‘Country Talk’
Lauren Hall-Lew & Nola Stephens
Department of Linguistics, Stanford University
Linguistics Society of America ~ January 5, 2007 ~ Chicago, IL
Why ‘Country’ ? Country as Regional Summary
Linguistic Features
Rural
Music
• Descriptions and imitations of ‘country talk’ largely map onto actual
Talk
linguistic production
Westerns Southern • Prosodic features may be an exception, but needs acoustic analysis
Country
Regionality & Rurality
Environment
Farming,
• Texans locate ‘country talk’ to their state, but Oklahomans don’t
Ranching
• ‘Country talk’ has gradient and/or ideological boundaries
Lifestyle Response Type 3: Not the West or Northeast
Response Type 1: Only the Texoma area Response Type 2: “The South” but not GA, SC
• ‘Country talk’ is related to rurality in at least a historical way,
Tradition
‘Country Talk’ has a location ‘Country Talk’ vs. ‘Southern’ Borders are Ideological but the two are not synonymous
• Local speech is best described as • Boundaries of the ‘Country
• Country ≈ Southern (but not too Southern)
“Real country is a complex expression, a trope of social identity and
Hick & Redneck
‘country talk’ according to Texomans talk’ space are highly variable
• Southern = “the Deep South”
cultural style, and it intertwines distinctive local understandings of • Other regions are best described by • More to do with lifestyle?
• for hick, speech is a less grammatical form of ‘country talk’
• Country ≈ “Texan” (but only for Texans)
place, sociality, character, temporality, style, feeling, and sensibility.” their respective regional varieties • More to do with rurality?
• Country ≠ “Oklahoman” for Oklahomans • for redneck, ‘country talk’ may be related, but is ultimately orthogonal
(Fox 2004:29)
Fieldwork Country as Rural Discussion
Fieldworker: ‘Country’ has a Rural past
‘Country’ talk = Rural talk ‘Country’ talk ≠ Rural talk
 Texomans readily self-identify as speakers of ‘country talk’
• Born & raised in the
 Texomans express pride in ‘country’; stigma for both ‘city’ and ‘hick’
Texoma area Nola: When you say someone’s talking Nola: What about rural versus
Nola: What about country versus
• Close ties to all  Texomans share this ideological map of these local ways of speaking
country, what does that mean? country?
rural?
informants Bill: Well, it would be from the things Pete: Well, when Maria and I grew  Texomans use linguistic resources to negotiate between pride/stigma
Jane: I perceive those both as pretty
• 1-on-1 interviews in they say, just like what for up, almost everybody in
much the same in this area, but I
March 2007 instance they they always make rural area was country.
suspect there are rural areas in
uh kind of rural comments or That's not true anymore,
the north where they don't talk
Participants: things like that or even like um most of the people who live
like we do, but I would still say:
rodeo comments you know or
•13 women, 7 men in rural area, a lot of them
“Oh you guys are rural folks you
something you know…
• ages 28 to 95 work in Texas and things like
Country Talk is a stylistic resource,
because you farm or you ranch
• all white that but I don't think you see
or you're raising wheat or
central to Texoman ideologies of self
Julia:Well, I mean I consider where we
• HS to post-grad the rural area version of
whatever.” And so, I suspect
live to be fairly rural but I mean country, like, there's not
that we're all rural folks that are
Interview Themes: I don't know if that's like a really the difference here in
out doing that kind of thing I “I am still perplexed by the unmodified term ‘country.’ The term has a fiercely
• Personal Biography country versus rural accent. I THIS area like there used to
http://texoma-bnb.com/abouttexoma.html
would categorize as that, but I complex semantic field, referring simultaneously to a genre of music, a figure of
• Community mean, I would consider those
Location: Texoma be.
don't think we probably talk the cultural identity, a nationalist ideology... Scholars are just beginning to grasp
• Language Attitudes pretty much the same thing.
• Pottsboro, TX: little urban growth, population 1,579 same. country’s force as a response to global modernity...” (Fox 2005: 167)
• Identity Categories
• Durant, OK: growing rural town, population 13,594
Future Directions
Linguistic Features Country vs. ‘Hick’ vs. ‘Redneck’
Detailed analysis of linguistic production:
‘Redneck’ is not about language
‘Hick’ is less grammatical speech
Mentioned Imitated Produced
• Do Texomans actually have a slower speech rate? Higher amplitude?
Nola: What’s the difference between country and
Nola: Do you think country's different than hick? • Do Texomans actually use the lexical items and folk similes they cite?
redneck?
Kate: I think that people that are sometimes
Expansion to other research communities:
Jane: I think there's a difference, maybe not so
classified as 'hick' have huge grammatical
Prosody: much in the way that we talk? An
errors in their speech and we don't always • urban + Texan (e.g., Dallas, Fort Worth, or Austin)
unsophisticated person, that's a person I'd
have as many of those. We have some, but
• slower • rural + non-Southern (e.g., Central California; Wyoming)
categorize more as a redneck, not so much
when I think of people who we say are hicks,
• (louder) • urban + non-Southern (e.g., San Francisco, California; New York City)
as their accent being different but maybe
they use the word ain't, and they have
Nonstandard Syntax Nonstandard • urban/rural + “Deep South” (e.g., Georgia, South Carolina)
their their attitudes about things.
extreme subject and verb agreement
& Lexicon: Syntax issues like they say, \"I seen,\" and “we seen” More methods for assessing linguistic attitudes:
• y’all (cf Tillery & Bailey 1998)
Lexicon: • double and \"we done\" ...
• Focus groups (Several Texoma participants claimed to scorn the
• fixin’ to (cf Berstein 2003) Andy: Redneck talk is probably about the same as
• howdy modals
• Perceptual experiments
• ain’t country. I think redneck would be more of way they spoke when hearing themselves on tape...)
• yonder • neg. concord
an intellectual attitude more than it would
Lisa: I mean, hick would be generally defined
• deictic them Comparative analysis to Country Music theory:
be a language.
probably as being uneducated but one from
• What linguistic variables play a part in creating musical style?
the country could be educated.
Morpho-/phonology
Content: • How do regional variables link to semantic, pragmatic, and social meanings?
Nola: What about rednecks?
Nonstandard • -in for suffix -ing
• folk similes Diane: A lot of country people are rednecks but
Lisa: That would be someone who's proud to be a • What are the roles of social class, gender, ethnicity, age, religion, patriotism,
lexical stress (cf Hazen 2005)
it's not necessary to be from the country to
hick! politics, the urban gaze & ‘haybale fetishism’?
(cf Hendricks 1960)
• monophthongal (ay)
• e.g., police,
• ranch/farm be a redneck... (see: Fox 2004/05; Rudder 05; Willman 2005; Ching 2001; Jensen 1998; Ellison 1995; Tichi 1995)
• diphthongal lax vowels
Duane
(cf Hall-Lew 2005)
(‘twang’ or ‘drawl’, cf. Feagin 2006)
Thanks to: Penny Eckert, Mary Rose, Stanford Sociorap, Panayiotis Pappas & everyone at CLASP 2008