Conference: Language Variety in the South (LAVIS IV): The New South

除了一些城市中心（例如，佐治亚州亚特兰大;华盛顿特区;和孟菲斯，田纳西州），南方有很大程度上是一个农村的历史，但该地区已变得越来越复杂，在过去的半个世纪。例如，北卡罗来纳州的罗利，南方语言变异（以下简称“拉维斯IV”）将在这里举行，由于经济和文化的转变，在这一时期的规模翻了两番多，从10万居民增长到43.5万居民。其他南方城市也在经历类似的增长，大多数情况下，美国增长最快的城市现在都在美国南部。但这个故事比统一的人口和经济繁荣更复杂;许多传统上重要的南方城市，包括阿拉巴马州的伯明翰;田纳西州的诺克斯维尔;弗吉尼亚州的里士满，在这一时期几乎没有增长。此外，非都市地区也经历了其他文化变化。例如，路易斯安那州的阿巴拉契亚山区和克里奥尔文化在一定程度上由于旅游业而发生了变化，使当地的历史和方言成为一种潜在的文化商品，即使这些地区经济困难的县的数量有所增加。“新南方”在某种程度上是一个人口和经济繁荣以及人口和金融衰退的故事，但也存在许多其他令人信服的叙述，包括来自世界各地的移民带来的文化和人口转变，包括亚洲人（中国人，越南人，苗族人，印度人，巴基斯坦人等），中东人（黎巴嫩人、伊拉克人、埃及人、沙特人、也门人等）以及南欧和东欧（阿尔巴尼亚、波斯尼亚、保加利亚等）。很明显，该地区最明显的新群体是最近到达的西班牙裔人口，这导致该地区拥有美国任何一个单语非英语发言者的最大比例。拉维斯第四次十年一次的会议汇集了来自美国各地的顶级社会语言学研究人员，以吸引学术和公众对美国最突出的地区英语变体的关注。对一系列因素的检查（例如，区域、种族、城市、农村、地位、性别、风格等）展示了南方语言变异的多样性和复杂性，以及语言变异对南方社会认知的影响，包括对南方语言的持续和不合理的刻板印象。小组成员探讨的主题跨越区域群体（阿巴拉契亚）和族裔群体（非裔美国人、拉丁美洲人、卡津人等）;长期存在的少数民族群体（非裔美国人和切罗基人）和新移民群体（华裔美国人，匈牙利人，意大利人和西班牙裔）;城市和农村群体等。拉维斯IV的具体目标考虑了与社会，经济和政治变革相关的社会语言学问题，这些问题嵌入了两个长期存在的群体（例如，美洲原住民印第安人、非洲裔美国人、卡津人）和更近的移民，所有这些都为继续研究美国南部语言的稳定和变化奠定了基础。

Apart from a few urban centers (e.g., Atlanta, GA; Washington, DC; and Memphis, TN), the South has had largely a rural history, but the region has become increasingly complex over the past half-century. Raleigh, NC, for example, where Language Variation in the South (henceforth, "LAVIS IV") will be held, has more than quadrupled in size over this period, growing from 100,000 to 435,000 residents due to an economic and cultural transformation. Other Southern cities are experiencing similar growth, and by most accounts, the majority of the fastest growing American cities are now found in the US South. But the story is more complex than uniform demographic and economic boom; many traditionally important Southern cities, including Birmingham, AL; Knoxville, TN; and Richmond, VA, have grown little over this period. Further, non-metro regions have also undergone other cultural changes. The Appalachian Mountain region and Creole culture in Louisiana, for example, has been changed in part due to tourism, making the local history and dialect a potential cultural commodity even as the number of economically distressed counties in these regions has grown. "The New South" is, in part, a story of demographic and economic boom alongside population and financial recession, but many other compelling narratives exist as well, including the cultural and demographic transformations brought by immigrants from all over the world including Asians (Chinese, Vietnamese, Hmong, Indian, Pakistani, etc.), Middle Easterners (Lebanese, Iraqi, Egyptian, Saudi, Yemeni, etc.) and Southern and Eastern Europeans (Albanian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, etc.). Clearly the most visible new group in the region is the recently arrived Hispanic population, which has resulted in the region having the largest percentage of monolingual non-English speakers of any in the United States.The fourth decennial meeting of LAVIS brings together top sociolinguistic researchers from around the US to draw scholarly and public attention to the most prominently recognized regional variety of English in the United States. The examination of an array of factors (e.g., regional, ethnic, urban, rural, status, gender, style, etc.) demonstrates how diverse and complex Southern language variation is, and the impact that language variation has on social perception of the South, including persistent and unjustified stereotypes of Southern speech. The themes explored by the panelists span regional groups (Appalachian) and ethnic groups (African Americans, Latinos, Cajuns, etc.); long standing minority groups (African Americans and Cherokee) and new immigrant populations (Chinese Americans, Hungarians, Italians, and Hispanics); urban and rural groups, etc. The specific objectives for LAVIS IV consider sociolinguistic issues related to social, economic, and political change embedded in the construct of "The New South" for both longstanding populations (e.g., Native American Indian, African American, Cajun) and more recent immigrants, all of which lay the foundation for the continued linguistic research on language stability and change in the American South.