Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
  1. Home
  2. Search

Refine search

Refine search

Access:
Content type:
Publication date:
Apply   From and To filters
Subject: Show more
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Societies Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

1 results

  • 4 - The History of the Midland–Northern Boundary

  • from PART I - The United States
  • Edited by Natalie Schilling, Georgetown University, Washington DC, Derek Denis, University of Toronto, Raymond Hickey, University of Limerick
  • Book:
    The New Cambridge History of the English Language
    Published online:
    15 April 2026
    Print publication:
    23 April 2026, pp 127-150

  • Summary

    Dialectologists working in the mid twentieth century established a tripartite division of US regional dialects into North, Midland and South. This work documented the retention of traditional usages and focused on lexical variation. Despite the grounding of these dialect divisions in centuries-old settlement and migration patterns, they remain relevant to regional variation in American English today. This is especially true for the boundary separating the Midland from the North. This chapter examines the history of this remarkably stable boundary in American dialectology. The discussion reviews the evidence produced by early linguistic atlas researchers to establish the dialect boundary along the Atlantic Coast and to trace its extension westward. The current status of the Midland–North divide is explored in the light of sociolinguistic research suggesting that dialect differences on either side have been reinforced over the twentieth century.