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.

• 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.

«(...) 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)