Dialect Emergence in Waumandee English

The Author: David N. Ehrat studied English literature and linguistics, musicology and general linguistics at Zurich University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Zurich in 2005.

«(...) Ehrat presents an in-depth and meticulously detailed description of individual consonant and vowel features as well as different processes of sound change at various stages of development. [...] this monograph is a strong contribution to the field of dialectology and American English linguistics.» (Lorie A. Vanchena, Yearbook of German-American Studies)

• Contents: Waumandee history – Immigrants – Choice and defense of traditional dialect approach – Description of sample population – Setting up a questionnaire – Language change mechanisms in Waumandee – Different parameters governing the analysis – Ethnicity – Gender – Psychological factors of intercultural language acquisition – Dialect emergence and how a dialect can be defined against a standard – Family tree model and Wave Theory – Language contact in Waumandee – Establishing a lingua franca – Diachronic results from synchronic data – The dialect situation surrounding Waumandee – Vowel sounds – Great Vowel Shift – Consonant sounds – Metathesis – Grimm’s Law – Hypercorrections – Sandhi forms – Overview over the progressing changes in Waumandee English.