Talkin’ tar heel is an accessible account of almost three decades of work by Wolfram, Reaser, and colleagues at the North Carolina Language and Life Project (NCLLP). Aimed towards a general (nonlinguistic) audience, this book contains detailed information about the historical and cultural background of the state of North Carolina, in addition to linguistic descriptions of the various dialects evident across the state. Innovatively, Wolfram and Reaser made this book interactive with the use of QR codes; throughout the book, you can find square symbols in the margins, which, when scanned by your smartphone or other electronic device, connect the reader to audio and video clips relating to the topic you are reading about. It is this feature in particular that makes this book accessible to nonlinguists as it enables the reader to hear and/or see the dialect in question, allowing nonspecialists to understand the linguistic descriptions as well as giving a dynamic visual representation of the cultural diversity of North Carolina.
The book begins with three chapters that situate North Carolina as a state with a rich historical background. By doing this, Wolfram and Reaser highlight the importance of language to North Carolina's culture, past and present. They provide a comprehensive account of the many sociocultural factors that have impacted the language of North Carolinians, in particular topographical boundaries and settlement patterns (which are, of course, interrelated).
They then move on to describe the different regional varieties, beginning more generally by highlighting the rural/urban distinction before outlining the stark contrast between the western mountain dialects and the coastal dialects of eastern North Carolina. Although there are commonalities across the regions, each dialect has its own distinct lexical, phonological, and morphosyntactic features. The archive of data from the NCLLP allows Wolfram and Reaser to not only provide detailed linguistic descriptions of these dialects but also vibrant illustrations of prominent members from the different communities.
To complete the account of North Carolina's dialects, chapters 7 to 10 ascertain the significance of race and ethnicity. Specifically, Wolfram and Reaser describe the sociocultural history of, and language used by, three prominent ethnic groups: African Americans, the Lumbee (an American Indian tribe), and Latino/a Americans. The stories of these three groups are intertwined within the history of the state, and as a result their dialects are socially salient. Again, the interactive aspect of this book only illustrates this further.
The book concludes with a chapter entitled ‘Celebrating language diversity’, which underscores a theme evident throughout the book: language is an important part of our cultural heritage that is to be respected and celebrated by linguists and nonlinguists alike.
