My semi's presentation

1.      Introduction　            

In the world, different places have different ways of speaking. These are called dialects. For example, In Japan, There is Okinawa dialect, Kumamoto dialect, Akita dialect and many more. The differences between them are intonation, words, pronunciation, and accent. Not only Japan, but also America has a lot of dialects.  

My topic is New England dialect. New England consists of six states: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. Look at this map. It is bordered by New York to the west. New England is the oldest area in America. New England was originally inhabited by Indigenous peoples in 1616. English Pilgrims and especially Puritans, fleeing religious persecution in England, arrived there between 1620 to 1660. At first, in 1620, 102 Puritans were came from British by Mayflower ship. After that, New England led the way to the American Revolution. The region became a stronghold of the conservative Federalist Party and opposed the War of 1812 with Great Britain. By the 1840s it was the center of the American antislavery movement, and was the leading force in American literature and higher education. There are 4 kinds of New England dialects: Southeastern New England and Northeastern and Southwestern and Northwestern. This paper’s research topic is what kinds of differences are there in these four New England dialects? And, why are these differences?

2. Previous studies　

Herman　&　Herman (2014, P. 25) said “the New England dialect is not spoken throughout the New England area.”

Hirohisa Kawaguchi(1977, P.80) said “One single dialect formation caused the history of the colonization of the region is given. So, the most immigrants to New England, from England South East of New England uses a similar dialect. But they do not use same dialect.”

3. Characteristics of New England Dialects

According to Northwestern New England English is mainly spoken in Vermont. It has American style R. And for example, ‘cot’ and ‘caught’ is same spoken by Northwestern English.

Northeastern New England English is mainly spoken in Boston, Massachusetts, extending into New Hampshire, and coastal Maine. It has British style R. And ‘cot’ and ‘caught’ is same pronunciation spoken by Northeastern English.   

Southwestern New England English is mainly spoken in both Hartford in northwestern Connecticut and Springfield in Southwestern Massachusetts. It has American style R.

Southeastern New England English is mainly spoken in Providence, Rhode Island and the Narragansett Bay. It has British style R. And ‘cot’ and ‘caught’ is same pronunciation by Southeastern English.

3-2. Kawaguchi said, there are same Northeastern New England and Southeastern New England dialects.

(1)   Open mouth a sound (“Broad a”): This sound is not same (a) there is for example “father”. South British was using {a} there is for example “ask”

(2)   (“Short o”): Sound “Short o” transformed sound (a) in 17 century in Britain. And now, it become Received Pronunciation, it came to New England area. For example: (hot, stop, on, crop, fog)

(3)   After a vowel (r) “Postvocalic (r)”: In General American, people pronunciation after a vowel “r”. But, Eastern New England and New York and South American area don’t pronunciation after a vowel “r”. In 17 century, people were coming to America. And they pronunciation “r”. But, in 18 century in Britain, A part of area were exclude, this “r” was not using, this thing entered to Boston.

4. History of New England dialect

Researching that why New England dialect separate four. There were a lot of histories in New England dialect. In 1584, Sir Walter Raleigh settled in ROANOKU island, but it was finished in failure. But in 1607, It is settle to Chesapeake Bay, it succeeded. Because a British king in that time was James I, the people who settled the place was named James town. After the place, become a state of Virginia. Since the soil in the northeast was not favorable to farming, and the Bay company made the most forests and water resources. Puritan was running away to escape state of Massachusetts Charles 1 in 1630 for 1641. About 300 ships were riding 20 thousand British people. And then, a lot of colonists are upper-lower and lower-middle. These colonists were from Southeastern in England. Especially, these colonists were a lot of from East Anglia. The British New England colonies included Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. While there were several large communities within the Bay Colony. Boston became the capital for the group of cities. After that, in 1846, all areas happened food shortage in Ireland. A lot of areas did not take a potato, and happened typhoid, a lot of people in Ireland death. Ireland did not help people, they escaped to go to America. And, they decided to go to area is New England are. Also, New England area increased a lot of the lower classes people in Ireland in 19 century. There was Kennedy president’s grandfather in their crows. According to statistics in 1880, Massachusetts and around the area had 20% in population that born to foreign countries people. In this, Ireland people were a lot. In country, 1000 more Ireland people lived in New England area.

5. Conclusion　

This paper is about New England dialect. New England is separated six states. The reason that New England dialect was born is Britain came to this area in 1620. So, New England dialect is similar to British English. In that, Boston was came to a lot of Ireland people and they make a group once an accent. If researching that why New England dialect was separated four areas, this paper is be able to better. And, Eastern New England dialect’s kind more write. This paper is a little write for John. F. Kennedy, but more information write for him. This paper’s result is New England dialect has a lot of history and it connects British and Ireland and African and any more countries history. Next time, the other American dialect and this paper prepare. It may find new information of American dialects. And Next time more deep New England history and about Kennedy.

6. Bibliography

History of New England. (2015, May 23). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 06:26, June 18, 2015, from

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_New_England&oldid=663667982

Mike Szelog The Heart of New England

http://www.theheartofnewengland.com/lifeinnewengland/Essays/accents.html

Herman, Lewis ＆　Marguerite Shalett Herman (2014)

American Dialects: A Manual for Actors, Directors, and Writers,

 Routledge https://books.google.co.jp/books?id=P-SRAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA25&hl=ja&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=2#v=onepage&q&f=false

Martin Kelly (2015) Characteristics of New England Colonies

http://americanhistory.about.com/od/colonialamerica/a/Characteristics-Of-New-England-Colonies.htm

Carver, Craig M. American Regional Dialects. Michigan: The University of Michigan Press, 1989. https://pantherfile.uwm.edu/downing/www/course/350-192/printneast.html
Hirohisa Kawaguchi 1977

http://ci.nii.ac.jp/els/110006375389.pdf?id=ART0008372440&type=pdf&lang=jp&host=cinii&order_no=&ppv_type=0&lang_sw=&no=1453532249&cp=

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