Doctoral Dissertation Research: An Ethnography of the Development of Thyboronsk

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9313170 Silverstein The main foci of this project are: (1) documenting the sociolinguistic profile of a small community constituted over the course of rapid internal migration within a larger linguistic community; and (2) tracing the emergence of interdialectisms and hyperdialectisms as functions of factors such as access and orientation of members to standardizing media, how long they have lived in the community, and their age. In this project, we apply quantitative sociolinguistic techniques to fluctuating dialectological phenomena and thereby attempt to account for hyperdialectisms through examining mechanisms of regional standardization. We will gather both demographic and other ethnographic data with the aim of producing a more comprehensive account of the fluctuating condition of Thyboronsk. The data will enable the P.I.'s to analyze the development of the dialect from its emergence through the macro-level processes of its regional standardization. The ramifications if these processes are evidenced both linguistically and sociologically. The project is intended to reveal what factors control and/or contribute to the formation and sustainability of local identities of small transplanted communities. It will also explore the possibilities for developing quantitative techniques for evaluating and calibrating the validity of phonetic transcriptions of linguistic interviews.