Beal's introductory text on regional variation in English in England is the ideal foundational accompaniment to texts on specific English dialects. It illustrates dynamic variation within Englishes and the factors relevant to convergence and diversification. In this comprehensive overview of English dialects ongoing development is the core theme. Beal opens with twenty-first-century concerns about dialect endangerment, which echo the fears of the nineteenth- and twentieth-century dialect geographers. Emphasising the links between language and society, Beal observes that societal restructurings have led not to “loss” of dialects, but rather to transformations of dialects, reoriented towards increasingly urbanised focus centres.
The book has six chapters; three provide detailed accounts of regional variation in phonetics/phonology, morphology/syntax, and lexis respectively. In Ch. 2 Beal reviews phonological features that distinguished traditional regional dialect areas alongside those that are characteristic of today's regional Englishes. Many traditional features are now obsolete. Boundaries have shifted over time. Digging at the sociohistorical roots of several regionally salient phonetic/phonological distinctions, Beal notes the historical recency of some features compared to others. Differences involving the retention, loss, or “supralocalisation” of individual features are contributing to changing regional dialects and identities. Ch. 3 illustrates complex interactions between nonstandard and regionally distinctive morphosyntactic features. Beal reviews research in this area to date. Within a diverse array of geographically widespread nonstandard features, several display regionally variable frequencies (e.g. negative concord, double modals, present-tense verb endings). Alongside variables undergoing “levelling,” regionally distinctive features are also maintained, some of which corroborate established patterns of regional phonology. In Ch. 4 Beal highlights the intertwined cultural and linguistic threads of regional lexical variation. Isoglosses such as burn/beck/brook trace the outlines of historical language-contact influence. While many loan words became Standard English, others are now geographically restricted (e.g. /naʊt/ ‘nothing’ and /sʊmət/ ‘something’ in Northern dialects). Innovative methods of research are shedding light on localised lexical diversity. Synonymous standard, traditional, innovative, and localised terms are differentiated socially and stylistically.
Ch. 5 addresses the phenomena of levelling and diffusion. Beal describes the rapid spread of a variety of “unmarked” features impacting on local dialect distinctiveness and potentially fuelling emerging “pan-Northern” versus “pan-Southern/Estuary English” varieties. However, Beal draws equal attention to localised effects that may enhance dialect diversity. In some dialects, perhaps due to structural linguistic and/or identity-related issues, levelling is resisted. The final chapter addresses the connection between regional Englishes and regional identities. Beal outlines major findings of sociolinguistics research since Labov. Readers are brought up to date with profiles of recent studies utilising a language-ideological perspective. Studies that explore speakers’ narratives of local identity reveal the social meanings and values associated with linguistic features. Regional identities and the linguistic features adopted to express them evolve across successive generations of speakers.
Beal's book provides a comprehensive and up-to-date account of the mixing bowl of phonological, lexical, and morphosyntactic regional variation in the many Englishes of England. Beal provides an effective picture of evolving regional linguistic histories in a concise and highly readable book.
