Academic.Google Scholar
Labov, William. 1990. The intersection of sex and social class in the course of linguistic change. Language Variation and Change 2. 205–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Labov, William. 1994. Principles of linguistic change: Internal factors. Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Labov, William, Yaeger, Malcah, and Steiner, Richard. 1972. A quantitative study of sound change. National Science Foundation GS-3287.Google Scholar
McClive, Tom. 1995. Ethnolinguistic groups and identity markers in the endangered dialect of Ocracoke Island. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina, @@sc@@ms@@/sc@@.Google Scholar
Mougeon, Raymond, and Beniak, Edouard. 1989. Language contraction and linguistic change: The case of Weiland French. In Dorian 1989, 287–312.Google Scholar
Mufwene, Salikoko S. 1997. The ecology of Gullah's survival. American Speech 72. 69–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Preston, Dennis. 1996. Whaddayaknow? The modes of folk linguistic awareness. Language Awareness 5. 40–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robins, Robert H., and Uhlenbeck, Eugenius M. (eds.) 1991. Endangered languages. Oxford: Berg.Google Scholar
Rousseau, Pascale, and Sankoff, David. 1978. Linguistic variation: Models and methods. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Sankoff, David, and Labov, William. 1979. On the uses of variable rules. Language in Society 8. 189–222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schilling-Estes, Natalie. 1996. The linguistic and sociolinguistic status of/ay/in Outer Banks English. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina dissertation.Google Scholar
Schilling-Estes, Natalie. 1997. Accommodation vs. concentration: Dialect death in two post-insular island communities. American Speech 72. 12–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schilling-Estes, Natalie. 1998. Investigating 'self-conscious' speech: The performance register in Ocracoke English. Language in Society 27:53–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schilling-Estes, Natalie. 1999. Reshaping economies, reshaping identities: Gender-based patterns of language variation in Ocracoke English. Proceedings of the Fifth Berkeley Women and Language Conference. Berkeley, CA: Berkeley Women and Language Group, to appear.Google Scholar
Thomas, Erik R. 1991. The origin of Canadian raising in Ontario. Canadian Journal of Linguistics 36. 147–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, Erik R. 1995. Phonetic factors and perceptual reanalysis in sound change. Austin, TX: University of Texas dissertation.Google Scholar
Thomas, Erik R. 1997. A compendium of vowel plots. Raleigh, NC: North Carolina Language and Life Project.Google Scholar
Trudgill, Peter. 1983. On dialect: Social and geographical perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Trudgill, Peter. 1986. Dialects in contact. New York: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Tsitsipis, Lukas D. 1989. Skewed performance and full performance in language obsolescence: The case of an Albanian variety. In Dorian, 117–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolfram, Walt. 1993. Identifying and interpreting variables. American dialect research, ed. by Preston, Dennis R., 193–221. Philadelphia & Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolfram, Walt, and Schilling-Estes, Natalie. 1995. Moribund dialects and the language endangerment canon: The case of the Ocracoke brogue. Language 71. 696–721.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolfram, Walt. 1996. On the social basis of phonetic resistance. In Arnold, et al., 69–82.Google Scholar
Wolfram, Walt. 1997. Hoi toide on the Outer Banks: The story of the Ocracoke brogue. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Wolfram, Walt, Cheek, Adrianne; and Hammond, Hal. 1996. Competing norms and selective assimilation: Mixing Outer Banks and Southern $$. In Arnold, et al., 41–68.Google Scholar
Wolfram, Walt, Hazen, Kirk; and Schilling-Estes, Natalie. 1999. Dialect change and maintenance on the Outer Banks. Publication of the American Dialect Society. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press.Google Scholar
Vakhtin, Nikolai. 1998. Copper Island Aleut: A case of language 'resurrection.' In Grenoble & Whaley 1998a, 317–27.Google Scholar
Young, Richard, and Bayley, Robert. 1996. VARBRUL analysis for second language acquisition research. Second language acquisition and linguistic variation, ed. by Bayley, Robert and Preston, Dennis R., 253–306. Philadelphia & Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar