Field Work in Utah English English Language Society Meeting

What do these signs have in common? Utahisms!

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

Why do field work in Utah English? From The Phonological Atlas of Northern America

Why do field work in Utah English? Utah is also a great place to study dialect acquisition and social factors (like religion)

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-door—so the four of us got a map of Utah County and each took a different section

The Utah English Project Team Diane, Wendy, Jared and Danny

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 there’s a difference, what’s the difference between a bag and a sack? What do you say when people say thank you to you?

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

Some more fun things we encountered Overexcitement about helping us out People’s feelings about Utah English Coaching by husbands/wives

NWAV and LSA 2005