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A pioneering longitudinal study of sixty-seven African American children, this book examines language development through childhood. It provides a unique glimpse into what it means to mature from a linguistic perspective and will be a key work for advanced students and researchers in sociolinguistics.
List of contents
List of Figures; List of Tables; Preface; Abbreviations; 1. Coming of Age in African American Language; 2. The Analysis of Sociolinguistic Change over the Lifespan; 3. Profiles of Change: The Early Lifespan of African American Language; 4. Vowel Variation across Time and Space; 5. Caretaker's Influence on Vernacularity; 6. The Influence of Peers on the Use of African American Language; 7. Stylistic Variation in the Early AAL Lifespan; 8. The Relationship of African American Language and Early Literacy Skills; 9. A Longitudinal Study in Retrospect.
About the author
Mary Kohn is Associate Professor in English at Kansas State University. Her work examines linguistic variation across the lifespan, youth language practices, and regional sound change. Her book, The Way I Communicate Changes But How I Speak Don't (2015), is available through the American Dialect Society.Walt Wolfram is a William C. Friday Distinguished University Professor at North Carolina State University, and has pioneered research on social and ethnic dialects since the 1960s. He has published more than twenty books and over 300 articles. The recipient of numerous awards, Dr Wolfram was accepted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2019.Charlie Farrington developed the Corpus of Regional African American Language, in collaboration with Dr Tyler Kendall. His numerous publications address regionality in African American Language, lifespan change, and sociophonetic variation.Jennifer Renn is Associate Research Scientist in the College of Education at Purdue University, Indiana. Prior to joining Purdue, she was the Director of Linguistic and Cultural Diversity at the Center for Applied Linguistics in Washington DC, where she directed the English for Heritage Language Speakers Program and worked in K-12 English language assessment research.Janneke Van Hofwegen's research focuses on understanding human behaviour and stylistic expression through the lens of language and group/individual identity. Her research on lifespan change and sociophonetic variation among minority ethnic and LGBT communities has been published in Language Variation and Change and Journal of Sociolinguistics.
Summary
A pioneering longitudinal study of sixty-seven African American children, this book examines language development through childhood. It provides a unique glimpse into what it means to mature from a linguistic perspective and will be a key work for advanced students and researchers in sociolinguistics.
