Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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THIS WEEK WITH MARGARET And Where Are Y'all From by MARGARET DICKSON My roots run deep in North Carolina. It has only been since we have had sound recording and computer As we say in the South, some of "our people" — as my grandmother analysis, though, that linguists have been able to track and document such referred to our family's forebears — landed in this neck of the woods, changes accurately, and that is what the Raleigh Study is doing. before we were a state and before the United States of America was a gleam The findings so far make me a bit nostalgic for the Southern-speak in anybody's eye. Both sides of my family multiplied and spread across our I heard as a child in which the word "bed" might come out "bay-ed," state's eastern and southeastern flatlands, although a few strayed west and "people" might be "pay-ple," and "hate" pronounced "height." At the same a handful dispersed into other states. I was born in Highsmith Hospital on time, language evolves with old words falling away and new ones being a blazing September day and have lived in Fayetteville for most of my days. created. It helps to think of language as a living thing. I am a bona fide native, which could be positive, negative or On top of that are demographic changes that affect language. neutral depending on one's perspective, but a fact nevertheless. North Carolina has grown dramatically and is now the This no doubt accounts in part for why my eye immediately 10th largest state with nearly 10 million residents, more went to a front-page story in a recent edition of the News & than New Jersey and breathing down Michigan's neck. Observer headlined "Raleigh has lost its drawl." An early sentence Our growth has come in large part through in-migration, uses these alarming words: "Raleigh has nearly lost its Southern people from elsewhere coming to their senses and realizing accent." Our community is, after all, only 55 miles or so down the North Carolina is a great place to live. They bring with road, so, my mind immediately signaled me, it must be true here them their own versions of the English language, many of as well. My love of and respect for the English language and a which are a far cry from Southern speak. The rapid change fascination with the evolution of words surely play in as well. in the way we now speak may stem in part from the influx Here is what the article said. of new people to our state, and the fact that the changes Some people in Raleigh are indeed losing their Southern are more pronounced in urban areas where most of our accents, but not all of them, according to an ongoing linguistics newcomers have settled reflect that. study at N.C. State University, unsurprisingly called the Raleigh Linguists on the Raleigh Study say our Southern accents Study. What is more, speaking Southern seems to be based on are not the result of being lazy with language, nor are they the age of the speaker. People born before 1950 are more likely the legacy of the original English settlers in the South. The Raleigh Study suggests to speak Southern than people born after 1950. Linguistics Losing them is not the result of radio, television and other Southerner's may soon need audio influences bringing neutral accents into linguistically Professor Robin Dodsworth who works on the Raleigh study a how-to book to speak minces no words about this, saying "You went with the space of isolated areas. Languages evolve for reasons linguists — two or three generations from being an unambiguously Southern- Southern. and certainly not the rest of us — will never really know. speaking city to an unambiguously non-Southern speaking city." I get that. But still… What is more, people from rural areas are also more likely to I am reminded of the day my dear and above mentioned speak Southern than urban dwellers. grandmother called me up short for some childhood infraction involving I find this study fascinating. my sister or some of the cousins by saying, "Margaret Dawson, don't be a We all know that language — all languages — changes over time. For scalawag!" I had no idea what she was saying but have since learned. It is example, most of us would struggle to understand Chaucer's Canterbury Tales worth a Google. in its original Middle English, but we would have no trouble at all reading the In the meantime, we still have pecan pie, sweet tea, pimento same text in modern English. My high school senior English teacher brought cheese and the handiest word ever, "y'all," none of which show this home by requiring his students to memorize and recite Chaucer's first any signs of going away. MARGARET DICKSON, Constanza, which begins, "Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote." tributing Writer, COMMENTS? We got the point about language evolving. Editor@upandcomingweekly.com. Daily Specials Breakfast Lunch Dinner Fresh Seafood Hand Cut Steaks Homemade Desserts Italian & Greek Children's Menu Banquet rooms available up to 100 guests 484-0261 1304 Morganton Rd. Mon-Sat: 6am-10pm Sun: 7am-2:30 pm Serving Fayetteville Over 50 Years! Put Up & Coming Weekly's Pocket Guide In Your Pocket! Fayetteville, Ft. Bragg & Cumberland County's "First Responder®" for local information & hospitality! By scanning the QR code you will be saving the 2013 Pocket Guide directly to your Smart Device for easy 24/7 access to local information. This is NOT an APP. This is an Adobe pdf file that is best viewed with Acrobat Reader. For more information call 484-6200 or visit www.upandcomingweekly.com. WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM SCAN THE CODE! APRIL 17-23, 2013 UCW 5